“Definitely. Just let me put together a plate of food first.”
It ends up being more of a mountain than a plate, and it’s cute watching her balance the weight of it while simultaneously eating as we all head back to the lounge.
Our family really thought outside of the box on this one. Eli and Em’s gift is fantastic, a hand made story book that Eli drew all himself. Em did the words, a story about a golden retriever trying to befriend a black cat, and how with time and patience, the previously uninterested cat ends up snuggled up next tohim, purring contentedly. I give her a wry look, and she shrugs innocently. Liaden and Dean gave nesting cups for the baby to play with, a nice body oil that smells of jasmine for Sadie, and a blue t-shirt for me that looks just like the ones Sadie had us print out a couple of years back. This one simply says, “Team Leo and Sadie’s baby”. Cathy knitted a tiny little outfit, using purple and black yarn to make a striped cardigan, mittens, tiny socks, and a hat. She was clearly trying to appeal to Sadie’s tastes rather than more traditional babywear colours, and it’s noticed and appreciated; through inevitably damp eyes, Sadie declares that these are the clothes we will take the baby home in, along with the baby gro Tim and Nat give us. It’s grey, and in white letters on the front are the words, “Just Done 9 Months Inside”, with a prison bar stitched over the top.
And finally, Em gives us one more present ‘from Gary’, who squawks his approval: a black and white striped hand crocheted baby blanket covered with a green parrot motif.
Everyone gives something that we or the baby will use every day, and I love them for it.
Once he or she is born, our kid is going to be surrounded by love.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A COUPLE OF MONTHS LATER
Sadie
I’ve been getting more introspective over the past couple of weeks. More into things like mindfulness and gratitude. I even meditate, just for around ten minutes a day because any more than that and I get restless and distracted, but those ten minutes do me a power of good. Staying as determinedly calm and peaceful as possible is surely only going to help the baby grow healthy and strong, and that’s all I want in the world. Everything else is just noise.
Even the theft on my account. The investigation has stalled, as I was warned it might by the police and my old bank, but at least they believed me and didn’t take back the money they’d refunded. I’ve switched over to a new bank, one with a much more user friendly and security conscious app and a better handle on customer service. And, although it’s frustrating as fuck not to know for sure that whoever did this will be found and charged, hopefully that’s the end of it.
I’m taking the time to appreciate the little things. Like now, in the shower, I imagine the hot water in Leo’s wet room rinsingall my irritation clean away. The water comes from two shower heads and is the perfect temperature as it drenches me, and the suds from my shower gel are soft and fluffy as marshmallow. I stroke them over my bump, which feels so huge now I’m in my third trimester and will only get impossibly larger. I smile as my little wriggler nudges at my hand from inside me, a little foot letting me know it’s there and awake. The very first kicks were like nothing I could have imagined, like the most magical bubbles. Watching Leo’s face light up more than I’ve ever seen before a couple of weeks later, when he was finally able to feel it too, is something I will never forget. He dropped to his knees and murmured words of encouragement and love against where he’d felt it, and the baby loved it, moving even more to show off to Daddy.
There’s a rush of cold air behind me chilling my wet skin as the door opens, and I smile as I sweep my wet hair over one shoulder. In seconds, the back of my body is warmed by the front of Leo’s, and I feel his erection pulse against my lower spine. I angle my head so I can kiss him, sighing happily as he cups my jaw to hold me in place. He’s insatiable, flatteringly so, to the point where I wonder if he’s going tomissmy bump when our child is born. He runs his other hand over it, so gentle and careful, and images of him cradling our baby just as carefully flit into my head.
I definitely want to recreate that famous shirtless-man-holding-a-newborn photo from the nineties with my Leo.
Gently but insistently, he places my hands on the wall in front of me so I’m braced against it. “Open your legs a little wider,” he whispers against my lips as the water keeps soaking us both. The moment I do, he lines up and pushes all the way inside me in one breath stealing thrust, the force at odds with how tender he’s being. The contrast is almost viciously hot, somuch so that I’m pushed closer to the brink than I have any right to be, given that we’ve only just started.
I undulate my hips, squeezing and rubbing his dick inside me just where it needs to be to get me off, and he growls his approval. “Fuuuuuuck, that feels amazing,” he murmurs in my ear. “Keep doing that…”
I couldn’t stop if my life depended on it. It makes the feeling build until it pulses through me like waves, a plateau different from an orgasm but no less intense. I can do nothing but bask in it as warm water keeps cascading down over my hair and my body in individual caresses, and I wait for it all to climb higher, get me higher, please,more…
Leo reaches around and rolls my clit between his finger and thumb, and my orgasm bursts so furiously it’s almost unbearable, each throb pulling hard on not just Leo’s cock, but the core of me. I’m vaguely aware of him shouting out his own release, but I’ve been reduced to pure sensation, and I can’t decide if I’m more wrung out or refreshed.
Refreshed, I decide with a smile as he kisses my neck, licking a few of the droplets off my skin.
After work,we grab dinner at a new Thai restaurant a few streets away from the parlour, where I order two main courses, and then we head to the centre of town for our first ante-natal class. Leo matches his pace to my slower one, because going up and down the hilly streets with an extra few pounds strapped to your middle - and after a shit ton of food - is hard work. His arm is dangling around my shoulders, and I’m holding that handand kissing his thumb now and again, making him grin. I love how proud and happy he looks, how happy he’sbeensince that wedding kiss. Minor hiccups notwithstanding, anyway.
I love that it’s all because of me.
“Can I run something past you?” he says as we stroll.
I look at him curiously. He sounds serious and…maybe hopeful? “Sure.”
He looks around at all the different buildings along this street. There’s a handful of big name stores, but around here, it’s mostly independently run businesses - second hand grunge clothes, tiny art galleries, trinket shops for the tourists, that kind of thing - and a few empty lots. “What if I opened a second parlour?”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, but with a difference.” He starts getting enthused, his eyes bright and his other hand moving as he speaks. “What if we let out the chairs to newly qualified tattoo artists and help them get set up? Mentor them and shit?”
“So they’ll already have their qualifications? They won’t be apprentices?”
“Not apprentices, no, but we can train them up and show them our ways of doing things, and set them on the road to being able to run their own businesses, if that’s what they want. Offer them the chance to work for…I don’t know, a Wishbone franchise, but they’d be their own bosses, and once they’re ready, we can free up their chair and move them to another different parlour in our name. The idea is still taking shape in my mind, but…what do you think?”
I mull it over for a few seconds, and I can feel him figuratively sitting on his hands waiting for my response. “I think it could work,” I agree. “I think it needs ironing out, and I think it’s going to be a challenge, but I think you of all people can pull this off.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “We, maybe?”
