Amor Vicissitudine

"Tony!" I screamed for him to come into the bedroom with one hand on my enlarged stomach and the other waving excitedly at the open door.

The months had passed since finding out I was pregnant and since that day Tony and I had moved in with Jaime and his girlfriend- whom I didn't know about until we did move in- at his house in Lakeside. We were currently in the process of converting my dance room into a nursery for the baby and Sarah, Jaime's girlfriend, was helping me look for a yoga studio that had a class for pregnant women.

"What?! What is i- OW!"Tony tried sliding to the door and being all suave but he slipped further than he meant to and slammed into the wall at the end of the hallway,

"Baby? You okay?" I sat up a little bit more and craned my neck, trying to look out of the room at him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, are you okay?" He came into the room, rubbing the back of his head. I nodded and reached out to his hand,

"C'mere, c'mere!" He walked over to me and I took his hand, putting it on my stomach and waited for what would amaze him.

And then it happened. I felt the baby's foot kick out, hitting near Tony's hand.

"She's kicking!" It was the first time I'd ever felt anything like it. It was like a small little jab from the inside of me that tickled to know end and happened when I least expected it to and in the most beautiful moments.

A wide smile spread across Tony's face as he moved his hands over my baby bump. The kicks and punches followed him, making a wake of tickles on my stomach,

"Tony look, she's following you." I giggled quietly and then I heard the front door slam,

"WE'RE HOME AND WE HAVE GROCERIES!" Sarah shouted from where she was coming through the door and I could smell that they had more than just groceries,

"I smell fried chicken!" I couldn't help but shout excitedly and try to get up as my stomach started to rumble loudly. Tony laughed and shook his head, pulling me off of our bed and walking with me down to the living room.

I moved as quickly as I could down the stairs, Tony trailing behind me with his hand on my shoulder. I'd been craving fried chicken all day and since I was pregnant I thought I might as well splurge on some fatty foods.

When we got to the kitchen Jaime and Sarah had already brought everything in and were starting to put the groceries into the appropriate places. The key word is 'were'.

They were now leaned up against one of the counters, making out furiously. What was so sexy about bringing in groceries?

"Get off of each other! Lady with a baby coming through!" Sarah squeaked in embarrassment and Jaime scratched the back of his head, "Do I really smell fried chicken?" I spoke dreamily as I sniffed the air, clasping my hands together and closing my eyes like I was waiting for a kiss.

When I opened my eyes Jaime brought a big bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken to me and the smell was enough to make me ravenous,

"Just what you wanted, a shit ton of chicken and some new hot sauce." Jaime put the fresh bottle of hot sauce down on the counter, making it click softly against the granite top,

"Mmm gracias mijo." I walked over to him and kissed his cheek before taking my bucket of chicken and hot sauce and plopping down on the couch in the living room in front of the television, "Isn't this week Shark Week?" I spoke through a mouthful of chicken as I turned it on,

"Yeah." Jaime answered and I could hear him rustling around with some more of the groceries, "And Tony, your vegetarian sushi." As good as sushi sounded I was set with chicken,

"Thanks." Tony chuckled and came into the living room, sitting next to me on the couch and taking the remote from me,

"Hey! Moom Tony took the remote from meee!" I fake whined, much like a child to Sarah and glared at Tony.

No response came. They better not be making out in the kitchen. Then I heard the sound of lips and tongues fighting and Sarah accidentally let out a moan,

"EW YOU FAGS GET A ROOM!" I joked at them and took the remote back from Tony, turning the TV's volume up. I did not need anything to get my hormones going.

"We will!" I heard Sarah joke at me, a lusty giggle in her voice as Jaime almost pulled her up stairs to their bedroom.

And with the slam of a door and the creak of a bed they were off doing their own little thing.

I just wished they were a little bit quieter about it.

I let out a sigh and continued to eat my hot sauce soaked chicken and watch Shark Week with Tony. It was some documentary on the Megamouth shark. Not really interesting but it was keeping me from hearing Jaime's bed right above us.

I could feel Tony's eyes watching me as I ate my food. I let my eyes look at him and then turned my head toward him, still holding one of the drumsticks in my hand,

"Que?" Tony scooted closer to me and pushed a stray strand of hair from my face,

"You miss being able to do that, don't you?" I knew what he was talking about.

And yes. I missed being able to have sex with him every night without having to worry about a baby. I missed feeling his lips on mine and I missed being able to touch his skin like I used to.

I sighed again and nodded, looking down in my lap. I let my eyes look back at the TV and my ears became more acute to the sound of what was happening above us. Sarah was screaming and I didn't even want my mind to process what Jaime was doing.

I leaned back against the brown sofa and put my chicken on the ground, suddenly lacking an appetite. I caught Tony doing the same out of the corner of my eye so I let them look back at him. He was looking at me, biting his lower lip softly. He placed his hand on my lap and squeezed my thigh.

Oh no, we are not gonna try this. Are we?

I took a deep breath and looked at him. He'd gotten so close that his nose was touching mine and all I could see were his big, brown, eyes. They were gorgeous.

I couldn't help what happened next.

Tony's lips were against mine, kissing me hungrily and I was kissing him back. Fuck we're really gonna try this. This is really happening, isn't it? His hand slipped behind my neck, tugging at my hair slightly. I leaned closer to him, putting my arm down to hold up my weight and using the other to mess with his hair.

He let his hand slip behind my back and up my shirt, pushing it up my body.

"Mm" I couldn't help as I let a little moan slip between our kiss, "T-Tony, wait." I pushed him back, staring at him intently, "You really wanna try this?" He looked at me, studying me with those orbs of his.

He must have come to his senses and shook his head,

"N-no. Sorry. I'm being stupid." He scratched behind his head, sheepishly and kissed my cheek softly, "Hey why don't we go down to the beach?"

Tony never wanted to go to the beach, ever. I guess he was trying to change his vampiric ways,

"Sure, where do you wanna go?" I let my body roll so I was looking at Tony. He shrugged and thought for a second before putting his hand on mine, rubbing it softly,

"Let's go to Ocean Beach." I nodded and took my hand out from under his, trying to stand up on my own.

This baby was not going to allow that though.

"Oh no! Tony, I'm stuck!" He laughed and came in front of me, grabbing my hands and pulling me to my feet.

I still hadn't gotten used to having a large obstruction on my stomach so moving around was getting harder and harder but it didn't stop me from doing what I loved to do.

I was teaching some of the younger girls in the troupe who were still in the learning phase. And I was also part of the crew for the ballet show that would have been my big break.

The show was Giselle. A Russian ballet about a girl who dies and her love that she left behind who becomes depressed and goes and gets attacked by the Russian equivalent of banshees and she end up saving him and rests in peace.

Courtney got this one. She needed a big break bigger than I did anyway. This was her first leading role in a show and she was gonna kill it!

All during the time I was thinking Tony and I had gotten our bathing suits on.

He was wearing a pair of plane black swim trunks and I was wearing a white bikini. Most pregnant women stayed away from bikinis, claiming they looked fat, but I chose to embrace my baby bump. Because I knew I was pregnant and I didn't think anybody would bother me anyways. I mean, I'm obviously pregnant.

At least. I hoped nobody would bother me.

There were still a few people who didn't know about the baby. My father for one. He'd probably just clap Tony on the back and congratulate him.

The slob he is.

He's such a gentleman that when he gets a woman pregnant he sticks around for a few years while the kid grows and then he leaves, unexpectedly, leaving the family he left behind in shambles.

It wasn't fair.

I didn't want this baby to grow up in the world that I did.

As Tony and I left the house I continued to think to myself, completely blocking everything else out. We both got into his little Impala and were on the road faster than I could have thought.

What year is coming up? It's a leap year isn't it?

On leap day I could ask him. Yeah. And by then this baby will be born. We'd be the perfect family.

Just then my phone buzzed, pulling me from my trance,

"Oh, sorry, I'll get that." I apologized to Tony not realizing who I was in the car with,

"Don't apologize you goober." I heard Tony respond as my phone came out of my purse. I saw the caller ID and almost squealed,

"Oh! It's Austin! Hush!" I put the phone to my ear and waited for the familiar, slightly hoarse voice to come across the line,

"MA BELLE!" Austin Carlile, greeted me with such enthusiasm you might have though him to be my father,

"Mon Cheri!" I joked back at him in French and he laughed,

"Tell him I say hey." Tony glanced at me quickly before looking back at the road. I nodded to him and continued my sentence to Austin,

"Tony says heeeeyyy~" I joked, making it sound like Tony was gay,

"Mon petite, Italia! You didn't tell me you were having a baby!" I laughed at him. He loved speaking in French to me,

"Yeah! I'm having a wee little baby!" I giggled excitedly into the phone and put my free hand on my baby bump. It felt like it was growing by the second,

"Oh my goodness! That's so exciting! How far along are you?" He sounded so excited to hear one of his best friends was having a baby,

"Six months! Can you believe it?!" I was nearly shouting over how loud Tony had the music turned up,

"BABY YOU LIGHT UP MY WORLD LIKE NOBODY ELSE! THE WAY THAT YOU FLIP YOUR HAIR GETS ME OVERWHELMED!" Tony shouted along with the music, singing terribly, just so Austin would hear him,

"AND WHEN YOU SMILE AT THE GROUND IT AIN'T HARD TO TELL YOU DON'T KNOW OH-OH! YOU DON'T KNOW YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL!" Austin screamed back at him, making my ear ring and following it up with a soft laugh,

"Tony, turn the music down, I need to talk to Austin."

"Why do you need to talk to Austin?" Austin spoke in the third person and I could almost see the puzzled look on his face as he put his free hand on his cheek,

"Because I need to go DRESS shopping." I emphasized the dress to make sure Austin would get the hint,

"Dress shopping? Can't you take one of your girlfriends along?" Oh my god, he wasn't getting it,

"No Austin. DRESS shopping. As in a SPECIAL dress." Maybe now he would get it.

"OOH! DRESS shopping! I thought you meant like prom dress or quince dress shopping! It's the big 'W' I gotcha!" And now he was getting it! "So when did he pop the question?"

I laughed and shook my head, lowering the volume of my voice,

"He hasn't yet. But I'm going to." Austin gasped and Tony looked at me, puzzled,

"Who hasn't what?" Oops. He didn't need to hear my plan!

"I was saying you haven't heard the sex of the baby!" I knew it was a girl but Tony didn't. The Last appointment I had he was away recording with the guys and I was left to do it with Sarah, "And guess what!"

Tony glanced at me excitedly and made that face where you kinda make spider webs on your neck and your eyebrows are raised so you look like a crazy old lady. You know the one,

"What!" He looked at me and then at the road and back at me,

"It's a GIRL!"

"OH MY GOD SICILY! CONGRATULATIONS!" I'd almost forgotten about Austin until he did that.

Tony almost stopped driving as he looked at me, his jaw on the floor,

"A girl? How long have you been sitting on this?" Tony kept stealing glances at me as he drove, trying to keep us from getting in a wreck,

"About three weeks!"

"You sly little fox you! Let's name her Victoria!" No.

"We are not naming our daughter Victoria!" I argued against Tony, forgetting about Austin, again,

"You guys should name her Alex!" Alex? Alexandra, maybe.

Actually. Alexandra Taylor Perry. It had a nice ring to it.

"Alexandra. That's a good one Austin! I knew there was a reason I kept you around!"

And by 'kept you around' I meant 'didn't dump you on the side of the road like my other exes'. Yes Austin and I dated. But that was four years ago. He was just a summer fling that I wanted to try. He was my first. As in after him my cherry was popped.

And boy was he fucking good. But not as good as Tony. Tony is fucking amazing.

I sighed into the phone,

"Actually Austin, I gotta go, so maybe tomorrow you can come down and we can start to talk the talk?"

"Oui, Mon petite Italie! Byyyeee!" He bid me farewell in that adorable manner that he did everything right as Tony and I pulled into a primal parking spot. Even though we could have grabbed the handicapped spot. Wooh for pregnancy! You get all the short cuts!

"So you really want to name our daughter Alexandra?" Tony seemed surprised as he put the car into park.

I listened to the clicking of the gears and then as he set the emergency brake in,

"I like Alexandra, don't you? I was originally thinking Taylor, but I think Alexandra Taylor Perry-Preciado-Gomez has a better ring to it." I laughed and wait for him to come around to my side. Once there he helped me stand and shut the door behind me,

"You sure you wanna tack all those names on there? Why don't we just keep two last names?" He chuckled and slipped his hand behind my back, tossing his towel over his shoulder with the other hand.

I did the same with mine and mimicked his arm, slinking mine under his,

"Mmmaybe we can just keep Perry and Preciado." We walked onto the sand and I sighed at the feeling of the sand between my toes. This was what I loved.

The feeling of the sand sent a shiver up my spin and took some of the pressure off of my back,

"You sure? You don't want to keep your mom's name?" He was so cute when he was unsure of my decisions,

"Nah. She was an ungrateful bitch anyway." I chuckled and stretched my neck, kissing Tony softly, "And besides, I like the way your last name slips together with Jaime's last name."

We walked for the next maybe two minutes before we found an open spot on the busy beach. It was feet from the high water mark and there was nobody around us to bother us.

No kids who could run by and kick sand up. No creepy old guys who were peeping. And no homeless crack heads who were out begging for something to eat.

Everything was perfect.