The Strypes Pregnancy Series

Cravings

Evan:

You trail behind Evan as he pushes a trolley through the supermarket on one of his rare trips to the shops; since he's away often and doesn't like to be harassed while shopping, you two barely go to places like this together.

"Okay, so for dinner I thought we could get vegetable pie followed by-"

He doesn't get a chance to finish as you feverishly interrupt him. "No, Ev, don't get the pie. Let's get sweets, a huge tub of them."

He stops. "Sweets? I know you might have cravings, but on a serious note you have to eat healthily for the baby. I've even given up Digestives to support you! Come on, don't give up - this baby needs you to eat healthily!"

"Nope, this baby needs Dip Dab more. Look, the sweets aisle is next to the biscuit aisle. I'll go get an assortment and you can get some digestives? Just this once, please..."

He shakes his head but smiles at you. "Fine, just this once."

Josh:

You sit bolt upright in bed, jolting the duvet off Josh who then wakes up too.

"What's up, baby?" he asks sleepily.

"I have the weirdest craving" you moan.

"What is it? Pickles? Cheese? Pickles and cheese? I can get you a burger if you want, McDonalds is probably still open-"

"Soil."

"Soil?!"

"Yeah. Like, I really just want to pick up a handful of dirt right now and shove it in my mouth."

He pauses for a moment. "Actually, that can be perfectly normal. It just means you're lacking some minerals or something."

"Woah, Dr McClorey in the house."

"I read it in a book. Just make sure you're trying to have all your supplements and if it considers we'll go to the doctor."

Pete:

You walk in to see Pete cooking in the kitchen. You tiptoe over to him and wrap your arms around his waist. He turns round and kisses you.

"Soon you won't be able to do that because of the bump" he mumbles warningly.

"What have you got cooking?" you ask with your mouth open.

"I'm making stir fry. There's a version with chilli for me and a version without for you."

"Wait, put chilli in mine, too. Loads of it."

"Okay... But I swear you hate spicy food?"

"Maybe I do, but the baby doesn't! I really, really want chilli right now. I would ask for one whole but you've already chopped them up."

He laughs. "Sure, pet, whatever. Just don't kiss me without brushing your teeth first if you're going to eat whole chillies; even I don't like that much spice!"

"How come you like me then?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, come on. I'm such a spice. I'm spicy hot."

He looks at you weirdly for a moment, then puts down the spoon and kisses you softly.

Ross:

You hear someone unlock the front door and pull off their shoes. You can't be bothered to go downstairs so you shout instead.

"Ross, is that you?"

"Yeah, it is. What's that smell?"

You wrinkle your nose. "What smell? It smells fine up here."

He steps into the bedroom. "Jesus, Y/N, it's worse up here. It's like salty and... Christ, how many packs of those bloody things did you eat while I was at the studio? The whole house smells of them."

You look around, trying to figure out what he's talking about. It takes you a minute to realise he's referring to the huge pile of empty packets of BBQ beef hula hoops.

"What?! They're really nice? Seriously, Ross, I bought like eight twenty-packs. Do you want one?"

"No, they stink. I don't care how nice they taste, I don't want to smell like the inside of a bowel for the next month. Couldn't you have got less disgusting cravings?"

"I had these with chocolate spread for lunch, just you wait."

You giggle as he groans and waves the air in front of him.

"I'm going to open a window and then dispose of all of these. Let's go out for a meal, okay? My treat. We need it."