Once Upon a Time

“Aw, baby,” I groan, picking cut up bits of Chef Boyardee spaghetti noodles from my shirt. “Grace, keep the food in your mouth,” I complain.

She grins and opens her mouth for me to spoon more in. She actually chews this time with her few little baby teeth and then opens her mouth again. This isn’t so bad, I think to myself. And it’s not really. I love Grace and I find that I don’t actually mind so much when she spits her food out on me – not that I’m pleased, but I’m not pissed. Maybe having this baby won’t be so bad – not including it keeping me up every single night and crying 24/7 and having to change it constantly and wanting to rip my hair out and going gray by the time I turn thirty. Oh, Lord.

“Momma,” Grace says, trying to get my attention. “Juice.” She reaches her little hands towards the Sippy cup on the table. I put it on her highchair and she takes it and brings it to her lips. She puts it down with too much force and it falls to the floor. “Ah,” she sighs.

I smile and reach down to pick it up. Thank God for no-spill cups. I kiss her forehead and then she leans forward and plants a slobbery kiss to my cheek. I try not to grimace as I smile back at her.

“Love wooh Momma,” she says.

“I love you, too, baby,” I tell her.

“Are you done drooling over the baby?” my best friend, Erin, asks, walking back into the living room/dining room. Noah left us here, at his place, in hopes that we’d be able to take care of Grace while he was at work, giving his two weeks’ notice. When he gets back he’s bringing our dinner and a movie for Family night. His mom is coming, too, and when she gets here, which should be in a few minutes Erin is leaving. She didn’t have to be here in the first place, and I told Noah that a million times but he kept talking about stress and that baby and eventually I just gave in.

“I want to talk about more pressing issues than teething rings and rash cream,” she continues.

“Like what?” I ask as I continue feeding Grace.

“Well, I would like to talk about Mark and the fact that you’re pregnant -- In that order.”

“Alright, talk.”

“Well, Mark asked me out.”

“What?” I scoff. “And we’re talking about this why?”

Mark has been in love with Erin since fifth grade and Erin has never shown any interest. She even wished he would go away. We had bets on when he would grow and pair and just ask her out already.

“Because I’ve kind of been thinking about saying yes.”

“What?!” I gasp.

“What? You don’t think he’s good enough?” she demands.

“No, actually I think he’d be great for you. I just didn’t think you would even consider it. He’s not your type.”

“I know,” she says quietly. “That’s why I think it would be nice to give it a try. Every guy I’ve ever gone out with has turned out to be a pig or a big waste of my time. I don’t think that Mark would hurt me. I want what you and Noah have.”

I look up at her, surprised.

“Not the baby of course, I just want someone to care about me and look at me the way Noah does you. He loves you, and you love him. I just want that, and none of the guys I’ve been with could have ever given me that.”

“But do you like Mark?” I ask.

“I don’t know. I’ve never really given it much thought. He’s cute enough, kind of dorky, but he’s always there for me, and he wants to make me happy, and I don’t know. I just want to give it a try. I want to be with a guy who wants more than a vagina to play with.”

“So go for it. I think it’s great.”

“I was actually…” she starts shyly, which is strange for her. “I was hoping you could talk Noah into doubling with me and Mark… you know take some of the pressure off. Just a movie or dinner or something.”

I put the spoon to Grace’s mouth but she pushes it away. “Done,” she says.

“Okay,” I say, wiping her mouth. I look back over at Erin. “Definitely – I’ll talk to Noah and see if he’d be cool with it and text you, okay?”

“Great,” she grins. “Now, about the whole ‘you’re pregnant’ thing…”

I shake my head. “What about it?” I sigh.

“Well, are you guys going to live together or what?” she demands.

I stare at her, confused. “Why would I do that?”

“Haven’t y’all talked about it?” she asks me, surprised. “I mean, you’re having his baby and you’re dating. You’re all in love and whatnot. What are y’all going to do? Switch off every other night? One day Noah gets it, the next you get it, and so forth?”

I don’t know… “I haven’t really thought about it,” I admit. “We haven’t talked about it before. Noah said I can stay whenever I want to, but he hasn’t asked me to live here.”

“Well don’t you think he will?” she presses.

“I don’t know. He hasn’t even hinted at anything like that. I’m not sure if we’re even in that stage of our relationship.”

“Well you’re at the sex stage. You’re at the sleeping over stage. You’re at the ‘drawer in his apartment’ stage. Oh, and you’re at the ‘gonna have a baby with him’ stage. Y’all have reached the freakin’ stage. Married people have babies.”

“I don’t think he’s going to ask.”

“Well you should bring it up. Just ask him what y’all are going to do about the baby’s living situation.”

“I don’t know…”

“It’s not like you’re asking to move in with him, you’re simply inquiring about your baby’s well-being.”

I nod. I can see where she’s coming from. “I’ll think about it, kay?”

“Okay.” She grins.

“Hey, baby,” I say to Grace now. “Is it bath time?”

She frowns at me. “No.”

“How about yes?”

“No.” She crosses her little arms across her chest and glares at me.

“Please, for mommy?”

She shakes her head. “No!”

“If you don’t take a bath then you can’t have the ice cream daddy’s bringing you,” I tell her, crossing my arms over her chest just like her and watching her.

She sighs and holds up her arms.

I pull her to me and kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”

“See, you’re already a great mother.”

I look at her uncertainly.

Her eyes brighten then and she laughs. “Oh my God, you’re a milf!”



Noah’s mom just left and me and Noah are cuddled up on one end of the couch while Grace is asleep on the other end.

He kisses me, pressing his lips firmly against mine, his tongue pushing its way into my mouth. We make out for a few moments before I pull away, panting. He presses another light kiss against my lips and then rests his forehead against my cheek.

“I love you, Teag,” he tells me.

“I love you, Noah,” I say right back. I turn to him then. I’ve been thinking about what Erin said all night. It’s actually been driving me crazy. “There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

He nods and lifts his head to watch me. “What’s up?”

“I wanted to ask you about after we have the baby… about where it’s going to, you know, live. How are we going to work that out?”

He rubs his chin and shakes his head. “I don’t know, Teag. I’ve actually been wondering about the same thing. You know you can stay with me whenever you want, and then any time you want the baby with me, or want the baby with you, it’s fine with me.”

Okay, so obviously we aren’t at the stage yet.

“Or…” he starts now and my heart jumps.

“Or what?” I ask softly.

“Or… I was thinking maybe we’d like to get a new place. Together.”

I just openly gawk at him. “A new place? Together?” Maybe he had been thinking about this. Why hadn’t I?

“Or not,” He says quickly. “It was just a thought.”

“No,” I say, a small smile forming on my lips. “It’s a good idea, I just… what’s wrong with here? You want to get a new place? With me?”

He nods, grinning at me. “Yeah, I just… I’ve been thinking about it for a while. This place is so small, and we’re going to have two babies, and we’re a family. Why should we swap our own baby back and forth to eachother? Especially if we’re together?”

I put my arms around his neck.

“Is this something you’d be into?” he asks. I grin into his shoulder.

“Yeah, I think it’s something I’d be into.”

“So we’re doing this then?” he asks me, pulling away so he can see my face. “We’re buying a place together?”

I can’t force my mouth to open and tell him everything I’m feeling right now so I just nod, and pull him into another kiss.