The Girl Next Door | Baby Daddy

5.1 | Carriage Ft. Marriage

"I'm surrounded by so much pink right now and I don't know which window I should jump out of." I muttered flatly as I sat motionless on the couch. I had just endured five hours of hearing Bonnie's friends gossip about god knows what and explaining Emma wasn't my daughter.

"If I never hear the words 'that's so cute!' ever again, I will die a happy man." Ben commented from next to me. He was dressed in a nice button down, a lei made out of a string of pacifiers around his neck.

"Wasn't that cute!" Bonnie exclaimed when the last guest had filtered out of the apartment. Almost all of the guests at the baby shower had been Bonnie's friends, meaning middle aged women we didn't even know.

"And, there goes my last chance of happiness." Ben added as he slumped on the couch as if his entire body was numb from the five hours of high pitched squealing and endless parenting tips.

I stood up and smoothed down my magenta dress that I had borrowed from Riley since she insisted I wear pink and it was the closest thing to pink I'd let her put on me. Riley and Danny were already cleaning up, scooping plastic cups and cake plates into trash bags.

"At least there was cake." I shrugged, grabbing a clean plastic fork from the counter and taking a bite of the leftover cake, which had a pale yellow duck frosted on it.

"Really, Cassie? Has your sister not been an example?" Bonnie suggested, glancing at the fork in my hand. I maintained constant eye contact as I slowly popped the bite of cake into my mouth, dragging my teeth against the prongs just to spite her.

"No amount of football and beer pong can erase what I have just endured." Danny mumbled, staring blankly at the streamers and balloons in various shades of pink strewn across his apartment.

I hadn't exactly been excited about going to the baby shower. Of course I wanted to be there for Ben and Emma, but with every box of diapers and Gerber onesie Ben reluctantly unwrapped, I was just reminded that I had had a pregnancy scare and I hadn't even mentioned it to my boyfriend. I didn't have the slightest protocol what a situation like this called for. I had an obligation to tell him, didn't I?

Or should I have just ignored it? I wasn't actually pregnant. Several different brands of home pregnancy tests had confirmed that. But did Ravi still have a right to know?

"Ay, girl, you gonna help us clean up?" Tucker tested, snapping me out of the trance I had fallen into, staring off into space as the rest of the apartment's occupants cleaned. "You gotta make up for not bringing a gift somehow."

"Okay, first of all, I did get Emma a gift, but I'm waiting to give it to here when she's awake." I said, rolling my eyes at Tucker.

Tucker scoffed. "Well I got Ben a gift too. Try to compete for 'Ben's best friend' now." I knew he was just teasing, but I played along.

"My gift to Ben is free child care. I haven't heard any complaints yet." I responded.

"And you're not gonna." Ben piped in briefly, pointing at me, immediately tuning out to continue pulling down streamers from the walls and wadding them up to stuff them into plastic garbage bags.

"What are you even gonna do with all this stuff?" Danny questioned, holding up the box for a wipes warmer, giving it a dubious look.

"Actually, I was thinking of keep that." Tucker decided, smiling as he look the box. We gave Tucker strange looks, which he took a moment to notice. "What? Emma's the only one that can enjoy the comfort of a warm towelette?" He defended himself.

Danny stared off dreamily. "That does sound nice..."

"Don't worry, Ben. All this stuff can be returned." Riley whispered to Ben.