Six months later and I’m sitting on the floor in a hotel bathroom, a pregnancy test in my hand. “James!” I yell from the bathroom. “James!” His feet slap the floor as he runs towards me, the door opening quickly as he rushes in, “what’s wrong?” His voice gets a note of panic when he sees me sitting on the floor, “what happened?” I hold up the pregnancy test for him to see, “I’m pregnant.” He sits down next to me, “are you sure?” I nod, “yeah. It.. feels the same as last time.” He swallows loudly, “are we.. happy?” “Yeah,” I whisper. “Yeah we are.” And unlike last time, I was. Over the past six months we’d traveled the world for my job, visiting every place imaginable and I’d made more money selling my pictures then I’d ever thought possible, to the point where we’d never have to work again if we didn’t want to. I never thought that I’d be the breadwinner in this relationship but I was enjoying being a sugar mama. James and I still hadn’t found a house to call our o
“We need to find a house,” James tells me as he rubs my stomach. We’ve been lounging on the bed for the past few hours, James laying between my legs, his head propped up by his arm. “And soon so we have time to set everything up for this little guy.” “We have time,” I remind him. “And who says it’s a boy? Maybe it’s a girl.”James looks up at me, “nah it’s a boy,” he tells me with full certainty. “But it could be a girl,” I argue slightly, suddenly worried that maybe James was going to be a ‘boys only’ type of dad. “You know I can’t control the gender, right?”He nods, “genetically speaking I’m the one that controls that. But,” he amends. “It could be a girl. I’d be happy with either.” “Would you?”“Of course,” he tells me with a smile. “I can’t wait for a little mini you running around. She’d have me wrapped around her finger so fast. I’d never be able to tell her no.” “Speaking from experience, that’s a good power to have over you,” I joke. “But you’re right, we do need to make
“Carter?” The nurse calls out. “That’s us!” James answers as he jumps up from his seat and offers me a hand. I take it with a grin, “I can stand up by myself,” I tell him as he pulls me to my feet. “I’m just practicing,” he laughs as we follow the nurse. "I'm Nurse Franklin," she says kindly as she ushers us into the back. "You'll be in exam room one right here," she tells us as she opens a door. I walk into the room and sit nervously on the table, the paper crinkling under me. She shuts the door and turns to us, “so what brings you in today?" “We’re pregnant!” James tells her excitedly and proudly. “We?” I tease. “I didn’t know that you’d be shooting a baby out of your nether regions.” “I would,” he says quickly. He looks at Nurse Franklin, “I totally would.” She chuckles, “I take it you’re the father then.” James nods, “the one and only.” "Alright,” she says as she writes on her clipboard. “I do need to ask a few questions," she tells us. "Do you know ho
“Babe, you’re missing it!” James teases excitedly as a woman on the tv screams. “It’s like the Aliens but it’s a baby!” Peaking through my fingers, I was just in time to see a bloody baby rip it’s way from its mother. How he had convinced me to watch the Species series I’d never know. I’d made it through the first one just fine, but the second was starting to get to me. “Why did you think this was a good movie for me to watch?” I ask as I try not to gag. Even though I know it’s fake blood, the sight of it still makes me nauseous. James glanced over at me and frowns slightly, “honestly I forgot that this one was mainly killer babies.” He grabs the remote and turns the movie off before kissing my head, “I’m sorry, princess. I didn’t mean to make you sick.” “I’m not sick,” I start to argue, but the churning in my stomach only got worse and in a flash I’m off the couch and running to the bathroom. I barely make it before I’m heaving my guts up. I don’t notice when James enters the b
The next morning we are once more in the doctors office. We’d been here so much over the last month that I could tell you how many ceiling tiles were in this room without looking. The answer is fifty-four. And since we’d been here so much, we knew all the nurses by name and they didn’t even bother to show us to our room. Yes, our room. We were always brought to the same exam room so it’s gotten to the point when they’d call our name, they’d just tell us to go to our room. So here we were, both sitting on the weird chair that was covered in white paper, waiting for Nurse Franklin. We’d opted to have her give us the results instead of the doctor since we’ve been seeing her more often than him. When she walks in the room, she takes one look at us and says, “I was going to start with the pleasantries but judging by the looks on your faces, we should just get to it.” “Yes please,” James says as he takes my hand. Nurse Franklin sits down and smiles, “I’m pleased to tell yo
Two weeks later James and I are sitting on the plush carpet of our new living room, sunlight streaming in through the large windows. The keys to the house sit between us as we both sit there, still in shock that we’d actually gotten the house below market value and so quickly. Finally, James just asks, “how?” Shaking my head I answer, “I have no idea.” And I truly didn’t. One second we were in Iceland and the next we were in the realtors office in our hometown being handed the keys to our own home. Everything in between was a blur, and normally I’d find that concerning, but right now I think I was still in shock. Shock that was quickly giving away to the reality of the situation. “Oh my god,” I groan as I turn to James. “We bought a house!” He gives me a puzzled look, “yeah. Isn’t that what you wanted?” “Yeah!” I exclaim. “But now we have to be adults and pay bills. We have to get the utilities turned on, but furniture, decorate, paint, put together a nursery, get a car,
The next morning James and I are at the mall as soon as they open. More specifically, at the home goods store that takes up two levels of the mall. Equipped with two different lists and carts, James is in charge of getting the large appliances and I’m off to find kitchen and bedroom essentials. Since it was so early in the morning, I wasn’t expecting anyone to recognize me. But as I was comparing bedsheets, a voice behind me asks, “Alison?” Turning, I force a smile, “Samantha.” Her eyes flick down to my stomach and back to my face, “look at you girlfriend! How long has it been?” “Since graduation,” I tell her while praying she’d go away. Samantha was the type of girl who’d be friendly to your face and then gossip about you behind your back. “I see that congratulations are in order,” she gushes. “I have to say, the girls and I were surprised when we heard that you dropped out of college to travel the world. Honestly, we didn’t think you’d ever leave this town. But, look at
By the time we made it home and unloaded all our things, several hours had passed since the incident with Samantha. And even though nobody had called us and we hadn’t seen anyone else we knew, I couldn’t shake the feeling that everyone in town already knew about James and I. Rationally I knew that everyone would find out about us eventually. It wasn’t like James and I were keeping our relationship a secret anymore, but I did hope we would have more time before the entire town found out about us. And maybe I could have handled it better if I wasn’t pregnant, but I was, and somehow that made the thought of facing the town much harder. The ride from our home to our parents house is a silent few blocks as I stare out the window, my mind running wild with all the things that people are probably saying about us. James holds my hand the entire way, his thumb running over my knuckles soothingly and I’m so lost in my mind that I don’t notice we’ve arrived until James lets go of my hand.
By the time we made it home and unloaded all our things, several hours had passed since the incident with Samantha. And even though nobody had called us and we hadn’t seen anyone else we knew, I couldn’t shake the feeling that everyone in town already knew about James and I. Rationally I knew that everyone would find out about us eventually. It wasn’t like James and I were keeping our relationship a secret anymore, but I did hope we would have more time before the entire town found out about us. And maybe I could have handled it better if I wasn’t pregnant, but I was, and somehow that made the thought of facing the town much harder. The ride from our home to our parents house is a silent few blocks as I stare out the window, my mind running wild with all the things that people are probably saying about us. James holds my hand the entire way, his thumb running over my knuckles soothingly and I’m so lost in my mind that I don’t notice we’ve arrived until James lets go of my hand.
The next morning James and I are at the mall as soon as they open. More specifically, at the home goods store that takes up two levels of the mall. Equipped with two different lists and carts, James is in charge of getting the large appliances and I’m off to find kitchen and bedroom essentials. Since it was so early in the morning, I wasn’t expecting anyone to recognize me. But as I was comparing bedsheets, a voice behind me asks, “Alison?” Turning, I force a smile, “Samantha.” Her eyes flick down to my stomach and back to my face, “look at you girlfriend! How long has it been?” “Since graduation,” I tell her while praying she’d go away. Samantha was the type of girl who’d be friendly to your face and then gossip about you behind your back. “I see that congratulations are in order,” she gushes. “I have to say, the girls and I were surprised when we heard that you dropped out of college to travel the world. Honestly, we didn’t think you’d ever leave this town. But, look at
Two weeks later James and I are sitting on the plush carpet of our new living room, sunlight streaming in through the large windows. The keys to the house sit between us as we both sit there, still in shock that we’d actually gotten the house below market value and so quickly. Finally, James just asks, “how?” Shaking my head I answer, “I have no idea.” And I truly didn’t. One second we were in Iceland and the next we were in the realtors office in our hometown being handed the keys to our own home. Everything in between was a blur, and normally I’d find that concerning, but right now I think I was still in shock. Shock that was quickly giving away to the reality of the situation. “Oh my god,” I groan as I turn to James. “We bought a house!” He gives me a puzzled look, “yeah. Isn’t that what you wanted?” “Yeah!” I exclaim. “But now we have to be adults and pay bills. We have to get the utilities turned on, but furniture, decorate, paint, put together a nursery, get a car,
The next morning we are once more in the doctors office. We’d been here so much over the last month that I could tell you how many ceiling tiles were in this room without looking. The answer is fifty-four. And since we’d been here so much, we knew all the nurses by name and they didn’t even bother to show us to our room. Yes, our room. We were always brought to the same exam room so it’s gotten to the point when they’d call our name, they’d just tell us to go to our room. So here we were, both sitting on the weird chair that was covered in white paper, waiting for Nurse Franklin. We’d opted to have her give us the results instead of the doctor since we’ve been seeing her more often than him. When she walks in the room, she takes one look at us and says, “I was going to start with the pleasantries but judging by the looks on your faces, we should just get to it.” “Yes please,” James says as he takes my hand. Nurse Franklin sits down and smiles, “I’m pleased to tell yo
“Babe, you’re missing it!” James teases excitedly as a woman on the tv screams. “It’s like the Aliens but it’s a baby!” Peaking through my fingers, I was just in time to see a bloody baby rip it’s way from its mother. How he had convinced me to watch the Species series I’d never know. I’d made it through the first one just fine, but the second was starting to get to me. “Why did you think this was a good movie for me to watch?” I ask as I try not to gag. Even though I know it’s fake blood, the sight of it still makes me nauseous. James glanced over at me and frowns slightly, “honestly I forgot that this one was mainly killer babies.” He grabs the remote and turns the movie off before kissing my head, “I’m sorry, princess. I didn’t mean to make you sick.” “I’m not sick,” I start to argue, but the churning in my stomach only got worse and in a flash I’m off the couch and running to the bathroom. I barely make it before I’m heaving my guts up. I don’t notice when James enters the b
“Carter?” The nurse calls out. “That’s us!” James answers as he jumps up from his seat and offers me a hand. I take it with a grin, “I can stand up by myself,” I tell him as he pulls me to my feet. “I’m just practicing,” he laughs as we follow the nurse. "I'm Nurse Franklin," she says kindly as she ushers us into the back. "You'll be in exam room one right here," she tells us as she opens a door. I walk into the room and sit nervously on the table, the paper crinkling under me. She shuts the door and turns to us, “so what brings you in today?" “We’re pregnant!” James tells her excitedly and proudly. “We?” I tease. “I didn’t know that you’d be shooting a baby out of your nether regions.” “I would,” he says quickly. He looks at Nurse Franklin, “I totally would.” She chuckles, “I take it you’re the father then.” James nods, “the one and only.” "Alright,” she says as she writes on her clipboard. “I do need to ask a few questions," she tells us. "Do you know ho
“We need to find a house,” James tells me as he rubs my stomach. We’ve been lounging on the bed for the past few hours, James laying between my legs, his head propped up by his arm. “And soon so we have time to set everything up for this little guy.” “We have time,” I remind him. “And who says it’s a boy? Maybe it’s a girl.”James looks up at me, “nah it’s a boy,” he tells me with full certainty. “But it could be a girl,” I argue slightly, suddenly worried that maybe James was going to be a ‘boys only’ type of dad. “You know I can’t control the gender, right?”He nods, “genetically speaking I’m the one that controls that. But,” he amends. “It could be a girl. I’d be happy with either.” “Would you?”“Of course,” he tells me with a smile. “I can’t wait for a little mini you running around. She’d have me wrapped around her finger so fast. I’d never be able to tell her no.” “Speaking from experience, that’s a good power to have over you,” I joke. “But you’re right, we do need to make
Six months later and I’m sitting on the floor in a hotel bathroom, a pregnancy test in my hand. “James!” I yell from the bathroom. “James!” His feet slap the floor as he runs towards me, the door opening quickly as he rushes in, “what’s wrong?” His voice gets a note of panic when he sees me sitting on the floor, “what happened?” I hold up the pregnancy test for him to see, “I’m pregnant.” He sits down next to me, “are you sure?” I nod, “yeah. It.. feels the same as last time.” He swallows loudly, “are we.. happy?” “Yeah,” I whisper. “Yeah we are.” And unlike last time, I was. Over the past six months we’d traveled the world for my job, visiting every place imaginable and I’d made more money selling my pictures then I’d ever thought possible, to the point where we’d never have to work again if we didn’t want to. I never thought that I’d be the breadwinner in this relationship but I was enjoying being a sugar mama. James and I still hadn’t found a house to call our o
A month later and we find ourselves in Alaska watching the northern lights in a glass igloo hotel. While I wasn’t to thrilled about going from one cold climate to the next, I had to admit that the light show was worth every freezing minute. Especially since I got to cuddle some sled dogs our first night there. We’d decided to do the sled dog tour that ended up on a mountain peak with a clear view of the lights. The company had set up large canopy tents with an assortment of chairs, blankets, food and drinks. Several cozy campfires are spread throughout the small area and if it wasn’t for the fifth other people there, it would be one of the most romantic places we’d ever been. As we waiting for the show to start, I walked around the camp and took pictures of all the dogs and the camp, along with anyone who wanted their pictures taken. And when the lights started, we all moved from the tents and away from the fires, towards the edge of the mountain with our chairs and blanke