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Noah
The exhibit that I planned especially for Grace took much longer than I initially planned on.
I wanted to ask Adrian for help with the nursery since we haven’t finished it yet, but now he had a little bundle to take care of himself.
Arthur Miller, named after our father, was born just after Adrian got a new job working as a manager of some big company nearby about two months ago. Grace and I went to visit them to see little Arthur and they were having a rough time. Adrian didn't look like himself and was hyped on coffee and Abby looked equally if not more tired. They assured me that they were coping but I knew that Adrian was not.
Even as a military man he didn't look that tired.
I thought babies slept most of the day, turns out that Arthur didn't want to sleep and was sleeping in twenty-minute intervals.
When Grace held little Arthur the first time she looked severely freaked out. She abruptly gave him to me and retreated. She did not say anything, but I could see she was petrified. I didn't want to ask her because I knew she was worried about our baby and that I was responsible for some of that worry. I felt horrid about that.
There was a day in the first trimester where we had a bad fight that landed me in the dog box for another month. Adrian also gave me a long speech about the needs of a pregnant woman and emphasised that Grace was scared an alone. I knew she was trying to adjust and make the best out of it, but I wasn’t there to help.
We've read a mountain of baby books each so we had a good idea what we were getting ourselves into, she was still worried, and I couldn't soothe her fears even when I tried.
I was trying to help however with the exhibit I made for her and the baby, it took sucked up a lot of time. I would have rather spent that time with her than painting, but the pieces were already sold. I mentioned the idea of a new exhibit with a few new pieces and some of my usual buyers already said they would buy them. I never planned to sell them, but it was for the best if I wanted to give her and this baby the best that I can.
There was one painting that was going to be hung in the nursery that was a surprise for Grace tonight.
"I think we have to go. I can't be hours late to my own exhibit." Grace paced out to the kitchen. She now had a much bigger baby bump clearly on show, but I didn't dare say anything about how big she's gotten. I couldn’t risk another month of her avoiding me.
She cheekily glanced at me.
"What we did on the couch didn't do anything for our bad time management.”
I shook my head. I’m not going to let her seduce me once more.
"We need to get going to that exhibit and soon. We don't have enough furniture for the next two months. Come on.”
She started laughing and had a slight blush.
I placed my hand on the bump, rubbing slow circles. She groaned.
"That's feels so nice, I can't believe we're almost at the finishing point. Just two months to go." She looked very happy about that. There was a slight kick against my hand, I smiled.
"Oh no, you've started it again. Every time you do that this bean kicks. Ah, right in the rib. Noah!" She whined. She pushed the kicking bump back lightly. I released my hand and started laughing as she was battling with the kicks. We didn't want to know the gender until the baby was born, so we opted to name the baby ‘our bean’ instead. Although our bean was far from the size of a bean.
"That's not funny! You started it and now I have to face the consequences and wrath of the bean from the inside." She crossed her arms over her chest. I smiled and kissed the bump which caused our little bean to stop kicking. Grace huffed and grabbed her bag as we made our way out.
On the drive over to the gallery Grace had another battle with the bean to stop kicking again and begged me to say something.
"Stop kicking, or else you will be swiftly evicted." That stopped the kicking instantly. Can babies in the womb understand that?
"Oh, that was cold." Grace chuckled.
She patted the bump.
"Don't worry, mommy won't evict you just yet. But can you please leave my kidney alone?"
In the middle of the night she would be woken up by the kicking and sometimes I would too if she was facing me with her bump against my back as we slept.
That bean was not a light kicker. There was one night where we both were woken up by a thud on the bed. We looked around for a good few second trying to groggily find where the thud came from and then we realized that it came from the bean.
As we stepped into the exhibit Harper rushed to Grace and hugged her hard. That was until the bean kicked back.
"Oh, he's just as tempered as his father." Harper mumbled and I acted as if I didn't hear it. Maybe it was a she, but everyone was convinced it was a he, even Grace. I rolled my eyes at Harper as they happily started chatting. I went to talk with new buyers and collector. I was asked to do a new exhibition but declined since I couldn't lose more time with Grace.
Grace joined me a few minutes later.
"I want to show you the surprise I have for you, it will be unveiled in a second." I held her hand as the crowd gathered around a piece that was on an easel in the middle of the gallery, it was entitled 'Bean'. I know, very creative.
"This is not going to be sold, it is for you. I know you've been miserable because of all the changes and I'm sorry that I couldn't be there every step of the way. I know I'm an asshole for having a project to think about when you were worried and stressed about the baby. I'm so sorry...but-" Before I could finish my speech, the painting was revealed.
There were a few gasps, we turned to the painting.
It was a very special piece that took me around three months to paint. It was a painting of a pregnant woman who was sitting down but inside her bump was the sonogram of our little one. The woman had a glow to her, she was painted as if wearing a halo, the sonogram inside was in black and white to contrast the glow.
She was my sun and the baby my moon.
It was done in the most detail I could muster and almost resembled a photograph of Grace. Grace neared the painting, tugging me along. She studied the painting carefully.
"That's our little bean?" Her eyes started to glisten with tears.
"That's our little bean." She placed her hand over her mouth in silent shock.
"I can't believe you-" I grabbed her and placed a soft kiss on her lips.
"I'm sorry." She kissed me back lovingly and pulled away, looking me in the eyes.
"I forgave you the moment we broke the couch.” She quipped.
Bruce Cooper, a close friend, and a renowned sculptor greeted us.
"This must be your lovely muse?" I laughed remembering what I said to Grace just after we met. I told her she was a muse for my hate, oh boy was I wrong.
"Yes, this is Grace, my beautiful fiancée and inside is our baby on the way." Grace lightly scowled at me which Bruce found to be amusing.
"I heard about that. The few events you've been to together has had the whole of the media buzzing. Congratulations! Dads and their little girls have a strong bond."
"Why do you think it's a girl?" Grace asked, sounding my confusion.
"The sonogram. You can see that that isn't a boy. If it were a boy, I think we'd know. When I had my girls, they also loved that position. I could be wrong."
"We'll know when we know. That's why we didn't want to know the gender yet." Bruce excused himself when one of his colleagues came by. I turned to Grace.
"Wouldn't that be great if it was a girl?" She laughed.
"Girl or boy, it doesn’t matter.” I saw the crowd was fizzing out and Ophelia was handling sales. By this time Grace was tiring from all the standing.
"Let's head home. If it is a girl, we at least have names covered.” We had a long list on the fridge and every now and then we would go through it again and cross out names we didn't like and then bicker about it and add the name again.
Grace said goodbye to Harper, so I took the opportunity to call Adrian.
"Hi."
"I'm up to my ears in diapers. He won't stop crying, Abby had to get some rest and now he wants breastmilk. Noah, do you know I can't make breastmilk! I just can't." He sounded like he was on the verge of tears. I knew he wanted to ask my mother for help, but she was occupied since she had to take care of my father. Helping him wasn't an option since my father had a major setback a month ago.
So I did what any brother would do even knowing Grace will hate me for this.
"Okay, we'll be over to help." Grace joined me again. Luckily, he lives a town over so the drive wouldn't take long.
"Change of plans. Adrian really needs help with Arthur, so I offered to help him." I thought she would cuss at me since I could see she had a backache looming and was very sleepy.
She pecked me on the cheek instead.
"I guess it's time to face my baby fears. This can only be interesting."