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Noah
"Happy new year's everyone!" Adrian announced. I kissed Grace softly. I turned over to look at Adrian, he kissed Abby and then placed a kiss on her baby bump. He hardly noticed that I spoke to him.
Grace smiled as she also looked at them.
"You know we've made it just as far as they have."
"I can't wait for this year. We're having a baby in a few months and hopefully a wedding too." She sighed softly, "Last year this time I was sitting alone at my apartment with Harper and we were watching Seinfeld reruns and eating ice cream. I don't think I could have ever expected this year to start like this."
I looked around, my mother wasn't here, and my father never came down from his study like he promised he would. I excused myself and walked around to try to find them. I found my mother and father in the study. My mom was smiling at my father and he was laughing as she sat in his lap.
It's been a while since I saw him laughing. I knocked at the open door and leaned in.
"It's a new year already." My father continued laughing and my mom stood up, she pecked a kiss on my cheek.
"Happy New Year's my sweet boy! We'll be down in a moment. Do you remember our new year's cruise when you were about five?" How could I forget that? It was one of the first memories I had. Grace found me and crept under my arm. As I held her, my mother started retelling the story.
"It was our first family vacation, so New Year’s Day we spent the day by the pool. You and your brother were torturing each other like you usually did. He came up behind you while you were playing and scared you out of your wits.”
“You were so scared you had an accident in the pool. Oh, you were so embarrassed, your brother didn't mean to scare you that much so he stood beside you and announced loudly to the whole pool 'I have also peed in this pool' although no one in the pool knew you had the accident except him. Your father, in turn, joined you and announced. 'Everyone has peed in this pool.' You felt much better after that and everyone left the pool."
Everyone started laughing; I remember that all too vividly. See, Adrian has always been blunt and yet also endearing.
We made our way back to the living room to find Adrian poking at Abby's baby bump.
"You know you can't have a poking fight with a baby, right?" I commented, Adrian shook his head.
"It's a game that we play. Every time he gets feisty and starts kicking like he does, I give him a slight poke and he settles down. We don't appreciate him getting too rowdy kicking his mother in the spleen. It's not a light kick it's an 'I-want-to come-out' kick." I chuckled.
"He?" My mom asked as she joined us. My father looked very confused. He probably doesn't completely remember that Adrian is married, and they have a baby on the way. He surely already forgot our conversation in the study.
"It's a boy! We wanted to wait to tell everyone since we got the news yesterday. I guess the cat is out of the bag." Abby smiled, there was a slight movement of her stomach again. Grace eyed the movement. This would be us soon.
"You can feel if you like." Abby offered my mother and Grace. My father retreated upstairs as my mother neared Abby. Her eyes started watering. Grace softly grabbed my arm as I turned around to go after my father, "Give him a minute. I think he needs to try to make sense of it all.” I relented. She was right.
We all cooed over Abby as the baby moved around rapidly. Grace stayed back and looked at the scene wide-eyed.
After Abby and Adrian left since Abby wasn't feeling too well, my mother happily chatted to Grace as I sat on the freezing balcony. I knew my mother would love her. My mother never really disapproved of any of my girlfriends. Although she didn't approve of all my relationships in between, all my one-night stands. She made that very clear since the tabloids covered most of them in excruciating detail.
She always gave me a stern lecture when she saw a picture of me in a tabloid. Mostly my mother doesn't interfere. Even when Adrian got secretly married and she found out. She knew it was because he was being redeployed.
I walked over to my mother and Grace, sipping on my coffee.
"I've always wanted grandchildren, though I never really thought that Noah would produce me any."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" My mother smiled sweetly.
"It just means that you are always busy, things to paint and places to be." Grace looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"That's not how I'd describe him." I placed my hand on my heart.
"You both hurt me deeply." She winked and placed a kiss on my cheek.
"Small but lethal, right?"
We said our goodbyes shortly after that. I didn't go back up to the study, but I think it's for the best if we just let him be. He wouldn’t remember if I was there. He wouldn’t even remember who I was in a few days or what happened today.
On the chilly drive back to the duplex we didn't say much to each other. We were both too entangled in our web of thoughts.
The next morning I was up early before Grace. I made us breakfast like I usually would. But I decided to make it a breakfast in bed since Grace was very shaky after seeing Abby’s baby bump.
"Wakey, wakey!"
"Shh, I'm sleeping here." She huffed and turned around. That's my Grace, she loves her sleep, and you face her wrath if you dare wake her up, "Hey, grumpy! I have food." I said in a singsong voice. She opened her one eye and then the other. She sat up and yawned.
"You should've led with that." I placed the tray on her lap and sat beside her crossed leg. She looked at the tray.
"Waffles with cream, syrup, and strawberries. Gosh, I love you." I think she was talking to the waffle.
After starting to eat the waffle with meticulous care she looked at me and smiled.
"I love you too." Yep, she was talking to the waffle.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Last night, you didn't want to feel a baby kick." I had to tread carefully. She had a slight crease form on her forehead.
"I just didn't want to crowd her." She swallowed hard, not looking at me.
"Like I believe that, darling." I muttered eating another bite of breakfast.
"Fine. I was dreading feeling a baby kick because in the not so far future I am going to have to go through that too. She didn't look comfortable nor had the pregnancy glow people talk about, she's beautiful but you get what I mean. It scared me. Feeling something living inside you doesn't seem ordinary to me." She sighed and looked down at her lap.
"It's okay my darling. We still have a few months to get used to that. Don’t worry too much about it or get stuck on that. We’ll adapt together." I tried to comfort her, right now avoidance is the best I could come up with to soothe her worries.
She was about to say something when she sprung up and headed to the bathroom covering her mouth.