The Heartbreak Factor - Part Four

Chapter Seventy-Eight.

Rain pattered on the window outside our bedroom as the miserable November morning dawned for another day of non-stop rain and dull greyness. It really wasn’t worth getting out of bed. I hadn’t got the energy to face another day of rubbish weather. I suppose now the idea of moving to Los Angeles that George hadn’t mentioned in nearly two weeks now was starting to sound attractive but I soon pushed the idea back to where it belonged - the back of my mind. 

“Do you know what, Mrs. Shelley?” George paused as he flew back across the room from the doorway and jumped into bed beside me. 

“What, Mr. Shelley?” I giggled. 

“I’m going to pull a sickie and call the boys saying I feel rubbish so we can spend the entire day in bed. We’ll do absolutely nothing all day and we can order pizza and watch crappy films and lounge about in our pyjamas all day and it will be a wasted day but..”

I interrupted him before he had chance to finish what he was saying. “But it’ll be perfect,” I grinned. 

“Exactly.”

“Do it,” I laughed. 

“Do you want to do it for me?” George asked, fluttering his eyelashes and pulling his best attempt at puppy eyes like it would affect me. “The boys know when I’m lying. They won’t kill you for lying to them because you're pregnant.”

“Fine,” I groaned reluctantly and grabbed my phone off the bedside table. “Who do you want me to call?’

“Who do you think will be the easiest to convince?” George paused. 

We then both looked at each other and both said the name in synchronisation. “JJ.”

Grinning, I dialled JJ’s number and placed the phone to my ear, waiting for a response on the other end of the phone line. 

“Sammy, what’s up?” JJ answered within four rings. 

“Hey. I’m really sorry but George won’t be able to make it to the things you have planned today. He’s been up half the night throwing up so I sent him back to bed for some rest. It’s probably just a twenty-four hour bug thing but best to keep him at home so he can rest it off. Will you three be alright without him?” I lied. 

I felt ever so guilty for lying to JJ, but he believed me so I didn’t have to lie too much. He was back in bed resting. It would be a twenty-four hour thing as we were planning to spend the entire day in bed. And he wasn’t up half the night throwing up - I was. So we didn’t really lie too much. In fact, it wasn’t a lie. It was just a little fib. One day off couldn’t hurt anyone. 

As soon as I put the phone back down on the bedside table, I turned to George and smiled. 

“So which film first?” I grinned.

*

My hands always seemed to be placed in the same position nowadays. They were always placed proudly on my baby bump - well, that was so long as George’s hands or Katy’s hands didn’t get there first. I loved sitting with my hands on my babies. It was even better when Katy would snuggle up on my lap with her head resting on my bump. My world. 

“I want the babies to come out all chubby and cute,” George grinned to me as he reached for the box of Malteasers that he had brought up and placed on the end of the bed as we finished the second movie. 

“With vivid memories of Katy’s birth still in my mind, I’m gonna say no - and she was one normal sized baby, let along two chubby babies.”

“Come on, wouldn’t you want cute little chubsters?” George beamed. “Little dimples. Little chubby cheeks that you just want to squeeze. Little chubby arms that you can hold and will hold you when you give them huge cuddles.”

“George, it’ll come at a cost,” I paused. 

“What?”

“Your life.”

George grinned at me, as if I was joking but I was serious - deadly serious. His facial expression soon changed once he realised how serious I was about the whole situation. I tapped my baby bump with one hand as I took a Malteaser from the box that was resting on George’s lap and placed it between my teeth. Crushing it with my teeth, I grinned to him. “It’s as simple as that.” 

George gulped as I crunched the Malteaser again with my teeth, grinding it into millions of tiny pieces in my mouth. “Okay. I hope the babies comes out happy and healthy and cause you no pain at all.”

“That’s better,” I smiled. “And mum said that second baby is always easier than the first so hopefully it shouldn’t be too bad. I hope.” 

“We need to start thinking of baby names now that we know what we’re having,” George suggested. “We weren’t prepared at all with Katy.” 

“Can’t we just wait until the babies arrive so we can look at them and see which names suit them?” I asked. 

George looked at me and nodded. “I suppose. But what about Ethel and Albert?” 

I laughed as I put another Malteaser in my mouth. “Ethel? Albert?” I cackled. “George, we’re having babies - not a ninety year old church parish who enjoy knitting and watching Countdown in their free time.”

“Just a suggestion,” George laughed. “You say some ideas then.”

“No.”

“Why not?” George asked, looking at me in concern.

“Because we chose Katy’s name as soon as we looked at her. I was these babies to have a name that suits them as well. I don’t want us to fall in love with a name for both of them but then as soon as we meet them, they don’t look like the name at all. I want them to both have a name they’ll like - not just because we like it. We aren’t the ones who will live with it for our lives - they will.”

“Okay,” George nodded. “For now, we’ll call them ‘Lilo’ and ‘Stitch’.” 

“Deal,” I giggled.