Chicago Is So Two Years Ago, Its All About Vegas Baby

Over the coming weeks, Pete and I decided to start again. To start from scratch, we went on dates; we talked endlessly on the phone. We were like a brand new couple. And to tell the truth, I fell in love with him all over again. In keeping with the whole ‘We’re A New Couple Again’ thing, I stayed living at Patrick’s. It began to feel like home at Patrick’s, he was an amazing roommate. He knew exactly when I needed space, exactly when I needed to talk, we became so close over the four months I lived with him – he was like the brother I’d always wanted.

Right after Pete and I got back together, we avoided Brendon like the Plague. But over time we began to spend more and more time with him. He matured and realised that Pete and I were really in love and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. In fact, Pete and I spoke about making him one of the baby’s godfathers (along with Patrick).

When I was around five and a half months pregnant, Pete phoned me and asked me if I wanted to go out for coffee.

‘Of course, but we can’t stay in there too long, the smell of coffee kinda makes me nauseous.’ I told him down the phone.

‘Alright, baby mama.’ He chuckled, calling me by the nickname he’d provided me with promptly after he knew I was pregnant. ‘I’ll see you in five,’ he told me; I could hear him hopping around. I guessed he was trying to put on his shoes while still on the phone.

‘See you soon.’ I said before slipping on my black Birkenstock sandals.

As I waited in the kitchen, peeling a banana (one of my many, many cravings), I heard Patrick playing a slow, soft melody on the acoustic guitar. I began walking closer and closer to his room; he started singing, his mellow, soulful voice floating through the air.

‘Honey is for bees silly bear…’

I got nearer to the door; I tried to remain inconspicuous, stepping lightly on the hardwood floors of the apartment. It was just my luck that I stepped on the one creaky board in the whole of the apartment. Patrick stopped playing abruptly and snapped his head up in the direction of the door, grinning at me, an innocent grin playing on his lips.

‘What’re you doing there Rick?’ I asked casually, sitting down on the bed next to him, causing the springs in the mattress to scream out in pain.

‘Nothing,’ he continued smiling at me, suddenly I had the urge to squeeze his cheeks. So that’s exactly what I did.

‘Harry! Get offa me!’ he huffed as I pulled his cheeks between my forefinger and thumb.

‘Sorry,’ I smiled, going bright red, ‘they just looked so…inviting. I can’t believe I’ve never done that before!’ I chuckled.

‘You have no idea how many aunties I have that just love to do that to me every time they see me! I’m 25 for God’s sake, not 6!’ he ranted jokingly.

‘Aw, poor Patrick,’ I mocked, hugging him tightly.

I pulled away, and looked at Patrick, ‘I really want to thank you for the last few months Patrick, I don’t think I’d have gotten through it without you. Whichever lovely lady gets to spend the rest of her life with you is one lucky bitch!’ I grinned at him, before pecking his cheek.

‘It okay Harry, you’re like the sister I never had.’

‘Well, I am pretty awesome!’ I joked.

The doorbell’s chime rang throughout the small room, and I got off the bed slowly and walked to the door, closely followed by Patrick.

‘Hey Petey,’ I smiled, kissing him on the cheek. ‘Rick, do you want to come and get some coffee with us?’ I asked him as he adjusted the black fedora-type hat on his head.

‘No thanks Harry, I some, er…stuff to do.’ He said awkwardly, with a sideways glance at Pete.

I could instantly tell that they were hiding something from me. I looked back and forth between the two of them; they were both avoiding eye contact with me and had wide eyes, trying to feign innocence. ‘Okay guys, what’s going on?’ I said to them, putting my hands on my hip, and jutting it out to the side in my ‘I’m not taking any crap’ stance.

‘Aw, look at you and your ‘I’m not taking any crap’ stance,’ Pete patronized while chuckling.

I turned to Patrick, guessing he would be easier to get something out of. Trying to get a secret out of Pete could be the easiest thing ever or like trying to get blood from a stone. It was one extreme or the other with that man.

‘It’s nothing seriously.’ He told me, while still smiling.

‘But, it obvious you're hidi-’ I began to object, before Pete began pulling me in the direction of the elevator.

‘Bye Patrick!’ he called back to his best friend.

We climbed onto the elevator, and Pete pulled me close to him and smiled. ‘You haven’t changed one bit,’ he whispered before kissing me on the lips.

I hugged him tightly, the feeling of my baby bump between us felt perfect, the bump fit perfectly, like we were only whole when it was there. Our relationship was always great, but before the Brendon ‘episode’ we began to drift apart, and the puzzle that was our relationship was almost complete, but it had one piece missing. The baby was that final piece. Now we were finished, complete, 100%, whole.

As we exited the small metallic room and walked through the lobby of the apartment building and out onto the Chicago street. Walking along hand in hand, it felt blissful; I felt the most content I had in months.

The sounds of cars honking, people talking, airplanes flying, were all drowned out by the sound of our happiness. Pete rested his free hand on my stomach, almost simultaneously, the baby kicked. We looked at each other, amazement conveyed in our eyes.

‘That’s our little baby in there, it feels amazing,’ he grinned dreamily at me as we reached the coffee shop.

‘I know, imagine what it’s like for me! It is truly the weirdest sensation ever!’ I laughed as we walked over to order our drinks.

‘Can I have a strawberries and cream frappucino, please?’ I asked the sandy blonde haired barista.

‘Of course, and for you?’ he asked Pete.

‘A caramel latte please.’

Once we sat down with our beverages, Pete began talking.

‘There was a reason I asked you to come out today,’ he smiled. He fidgeted nervously for a second before continuing, ‘do you want to move back in with me?’

I grinned, that exact thought had been playing on my mind for a few days beforehand and I was ecstatic that Pete asked.

‘Of course!’

He breathed a sigh of relief, before getting very excited. ‘When you move back in, we can start thinking about a nursery and how we’re going to decorate it. I was thinking painting the wall white, I know we’re not going to find out the sex of the baby. So we should paint it a neutral colour, and I don’t really like yellow. Yesterday I was looking on the internet and I found this really awesome piano, but it’s like, in a baby size!’ as he happily rambled on about the nursery, I smiled. I was so proud that he was taking such an interest in the baby and how lucky I was that he wasn’t some stuck up rock star who thought he was ‘above’ looking after his own children.

'Thank you, Pete.'

'For what?' he questioned, looking at me as he took a sip of his drink.

'Being you.'