Leaning back against the head of your and Sebastian's bed, you try to keep the noise to a minimum, avoiding the clink of fork against bowl as you somehow thoroughly enjoy your breakfast of cold spaghetti with a hefty helping of mustard.
Your fork squeaks against the ceramic and you freeze. Sebastian stirs, but quickly resettles in his position wrapped around your middle, fast asleep against your stomach. Lately you'd noticed he found any excuse to touch your growing baby bump, from a casual brush as he steps around you in the kitchen, to moments like this morning, his head resting soundly against you. Sometimes he would try to convince you he could hear the baby's heartbeat. And sometimes you almost believe him.
All it took was one second, you looked away from your fork for just a moment, glancing down at Sebastian, when a glob of cold spaghetti slips away, falling straight onto the side of his face. He wakes with a startled jerk and a groan, swiping at the slimy mass on his cheek.
"What is this?" He whines sleepily, sitting up,
"I was... Hungry?" You say trying not to laugh. He inspects the gooey mass until his sleepy mind finally recognizes it and he wrinkles his nose in disgust,
"How? Just... How?"
"I don't know what to tell you, this is the only thing that sounds good."
"But... Why?"
"Do we really have to go over this again?" You chuckle. There had been jokes at the beginning about having weird cravings, but they hadn't set in until the last week or so, "All I want is spaghetti, but the sauce doesn't taste right. Something about the mustard helps."
He cringes again, shaking his head at you.
"But for breakfast?"
You shrug in answer, slurping up the last noodle.
"The baby wants it." You joke, "Maybe it's a crazy Romanian craving. Your genes are in there too, ya know." He continues shaking his head at you,
"Just keep in mind, we have a lunch date today. Mom's expecting us at 11."
"Yeah, we should probably start getting ready." You say, glancing at the clock. His non-mustard-covered hand strays over to rest on your stomach and suddenly you want to stay right where you are. Nearing your second trimester, you'd begun to show a bit more prominently. On one hand, having nothing in your closet that fit was doing a number on your self image, but on the other, the pride in Sebastian's eyes when you would catch him staring at you made you feel... Strong. Almost beautiful.
Though the thought of your waning clothing options reminds you,
"By the way, I promised Amy I would meet her for an early dinner, we're meeting up around 5 and then going tent shopping."
"Tent shopping?" He asks, and you laugh at the utterly confused look on his face,
"Maternity clothes. I already feel huge, I can't imagine what it's going to be like over the next several months." You groan at the thought, letting your head knock back against the headboard,
"You aren't huge." Sebastian reassures gently, "Honestly, you're hardly showing. Shopping sounds good, though. You haven't gone out in a while."
"We were just at the park on Wednesday."
"Yeah, but you need a girls day." He winks, "I dare you to try to put my savings in jeopardy."
"What? You're not paying."
"Why not?"
"I need to know I can still pay my own way. You've done so much already, I'm starting to feel like a mooch."
"You didn't ask for any of it, though, and you don't expect it from me. Besides, I gotta say... I kinda like buying you stuff." He smirks, scratching his head, looking bashful. You smile sweetly at him,
"You're not paying."
Sebastian rolls his eyes but doesn't argue further, and his smile never fades.
"Come on," you say, finally swinging your legs over the side of the bed, "I'm gonna get dressed and you need to shower, you smell like mustard."
"I wonder why."
.
.
.
"Sebastian!"
You spot an older woman waving to him from up the street, right outside the deli,
"Hey, Ma."
"What kind of hello is that for your mama? You haven't called me in how long and now I finally get you to come out and have lunch. Come here."
She pulls Sebastian into a hug and kisses him on both cheeks, you wait awkwardly as he reciprocates the greeting,
"Y/N, this is my mom, Elisabeta."
"Elise." She corrects as she turns to you. You grow tense under her full attention, wondering what she's thinking of you, but you don't get to worry for long. You reach for a handshake, but she hugs and kisses you the same as her own son, then pulls you into a second hug,
"Congratulations, fiica dolce." You send Sebastian a surprised look as you hesitantly return his mother's hug. He just shrugs and smiles.
"Let's go eat. I'm starving." He cuts in, leading your small group into the pizza shop.
Sebastian has you and his mother save a table while he goes to order, leaving you alone... With this woman you don't know... Who happens to be his mother... The grandmother of your baby.
And you'd always been horrible at small talk.
You choose a table easily enough, picking a booth along the wall and settling in,
"So, then. Tell me all about you. Where are you from? What do you do?" She prompts.
You flounder for a moment, trying to order your thoughts,
"You're scaring her, Ma." Sebastian jokes, sliding into the spot beside you.
"She's not scaring me..."
"See? I'm not scaring her, I just want to get to know her."
"Try starting with easier questions."
He leans back, sitting as he usually does, with his arm across the back of your seat.
"How about 'how did you two meet'?"
You let Sebastian take over, not sure how much he really wants to divulge about your first night,
"Through friends." He says carefully. She waits for more, almost rolling her eyes when he doesn't go on,
"Okay, how long have you been together?"
"...Easier."
"Sebastian, raspunde-mi." You blink a few times before you realize why you didn't understand her,
"De ce conteaza?" He lowers his voice, trying to even his tone,
"Pentru ca my vrei sa spune-m." She leans toward him over the table, covering his hand with hers, "întotdeauna mi spui totul."
Yeah. You need to learn Romanian.
He sighs, gathering courage and surrendering. You don't know what was said, but you know the pleading look she is giving him.
"We met... Two months ago now?"
"Just over three. A friend of mine, George, worked with Seb on a project last year. George invited me to the after party and introduced us."
"You've known each other for three months..." She says, you can see her making the connections and you brace yourself for the lecture. The judgement. But you watch as her expression softens, looking meaningfully from you to her son as he fidgets in his seat.
"How are you?" She asks sincerely after a breath, "I think I was somewhere around three months and I still couldn't keep anything down."
"Oh..." You glance at Sebastian, surprised at how she glossed over the brevity of your relationship, "I think I've passed that stage--"
"We're into the cravings now." He adds with a small shudder. Elisabeta giggles,
"I craved lox on toast and pralines for my entire pregnancy. What's your go-to right now?"
Right on cue, your pizza is delivered to the table,
"Oh, by the way..." Seb begins, digging into his jacket pocket. He produces a handful of mustard packets that he snagged from the condiment bar, "enjoy."
"Mustard?" She asks amusedly,
"On spaghetti, usually. No idea."
For the rest of the afternoon, you listen to stories about Sebastian as a little boy, or Elise's experiences during her own pregnancy, and you tell her a bit about yourself from growing up in Chicago to getting your photography degree at New York Film Academy. The more you talk, the more comfortable you get, but you still freeze when Sebastian drops the bomb that you and he are moving in together, but just like everything else, she takes it in stride, assuring you both that she would be around to help,
"My office is going to make a great nursery." Sebastian insists, launching into the description he laid out for you, his animated excitement proving contagious.
"Do you know yet if you are having a boy or girl? Or if you want to know?"
You share a look with Sebastian,
"We haven't quite decided..." You say finally.
After a bit more chatting, you excuse yourself, knowing you had to get going to meet up with Amy. Parting ways at the front door, you give Lisa a hug. A real hug, with no hesitation.
"Any time you two need help, or if you need advice for anything, just let me know." She says as she pulls away,
"We definitely will."
You both wave as she turns the corner, then head back toward your own apartment.
You walk few blocks in comfortable silence, texting Amy about this evening, leaning into Sebastian when he rests his arm across your shoulders,
"So...?" You ask,
"So what?"
"How do you think it went?" He send you a sidelong glance,
"Turns out she's a lot like me." He says with a small smile, you flush lightly, his phrasing reminding you of the kiss you shared a few days before; but something still wasn't sitting right,
"You're sure she liked me?"
"Positive. She's already talking about us having lunch every Sunday." He chuckles,
"Then what was that little argument about?" He furrows his brow in question, "I don't know what happened, I didn't exactly get any subtitles, but she wasn't too happy about something."
"Oh, that." He scratches the back of his neck absently, "It was nothing, really."
"It didn't seem like nothing." You weren't used to this sort of behavior from him, the fact that he didn't want to tell you something was beginning to put you on edge.
"It wasn't--" he stops and rethinks, rewords, starts again, "She didn't like that I wasn't telling her everything. She's used to me giving her all the information, and I'm used to telling the whole story."
"Why didn't you this time?"
"I just... I was sure she'd like you. I really was, but as we started talking I chickened out thinking about what it would look like from her side of it..."
"'From her side'?"
"You know what I mean. I got scared that she would judge you... Judge us... Even though she's one of the least judgmental people I've ever known. I don't know, it seems stupid now."
You think for a moment, mulling over his words,
"Why did it scare you? Why would it matter?"
He stops with a sigh, turning and looking you in the eyes,
"I wanted her to like you so much..." He smooths your hair back, then kisses you lightly on the cheek and wraps you in a hug, "I wanted her to love you..."
You snuggle into his warm chest, relishing the moment,
"So she's a lot like you, huh?" You tease. He pulls back with a smile and a wink,
"She's just like me."
