A Dance of Life

52

Someone knocking on the bedroom door wakes me up and I groan and turn over to face the door, but immediately turn back; I'm only meant to lay down on my left side.

"Hey, babe, you awake?" Nathan's voice says as he pops his head into the room.

"I am now," I groan and slowly sit up. My t-shirt raises, exposing my outie and purple and brown stretch marks. There's a line running from my belly button to my pubic area that wasn't there a few days ago and I quickly pull the shirt down. "What's up?"

Despite the fact that I'm feeling grumpy from my interrupted sleep, I'm actually happy to see him. Ever since that day at the court, I've been more open about my feelings, making sure he knows how much I care about him.

"It's time to get ready," he smiles, entering the room. He's playfully trying to hide a gift bag behind his legs, so to appease him, I play along and ignore it as he sits on the bed beside me.

"Ready for what?" I say. Pregnancy brain plus waking up from sleep brain isn't the best combination.

"Your baby shower, birthday party thingymabob," he says, nudging my knee and earning a laugh from me.

"That's today?" I sigh, remembering what it means.

"Yeah, and tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow is going to be the last time I'm going to see Pat for a while." I pout slightly as my jaw quivers.

One day. I have one day left with my best friend. Looking back, I'm unsure how two weeks disappeared. We spent the weekend after the trial relaxing, lounging for hours in the pool at the Airbnb till our skin wrinkled and our skin browned in the summer sun. But come Tuesday, my dad 'encouraged' us to start preparing for moving back to Salsburg.

I put it off for a couple of days, knowing that packing up my belongings from the apartment would reinforce the fact that I was moving a thousand miles away from Pat. But noticing how excited the kids were to go somewhere they could call home, I eventually gave in and started packing up. We sent most of the boxes ahead of us, they were mainly my stuff; the kids didn't have much to send. Seeing that, my dad made it his mission to splurge on them, taking them shopping for clothes and trinkets, as well as planning for their individual rooms at the house. Diana spent the rest of her free time planning the baby shower with Pat, both of them forcing me to take more pictures as my tummy increased dramatically in size.

Nathan holds my face with one hand and squeezes my cheeks a couple of times. "No tears today, Anna Banana."

I swat his hand away and narrow my eyes at him, the corner of my lip lifting slightly. "Anna Banana?"

"See, I told Diana that was a bust but she insisted," he sighs, shaking his head.

I playfully push him away then pull him towards me. He turns his body to face me and lays his hand lightly on my belly while I lay his head on my chest. We stay like that for a little while, lost in our own thoughts and just enjoying each other's company.

"Where's everyone, by the way?" I ask, massaging his scalp as he rubs me with his thumb, coaxing some movement from the babies.

"They went ahead to finalize everything," he says. One of them kicks directly where his palm is and he chuckles. "I'll never get used to that."

"How do you think I feel? And it's only going to get worse," I laugh. He presses slightly, earning a stronger kick in response.

"Did that hurt?" He says softly, glancing up at me.

"Nah, it's okay. That one does it all the time." He looks back down, fascinated at what's going on inside me. "Are you ready to be a dad, Nathan?" I ask under my breath, suddenly feeling nervous about our future.