“Like what?” I asked, wiping the tears off my cheeks.
“Gender reveals, maternity photos, talking to Tot, feeling him or her kick. I want you to experience all of those things.”
“I’d like that,” I told her.
“I can’t wait, but at the same time I know it’s going to fly by so fast. I’m dreading the weeks when I start getting huge and can’t move around easily anymore. I want to have fun before that.” She pouted.
“Maybe we should take a mini vacation or something,” I suggested. Her eyes lit up and she put down her breadstick.
“Let’s do it! Right after your show is done. Go somewhere fun.”
“Where? We spent most of last year going all over the country. What’s left?”
“I want to do something different,” she put her finger to her lips and tapped while thinking. “Do you like camping?” She asked.
I grinned.
“Heck yes! Before I met Mark, I pretty much slept in a tent for eight years. I’d love to do that. I know how to cook and start a fire. We can fish and hike, make smore’s and tell ghost stories to the kids. Oh, I’m already excited!” I clapped my hands together excitedly.
“Alright, alright. Calm down, it’s not happening this weekend,” she laughed. “I’ll get with everyone back at the house and we’ll start planning it. And the timing works out great because I should be getting over my nausea and I’m not huge yet.”
The waiter finally came with our food. He set a large bowl of fettuccine alfredo in front of me, and shells stuffed with marinara and and ricotta in front of Cleo.
“Perfect.”
We ate in silence. We were both starving at this point. I had only eaten one breadstick, while Cleo had finished off the basket. When Cleo came up for air she asked again about the play.
“You have to kiss this guy, right? He’s your brother and lover?”
“Yeah, we haven’t gotten to that yet. I think we’ve both been avoiding it. You know, with our history.”
“Does he have a girlfriend?” I tilted my head back and forth, wishy washy like.
“He did a few weeks ago. He brought her to a party we had. They ended up fighting though, so I don’t know if they worked it out or not.”
“How does Mark feel about it? Thomas being possibly single and an old flame.”
“He hasn’t really said much about it. He wanted to watch the movie, so we did. He said it was gross. I asked him if he was okay with it and he said he kind of had to be.”
Cleo sighed. A small smile on her face. I didn’t know if it was because of the food or something else.
“He’s too sweet. He’s changed so much since he met you. Back in the day he would have had a conniption over his girlfriend kissing someone else on stage. You two are so perfect.”
Comfortable silence fell over the table as we ate our food. I ate my food at what I felt was a regular pace, while Cleo seemed to think that someone was about to steal her plate if she paused for even a second. When she was finished, she looked over at me and blushed.
“Wow, Tot really has me starving today. He’s gonna go from an olive to a peach by tomorrow at this rate.” She rubbed her stomach lovingly. “Can we go to a rehearsal sometime? I’d love to see it in action.”
“Sure, whenever you want to come just let me know. It’s open to the public, well kind of. Friends and family can come check it out. You all should come sometime,” I suggested. She smirked.
“You really think Mark wants to see you practicing kissing?” I shook my head.
The waiter brought our check and doggy bags for both of us. As we were standing up, I chuckled.
“No, probably not, but I think it would help him to know that we haven’t actually kissed yet. Even so, he wouldn’t make a scene. Mark likes to put up a tough front.” Cleo put her arm in mine and we walked out of the restaurant side by side.
“He acts like a big tough guy, but he’s really a soft teddy bear.” We laughed.
* * *
