I Can't Believe This

I paused, looking at my reflection in the mirror. No change yet. I turned so I could see the profile of my body. Nope, nothing, Still a flat stomach. I didn’t look any different than I had a month ago. But that didn’t matter, I knew what was happening inside of my body. An actual baby was beginning to form. I was going to bear a child in about eight and half months. I still couldn’t get over it. I was so happy that whenever I looked in a mirror I usually had a stupid grin plastered on my face. And I wasn’t the only one who was glowing with anticipation. Almost every time Billie Joe touched me, he’d touch my stomach too. And at night he would lay his head down on it and talk to the baby. It was so sweet. I was glad that he was so excited about the pregnancy. If he hadn’t wanted another child, I don’t know what I would have done.

“I think there’s something different about you. You’re glowing.”

Billie Joe’s comment shattered my concentration and made me turn to face him, a smile playing on my lips. “I keep trying to see if I look different, and I don’t. Everyone says I do, but I really don’t.”

He came to stand behind me and turned both of our bodies so that both of us were now staring at our reflections. His arms wound around my stomach and he rested his head on my shoulder. “Nope, you do. You always have a goofy grin on your face and you seem to have more color in your cheeks.” He lifted his head and kissed my temple. “So, any thoughts about names?”

I just looked at him. “Billie, you can’t be serious. I’m only about three weeks pregnant. I’m not thinking about names.”

He raised and eyebrow and stared at me. “Oh, come on. You’re trying to tell me that you’ve never thought about names for your future kids? Every girl does that.”

I bit my lip.

“I knew it!” His eyes lit up. “Tell me.”

“Oh fine. For a girl I really like the names Lorelai and Melissa. And I haven’t really ever thought about names for a boy. Although Thomas is nice.”

Billie Joe just stared at me. “Lorelai?”

“Yes, Lorelai. I don’t know why but I just really like that name. I knew a Lorelai in high school. Nice girl.”

“I like Thomas and Melissa, but I don’t know about Lorelai.” Billie Joe’s face scrunched up like he was thinking too hard about something and he repeated the name to himself a few times. “Interesting,” he concluded.

I rolled my eyes. “Well, what about you? What names do you like?”

He just laughed and shook his head. “Seriously? I have two kids. My naming skills are all used up,” he joked.

“Maybe for boys, but what about a name for a girl?” I pressed.

He thought about it for a minute then finally said, “Allegra.”

I scoffed. “Allegra? Really? And you think my choice is weird. At least Lorelai isn’t also the name of an allergy medicine,” I teased.

Billie Joe gasped and pulled away from me. “Well fine,” he said, trying to sound offended.

I laughed and hugged him. “We’ll figure it out. We still have a lot of time until we have to worry about names.”

We stood in silence for a moment until Billie Joe spoke again. “Hey! I have an idea. We’ll just replace names with numbers. Like, this baby can be known as number three when I talk to it and you can call it number one.”

I pulled back just enough so that I could see his face. “Uh, yeah. No.”

He shrugged. “Just a thought.”

I laughed. “You are so weird.”

“You like it.”

“Maybe a little.”

I pulled away from him and grabbed a pair of jeans I had laid on the bed. “Well I am going to get a shower.”

“Want some help?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Hmm,” I mused. “As much as I would absolutely love to have you join me, I think I’m going to shower by myself. You distract me too much.”

He considered what I’d said and grinned, a wicked gleam forming in his eyes. “I’ll accept that decision, just because you said I distract you.”

I laid my hands on his chest and leaned into him. I placed a kiss on his neck and whispered, “You have no idea.”

Billie Joe groaned, holding me closer. “You suck.”

I disentangled myself from him and smiled. “Occasionally,” I said walking to the bathroom. Winking, I slowly closed the door .

“Tease!” Billie called.

“Yep.” I called back, stepping into the water,

***

“That was refreshing,” I said, joining Billie in the living room. He was sitting on the couch watching TV.

“I’ll just bet it was,” he retorted. “You tease.”

“Aw, don’t be put out Billie Joe. What can I do to make you feel better?” I sat down on his lap and wound my arms around his neck. Leaning forward I trailed kisses up and down his throat.

“Well,” he started, his voice sounding a bit strained. “You’re already making me feel better.”

One of his hands found its way to the small of my back, while the other cradled the back of my head gently. He dipped his head down and captured my lips in a kiss. “Much better,” he whispered against my mouth.

“Mmm.” I couldn’t form a coherent thought anymore. I was too wrapped up in the feeling of my body against his. I’d noticed in the past week that I was almost always in the mood for things like this. Maybe it was the pregnancy making me more hormonal. Or maybe I just really missed being with Billie Joe in this way. This was the first time that I’d been able to do anything sexual without hurting him since he got out of the hospital. I missed the intimacy.

The hand that had been cradling my head moved down to the back of my thigh and he pulled me closer, and I was basically straddling him now. His lips moved to my neck, then to my collarbone, sucking slightly here and there. It felt amazing.

I’m not afraid
To take a stand
Everybody, come take my hand

I groaned, and reluctantly pulled back from Billie Joe. “Damn it.” I pulled the phone out of my pocket and checked the ID.

“Hey, Emilie,” I said. “What’s up?”

Billie Joe leaned forward and kissed my neck. “Tell her you’ll call her back,” he whispered.

I rolled my eyes. It was tempting, but I couldn’t blow her off. No matter how badly I wanted to.

“Nothing, just wanted to know if we could get together. I’m anxious to see you. That, and I have some news for you.” She sounded excited. Whatever it was it had to be a good thing.

“Um,” I said dumbly. Billie Joe was still kissing my neck. I swatted him away, trying to focus. “Sure, yeah. That’d be, uh, great,” I finished lamely. “When?”

"I was thinking in an hour, if you can get away. And since Billie Joe is there with you, presumably doing something rather distracting, tell him he can come too.” I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Why would think that he’s here?”

“Because I know when you’re trying to focus, and based on the rate of your breathing, I’m just guessing that he is doing something to distract you. And whatever that something may be, he’s doing it well.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, Hell, she was right. “Well I’ll ask him if he wants to come. At your place?”

“Alright cool. Yep. I’ll see you then. And now you can get back to what you were doing. Or rather, who you were doing.”

“Shut up.” I laughed.

“Have fun. And take a shower before you come over.” With that she hung up.

I shook my head and set my phone down, a slight blush covering my cheeks. Damn her. “That was Emilie.”

“I gathered,” Billie said, his hands sliding down my back.”

I pushed away from him. “I can’t focus when you do that.”

He grinned and kissed my nose. “I know. I just wanted to test how much I could distract you, since you mentioned it earlier. And, you know, payback, too.”

I hit his arm and lifted myself off his lap, settling next to him. “Well you succeed, would you like a round of applause?” I asked, sarcastically.

“Couldn’t hurt.” His expression was incredibly smug.

“Well too bad. Anyway, that was Emilie, wanting to know if we could go to her place in an hour. Apparently she has some news and she just wants to hangout with us since she hasn’t seen us in a couple of days.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Okay, great.” I nodded.

“So…”

I eyed him suspiciously. “So…what?”

“Well, we do have a whole hour before she wants us over there…” He turned to face me, his world famous grin plastered on his face.

“Is that all you think about?” I asked, once again settling myself onto lap.

“No, but it is definitely what I think about most.” He grinned and maneuvered us so that he was lying on top of me.

***

“We’re late,” I stated, getting out of the car.

Billie Joe nodded. “But it was for a good cause.” He winked, a stupid grin still on his face.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “True enough. It was definitely a good way to spend time. And fun.”

“Fun is an understatement. It was amazing. All three times,” he whispered, walking past me.

I blushed furiously, and followed him. Hopefully by the time we got up to the apartment the blood will have dispersed.

We reached Emilie’s apartment and knocked on the door. She lived just a few miles away from us, and unlike my old apartment I’d shared with Rhianna, this one actually had an elevator. Good thing too, since she lived on the eighth floor.

The door swung open revealing Emilie. Her hair was down, which was rare, and it was now a darker shade of brown. It looked nice. “Hey.” I stepped forward and gave her a hug.

Billie Joe came in behind me and closed the door. “Hi Emilie.”

“Hi, took you guys long enough to get here.” She raised her eyebrows, a speculative expression on her face. “Have some fun before you came here?”

“Oh shut up,” I shook my head and laughed. “That’s not your concern.”

“So, yes. I just pray to god you took a shower first,” she teased. “That couch is new,” she said, pointing behind her.

I had just opened my mouth to make a sarcastic remark, but Billie opened his mouth first. “Don’t worry, we are squeaky clean.”

“Oh my god, Billie.” I elbowed him.

Emilie laughed and sat down on the couch. “Well good. You may sit then.”

I sighed and plopped down next to her. “Jeez.”

“Alright, I’m done making you uncomfortable now,” she promised. “It’s just so much fun.”

“What’s so much fun?”

I snapped my head to look behind me.

“Teasing Lisa about her sex life. It’s fun to watch her blush,” Emilie answered, like it was no big deal to have Ethan walk out of her bedroom.

What the hell?

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my voice harsher than I’d expected.

“I invited him. I wanted all of us to get together. It’s been so long.”

Billie Joe snorted, but I was the only one who heard, or if Emilie and Ethan heard they’d decided to ignore it.

“Okay?” I had no idea what was going on, but I had a knot in my stomach now.

“Ethan,” Billie greeted, nodding in his direction.

“Hey.” Ethan nodded back.

Considering everything that was more civil than I’d been expecting. Good for them. “Uh, Emilie, can I talk to you? Alone?” I got up and grabbed her arm.

Once we were in her room my eyes landed on the rumpled bed and the pair of jeans laying the floor. Jeans that were definitely not Emilie’s. I whirled around to face her. “What’s going on?”

“Well that was the other reason I wanted you to come today. I have something important to tell you. And Billie Joe for that matter.”

I waited for her to go on. “Emilie?” I prompted, when she didn’t continue.

“Ethan and I…Um, are sort of…well…”

“Just spit it out.” Although, I already knew. They were together. And for some reason, that bothered me.

“We’re together,” she blurted finally.

My face felt frozen. I was smiling, but it felt so posed. “That’s great.”

“It is?” She eyed me suspiciously.

“Yeah!” I said, a little too enthusiastically. “Really. I’m happy for you. And him.”

“Oh thank god.” She rushed forward and hugged me tightly. “I thought you were going to be pissed, but I am so glad you’re not. Now that I think about it, I don’t even know why I thought you were going to be angry, I mean you’ve told me on several occasions that Ethan does nothing but annoy you. And now you won’t have to worry about that anymore!” She stepped back, a huge smile on her face. “Come on, let’s get back.” She grabbed my hand pulled me out of the room.

I was still shocked at the news, but I smiled anyway. Billie Joe just nodded when Emilie told him. He was obviously thinking something wasn’t right about this too. I didn’t know why I was feeling like I was. But, honestly, I was a little pissed off. I didn’t have any right to be, but I couldn’t help it. I was so confused now. I knew it wasn’t because of Ethan himself. I mean, I had Billie Joe, I definitely was not in the market to find someone else. But even that thought didn’t make me feel any better.

“Let’s eat!” Emilie announced, heading to the kitchen.

I snapped out of my trance and smiled that frozen smile again and then followed everyone else into the kitchen.