On paper, Pete and Valentina are perfect for each other. Their friends used 'soulmates' when describing them and at one point they were. As they reflect on the last five years of their relationship, they try to understand the complexity of their lov...
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A heavily pregnant Valentina waddles her way across the stage. In her hand, a plate of her most recent cravings: pickles, pretzels, and ranch. Delicacies she swiped from the craft services at Studio 8H. No one in their right mind would have chosen such a combination, however, when one is pregnant, everything is on the table.
With Mateo being this week's host for SNL and Colson as the musical guest, she has been on set more often recently. Especially with her maternity leave already in effect, she had got used to Pete taking her to work with him. Between the two or them, it was planned accordingly so they could be together in case the baby decided to change plans and arrive early.
Since the announcement, Pete has been over the moon that he is going to be a father. He took intiative on everything and made sure that his wife is well taken care of. From making sure she takes her prenatal vitamins, signing up for birthing classes, reading the parenting books, asking his mother for advice, and more. The comedian was super viligant and prepared for not only Val's needs, but the baby's as well.
And now that the mother-to-be is with him at his workplace, he can relax knowing she's okay and could be right there if anything happened.
Needless to say, it's been a special yet stressful nine months. Before, she would be at morning class with her fellow dancers, cut to being shut-in for more than twelve hours at 30 Rock. She spent her days mostly confined in her husband's office or getting her steps in by walking around the floor with a plateful of whatever pregnancy cravings she had for the day. Not that she's complaining, it was just a difficult transition from an active and energetic workday to a leisurely and rather unproductive one. Nevertheless, she would find things to keep herself busy.
The sound stage is a bit empty with a few crew members talking amongst each other about set design. The ballerina sits down in one of the seats meant for the audience. Happily munching on a pretzel dipped in ranch, Valentina scrolls on her phone, going through social media, text messages, and answering work emails.
Her summer program is going to be in the hands of her dance partner, Marcus, temporarily. She answers his emails regarding the syllabus he prepped for the new class. Avery had emailed a video of the final dress rehearsal as she wanted Valentina's thoughts on her technique for this season's upcoming production of Elite Syncopations. Then there's James, her mentor, asking that she turn in papers so the request for leave is processed. She also opened Anna's file of the pregnancy photoshoot she had with her best girl friend.
After completing each task on her list, she had ate every last piece of food on her plate that rested on her swollen belly. The dancer gets up to throw away her trash, her hand unconsciously caressing her stomach. She winces in discomfort as the baby kicks around like they were having a soccer match.
Whenever that happened, Pete would joke around saying that the baby is performing a variation of some sort. I have a feeling that our kid would be a real Balanchine stan, but at the same time, they give me more of a Tschaikovsky vibe, he theorized about their future child.
