Helpless | A Modern Hamliza Story

Chapter Twenty-One

"One week?!" Eliza groaned in frustration, waddling her way downstairs to get some breakfast after a long fought battle to get clothes on.

It was January, but she was in a tank top that basically fit as crop top at this point and her shortest pair of pajama shorts she owned just to keep herself cool. Being nine months pregnant at any time was hot and sweaty, including January apparently, and Eliza couldn't imagine being nine months pregnant in the summer.

Eliza was officially a week overdue, at 41 weeks and 1 day. She didn't want to do much of anything expect get the baby out.

She'd tried just about everything to induce labor, taking long walks, having sex (though that task proved much easier said than done at full term), spicy foods. She wouldn't go near the castor oil, so the last best option seemed to be pineapples. If this didn't work, she was going to have a long conversation with Hercules Mulligan about how he jinxed her going so far passed her due date.

"How am I still pregnant?!" Eliza cried once she saw her husband fixing a bowl of cereal and fruit for breakfast. "This baby is stubborn, and I partially blame it on Mulligan. I'm going to spout off a bunch of not so nice words to him if this baby isn't out by the end of the day."

Alexander laughed, though still feeling sympathetic for his wife. She truly did look miserable, but if she was willing to go cuss out one of their friends, you knew she was truly upset.

"I'm sorry, baby, but you haven't even had any real contractions yet. Anything could happen, but I seriously doubt he's coming in the next twenty-four hours."

Eliza groaned again. She didn't like to sound ungrateful, but she was hot, uncomfortable, and completely miserable for lack of better words. She knew it was likely she would go passed her due date because it was her first baby, but she was not expecting to go a whole week.

"Can you cut the pineapple? I've heard it helps induce labor really well for many women," Eliza asked, looking for the thermostat to turn down the heat. She found it, and saw that it was turned up to 72 with heat. "God, no wonder it's so freaking hot in here."

"I can cut the pineapple right after we eat breakfast. Also, it's only hot to you because you're pregnant. Don't turn it down too much; I don't want to freeze," Alexander said, putting two bowls of cereal and two bowls of fruit on the table.

Eliza crossed her arms, looking at him sadly.

"How come you can't cut the pineapple now?" she asked, her lower lip jutting out as she tried to look at him cutely.

"Just relax, Eliza. The baby will come when he wants to. He just finds his home right now to be comfy," Alexander countered, too hungry to get up at the moment to fix Eliza some pineapple.

"Don't tell me to relax!" Eliza snapped. "I'm the one carrying your giant baby a week longer than I planned to!"

Alexander took a step back, arms out in surrender. She honestly hadn't been all that hormonal throughout the pregnancy, with only a few moments where she really got snippy with Alexander or got more needy. In fact, he had seen her get more snappy at him in the past week than throughout the entire pregnancy. He didn't blame her either. He couldn't imagine carrying around a watermelon a week later than planned.

"I'm sorry. I'll get the pineapple now," Alexander consoled, walking over to his wife to give her a sweet apologetic kiss on the forehead.

He then walked over to cutting board, grabbing the appropriate knife before beginning to cut into the extra big pineapple Eliza had bought yesterday when she went out on a craving spree, or what she called 'the baby wants it' craving spree.