Things We Lost In the Fire

Revelation

January 12, 1999

"Wow Jazz, look at your belly. What're you, three...four months?", P laughed, running his warm hand along my protruding abdomen. As I laid out on my new sofa, he had been kneeling on the floor next to me acting like a weirdo, gawking in amazement by how big I was. "I'm shocked at how big you are!"

I scoffed, "Stop rubbing it! You're responsible babe, I hope you know you did this to me."

He smirked at my accusation. "Hey, no one told you to eat five blueberry pancakes and two slices of quiche. Now look at you, gotta big food baby in you. I mean I know my pancakes are amazing but damn. I bet you're gonna blow the toilet up later. You just moved in, after you're finished stanking up the bathroom, you'll have to repaint."

Rolling my eyes at his foolishness, I watched Noah walk over and stand next to P, chewing on a cold piece of pancake. Touching my stomach with his sticky little finger, he asked, "Baby in mommy's tummy?"

As P tried to explain to him why my stomach was so big, all this baby talk reminded me of what I was finally given the green light to tell him. "So, speaking of babies...in about six or so months, there will be a new addition making it's debut in this family." Snapping his head in my direction, all the color drained from his face and his hazel eyes grew wide in shock. I realized from his reaction I should have worded that better. "Oh no, no, no! I don't mean me, baby I'm not pregnant! Morgan and her fiancé are having a baby."

He let out a sigh of relief. "Jazzy, don't scare me like that. You had me thinking this wasn't really a food baby. I was about to be pissed you hid a pregnancy from me fo—"

"Chill out! I think Kim left that perm on too long last time because you're buggin'. Me and you didn't go half on a baby."

"Wait, did you say Morgan's fiancé?"

I sat up and said, "Yeah, that was the other news. Turns out, on New Years Eve Woody popped the question. They're setting the date for early September."

I couldn't help but smile as Noah squirmed when P tried to wipe the syrup off his face with a wet napkin. Sinking his petite frame into the couch cushion, he pulled my left leg into his lap. "September huh?"

"Yep. I thought they would have wanted to do it before the baby came, but Morgan said she didn't want to have a big belly in a wedding dress."

"Well at least he's marrying her, that's commendable."

Throwing my head against the back of the couch I exhaled, "Yeah, I suppose. I'm happy for them, but between me and you I feel like this is more of a shotgun wedding. Woody's cool, he's like my brother but they've only known each other since like July. I mean it's obvious he loves her but, I feel like it's rushed."

"So if you got pregnant you wouldn't want to get married? You know if you were in her shoes, to the father of the baby?"

My eyes widened, but I realized he wanted me to see it from a different perspective. "I don't know, I don't think I can give a definitive answer to that. I just feel like to marry someone, you have to know for sure that's the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, not because it's an obligation you know?" I noticed his body tense up as he shook his head. Silence filled the family room for what seemed like an eternity until we heard random giggles from down the hall.

He smirked, "So will you be needing a date?"

"I'm the maid of honor so no, not necessarily. Morgan said you were invited, but I wasn't sure if you'd want to come. People coming up to you, asking questions. I didn't want you to be uncomfortable, I know you can be shy."