"Charlotte," Dan cooed, gently pushing the hair out of my closed eyes. I felt his hand cupping my cheek, and I pretended to still be asleep. His fingers trailed down my neck onto my shoulder, pressing his lips to my cheek. I groaned and rolled my head to the other side, getting a laugh from Dan.
He gently moved my head back to face him and kissed my lips. A billion thoughts raced through my mind, mainly about how soft his lips are and how I was supposed to react when I was frozen. Dan pulled back and I opened one eye, seeing his smile and messy bedhead hair. I yawned and reached up to ruffle the wavy strands of brown hair that had grown into his eyes in the past month. It was soft like duck down, I ran my hand through it methodically and pulled him in for another kiss.
Dan pulled back and let out a snicker, earning a confused look from me in return. Why is he laughing? "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, it's just that you look so much different when you wake up." Dan moved over and got out of the bed to look through his wardrobe for clothes. Phil opened the door at that moment and looked surprised to see me. He did a double-take, scanning my face with his eyes.
"Nice face. I see Dan's taken out the old sharpie again." Phil crossed his arms at Dan as I quickly sat up to feel my face. I reached over to get my phone and opened the camera. The image of myself popped up along with cat whiskers and a heart for the nose.
"Dan! What the hell?" I mean, this is cute and all, but come on. Did he really have to ruin a good morning? "You were doing so well, too. " I pouted.
Phil nodded and copied my pout with his arms still crossed. Dan turned around and laughed, holding his tummy. I got up from the bed and looked at my face in the mirror on the wardrobe door.
I scrunched my face up and looked at Dan with fake fury. He pretended to look scared, putting his hands up and creating double chins. His facial expression forced laughter out of me until I was leaning on Dan for support.
"So I came in to ask if Dan wanted to go to breakfast but you can come too." Phil broke in the conversation. Now that he mentioned it I am pretty hungry.
***
Dan asked me to go to his friend's party with him earlier, and of course I said yes. Even though I'm not a big party goer I wanted to have an excuse to be with my boyfriend. It felt weird calling him that, it wasn't something we talked about but somehow we both acknowledged that it is happening.
We were in the taxi sitting side by side in the back seat and I stared at my sandals. I was wearing a black tank top with lace backing and tan shorts but tonight I was really self conscious. My belly has started to form the baby bump shape and my clothes made it more noticeable.
Dan had been talking this whole time but I wasn't paying attention. Believe me, I wanted to but my mind kept drifting off. I didn't hear his voice anymore and looked over to find him staring at me expectantly. I realized that he probably asked me something but I was too tuned out to answer.
"Sorry, what'd you say?"
"I asked you if you were listening. Ironically you weren't so nevermind." I immediately felt bad about not paying attention to Dan, my cheeks reddening and I muttered that I was sorry.
"What're you thinking about?" he looked me in the eyes and I looked out the window again.
"I don't... It's just, this pregnancy makes me feel fat and I feel like this outfit makes me look bad and-"
"Charlotte," Dan cut me off, "You don't look fat. You look beautiful and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot. The gift of life is an amazing thing and you're lucky enough to be able to do that. And I love you for being you."
