Stained Recovery

Barefoot and... || Chapter 27

"Tommy, let's try that again. I wanna do some layering." I said over the mic, with him nodding over the panels.

"Aight, I got you!" I heard him mutter.

"Sweet." Vic said.

"Said boy, I'm tryna meet your mama on a Sunday. Then make a lotta love on a Monday..." I sing overlapping the audio playing in the background.

After I was satisfied with the vocal adlibs I added, I went out of the boot to check the sections on the computer.

"Ari, this fire..." Tommy said "I'm actually speechless"

He kept on giving praises, as if it was his first time working with me on a song. My cheeks tainted pink thinking about the inspiration to most of the songs in my album.

Most of them were spicy and super direct — but of course, this was like my personal love letter to my Cleo.

She hasn't actually heard a single song though. Every time I was working at home and trying to record demos, I try to make her do stuff, either outside or time it when she was sleeping.

After she took a leave from work, we've been enjoying our time together. We're practically living together at this point. Her stuff were in my house and I've got my stuff in her place too.

Honestly, I've never been so happy in my life -- I was just so thankful for Cleo.

For the past 8 months, it has been nothing but pure bliss. I mean, yeah -- we've got our disagreements and little misunderstandings, but it was all part of our relationship. We actually communicate more now, which by the way, was really effective in making things work.

I glanced at the digital wall clock mounted by the door. Half past 5 PM. Cleo should be here in 30 minutes for our dinner date. This morning, she told me that she had to go to her mother's headquarters downtown for a meeting.

She woke up really early -- it was the first time I saw her wearing a suit again in a while. I remembered how it did things to my ovaries -- Cleo looking prim and proper actually was a sight for the sore eyes.

"Hey, we kind of need to wrap this up. Cleo's arriving in a few, I don't want her hearing this before it's out." I said to Tommy as he played the track we just finished.

I still have a couple more songs to polish, but we're almost done. I've already talked to Scooter and Republic -- it seems that I'll be able to meet the deadline for the scheduled release.

"Okay, cool. I'll just save this for now and work on some beats for POV, yeah?" His eyes never left the screen and Victoria just sat there scrolling on her phone.

"Ari, you have scheduled your check-up right?" Vic suddenly asked making my eyebrows raise.

I nodded at her "Yep, I have one tomorrow by noon. I'm due for my next shot. Why?" I fished out my phone to text Cleo and ask if she was on her way.

"You think you can hook me up with your OB too?" She said while biting her lower lip. She looked a bit wary if you ask me.

I looked at Victoria pointedly. She never asked me to help her with her Gynecologist before. She always told me after she got married that if it happens, it will happen. Realization came to me and I gasped.

"Oh my god... Vic... are you..." I stuttered with my hands over my mouth.

She shrugged and showed her phone to me. I checked it and the monthly cycle calendar app was on. The markings on this indicated that she has been delayed for 3 months. I stared at her in shock... how do you forget that you haven't had your period for 3 months! That was like a quarter of a year!