The Re-search

Chapter 8

"Good morning, sleepy head." Hasani teased when I entered the living room to find him folding clothes into a suitcase. I'd abandoned my own suitcase next to his to take a short afternoon nap that somehow turned into three hours of sleep.

"Hi," I mumbled, bending down to give him a kiss.

Hasani pulled me onto his lap, his hand immediately finding its new favourite spot on my body, my belly. "Did you sleep well?"

"Once I got past the discomfort, yeah." I said into his delicious-smelling neck.

We'd settled into his Kitalo City apartment a few days earlier and I'd been lazing around, listening to my pregnant body as it went through all kinds of changes. The seventeenth week had come with swelling and slightly painful breasts, the occasional headache, and random waves of tiredness throughout the day. It had also come with a more visible baby bump, one Hasani was all too happy to rub or just rest his hand on to feel the baby moving around as he learned and shared random facts about the baby's development.

"Some things came in the mail room for you today." Hasani said now, pointing at three boxes on the counter. "I thought you said you wouldn't be doing any work before the trip?"

"I won't be." I said, walking to the counter and grabbing a knife to open the boxes. "These are just a few things I'll be testing out on the trip. They're supposed to promote comfort during pregnancy."

"Comfort during pregnancy?" he repeated, "Are you planning on making pregnancy content?"

"Maybe. I'm considering it." I admitted as I sliced open the top of one box and pulled out a bag of nursing bras that were said to help with the pain I was already feeling in my breasts.

"Baby, that's a big deal." Sani marveled, his packing now forgotten as he walked over to me.

"It's a huge deal. I still don't know if I'll go through with it. I might just chicken out."

"The fact that you're even considering it is a feat in itself." he said, stunned. "You probably don't want to admit it, I know, but I have a feeling you're really warming up to our little pomegranate."

I pulled a pair of fuzzy slippers designed to help with swelling out of the second box I'd opened before sneaking a look at Sani's hopeful face. "I'm slowly easing into it. I still have fears, but I'm trying out the positivity thing."

"Music to my ears," he sang sweetly, a huge smile plastered on his face as he took the knife from me and began opening the third box.

I smiled in reaction to his enthusiasm, rubbing the right side of my stomach to soothe the cramping there as I wondered what the remaining box held, quite sure that I'd only placed three orders.

"What's this? I don't remember ordering anything this small." I asked finally, giving up on my hazy trip down memory lane.

"Oh. You didn't. I got those for us. It's those cards of intimate questions you and the girls love to go through once in a while. I thought it would help us connect on a deeper level." Hasani said as he pulled out a long pregnancy pillow I'd gotten to help with the discomfort I'd recently started experiencing from having to sleep on my side.