Chrissie answered the front door at a bubbling over point that she could hardly contain. “Oh my god! Where have you been! Everyone has been waiting on you! We’re all in here and the food is ready and the cake was delivered and…” I had to cut Chrissie off.
“Chrissie! It took us a damn hour to figure out what the hell we needed to bring to survive for four hours! Then it took us twenty minutes to figure out the damn car seat. And then I freaked out wondering if it would tear the leather in the Ferrari and then Roger and I realized we couldn’t take the Ferrari because there are three of us now and then we had to put ‘er in the Rolls and WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO THIS!” I shrieked at Chrissie. Okay, my hormones may have still been slightly out of whack. Roger was struggling behind me with Ellie’s bag full of diapers, formula, changes of clothes and at least a hundred other baby items that we were certain we would need. I looked up to her, Chrissie looking as if she were about to cry. “What? What now?” I asked of her. She shook her head at me.
“It’s nothing. You just look so beautiful.” She said, covering her mouth before reaching out to me for a hug despite the fact that I was about to drop Ellie in her carrier. Today was the first day I had been back in heels and a dress that fit me since my 5th month of pregnancy. I felt so wonderful in my springy white and my matching white heels. It was like a breath of fresh air to be back in clothes that I truly loved, even though my post-pregnancy form hadn't yet dissipated.
“Shit! We forgot her blanket! How did we forget her blanket!? It’s layin’ on the kitchen table! That’s where it is.” Roger ranted. I rolled my eyes at Chrissie.
“Roger! We have a lot of blankets. She can have one of Jimmy’s! Come on! Come! Come inside. We’re all waiting on you!” Chrissie said happily. Just when I thought I had avoided the horror that was a baby shower…Chrissie had gone and reinvented it into….into…well, whatever the hell Roger and I had just shown up to. Chrissie pushed her front door open and immediately I was taken aback. I couldn’t believe it. There were white and the palest of pink flowers everywhere. My mouth dropped open. This was like the shower that Mary and I had thrown for Chrissie and Veronica…on steroids. It There was an enormous floral arrangement on the center of Chrissie’s dining room table. It was absolutely tasteful and looked so much like me. I gasped when I saw the white fondant cake. It was the only thing about this party that hinted at the fact that it was intended for a baby shower as it had tiny white fondant flowers and an elegant stork on the top. Well, it was the only thing that hinted that a baby shower had been planned until I saw the table of gifts…gifts that Chrissie had stockpiled in their house since they had arrived from various people. And my god, the spread of food! All of mine and Roger’s favorites: buffalo chicken pizza, a cheese tray with a bread bowl with dip, shrimp cocktail, oysters on the half-shell, beer battered fish sticks with malt vinegar, fettucini, a giant bowl of fruit, cocktail sausages, biscotti, lady fingers dipped in chocolate and mini dessert eclairs. All of this lined up on white linen tablecloths. Roger and I were in an utter state of shock. All of this…for us? Chrissie wasn’t one to go over the top for anything. She needed to not play with a post-pregnant woman’s hormones like this!
“I hung this thing.” Brian immediately said, pointing at the hanging white fiji mum over the table. “Oh and this other thing over here!” He said, pointing to the other mum hanging over the island bar in the kitchen. Roger and I still hadn’t said anything as we looked around the house. Because I was already mum of the year, I had forgotten about sitting Ellie down in her car seat near the door. Everyone that meant anything to Roger and I were here. This wasn’t a baby shower…this was much more than that.
“Well!? You haven’t said anything!” Chrissie bubbled over taking hold of my shoulders. I looked over her. Winnie, my mum, my dad, Harriett, at least twenty others I grew up with on the farm, Roger’s two roadies, some of his friends from EMI…I could not believe this. I looked to Chrissie and finally said what anyone would say in this kind of situation.
