Ever After New York

The Preparations.

I stand in the center of the apartment, looking around at its not-so-baby-friendly atmosphere and remind myself that Hero and I have done absolutely nothing to prepare for this baby with only three months left to go.

"Hero." I huff.

He looks up from his laptop. "What?"

"We literally have done nothing to prepare for this baby! Where is it going to sleep? What is it going to wear? What are we going to feed it? What are we going to name it?"

"Babe, we have three months to go. I don't think we need to worry about all of that right now." He tells me.

"I at least want to get a nursery ready for it. Which, I don't even know where the hell we're going to put one."

I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration and Hero laughs at my expression. "Why don't we use the loft?"

My eyes widen at him. "Um, no. I'm not putting a newborn up in that loft. I want the baby close to me."

I ponder possible places to put the baby until an idea pops into my head. I walk into the bedroom, towards the closet, and pull the door open.

"What're you looking for?" Hero asks, following me into the room.

"We could use the closet." I suggest.

"What?" He laughs.

"No, seriously. I think this could work. We only use the front half of it. Maybe we can move our clothes towards the back and have a small nursery up front. We can also switch this door out with a sliding one so it's easier to get into."

Hero shrugs his shoulders. "Yeah sure, I don't see why not. And the baby would be much closer... and safer."

I nod my head in approval. "I like this idea. We'll have to call someone to switch out the doors though."

"No we don't. I'll do it."

I look at him with narrowed eyes. "You're going to switch out a door?"

"I don't see how I couldn't. It shouldn't be that difficult." He says.

"Okay well, we should probably go shopping. I don't want to be totally unprepared."

"You want to go out? In public?" Hero asks, surprised.

"I don't care anymore." I sigh. "We're keeping the baby now. People are going to find out sooner or later whether it's because they see me now, or in three months with a baby."

Hero leans over and kisses my forehead. "I'm proud of you."

"I'm proud of me too." I say with a laugh before stepping into the closet. I decided on a navy-blue long-sleeved shirt, overalls, and navy-blue Vans. After throwing my hair up into a ponytail, I step back out of the closet where Hero is waiting for me. He's wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans, bringing back memories of Atlanta and Hardin.

"Ready?" He asks.

I nod my head. "Ready."

***

We drive to an outlet center in downtown Los Angeles. It felt funny going out in a public place, and not doing anything to hide my appearance. But knowing that Hero was with me, and that I was going to be okay helped me not dwell on the idea for too long.

We head into a hardware store first, looking for a door and paint for the nursery.

"What color do you think we should paint the nursery?" Hero asks as we walk towards the paint section.

"I don't know." I say. "A gender-neutral color I suppose."

I look around at the different cards that have samples of the colors on them, trying to get a feel for what I liked. My eyes fall on a soft gray color, and I lift it from the case. "What about this?"