Chapter Four

Colette Smith (P.O.V.)

I would not say that Callum and I had come very far because we have not. We were rushing things, but I did not care. Personality-wise, Callum is the best boyfriend ever, but I cannot help but think there is more to him than he is letting on. Whenever he is around me, he never gets texts messages; he claims he has no friends and all he does is play games. However, I find it hard to believe that someone who is as attractive as Callum is such a loner, but I digress. I refuse to overthink right now to ruin my mood.

We both laid on the bed as we spoke about the pregnancy, baby names, and plans for even more renovation. Our conversation consisted of me coming up with ideas and Callum simply agreeing to everything I said. Even when I would randomly change my mind about something. It annoyed me that he was so indecisive and could never think or speak for himself but if that is the type of person that he is then I cannot change that.

I really wanted to tell the world about my pregnancy, but I felt like it was too soon to do so. Just then an idea popped into my head.

“What if we told your mum?”

His mother and I were not particularly close, but we had spoken over the phone a couple of times. She was an extremely sweet and kind person. There was an instance when I needed money to register for the new school semester and I really did not have any money, so I asked her to help me out and she did with no hesitation whatsoever. Due to her kindness toward me, I always felt the need to go above and beyond for Callum.

 Ever since I met him and I got to know him, I treated him like a baby. Like he was my own son. I took into consideration that he was in this country all alone with just his sister who has her own life. His mum is nowhere around him and the only father figure in his life had passed away. As a psychology major, I always dissect situations like this and I could only assume the type of trauma that stems from something like that and so when Callum and I started dating, I made it my duty to always provide when I could for him; love him unconditionally so that he could never feel lonely; listen to him when he vented so I can help him find a solution and fix the problem and be his shoulder to cry on.

Since Callum and I started living together, even before it became official, he treated me like a queen. When he would come over, he would always buy me food and snacks and made sure I ate properly. He would wash my dishes, my clothes and even clean my room. I had what was known as a depression room. This does not mean that it is always dirty, but it was untidy most of the time. Especially when I did the laundry myself and did not fold the clothes after. Callum would always take care of that when he came over. There would be times if I woke up early enough before he got to my house, I would clean the entire house just so I could impress him. It is not like he noticed either way because there were only a few things we did when he came over.    

Callum worked at a security company as a security officer, which meant that he worked twelve-hour shifts. He would work from six o’clock in the evening to six o’clock in the morning of the next day. Whenever he would get off work, he would come over to my place and spend time with me until he had to leave for work again. This meant washing his overalls while he was asleep, feeding him, and making sure he had a meal to take to work as well. You could say that before we were a couple, I had become his wife.

At times if he was not too tired from work, we would watch movies together on my laptop and eat food until one of us either get horny or sleepy to which in this instance Callum was always both – so we would have sex, shower, and then go to sleep. This routine was my favorite because often enough, we would sleep through his alarm, and he would always wake up late for work. With much convincing, he would either skip work to stay with me or take his merry time and make his way to work after the fact. He always said that ‘you cannot be late twice’ so if you are already late you might as well take your time and not rush.

We always spent time together and I got used to this. Eventually, after taking into consideration that he spent more time at my place than at his apartment, he decided to move in with me. I still live with my mother, so that would have meant that he would literally live in my bedroom. We wanted to make things work so I applied for a student loan, and I expanded the room. We joined two rooms together and simply made an entrance into the second room. When we had run out of money everything was at a standstill. We were sleeping on a mattress on the floor, and we barely had food to eat but we made it work.

Now that I am officially pregnant there are going to be a lot of changes. Callum will most definitely have to stop missing work. I am a full-time student so there is no way I could balance work and school right now, but I am close to graduating so hopefully as soon as I get my degree, I can find a good job that pays well. 

“I mean I do not see why not. You could tell her if you want.” Callum seems nervous about it but I was truly excited.

I really wanted to be a part of his family since I had always been rejected by my own. Sometimes when I am in desperation for money, I would do portraits of people for commission. When Callum and I met, I decided to draw his siblings and his mother as a way to get a conversation going between us. It was an excuse that I used to message them because I am quite an awkward person, and I had no idea how to start a conversation with either of them.

I unlocked my phone and located his mother’s chat. I took a picture of the positive pregnancy test and sent it to her. I sent the picture to her with a message saying,

“Well, this happened…”

 As I sent it to her, I recalled a previous conversation that we had about pregnancy. I remember telling her and convincing her that I wanted to have a stable job with a good income, my own house, and a car before I would ever consider getting pregnant and she applauded me for thinking that way.

Now that I am pregnant intentionally and I have none of those things, Callum and I thought it would be best to make it seem as though none of this was planned.

I watched as she opened the message, and she immediately began typing.

“Oh wow…how do you feel about it?”

She asked.

“I am quite excited because for a second I thought I could not conceive so this is a huge relief, plus I have always wanted a family of my own with much love and affection as I could not get that from my own family growing up. I am graduating next year so it is a perfect time for me to take time off before I start medical school and just focus on this and work.”

I explained to her as I started to get a bit emotional while I typed the message.

“Do you think you would be able to manage a baby and school? I know how much of a hard worker you are but taking care of a baby is a lot of work.”

“So, what do you think about it?”

I had a feeling she was not totally on board with the idea but as I said before, Callum’s mother is an exceptionally sweet woman. In her head she is probably thinking “abort mission” but I know she would never necessarily say that to me.

“Well, we spoke about this before. I am not sure if you could remember the words that were exchanged but as I said before I would have liked if you and Callum finished school first and lived a little bit more before you decide to become parents. It is a big responsibility and there are a lot of sacrifices to be made when there is a child in the picture, but I digress. You are already pregnant and if this is something that you and Callum want, then I will try to support you as best as I can.”