'Cause You Make Me Feel

Let's Shop Baby!

Stef's POV

An hour later, here we are at the mall. I'm honestly already tired for shopping is not really my thing, and doing that while being pregnant is a chore all together.

But Lena is right, I need maternity clothes no matter how much I hate it, and well, spending the day with Lena is not so bad, it's actually nice to be with her in that moment.

"Oh, do you want to shop for the baby as well?" Lena asks as we were heading to another shop since I didn't find anything in the last one.

"Oh that is actually a good idea love, but I honestly won't have the energy. I'll dedicate a day only for my baby boy, but today I'll stick with finding me some things to wear." I say honestly as Lena smiles and nods at me and we start walking again.

"And you can... I mean if you want, you could come with me for that too." I say, a bit hesitant for I don't really know if I'm annoying her or something. If it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have to do all of that, shopping and everything...

"I would love to. I honestly can't wait for this baby to come." She says excited.

"Oh, you're telling me. I'm so tired of being pregnant seriously. It's exhausting. I like it, I love my baby to death, but I'm eager for this pregnancy to come to an end." I say feeling a bit bad to say that for some women love being pregnant, listening to them it's like heaven on earth. But for me it doesn't feel like that at all.

"I know your tired baby. But I'm sure it'll come fast. In the meantime, I'll take good care of you." she says so softly as I stop in my track, making her turn around when she saw I wasn't following.

"Stef?" she says as she approaches me again.

"Lena... you don't need to take care of me. I am my own responsibility, I knew what I was getting into when I decided to do this alone, when I decided to keep this baby. I made a choice, and..." I start to say when Lena cuts me off.

"Okay, okay, okay. You are very much capable of doing this alone. I'm not questioning that. But you didn't have me in your life then, now you do. And all I'm saying is that I can make you feel good once in a while. You can let me take care of you sometimes. There's nothing wrong with that since I love taking care of people that matters to me. And you matter to me Stef, you and Mariana, and this baby. You matter to me." Lena says so passionately that she literally throws me for a loop.

"You won't get sick of me?" I ask for I don't know why she's doing this. She could have all she wants, she could have a real family, a girlfriend, maybe even a wife. And instead, she's stuck with my pregnant self, my daughter, and she's asking for more... I really don't understand.

"Of course not. You make me laugh all the time, I love talking with you and you actually make me feel useful. If you weren't there, I would probably be at home right now, reading articles and trying to find some girl to fuck tonight. Instead, I am here having fun with you and doing shopping. My life is much more joyful since I hit you with my car." She says softly, holding my hand now, as I almost want to cry with those stupid hormones getting the best of me.

"What a line." I say, smiling referencing to her last statement, making her giggle and making me swallow my tears.

"Come on! Let's shop baby!" she says now, pulling on my hand for me to follow her as I shake my head because she has no idea how good she makes me feel just by being my friend.

----

After countless number of shops Lena dragged me in, we finally find one that have good looking maternity clothes that wasn't making me feel like I was a cow. Lena was right, I felt much more comfortable in them than in my current clothes.

"Oh thank God, we are done with clothes! How about a big burrito now? I can eat it now that I don't risk ripping my own clothes off by growing fat." I joke as Lena giggles at me like she has being doing all day at each one of my bad jokes.

"Actually... we have one more shop to do before the burrito." She says as I look at her confused.

"Oh no, please, I can't even move anymore." I complain as she smiles at me so tenderly that I can't say no to that face.

"Okay... on last shop then." I say as she smiles so wide at me that it was totally worth the torture of continuing shopping.

"This one." she says pointing at an evening dress shop as I frown my eyebrows.

"Hum... I don't think so. I don't have any occasion to wear it, and on top of that, I can't afford it. I need to save, remember?" I say for I already bought a lot of stuff today. It was necessary, but still, I don't like spending money on myself when I have two kids to think about. Of course, Lena being herself wanted to pay for each thing I bought, it was a constant fight, but I didn't give in, I paid for my own things.

"Actually... you might have an occasion to wear it..." she says a tiny bit of guilt on her face.

"What did you do?" I ask for obviously she did something.

"There is some kind of award ceremony for searchers next week and I'm receiving a award. So..." she starts before I cut her off.

"Oh my God, congratulation! Why didn't you say anything?" I say, so happy for her because she works a lot, even at home she reads article after article, she writes things that seems like another language to me, but that seems very complex and probably useful for the community.

"Oh, I... I don't know... I just... every time I receive a price, I don't have anyone to come see me receive it. I'm just... I'm just used to not tell anyone." She says now a bit more vulnerable than before. Also, that mean she's even a bigger big deal than I initially thought for, did she just say she won multiple awards?

"Well now you do, love. So, when something like that happens, you tell me. I'm actually proud of you, Lena." I say sincerely.

"Even if... if I said you were my plus one, and put you on the guest list without asking you first?" she says while giving me the puppy eyes.

I don't really like that she decided for me, but I think I understand why she did it. I think even though she acts like she's a bragger, she's actually someone that is humble and that is not used to have congratulations by her loves one. I think she was actually shy about it, though she won't verbalize it. She didn't know how to ask me to come for her, she didn't, and it breaks my heart because she should know by now that I'll always come for her, to applaud her and be proud of her.

"Yes, I'm still proud of you anyway. And I... I'll come with you to that ceremony, Lena." I say as her eyes almost became glassy at this.

"Really?" she asks with such a small voice.

"Yes, really." I say as she looks into my eyes with so much... gratitude... I don't think someone ever looked at me like that before.

And with that, and all the bags she insisted on holding for me, she throws her arms around my neck and almost make me fall to hug me tight. I end up putting my arms around her and holding her close, smiling at the fact that for once I can do something for her.

"Okay, love. Let's get that dress now, hum?" I say as she pulls away to look into my eyes and smile wide, probably feeling excited now because I saw how much she really liked shopping.

"And I'm paying, and this time Stefanie Foster, I am NOT giving you a choice and I know you're too tired to fight me. So shut up and come with me." she literally state as I try to open my mouth to protest, but she put her fingers on my lips.

"Nope. Don't you say a word. Please, let me do this." she says looking right into my eyes as I know I'm too tired to win this fight, so I just give in. Besides, I know she just loves to spoil me, it makes her happy, just like when we were shopping for Mariana's gifts. Now, I don't let her do that all the time, but I guess I can make an exception.

"Now, that's better. Just be pretty, it's enough." She says before she tucks a piece of hair behind my ear and I sigh a bit.

"I know you're tired. We'll make it quick, okay?" she says now so gently.

"Okay. Let's go." I say, my hand still in hers as we walk toward the last shop of the day hopefully.