The Good Life

Chapter 29

Marla woke up at about 10:30 to take her medicine and to make her way to her bed. She crashed. Out cold, her phone rang at 3:30 in the morning. Of course Bruno would call her that late at night. She almost didn’t answer the phone, not wanting to think about what was going on.

“Marrrrlaaaaa.” he said in the phone.

“Brunno…I was asleep!” she yawned sitting up, pushing the cat from her feet.

“I’m sorry.” He said a bit more quietly. “You didn’t call me after the doctor’s appointment, though. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. What happened?”

“Oh…I meant to, I just fell asleep after I got home from work.” she responded. “It was positive.” she finished he sentence simply.

“Oh! Oh! Oh my god!” he screamed into the phone. His reaction got the attention of his brother. He just shook his head and rolled his eyes. Eric gave him a ‘oh..girlfriends’ look.

Marla pulled the phone away from her head. She hadn’t heard that loud of a voice in a long time.

“Bruno! It’s 3:30 in the morning! You’re going to wake up my neighbors!” she exclaimed.

“But it’s exciting!” he responded.

“Exciting? I’m scared shitless.” she told him.

“Trust me, Marley. Everything will be okay.” he comforted her as she started to close her eyes.

“What am I supposed to do, Bruno? I was supposed to graduate with a Masters degree 3 months after this baby is born. I have another internship to start in two months with ACS. How am I going to support all of this? School stress me out enough….you stress me out…a mini Bruno and school? What am I going to do? What am I going to do? Oh my god oh my god oh my god….”

He let her go on while he sat next to his brother eating a bowl of cereal. He had long since learned to let her ramble about the things that bothered her, that made her worry and that made her cry before he started to try to comfort her. She went on as she took a deep breath and yawned. “Mar…it’s not an “I” it’s a “we” and “we” will not only get you through this, but it will be the most amazing…” he got up with his bowl not sure if the rest of his conversation was quite right for his brother to hear yet. “most amazing thing that we have been through together. You did know I have like 1000 nieces and nephews and cousins. I can change a diaper with my eyes closed. And I have mad baby-sitting skills. Josh says dad looks good on me.”

“What?” she was suddenly awake. He had never shared this with her. She knew that he would eventually want to have a family and would be good with children, but she didn’t know that he was that good. Before these events, she really hadn’t even thought about the next step in their relationship. She just wanted to get through to the next day.

“Yeah, I was voted number one uncle one year.” he laughed.

“Oh my god. Shut up.” she laughed, still half awake. His unbelievable confidence started to comfort her. She thought he would be as scared about this as she was. It turned out he was more comfortable with the idea of having a child than she was.

“When do you go to the doctor again?” he asked her. She didn’t answer his question. “Mar? Are you awake? I love you. I love us. “He waited for her to roll over onto the phone, she always rolled over on the phone when they talked early/late in the morning.