“Take it easy” Arrick guides me from the car towards our building and towards home. We have been shopping, last minute nesting items as it gets crazy close to my due date and I am so done with being pregnant. I’m like New York’s answer to Free Willy and my feet are like long lost sisters I maybe will see one day again. A woman cuts in front of me aggressively as I reach for the door handle and knocks me over into him as Arrick almost takes her head off.
“Watch the fuck where you’re going.” He snaps at her and I look back at him in surprise at his non-typical response to another human. He’s been tetchy as hell since we got into my last month, antsy, nervous and overkill in protective mode. Today he is having a bad day, because I have been having a bad day and he is trying to not lose his shit with me over it.
Me… I’m suffering every day and absolutely despise this endless growing rounder and waiting. Whoever s
“Stop fucking telling me to push. I AM FUCKING PUSHING!” I scream at our doctor as she pats my leg and throws me a haughty look and Arry takes my hand and tries to turn possessed rage to face him. My body is turning itself inside out with a pain they no way in hell prepared me for and the stupid women is getting on my very last nerve. Sweating, heaving, and panting and trying to not break my teeth with every wave of bone gnawing agony that rips through me. The room is coming down on me and I have lost all concept of time.“Baby… Breathe, count with me, look at me. You’re doing so well. Just breathe and relax a little.” He’s stroking me, trying to get me through this, being sane and calm while my doctor and her nurse are making me crazy. I’m trying so hard, but I was not expecting this to be so traumatic. I don’t think I can do it. It feels like we have been here days and I am so overheated and achy that even my teeth are
Settled in the bed of my private room with our baby asleep in his arm, Arrick sits beside me on the bed with his free arm around my shoulder as we watch her. My head nestled on his chest and my finger in her little tiny grip. We have sat like this for the last hour, enamored with the little miracle that we created. Perfect in every little miniature detail and I cannot stop inspecting the sheer amazingness of her. I finally get why Jake keeps wanting more. Nothing compares to how it feels right now, sitting here together like this. How much I love her already.She’s clean now, dressed in a little pink sleepsuit that’s adorned with tiny unicorns and wrapped up snug in a fluffy pink blanket. Arrick did the fatherly duties and got her trussed up in her little outfit for me. He was a total pro, from years of helping with Emma’s kids and looked totally at home maneuvering a frowny
Sophie’s POV~ Meeting Arrick for the first time ~I drop the wooden spoon in the bowl as batter splashes back in my face and recoil in disgust, wiping the wet mess out of my eye and huff stroppily. Temper riling slightly because I cannot get the knack of this at all. Sylvana laughs at my expression and tends to my face with a dish towel she has over her shoulder, dabbing at me lightly to clean it off. That gentle motherly smile and soft manner that soothes my temper tantrum and I calm slightly at her ever-tender touch to my fiery moods, warming inside at her easy manner.“Oh, Sophie,Bambino.... Don’t be so aggressive with stirring. Be gentle with the batter, or you will pound the air out of the mixture.” She smiles softly and picks the spoon back up to hand to me encouragingly, pushing the bowl back against me on the wooden surface with an eyebrow lift that is meant to endear me to try again. I
My breathing gets instantly heavier as anxiety starts to build up quickly and irrationally, brain freezing so that any sense to this will not break through. She never just leaves me with strangers, this is literally unheard of, ever. Normally Sylvana is very conscious of leaving me with people I don’t know. She knows I don’t like it and I don’t care if it’s her son. I don’t know or trust him.I drop the spoon and start looking around for an escape route almost impulsively, uncomfortable about being alone with him and unable to stop the gripping panic that is crippling my lungs. I need to get out of the corner I am hemmed in because it’s making me claustrophobic and triggering my need to run.“Huntsbergers, huh? So, you’re Leeloo’s new sister?” His voice catches me mid panic and draws me back to him, weirdly cool and the same insane ability as his mother to draw me back. I just stare at him, wondering why he is
Arrick’s POV~ Meeting Sophie for the first time ~I get out of the cab and drag my rucksack with me, tired today, after the long flight on a commercial airline from LA and glad to be back on home turf. It was a hell of a week at a bachelor party that turned into a crazy, endless, sleepless, drunk fueled mess. I don’t remember half of it, and I’m sure I still have that Veronica girls cell number written on my chest in red lipstick. I went straight from bed with that blonde girl, Tanya or Tracey, whatever her name was, to the airport, and now I’m desperate for a shower.It’s not like me to hit on women for a one-night hook up only, but it was my last night in LA, and I knew I would never see either of them again. Sometimes being a horny male slut is as good as going twelve hard rounds in the boxing ring to relieve tension. I’m getting as bad as Jake and I know I should really curb some of the reckless
I pick up a piece of fruit from the bowl and look anywhere but at her, even with my eyes elsewhere, glancing around the kitchen, I can feel the icy glares aimed my way and try to ignore it. All my own fault; I made her feel threatened, and now she’s trying to make sure it goes no further. It won’t.... I’m not that kind of an asshole. She has a prickly fight in her, it’s probably the reason she has survived this long. A little savage fierce under the surface of my quiet little warrior.“You redecorated?” I ask my mom, looking for anything else to talk about while blondie is trying to kill me with laser eyes and seriously beating the shit out of whatever she’s mixing. I think I maybe helped kill a cake. I resist the urge to trail my eyes back to her, even though it’s almost instinctual to do so.“Nope... Just changed a few accessories.” My mom smiles back at me then spies some spillage beside Sophie’s bowl
I think I just found my new purpose in life. To make this girl smile, even once. Just for me.“You’re lame. I think you maybe just need to go find a girl who may actually be interested. This one isn’t.” She picks up the spoon and licks the batter in a really juvenile way, not sexy at all, not even trying to be, and I grimace with her. I know how bad it tastes; I should have forewarned her not to put it in her mouth.“I’m not someone who gives up. I will ask you every time I see you...You will cave one of those times.” I shift to get comfy, glad she hasn’t insisted I still leave. I kind of like it here and I feel like I might actually be getting somewhere with her.“Find me the elusive last unicorn and I’ll think about it.” She sighs heavily, and that same ghost of a smile peaks out at me, like she figures she is being clever, and I will never work it out. I find myself willing her to let it loose,
Arrick’s POV~ Sophies love confession ~I wander across the street towards the Huntsbergers, that knot of anxiety that has been plaguing me since Sophie and I fought a couple days ago, and I’ve been unable to leave to go home without fixing this. I hate fighting with her, hate when we’re mad and brooding apart, but sometimes we need time apart to simmer. Sophie can be hard work at the best of times, especially when she is closed up in her usual defensive, keeping everyone at arm’s length, manner. I was tired, lack of sleep had me short with her and I acted like an asshole who should have known better than to bite when she is pushing me away. This is what she does when she needs people the most and I’m a complete ass for not recognizing classic ‘Sophie in pain’ mode.I guess because it’s been a long while since she pushed me away so viciously. The last couple of days I have pulled her name up in