The Back Up Benefit

Small Bump

I traveled in the tour bus for the last week of the tour before we all flew home to England. Some of this went to London, some to Leeds. I was relieved to discover when we got home the James had been jailed for six months for assault. I could breathe and relax now. For six months at least.

I got an appointment with my doctor and gave her a urine sample for a proper pregnancy test. Ricky sat with me and held my hand while we waited for the result.

"I stick by what I said in New York. I'm not going anywhere." he whispered in my ear.

"Thank you." I smiled but continued looking at the floor. "You're taking this a lot better than I am."

When the doctor told us the results were positive I knew I should feel happy that I was having a baby with my best friend but I was too terrified to feel much else. We would have to tell our parents and friends. How much would we tell them? Everything? That I still wasn't entirely sure the baby was Ricky's. And we would have to tell them we're together but do we tell them we've been friends with benefits on and off for more then a year? No, that was too much information.

We decided to tell our families about the pregnancy together. To do it in one go and make it as quick as possible. Ricky's parents and brother were coming to visit for a week so I asked my parents and brother to join us too for a few days. While arranging this we both also told our families we were now dating. They were happy for us and my mum admitted that she'd always thought we'd get together.

The big family meet up was a month before my first scan. I felt like I was starting to show already but I was also eating a lot more. I was lucky that the morning sickness wasn't too bad. I'd had a few days of feeling sick but it was mainly the dizziness and tiredness that got to me.

Ricky brought lots of books about pregnancy and babies but I was still finding it hard to embrace this. It was all happening in my body but I wasn't feeling a bond with our unborn child yet. I knew Ricky was the person to talk to about it but I also didn't want to worry him or offend him. I was worried he'd think that by not being as excited it would mean I loved him less. If anything I loved him more. I'm sure most men in his situation would be angry and scared but he was positively overjoyed about becoming a Daddy.

When I stayed over at his, I did that a lot lately, he would often fall asleep at night with his hand on my still relatively flat lower stomach. Sometimes he even talked to our baby about how excited he was to meet it. My hormones were going pretty crazy so every time I saw him I couldn't keep my hands off him. No matter how dull the job he was doing I always found my mind, and eyes, wandering as I watched him. Even if he was doing the hovering I found it extremely sexy.

I walked into the kitchen one day to find him on all fours and with his head in a cupboard as he fixed the door. His jeans had slipped down a bit at the back revealing a "builders bum". I giggled as I stared at the view and tried to resist slapping his peachy bottom.

"I didn't know we've got a builder." I remarked and leant against the next cupboard.

"What?" he frowned and sat back on his feet to look up at me.

"Your bum." I told him. "For a moment I thought we had a builder in the house. I could park a bike in that. Only a tiny one though!" I grinned and gave him a wink.

He laughed and tried to hitch his jeans up. "You've had a cowboy in here. I can replace it but it'll cost a fortune and I can't get the parts until Monday." he joked, pretending to be a builder.

"When you're finished with your DIY I wouldn't mind playing with your tool kit." I told him trying, and failing, to be sexy. I pulled a face of disgust at my attempt.

"You're still not getting the hang of talking dirty are you?" he laughed. "I'll be up in a minute love."

The day before both our families came to visit I was in a bit of a panic about sorting everything. I was desperately trying to clean Ricky's house and make the beds to be ready for visitors. My parents and brother were going to stay a night at my flat nearby with my parents sleeping in my bed and my brother on the sofa while I stayed over at Ricky's. His parents, brother, sister in law and young niece and nephew we're going to be staying in the three spare rooms for a few days.

We were all going out for dinner on the night that my family were staying in town. We'd share the news about the pregnancy that evening. I was so nervous that I almost tried to cancel everything but the sensible part of me knew I had to do it sooner rather than later. I couldn't leave it until I was big and ready to pop.

I sat on the sofa in Ricky's house feeling tired and sighed about the work I still had to do. He plonked himself down next to me and kissed my neck.

"Don't be stressed." he soothed. "It's not as if this is the first time we're meeting each other's families. We've known each other for six years, we're all a big family already."

"I know but it's not everyday you have to tell them we've got a surprise baby on the way cose we had unprotected sex on the first date." I frowned.

"Well, I wasn't going to tell them how we made the baby. I thought they'd work that out themselves!" he laughed. "You'll be ok my love."