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“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I grinned and winked at my love — no reason to rub it in.
“Just wait until I get the postpartum mood swings. Oh, man. I don’t envy you.”
“Hey, now. One crisis at a time.” I winked again.
“I sometimes forget how wonderful everything is.” Eleanor looked directly at me. “I focus on the crisis of the moment, but I forget that here I am living with my dream man, in my dream city, carrying a beautiful baby. What I’ve always wanted.”
“Me? Just humble me? Don’t you aim higher?”
“Aiden. I love you. I love our life. I love our baby.” Eleanor lay back on the bed and stretched her arms back. “But I’ve got the pregnancy exhaustion going on and badly need a nap.”
I lay next to her, supporting myself on my elbows. I looked into Eleanor’s eyes. Without breaking eye contact, I moved in for the kiss. She closed her eyes. My tongue roamed Eleanor’s mouth, and I used my one free hand to massage her shoulder. I drew back, then patted her pregnant belly. “I know we can do it, Eleanor. I know.”
“I know too.” She smiled and drifted back to sleep.
Chapter Twelve - Aiden
“Are you sure you can make it up the steps?” I reflexively lay my hand on Eleanor’s pregnant belly. I felt my daughter kick; every time, it made me smile.
I had booked a table at a romantic brunch place downtown for Sunday brunch for Eleanor and me. It was the one day I didn’t have to work. She was due any day, and I wanted to treat the expectant mother.
“I can make it up anywhere with you holding my arm.”
Eleanor had become such a regular passenger on my arm that I had almost forgotten that this was something I was voluntarily, optionally doing. I’d stopped telling Eleanor that I was offering her my arm or reminding her about it. Whenever we were together and not in bed, my arm was out, and she was holding on to it. Walking unassisted wasn’t easy for a nine-months-pregnant woman saddled with extra pounds of pregnancy weight.
We went up one step, then up another one. The restaurant was just ten more steps up. There’d be brunch, with salmon, caviar, and everything else Eleanor would need to be a very well-fed and very pregnant woman. There’d be views of the skyline, and Eleanor and I could pose for pictures together. I was savoring the last stage of her pregnancy, what we knew to be the last weeks of her baby belly.
“I count six more steps,” I called out. It was a little bit like reaching the end of my daily UPS route when I knew I only had to deliver six more packages.
“I can make —” As Eleanor exerted herself up to another step, there was a pop like a water balloon. I looked around for what it was. Then I saw her grin, and Eleanor holding her hands over her crotch. There was liquid all over her shorts and sandals and the ground under her.
“Oh shit. Let’s go.”
I clicked for an Uber on my phone and started leading my love down the steps. This was the moment, the big moment we’d been thinking about for six months.
“If it was just shit, it wouldn’t be such an emergency,” Eleanor muttered, breathing hard.
The Uber car was already waiting when we got to the bottom of the steps. “Labor! She’s going into labor!”
“Oh, a pregnant woman?” the driver asked. I looked into the rearview mirror and nodded.
“Shit, man. Just drive,” I said, trying carefully not to yell. But when my girlfriend was going into labor, how could I not yell? I called the hospital to prepare them ahead of time for a delivery.
Eleanor moaned with a bit of discomfort. Another gush of water came from her shorts, running down the car seat and onto the floor.
“I’m sorry,” I said to the driver. “She’s in labor. I’ll pay for the cleaning costs of your car. Just get there fast.”
“Don’t worry about the cleaning,” the driver said while weaving his SUV through New York traffic. “A baby’s a baby. We’ll be there in five minutes, I promise.” We pulled up to the labor and delivery entrance, and I helped Eleanor get out of the car.
“I was gonna help the lady walk, but you’ve got that taken care of already,” the driver told me when seeing Eleanor naturally leaning on my arm.
“Yeah. I’ve definitely got it taken care of already.” I smiled and nodded. My girlfriend was in labor. There was a baby on the way. Life was good.
***
“My granddaughter is beautiful.”
Betty stared into Sophia’s eyes in her newborn crib. The apartment was crowded with four inhabitants instead of the usual two, but Sophia and Betty were family. Eleanor and I both loved having them around. And Betty provided the expertise in child-rearing that we lacked.
