Chapter Three

Colette Smith (P.O.V.)

I had just woken up from my nap when I heard my bedroom door shut close. I looked around to see Callum entering the room. He placed his bags on the bed before he got onto the bed and laid down next to me.

Just then he rolled over to face me before he placed his hand on my belly and rubbed it.

“Hey, pregnant lady.” He teased before he lifted himself slightly off the bed to kiss me.

I smiled through the kiss and hugged him.

“Hey, you. I was impatiently waiting for you to get home to celebrate with me. How do you feel about everything?” I asked him as I played with his hair.

I guess it felt good because he laid his head on my lap and closed his eyes.

“I am very happy I get to start a family with you. I cannot wait until the little one gets here. I could only assume you have already begun picking out names.” Callum murmured, chuckling lightly to himself.

I felt his head getting heavier and heavier on me which indicated he was about to fall asleep.

I rolled my eyes at him and poked his rub. Callum is extremely ticklish so it served only right that he would jump in defense of me poking him on his ribs.

“Hey! Do not do that. You know I hate it when you tickle me.” He exclaimed and glared at me.

I poked my tongue out at him to tease him further.

“Well then, do not fall asleep when I am talking to you. Anyway, I was thinking about some changes we would need to do to the room for when the baby gets here. I know we just renovated but I can apply for another student loan, and we could expand the room a little bit so that when we put the crib in the room it would not seem so clustered.” I explained to him as I looked around the room for any little adjustments we would make.

Callum and I did not have our own house. Our mini sanctuary was really just my bedroom that we recently added new furniture to when Callum moved in. I still lived in my mother’s home and seeing as Callum would sneak in here a lot to spend time with me, she finally caved in and let him move in. Of course, to make that possible, Callum had to agree to help with the bills. We bought our own groceries which we kept in the bedroom. The only time we would go to the kitchen is if we had to cook a meal.

I come from a very dysfunctional family. My mother is a manipulative and abusive narcissist, and my twin brother is a drug addict who likes to steal a lot. When Callum moved in, this caused us to keep all of our groceries in the room because if we were to put it in the kitchen, my brother would either eat all of it when he has the munchies or he would trade it for drugs. We also had to change all of the locks in the room as my brother would also pick the locks and duplicate my bedroom keys so that he could steal things from my room.

Whenever I would speak to my mother about his behavior, she would act like she does not care at all what he does. However, when he interferes with her things, she would turn the entire house upside down and take all of her anger out on me because she knows to herself that I would never retaliate. I was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder when I was just twelve years old. This stemmed from the sexual abuse I experienced when I was six years old from an old man who lived across the street.

The day that that happened to me, I remember running to my mother to tell her about what he did and instead she blamed me for it. She said it was all of my fault for getting sexually assault because I did not stay home. I did not stay indoors; and so, she went on to beat me and ground me for a week. From that day on, my mental illnesses began to develop. At the mere age of twelve, I was diagnosed with severe depression, bipolar mood disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder/ Due to the presence of my posttraumatic stress disorder, I am unable to function normally around loud noises. Loud music is fine, but loud noises that are disturbing to me are not. Such things as yelling, loud motorbikes, and sudden banging, frighten me and it makes my body shut down. When I am around those types of noises I instantly panic and I stay frozen on the spot. It is something that has affected me all of my life. For this reason, I had been hit by passing motorbikes countless times because I would just freeze on the street upon hearing one approaching me. The fear of loud shouting and yelling stemmed from my mother. Whenever she would yell at my brother and get mad at him, she would beat me in order to take her anger out on me.

My father left when I was two years old and so he was never around to stop anything bad from happening to me. When I met him around the age of twelve years, he claimed that he cared for me, but he would only come around when I would beg him for money for school. There are a lot of things I would like to achieve in the future academically, such as getting into medical school, becoming a doctor, and then furthering my studies to become a neurosurgeon. I always had a fascination with the brain.

Callum used to always say that we were not a perfect match because I was used to dating doctors and lawyers and he was only just a security officer who had dropped out of university during his first semester. I constantly reassured him that professions do not decide whether or not I would willingly love someone. Although, when I met Callum and we became acquainted, I used to ignore his messages a lot because while I did have feelings for him, I refused to date someone who did not have as big goals and accomplishments as I did. The first time we hooked up I had no intentions of speaking to him again because I felt like he was just good enough for a one-night stand.

That night after we slept together, when I got home, I received dozens of messages from him which kind of gave the impression that he wanted to be with me long term. The messages repetitively said to be safe and that he had fun. I was truly surprised that he messaged me because I literally had no intentions of messaging him ever again. I thought about ignoring the messages, but the guilt consumed me, and I decided against being mean to him. I did not want a relationship with him or with anyone for that matter. I had just gone through a breakup, and I was going through my hoe phase.

Before I met Callum, I had been hooking up with a doctor who I had met on a dating website. Eventually, the doctor and I became really good friends, and we would casually have sex whenever we went out for drinks. It was a fun time until he had to leave the country to work at another hospital. When the doctor left, I began to give Callum a lot more attention and that is how we ended up meeting at the club - the rest is history.

We were moving rather fast with our relationship despite only having met a few months ago. I could only hope that our relationship remains just as vibrant as it is now.