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“Celine…”Do I have to start with a big life confession? Hasn’t she been through enough of this crap already?
“All right,” she relents. “If you insist. But a very sexy, lovable, smart and beautiful piece of junk.”
Is she serious?“Seriously?”
“Well, you formed your truth about me—I formed mine about you.” She smirks. “I guess we’ll have to come to terms with that stalemate situation.”
“For better or worse.”
“For better or worse.” Agile as a young cat, she stretches across me and across half the bed, grabbing her cell phone off the nightstand. “Fuck.” She picks up my favorite curse. “For better or worse, I’m going to have to kick you out of bed now. Otherwise I’ll be late for work…”
Epilogue
Philipp—Three years later
“Weeh?” Almost questioningly, a little voice makes its way into my auditory canal.
I cling to the remnants of my dream dissolving into wisps of fog as my consciousness slowly emerges from sleep.
“Wee-weeh,” comes slightly jarringly from the baby monitor. “Weeeh-weeh…”
Next to me, Celine snorts. She groans and rolls around, wrapping herself in our blanket like a caterpillar in its cocoon.
Faced with the cool autumn air seeping through the open window, I give myself a push. I swing my legs out of bed, grab my T-shirt, shorts, and socks, and slip them on as I make my way to the nursery.
“Weeh,” my son exclaims. Tucked into his sleeping bag, he has sat up in his crib and is playing with his stuffed animals. When he sees me come in, he stretches his little hands. “Wee-weeh!” he babbles gleefully. “Wee-weeh!”
“Well, are you awake?” In passing, I turn off the baby monitor, then pick up Johannes.
He giggles, snuggling up to me, and I bury my nose in his milk-scented fair head.
But then another scent drifts by. “Whew,” I mutter, tickling his belly. “Could it be that you filled up your diaper?”
Later, freshly diapered and dressed in fresh clothes from Godmother Pauline’s stash, he sits in his baby bouncer on the kitchen table while I prepare his bottle.
“Weeh!” He laughs with anticipation as I check the temperature.
“That hungry?” I help him hold his bottle as he sucks on the nipple with great vigor. As quickly as I’m used to from my son, the portion lands in his little tummy. Now I just have to pick him up and let him burp. “Cheers!” I wish him. “Now what? Another round of cuddling?”
As if to confirm, he tries to catch my nose.
I laugh, hopping down the hall with him. “Shh, quiet,” I warn him before pushing open the door to the bedroom. “Mommy’s still asleep.”
The mattress sways slightly as we crawl into bed.
Celine smacks barely audibly, turning around. “Whattime isit?” she mumbles, pulling the covers right back over her head.
“Half past five.” I blow a kiss on her hair and settle into a cozy nest in bed with Johannes. “He slept completely through the night!”
“Sleep,” she murmurs, “justa littlemore.” Then, judging by her steady breaths, she has already drifted off again into the realm of dreams.
Johannes crawls all over me. As usual, he looks at the colorful pictures on my skin, patting his little hands on them with a soft giggling sound. Then he discovers my bare foot, which I let peek out from under the covers.
I wiggle my big toe, whereupon Johannes crawls over the hedge and ditch of my extremities to the foot of the bed.Awesome, how nimble he’s become! And daily he expands his radius…“Ouch!” slips out of my mouth far too loudly, and Celine growls her disapproval into the pillow. “You’re a fucking… a freaking ogre!” I scold this mischievous imp of my son. “You can’t bite your poor daddy’s toe!”
“Weeh-weeh?” Johannes tilts his head, looks at me innocently.
“No!” Although it’s hard for me not to laugh out loud, I punctuate the word with a serious shake of my head. Then I grab him with both hands and place him on the mattress between Celine and me.
