The Delacours: Part Deux

thirty-three.

The sunlight coming through the window pulled me out of limbo. Chris was sitting in his chair, watching me. He had the tip of his thumb in his mouth, smiling.

"What?" I asked, sitting up.

"It's really faint... but you glow a little bit when you lay down."

"The baby gives me magic..." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "Are the twins awake yet?"

"No. I wanted to let them sleep a bit more after yesterday."

"We should have them reconnect when we get back home." Chris nodded. We got up, showered, and got ready for the day, waking up Noah and Ava after we'd cleaned out my room from all the broken furniture.

In the furniture store, I looked up and down every aisle, picking out furniture that was as close to what we had as possible, but I knew Val would notice the difference regardless. I settled on things we could get delivered the same day since we had no way of knowing when she'd be back. Chris led me to the baby furniture section before we left. I was a bit overwhelmed at all the choices.

"I just feel like Val would know what to pick," I said, looking through all the crib choices. "I don't know. Maybe we should just wait."

"Just close your eyes and picture what you want. I'm pretty sure we can find it here..." Chris said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "And if not... we'll look somewhere else. We have time." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, thinking of how I wanted the room to look.

"Hi, is there something I can help you two with?" a young associate said.

"Uh, yeah, actually," Chris started. "We need a new crib. Honey, do you want to tell her what you want?"

"Do you have something that's available in grey?"

"That's actually one of our most popular colors!" She typed something on her tablet and swiped all over the screen. "Do you want something with a changing table attached? Drawers? Convertible style is pretty standard these days."

"Uh, convertible is fine... um, no changing table though. We didn't really use it for our other kids," I said, looking over my shoulder to Noah and Ava who were making weird faces at each other. She laughed.

"Okay, well... all of these," she said, showing me a page off her tablet, "are available in grey. Do you want to see any of them in the store?" I looked at Chris who was quietly scolding the twins and he looked at me, then to the sheet.

"Sorry. Do you like any of those?" he asked, looking over my shoulder.

"Yeah... Can we see this one?" I said, pointing to one. She nodded and walked us over to it.

"So, this crib is a bell body type. The height can be adjusted, and it can be converted to a toddler bed, a day bed, and a full size. It's made with New Zealand pine and it's got a non-toxic, lead-free finish of course. It's a stormy grey, so it's almost black. But it's pretty popular for our parents that want to keep a gender-neutral vibe. Is that too dark?"

"No, not at all! We don't actually know what I'm having."

"Well, it's a beautiful crib, and it's a pretty popular choice! It runs for two hundred dollars without the mattress. The standard mattress adds another sixty dollars. Did you want to add a matching dresser?"

"Uh... No, thanks. I think we've spent enough money here for today," I laughed. "The crib and mattress are fine for now."

"Did you want me to add you to our registry? Keep the dresser on your wish list?"