Hidden Truths

Chapter Cincuenta

Warning: mature content ahead. Symbols ahead if you want to skip ⚠️ ⚠️

"What exactly am I supposed to buy for a baby that has no gender yet?" Sky pondered as Zara and I roamed the baby store, looking for both gifts for Kat's baby, as well as final touch accessories for the shower tomorrow.

"Oh, no one told you?" Zara responded, her eyes still wandering through the various baby clothing.

"Please don't tell me everyone knows the gender but us" I exclaimed, referring to Sky and myself, who seemed to be out of the loop.

"No, no! I don't know the gender yet. Neither does Kat or anyone else. But she asked if the baby shower could also be a sort of gender reveal, so we're all going to find out together!"

I sighed in relief. I knew there was no way I had missed that important bit of information.

"Ooh how adorable is this!" Sky held up the cutest and tiniest bear onesie I had ever seen.

"Aw you guys!" this time Zara was holding up the fluffiest pink tutu.

I stood there with a smile on my face as I observed the girls running around and finding baby clothes, one cuter than the other.

I had never been in a baby store before. I mean, I had no purpose to. So, to say I was overwhelmed was an understatement.

There were so many pregnant women, women with babies in their prams, women with their husbands... or just their baby daddies.

Although, babies were the least of my worries at that moment.

For the past week I had barely seen Elijah. In fact, it often felt like he was avoiding me. When I did see him, he seemed stressed out and looked like he had barely been getting any sleep. Scratch that, I knew he was barely getting any asleep because I was sleeping in his room and more often than not I'd fall asleep waiting for him to come to bed, and then awoke to an already empty bed.

Maybe he had grown bored of me? Maybe he didn't want to be with me anymore, but he didn't know how to tell me...

Or maybe I was just overreacting and he has simply been busy with actual business.

I had tried talking to him about what was going on, but he would brush it off as 'business'. Yet out of all the guys it seemed this 'business' was affecting him the most.

Whilst planning the baby shower with Zara, I learnt that I wasn't the only one feeling like I was getting pushed aside.

Xavier and Zara had been engaged for almost 2 years. Zara had explained that she was over the moon when Xavier finally proposed after they had been together for 5 years, yet she felt as though they were still boyfriend/girlfriend since Xavier kept putting off the wedding, and to no ones surprise, his excuse was also the fact that he was very busy with 'business'.

"Okay, I think we have everything!" Zara announced as she rolled around the trolley, filled to the brim with clothes, toys and party accessories.

"This better be everything because I am exhausted!" Sky slumped down against the wall.

She wasn't kidding. We were all exhausted. When we finally returned home, we all collapsed onto the couches, trying to catch our breath.

"Oh, come on now girls, there's no time for slacking, we have a party to create!" Penelope emerged from the kitchen with Aiden's mother, Mariana, which had Sky immediately sitting up straight.

"Por favor, dame dos minutos" I knew enough Spanish by now to know that Zara had asked them for two more minutes.

"Vale, you two come help us set up while Zara rests here."