Best Man

It wasn't until the first of June that the newlyweds, Mike and Caroline, returned to California from their honeymoon.

The both of them sporting bronze tans and beaded braids in their hair, the pair looked like couples out of vacation catalogues. And with their suitcases dragging behind them into their Oakland home and sunglasses covering their eyes -- despite it being nearly ten at night -- it seemed as if they were going to need another vacation.

Dragging themselves inside as the cab that drove them pulled out of the driveway and disappeared down the street, they pretty much dropped everything right there in the front hall as she both seemed to scamper like children into the kitchen and head right for the fridge; standing side by side as Mike opened the door.

And they both cooed at the sight of the full shelves; loving the fact that they could eat the things they liked and not the packages of shit the airlines offered.

"Hand me that jar of pickles and grab some slices of Swiss cheese," Caroline ordered as she went for one of the cupboards and threw them open; sifting through the bottom shelf to grab the plastic jar of Jiffy peanut butter. "Don't forget the bread."

"What are you making?" Mike questioned warily.

Caroline simply turned to look at him as if he said something completely ridiculous. "A sandwich," she replied, as if stating the obvious. "What else?"

As she turned her back to him to grab a knife from the cutlery block while she waited for her bread, Swiss cheese and pickles, Mike raised an eyebrow and grimaced. "Ew," was all he said.

Yet, even though he was disgusted at the mix of ingredients for his wife's sandwich, he knew it was because of her weird cravings due to the pregnancy. And that, alone, brought a smile to his lips.

Upon passing everything she wanted to her, he pulled open the freezer door and almost pissed his pants in glee when he spotted the fudgesicles and took one from himself. As soon as he shut the freezer door and was sucking happily on his cold, chocolately treat, he leaned against the kitchen island and watched Caroline as she prepared her quirky sandwich from hell, in his opinion.

All he could think about was how, in four months' time, he would be a father for a second time, and Caroline, his lawfully wedded wife, would be the mother.



As June wore on, the summer season finally kicked into full swing and to every Californian's surprise, it wasn't a scorcher. Yet, anyway. There was still July and August to deal with; but from what the weathermen were predicting, it seemed the summer would be a mild one.

Enjoying her first full month of marriage, Caroline returned into the studio to put the finishing touches on The Sinners' sophomore album. She was welcomed back with open arms and then held at arms' length so everyone could get a good look at her pregnant tummy that was growing more and more every day. The lead singer and official bassist for the group was nearing her sixth month of pregnancy and she looked so healthy and happy.

But during the last days of the month, as she stood behind a microphone in the recording booth to add some background vocals to a song, Caroline caught her reflection in the window that looked into the studio, and she frowned; while trying to focus on the task at hand.

"Sorry, sorry," she muttered, pulling her face away from the mic and throwing a hand up in apology when she fumbled over a lyric. "I got distracted there for a moment."

Catching her reflection once more, she shook her head and took off her headphones and hung them up.

"What's up, Care?" Rob asked. "Aren't we gonna finish this?"

"I don't think I can right now. I got a lot going on in my mind right now that wasn't going on there a few moments ago. I'm sorry. I think it's hormones or something. I get distracted really easily lately."

Rob just nodded, but it was obvious he wasn't all that pleased with her. "Alright," he sighed, leaning back in his chair after flicking at a few knobs on the console before him. Lifting his eyes up to peer through the window and hold her gaze, he nodded to her that she could leave if she wanted to.

"I'll stick around, though," she offered. "If Dave or Nef do their shit."

Rob pursed his lips in thought; almost as if he was trying his best to bite his tongue. "Care...Dave and Nef aren't coming in today to work on their parts. I wasn't even supposed to be here today. You, either. But you called me and said you wanted to do this today. That it couldn't wait. Now you suddenly can't work. Okay..."

Caroline bit her bottom lip, feeling as if she were a little girl and she'd just disappointed her father.

"I'm sorry," she muttered again.

"Don't be fucking sorry, Care. You're pregnant, I get it. Your emotions are off the wall, you're craving weird concoctions of food and you can't fit into your jeans. I don't care what you're excuses are for being unable to sing today. I really don't. It just irks me only because this recording has been going on for a year now, on and off, and this isn't the only album I'm producing at the moment. Okay? I have your husband's band's album, as well as commuting back and forth between here and LA for meetings and being home with my wife. But you know, it's okay. Go home, get in touch with your literal inner child, eat ice cream with ketchup on it, whatever," he ranted; making Caroline feel smaller and smaller with every word. "Give me a call when you can commit to a session."

And with that, Rob stood up, grabbed his keys from a table behind him and stalked out of the studio without another word.

Caroline's nervous eyes cast themselves in the direction of the techs that had been sitting with Rob while he berated Caroline, more or less. And they shared her surprised expression.

Trying to be casual, the brunette softly walked out of the recording booth and into the studio, smoothing her hands back and forth across the expanse of her protruding stomach while heading for her purse.

"What the fuck was that all about?" one of the techies, Joe-T, questioned.

"Stress, maybe?" the second techie suggested; giving Caroline an empathetic smile.

"Doesn't give him the right to talk like that to Care with her condition," Joe-T replied, then eyeing her. "He shouldn't have talked to you like that."

"My condition? Being pregnant is not a condition and I shouldn't be treated like some flippant, doll made of porcelain. I'm a fucking woman who's carrying a living human being inside of me and I deserve some goddamn respect and to not be treated like I'll break, nor do I deserve to be talked down to because of what my body's going through!" Caroline roared. Scowling, she grabbed her purse up and dug for her car keys. "Fucking rude assholes. All of you!" she added with a shout as she stormed out of the studio.

The entire walk out of the building and to where she had parked her car was a quiet one, but her fury was bubbling under the surface.

What gave Rob the right to suddenly flip out on her? She had done quite a bit of work today. She'd put in two hours at the studio. What. The. Fuck.

Grumbling, she got into her car and just sat there for a few moments before flipping down the visor and looking at her reflection in the mirror. And suddenly she wasn't at all happy with what she saw.

From everything that had unfolded recently -- from heading to the Adirondack region to meet her birth father and dealing with the beginnings of the pregnancy, then to dealing with preparing the wedding only to elope in Reno and honeymoon in Antigua, Caroline hadn't realized that she'd been putting on weight.

Her face was fuller, her breasts were a bit larger and her stomach was obviously bigger. But those changes were do to the pregnancy. She knew it was, but it didn't change the fact that she was unhappy about it.

She'd worked so hard at losing what chunk she had; going from a voluptuous 150 pounds down to a petitely curvaceous 120. And now she was gaining it all back and who knew if she'd ever lose it again.

And if that weren't enough for her emotions to skyrocket, Caroline was just about to pull out into traffic when a car came speeding down the road and clipped the headlight on her side of the car, causing her the scream out in surprise and hit the breaks as her vehicle skidded slightly to the right; turning back into the studio's parking lot while the back end of the car swung to he left to hang out into the street.

Putting the car in park and sitting there with shaking hands, the singer looked up warily as the other driver hopped out of his car and ran over to make sure she was okay.

"Miss, are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't see you pulling out," he began to apologize.

She took in his appearance, cautiously. He was somewhere in his early thirties, a little heavy but not fat, with dull grey eyes and stubble where a shadow of a beard was growing in. His brown hair was messy and in serious need of a good combing.

"What the fuck is your problem? A rule of the road is to be aware of other drivers, you ass!" she screeched. "You coulda killed me and my child."

The man scoured the backseat and saw no child until he looked down at her lap and saw her stomach. "I'm so sorry, ma'am. Do you want to exchange our information?" he asked, daringly placing one hand on the her car door where the window was rolled all the way down; the other hand rested on top of the car as he peered in.

"No, just...just leave me alone. Just get back in your car and get the fuck away from me. Whatever damage you've done I can afford to fix. I don't wanna deal with this type of shit. Just leave me alone."

The man stood back, a little surprised and confused. "You sure you don't want my information? I have insurance," he assured.

"I don't care," she snipped, avoiding eye contact with him. There was just something about this guy that gave her the creeps and she just wanted to be away from him as soon as possible. She had enough on her mind to deal with. "Go."

Hesitating at first, the man gave a nod and hurried back into his car while Caroline turned hers back on; ignoring the looks of pedestrians who witnessed the fender bender. Carefully pulling out into traffic, she found herself following behind the man responsible for hitting her car, but only for two blocks until he turned left on Columbus Avenue, whereas she turned right and continued on the road until it became Montgomery Street. Upon turning right onto Howard Street, she drove in silence, not bothering to turn on her stereo; just letting her thoughts stew around her head until she reached turned onto South Van Ness Avenue and took a right to take the onramp onto the 101; merging into skyway traffic with the greatest of ease.

Within moments, it seemed, she was taking a left to the freeway, which became the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. After paying the toll, she drove across the Bay with the other drivers; only briefly taking a glimpse across the way to see Alcatraz in the middle of the water and then the Golden Gate beyond that.

With a shaky sigh, she turned her attention back to heading into Oakland.



Everything was quiet at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe as Caroline walked through the door with her purse firmly held in one hand while the other held her car keys like a vice. Tightlipped with knitted eyebrows, the brunette woman took note of a few patrons who were obviously fans of Green Day and simply at the diner out of homage-sake. This was their Mecca. Their hopes to meet Mike.

Ignoring them, despite their giggles and whispers about 'Omigod, it's Caroline!' she stalked off into the kitchen where, sure enough, there was Mike, helping out with the fry cook.

Wearing a black T-shirt and a pair of jeans, the bassist had his platinum hair slicked back and looked quite busy. His back was to her as she stood in the doorway of the kitchen like a zombie when a flash of an image quickly flooded her mind's eye.

She saw the man who hit her car and she saw Mike there too. But there were no cars. It was just the three of them standing around, with everyone smiling politely. Even herself.

Blinking only once, Caroline bit her lip as her chin began to quiver. And Mike suddenly felt the extra presence behind him as he turned his head and started to smile at the pleasant surprise of his wife showing up at the restaurant, but it quickly faded when he saw she appeared quite jumbled.

"Care? You okay, baby?" he questioned as he handed a spatula off to the fry cook and wiped his hands on a towel he had sticking out of his front pocket. Placing his strong hands on her shoulders, he looked her in the eye and narrowed his gaze. "Honey, what's wrong?"

"I had a bad day," she whimpered without bothering to hesitate. Pouting and allowing tears to stream down her cheeks, she pressed her face into his chest and welcomed his arms moving around her back to hold her close as she cried.

"C'mere," he mumbled, pulling her from the kitchen and out toward the back of the restaurant to step into the office where he sat her down in the chair behind the desk while crouching down to look up at her as he held her hands in his. "Tell me what happened."

Scrunching her nose up, he pouted some more as she tried to control her tears by pulling one of her hands from Mike's grasp and wiping at the right side of her face.

"Rob's mad at me," she began.

"Why would he be mad at you?"

"Because I asked him to come to the studio today because I wanted to lay down some background vocals for a song and after about two hours I just felt so distracted and didn't want to continue anymore, and he...he flipped out on me or whatever. Told me to give him a call when I could commit to actual work or something like that. I don't remember his exact words because, like I said, I was just feeling so distracted. And then he stormed out and then I stormed out and I hate how I look now 'cause I'm getting fat, even though I know it's because I'm pregnant, but I was putting on weight before I even really became pregnant because I wasn't paying attention to what I was eating or how much I was exercising. The belly dancing before the wedding didn't help. And I worked so hard on losing the weight and now when I have the baby I'll never be able to lose it, and then I---"

"Caroline, wait. Stop," Mike spoke, holding up a hand to silence her. "First thing's first: Rob has no right to flip out on you. I'll talk to him to see what's up there, so don't upset yourself with that, okay?" Off Caroline's nod, he continued. "As for gaining weight and maybe thinking you're fat...babe, I love you no matter what. And, so, yeah...perhaps you had some extra meat on the bones when I met you and then you lost it, but remember: I fell in love with you before, and I'm still just as much in love with you. I don't care how much you weigh. You could be three hundred pounds and suffocate me when you're on top during sex, and I'd love you."

Caroline laughed a little. "Liar," she mumbled, wiping the tears from the left side of her face.

"Never," he replied. Reaching up to cup the side of her face, and smiling at how she leaned into his touch, he gripped her right knee with a loving squeeze. "Was that all that happened?"

"No," she shook her head. "When I was leaving the studio, some guy hit my car."

"What?" Mike sputtered, worry reaching his face like a flash flood. "Are...are you okay? You're not hurt..."

"No, I'm fine. It was just a fender bender and I told the guy to just drive away. I didn't care about exchanging information. We can afford to fix a headlight and some scrapes. And I don't have whiplash and...and...Mike..."

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to get away from him. I didn't feel comfortable near him. I got a bad vibe and he creeped me out. I just wanted to get him away from me as soon as I could and come here to you." Then she added, "Only you make me feel safe."

Despite his worry and concern for his wife, Mike smiled for the love she felt for him and how it seeped from her every pore; making his heart grow ten times every moment he was in her presence.

Pulling her up to her feet, Mike wrapped his arms around her body once more and inhaled the scent of her hair and the skin of her neck as he laid a series of kisses on the salty, smooth texture. He heard her coo and it made him smile more.

"I love you so fucking, goddamn much," he just about growled; his love for her almost overpowering him for the moment. "Shit, if we weren't married already, I'd propose again."

Caroline giggled a little as she placed a kiss on his collarbone. "And I'd say yes again."

Holding each other like that for what felt like a perfect forever; it seemed as if nothing could harm them.

That they were untouchable as long as they had each other.