The lights dimmed and Janice came out and introduced herself and the show. Mark reached over and took my hand, squeezing it tightly. The curtains rose and act one began. I had seen this show a million times during rehearsal, and found my mind wandering.
Cleo hadn’t said much since that day she was inseminated. We decided that it was best not to ask and stress her out more. Plus, it had barely been a month. She wouldn’t even know yet.
When I forced myself to stop thinking about Cleo my mind drifted to Thomas. He had helped build and paint the sets with us the next two weekends after that. We had a lot of fun and it was so nice catching up with him. With our history he was a little too touchy-feely with me. I hadn’t seen him since our last paint day, and I couldn’t help but feel a little relieved.It wasn’t anything other than innocent joking like I did with anyone else, but it still made me slightly uncomfortable. I shoved those thoughts out of my mind and snuggled in closer to my husband to enjoy the show.
Finally, the curtains closed and we clapped for the Darlings who had just flown off to Neverland with Peter. When intermission was over and act two began Peter and the children are finally in Neverland. When he takes them to his underground hideout all of the lost boys and Jimmy come running out to greet them. Peter quickly introduces them.
“This here is Tootles, Curly, Nibs, Slightly, and the twins,” Peter boasts. Each child gets their turn to come forward and do a little dance or handshake with the Darlings. Each one was dressed in adorable animal footie pajamas. The twins came forward and spoke in perfect unison.
“It’s nice to meet you!” They had put them in panda suits. With Jimmy’s hair pushed back inside of her costume, the twins looked very much alike. From a stranger’s point of view, they were identical twins.
Now that the twins were on stage I watched with more interest. It went by way faster than the beginning and before I knew it, they were calling them all out and bowing.
The lights went up and the audience stood up to move down to congratulate the cast and crew. I looked at our row. Everyone lifted up their bouquets and stood up together. The twins were a little shocked by all of us and all of the flowers. We hugged them and then left the theatre to get some air.
When the twins and their parents finally came out, we cheered loudly for them. Mark grabbed Jimmy and spun her around. She giggled as he put her down. “You were amazing up there, champ.”
“Thanks Uncle Mark! It was a little scary at first,” she said.
“As long as we don’t look out into the audience it’s not so bad,” Dallas added. Ethan patted him on the back to urge them towards the car. He looked irritated. We turned and saw some creepy guy with a camera taking our picture. That was our cue to leave.
On the way home we talked about how great the show was.
“Other than that guy, it was great being able to do something with everyone,” I commented.
“Yeah, that doesn’t happen often enough. We always dreamed about hitting it big and that we wouldn’t care about the lack of privacy, but now I think we all kind of hate it.”
“Do you think we’ll need to hire a bodyguard when we have a baby?” I asked. He was silent for a moment.
“I don’t know. I think the big reason Cleo has one is because they both are easily recognizable. Being the drummer gives me a little bit of anonymity. If I’m not with Cleo, chances are unless you are a huge fan you aren’t going to recognize me. Even more for you. No offense,” he took his hand off the steering wheel to hold my hand. “How about we play it by ear. When he or she gets here, if things start to feel crazy and you’re uncomfortable we will get one.”
“Thank you,” I said quietly. He chuckled.
“But it comes straight out of your hair fund,” he teased me.
“In your dreams. If anything, it’s coming out of your video game piggy bank,” I shot back. His head fell back in laughter.
“That’s fair,” he decided.
* * *
The next few weeks passed quickly. Too quickly. I took the new free time I had from not taking the twins to rehearsal to christmas shop. Some people were easy. Derek got a mini fridge for the room that he shouldn’t really have in my house, but I knew he’d like. Adrian got a guitar Mark told me he had been eying. We bought Ethan a new stereo and I hired someone to build a brick barbecue pit in the backyard for my gorgeous husband right after the holiday.
This was our third Christmas together in L.A, and the last two years everyone came over to our house to have Christmas Eve dinner, watch movies and eat cookies. We had plenty of rooms for everyone to stay in, and the next day we would open presents, have another dinner, and enjoy each other's company.
Right after Thanksgiving I invited the twins over to make cookies and help decorate the tree. However, I had forgotten to mention it to Mark beforehand so the tree was still put away. I made Mark dig in storage for it when they arrived. He came back into the house grumbling about spiders and how he needed to shower. I kissed his cheek and thanked him while offering him a sugar cookie from the first batch we had made. His sour mood softened, and he kissed me back.
“You’re lucky I love you,” he winked when I asked him to set it up as well.
“I know.” I winked back. Jimmy and Dallas let out loud groans.
“Jeez, you are just like my mom and Dad,” Jimmy said. We chuckled and as soon as the tree was erected and Mark stood back to admire his handiwork, I asked him if he could go find the ornaments. He shot daggers at me but went to search for them. He returned a few minutes later scowling.
“You’re welcome. Box is in the living room. Next to the tree.” I walked over to him and embraced him in a hug. I rubbed my cheek against his. It was rough and stubbly.
“Thank you. You’re my favorite you know,” I said, kissing him.
“Yeah, yeah. Are those chocolate chip? Those are my favorite,” he said heading towards the bowl on the table.
