being married

xvi.

s i x t e e n

"No, I don't want to do that," I mumbled as I filled my plate with finger foods. "I don't want to remember how fat I am." Riley nudged me and pouted, "You're not fat!" I frowned at her before sticking out my tongue. She wanted me to do that baby cast thing. I waddled over to the table and sat with Riley and her daughter who was stuffing her face with ice cream cake. Somehow she got green frosting in her hair along with everywhere on her face. Riley began to wipe her daughter's face but then moved away from her. "Mama, don't touch me."

'No girls, please!' Riley mouthed, giving me a tired look. "I love your shirt." Her gaze drifted towards my stomach. It was a sweater with a stork on my stomach holding a baby in a cloth. "Everyone!" My mother exclaimed as she got everyone's attention. "May I have your attention? Yes, thank you. It's time to find out if it's a girl..." She paused to hear the cheers for those who wanted a girl, "or a boy!" Chris came out with a piñata attached to a post. "Who's going first?" Jen licked off the ice cream off her face and fingers and raised her hand as a volunteer. "No, dear, not you."

"Mother!" I scolded. I stood up and pulled the little toddler with me. My mother looked at me harshly as I took the stick from Chris and gave it to Jen. "Go on ahead, Jen." She grinned at me giving me lovely view of her dimples and began swinging.

After a couple tries she gave up and handed another little girl the stick. I didn't know the girl at all. She didn't even look familiar but actually none of these people look familiar. On her third swing, the little red head smashed the piñata causing blue candy and confetti to fall out and unto the floor. "It's a boy!" A woman screamed. The children that attended ran over grabbing candy and stuffing them into whatever they had available. I went over to hug Chris who was standing next to the gift table. "Time to open gifts," he said so I sat down before I was handed a gift by a little boy. I thanked him and removed the gift wrap.

"Thank you!" I raised up a case of baby booties. They were so cute. I especially liked the small red one that looked like a pair of sneakers. Chris opened another one and revealed a little bouncer with jungle print and a monkey hanging from its handle. The other gifts were a blue baby carrier, a year's worth of onesies and footsie pajamas, a couple blankets and teddy bears along with several other toys. The last gift I got was from Riley. I smiled at her as I removed the brown paper to reveal a plain cardboard box. I looked at the box warily then opened it.

"It's a box full of 'Open Me When''s... with the help of your husband." It had several packages wrapped in brown paper with a small note that began with 'Open Me When...'. "Oh, thank you! I can't wait to open the big one." That one had 'Open Me When... It's Halloween. I grinned at Chris who was smirking my way. "I helped too!" Jen exclaimed with a broad smile stretched across her face. I ruffled her hair before placing a light kiss on her cheek, thanking her also.

The gathering went on lovely besides a bird landing on my cake and devouring it, and my mother who kept staring at me with a hint of disgust. Not that she didn't look at me like that everyday while she looked at Chris with complete adoration. "Chris," I whispered, nudging him with my shoulder. He looked at me quizzically. "I'm craving some real food." I pushed my plate towards him and he smiled wildly before kissing me on the cheek. He packed his mouth with a small tuna sandwich that was on my plate.

"Alright, everyone, thanks for the lovely gifts but we should be going now." Chris stood up before helping me out the chair. I pushed his hands away and mumbled 'I am not disabled' earning some laughs from the persons nearby. Riley called Jen, who was with the other kids around the fountain playing tag and we walked out the garden while Chris told the driver to hurry up packing the baby stuff in the back of the Range Rover. Lucky thing mother planned all of this or else we would've had to stay and clean up when everyone left.

I watched as Jen played on the Nintendo Chris bought her last week. He was good with Jen even though she wasn't either of ours. It just made me think how great Chris would be if it was his baby. But then again, maybe he'll just spoil him. Now that'll have bad outcomes, and with all that money Chris has piled up? "What's it like being a mom?" I asked Riley who jolted up. If I had known she was sleeping I wouldn't have said anything. Chris looked back briefly from the front passenger seat then back.

"Well, it's stressful for the first two years if you have a kid like mine. I don't know how I even dealt with it for this long. She wants everything and when she doesn't get it she calls her father. He spoils that crap out of her but sometimes I'm glad he takes her to England for most of the year," so that explains why she has a somewhat of a British accent, "but other times I feel like I'm missing my baby as much as the pain in the ass she is." She ruffled her daughters hair but she growled and tried to bite her.

I laughed quietly, "How is he?"

"Who Harry?" I nodded. "He's a jackass as usual. Whenever she comes back from his place after a week or so, she comes back saying all sorts of bad words. At first it was cute but then it was just bad when she would say them in front of people. Like at the airport she called me, and I quote, 'a bloody slag!' I never felt more embarrassed as all these random persons looking at me while she threw a tantrum just because she didn't want to hold her own stuffed animal." She threw her hands in the air. "I had to call Harry just to find out what it means and then I found out that he's been saying those things about me to his new girlfriend in front of Jen. He just pisses me off." Well this went off topic. Chris looked back at me in confusion so I leaned in and whispered in his ear, "It means slut." He nodded in understanding and looked back at his phone acting as if he's not listening to our conversation.

"And then he argues with me saying that he doesn't want other men around Jen so basically I shouldn't date. I should turn into a 'bloody' lesbian just to make everything fine right? But he can have different women galloping around his house with my daughter but I can't date one guy." She sighed, putting her hands over her eyes. The car pulled over besides Dominos and Chris got out. "Why are we here?" Riley asked looking around.

"I needed real food." I watched as Chris walked into the building and ordered before coming back out with two boxes of pizza, a large one and a small one. "What's with the two boxes?"

"We have a kid here don't we?"

I rolled my eyes but smiled inside. He thought Jen.