Do You Think You're Up For This?

“A thousand times a day I tell you I love the way you sing. Even though it makes me cry, it’s my favorite time to be alive. And all I know is I feel lost without you. “I miss you” is not enough.” – The Early November

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I wake up, rolling over to see Rae still sleeping, facing the opposite direction, buried deep in the blankets and looking very comfortable.

I scoot over and kiss her bare shoulder, running my hand along the soft skin of her back. She stirs but doesn’t wake up. I glance at the clock, surprised to see it’s past ten in the morning.

I get dressed after a short shower and I’m about to try and wake her when she opens her eyes, yawning widely and stretching. I smile at the way her nose scrunches up when she yawns.

“Good morning,” I say, kissing her cheek after she sits up in bed to stretch. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m alright. Not sick today,” she shrugs, getting out from under the covers and walking into the bathroom. I brush my teeth meanwhile she steps into the shower.

The sound of her singing fills the bathroom, sounding sweetly melodic.

I go back to the bedroom, leaving the door open so I can hear her meanwhile I turn on my laptop to answer some email.

Her singing abruptly stops along with the shower and she exits the bathroom in a towel a few minutes later.

I can’t help but watch her out of the corner of my eyes as she starts to dress. She smirks at me playfully, openly taunting me as she drops the towel and slowly slides on her underwear. My gaze wanders to her stomach, and believe it or not, I’m thinking more about the baby than last night’s activities. She laughs, noticing and abandoning getting dressed to climb onto the bed next to me as I close my laptop and put it on the bedside table. I pull her to me by her hips, making her laugh by tickling her neck with light kisses.

Before we get a chance to get any further than kissing, there’s a frantic knocking at the door.

“Open up, Chizzys!” Rae raises her eyebrows at me in amused confusion, as if mentally asking me if I invited Sisky over.

I shake my head at her, shrugging and then rolling off of her to get up to answer the door, trying not to laugh. She continues putting her clothes on and I leave to let Sisky in.

“Why didn’t you tell us there’s gonna be a Baby Chiz?!” Butcher demands loudly, him and Sisky barging in as soon as I open the door.

“We only started telling everyone yesterday, Andy,” Rae laughs, appearing in the living room, now fully dressed and running her fingers through her wet hair.

“We’re going to be uncles!” Sisky yells excitedly, running to embrace her.

“Yeah!” the Butcher shouts back. “Uncle Butcher!”

“If everyone’s going to say that, this kid’s gonna have a lot of uncles for me being an only child,” Rae points out. “Even with all your brothers and sisters,” she adds, pulling away from Sisky to lean on my shoulder.

“Oh! If it’s a girl, you should name her Sheila,” Sisky suggests brightly. “Get it? Because in Australia-”

“We get it, Sisky,” Rachel interrupts, rolling her eyes and making me laugh. “Is that what you guys came here for?”

“Well…yeah,” the Butcher replies, scratching his head as if realizing they could have just called instead of making a field trip out of it.

“Oh and if Baby Chizzy needs babysitters, you know who to call,” Sisky adds.

“Sisky, you two are definitely not allowed to babysit together,” she rolls her eyes again. “But seriously guys, we’re kind of busy today.”

“No problem, we just came to say congrats,” Butcher replies, both of them giving her a hug before heading back out the door. I turn to her once it closes.

“What do you mean, we’re busy?” I ask in confusion. “We don’t have any plans today, do-”

I’m interrupted by her grabbing the front of my shirt, pulling my face to hers in order to have her lips meet mine. I smile into her lips, pulling her closer by the hips.

“It’s kind of hard to get you out of your clothes when we have guests over,” she explains cheekily, pulling away to slowly unbutton my shirt. She quickly moves to do the same to my jeans.

“Slow down, Rae,” I chuckle, catching her wrists gently and kissing her palms. She smiles, looking at me questioningly. I grin back. “We have all day.”