Over Again

Zwölf // Twelve

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Melanie murmured excitedly, to which Louis smiled at her as he squeezed her hand.

“I’m just as nervous as you are,” he chuckled. “I was scared we wouldn’t get accepted because of my job.”

The female frowned at him and tilted her head to the side, seemingly confused. “You earn, like, a million in a month. How on earth would that negatively affect their decision?”

He shrugged and sighed out heavily, “I’m still away a lot, even though it’s all settled down a little. But we’re off this month, so I hope we have enough time to get used to him or her… Oh my god, we should have talked about this, shouldn’t we? I mean… do you want a boy or a girl?”

Melanie shrugged with a smile that showed nothing but adoration for her husband. “I know you want a boy, Louis. So, I thought we’d take a boy. What do you say? I mean, if you happen to see a girl’s little pony tails and fall in love with her, I don’t mind.” She smiled and Louis grinned brightly from one ear to another.

“Do you even realise how much I love you, Melanie Tomlinson?”

The female chuckled before a woman approached them and the anxiety they had both felt earlier kicked in again. “Mr and Mrs Tomlinson, my name is Anna Whitmore. It’s an honour to have you here and the children are all very excited to meet you. The older ones already made bets on who you would take today,” she chuckled and Louis scratched his nape with a chuckle as well.

“My wife and me are really nervous,” he admitted.

The woman smiled and offered them to come in with a simple gesture of her hand, “There is no need to, Mr Tomlinson. We have looked at your data and we are glad to say that it seems as if the two of you are perfectly made for adoption. We just hope you find what you’re looking for in here.”

Louis and Melanie nodded, both tightening the grips they had on one another as they followed the woman into her office. They heard children laugh and play behind a closed door and suddenly, a small boy bumped into him. “I’m sorry!” He exclaimed and looked up, as his eyes suddenly widened. He hurried off into the room and shouted ‘They are here!’ loud enough for Melanie and Louis to hear, and suddenly, the door was yanked open and at least a dozen of little heads were poking out from behind the door frame.

“Children, would you be so kind to give me another minute or two with Mr and Mrs Tomlinson? They’ll be with you in a couple of minutes, I promise,” Anna told the children, whom she ushered back inside the room. Then she turned to Louis and Melanie again, “as you can see, they are all very excited. Sorry for the interruption.”

“No problem,” Louis replied with a smile.

They followed the woman into her office and sat down at a table as she got out a big yellow folder with the word ‘Tomlinson’ written across it in blue ink. “As I can see here you both had experiences with children within your family and outside. Is that correct?”

“Well, I didn’t have that much experience with children outside my family,” Louis admitted, “but I do have five younger sisters and one younger brother.”

The woman nodded her head, looking at Melanie expectantly, “Um, yes, I have three little siblings and a lot of cousins who are all below ten at the moment. And I worked in a kindergarten twice in my summer holidays when I still went to school. I also worked in the children department in the hospital before I decided to take a break and focus on having children myself.”

“And for how long have you two been married now?”

“About four years,” Louis replied, still holding Melanie’s hand in his. He still felt young, if he was being honest, as he was still being in a ‘boy band’. If he was being honest, he’d thought it would go well for five years, but they had been in the business for ten years now and that felt amazing. “And I still love Melanie like I did when we first started going out – if not even more.”