There's No Way

Baby Town

[Shawn's POV]

I sleepily blinked my eyes open and groaned at the unwelcome and shrill sounding of my alarm. Luckily for me, the hangover wasn't nearly as bad as it had been the first time we had our little tequila party - but I definitely didn't feel 100%. I looked over next to me to see Camila still sleeping peacefully next to me. She was laying on her back, her hair splayed over the pillow. The white sheet that was covering her was pulled down slightly, just barely covering her nipples. I couldn't help but laugh at the wide array of purple and pink marks that were peppered over her neck and chest - apparently I did a pretty good job at recreating that part. I leaned over and began to press gentle kisses over each of the marks in an attempt to wake her up. It must've worked, because soon enough I felt delicate fingers tangle into my hair as a barely-audible moan escaped her lips. I chuckled and brought my lips up to hers, giving her a quick kiss before pulling away.

"As much as I'd love to do this all day, we need to start getting ready for work..." I said as I got out of bed and stretched out my tired limbs. She let out a disappointed groan. My eyes carefully surveyed her barely-covered body once more, noticing the white sheet had fallen down to reveal her nipples, which were now much harder than they had been before.

"Although..." I said as I took a step over to her side of the bed. "...we could always save time by showering together?" I suggested with a smirk. Without missing a beat, she wrapped her arms around my neck as I carried her into the bathroom.

——

"You're lucky it's scarf weather...I mean seriously? I'm pretty sure this is way worse than it was the first time," Camila complained as she examined the damage I had done on her neck.

"Maybe..." I said as I planted a kiss to her cheek, "...it was worth it though." She rolled her eyes.

"Very worth it."

On the drive to work, we discussed our plans for Christmas a bit more. I had woken up to a text from my mom confirming that both of my parents as well as my little sister, Aaliyah, would be coming to visit us for the holidays. Both of our families would be staying at a hotel just a few minutes from our house. We thought about letting a couple of them stay in the room that was initially Camila's, but they were all fine with the hotel idea - and we liked knowing that we would still have some privacy and time to ourselves.

"Do you think our sisters will get along?" Camila asked me as I continued driving us to work.

"I think so. From the things you've told me about Sofi, it definitely sounds like she and Aaliyah are pretty similar; I can't imagine they won't like each other." Camila nodded and squeezed my hand.

"What if your parents don't like me?" she asked nervously. I could tell she was more than a little nervous about the meshing of our two families.

"They already like you," I said simply. She shook her head.

"Shawn, they don't even know me. What if once they know me they don't like me? What if our parents freak out about the engagement?" She was in a full-blown panic spiral at this point. I squeezed her hand again before bringing it up to my lips to kiss it.

"You're worrying about it too much, baby. I'm sure they'll definitely be shocked - but I know they'll love you. And you make me happy, as long as I'm happy my parents are happy." She took a deep breath as she tried to calm her nerves about the whole situation.

"My parents are gonna love you..." she said with a soft smile.

"Yeah?"

"Oh for sure, my mom especially. She's literally gonna be obsessed with you." We both laughed. From what I had heard of Camila's mom, she has a tendency of treating everyone she meets as if they were her own child. She would even insist that Camila's friends growing up call her 'mama', which I thought was the sweetest thing ever.

——

We hadn't formally announced our engagement to our coworkers, instead we opted to just let them make the connection on their own. Apparently today was the day that Alice had made that connection because it wasn't long after she was excitedly talking to Camila at her desk that she sauntered over to mine.

"That's quite the ring your lady has on her finger! Boy, if I would've know it was you she was seeing I wouldn't have pushed so hard to get her to go out with my son's friend. You two are perfect for each other," she beamed.

"Thank you, Alice. I think we are too," I said with a smile.

"So, next stop is baby town - right?" she said with a wink. I just awkwardly laughed and nodded before turning my attention back to my computer as she made her way back to her desk. Other than the Lucas scare she had several months ago, Camila and I had never really talked about starting a family. I felt like an idiot for not bringing that up with her before asking her to marry me. I guess this is what I get for being so spontaneous.

Work was slow and monotonous just like any other Monday. Both Camila and I were incredibly relieved when it was finally 5 o'clock and we could both leave for the day. We decided to stop and get dinner at a local pizza place before heading home. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to talk to her about what Alice had joked about earlier that day.

"Hey, uh - can I ask you something?" I asked nervously. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"Sure, go for it."

"Do you...would you ever want to have kids? I mean no pressure right now, obviously. I just realized that we had never really talked about what we both wanted as far as...you know, expanding our family," I rambled. She sat there silently with her chin in her palm and watched me nervously rant, a soft smile forming on her lips as I finished my sentence.

"I would really love to be a mom someday," she finally said. I let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Oh, good. Me too. I mean, I would love to be a dad someday - not a mom," I muttered. Camila just shook her head and laughed.

"I think we'd be like...the coolest parents. Don't you think?" she asked as she shoveled a large slice of pineapple and jalapeño pizza into her mouth.

"Oh yeah - the coolest."