A royal pain in the ass

Chapter 1 'Nice to meet you too..'

Chapter 1 'Nice to meet you too..'

As soon as I got up this morning, I felt this was going to be another wonderful day. The sun was shining right through my white curtains, and I could almost hear the waves of the ocean slamming against the rocks. How I love Australia. 

I'm sitting at the table downstairs, reading the new Elle, when a brownhaired man coms running down the stairs. I look up at him and start to laugh. 

'James!' I call out between my laughs.

'What?!' He answers in a stressed voice as he turns his head towards me. 

'Your shirt has been bottomed up the wrong way! You look like a mess.' I reply, now finding it hard to control my laughter. 

'I know, I know! I overslept!' He exclaims while rolling his eyes. 

'Here let me help you.' I say while rolling my eyes back at him and I walk towards him. He stops in the middle of his tracks and allows me to unbutton his shirt and to re-do all the buttons. 

'Ohh this is such a turn-on you know!' He says with a goofy smile. I look at him and quirk my left eyebrow at his unmistakable grin. How he loves to tease me.  

'I know right' I wink at him as I turn around, playing along.

'Too bad I don't fall for pregnant girls!!' His manly voice shouts behind me, followed by hysterical laughter.

I turn around and pinch my eyes at him, he always does this! Going a little too far with his jokes, but he knows I'll forgive him for it. It's just how he is.

'Well I don't fall for gay men!!' I shout back and copy his hysterical laugh, followed by a laugh of my own. How crazy must this seem for any other person on this earth. This time, he's the one that pinches his eyes together. Suddenly he realises something as he wide opens his eyes.

'Sofie! You're distracting me! I'm running late!' He exclaims with terror in his eyes. He immediately continues with what he was doing and runs in and out of the room. I'm laughing at him evilly, not that I meant to distract him, but hey karma.

After a minute or so he coms running back into the room and stops before me as he looks down at me, still panting a little.

'You know I love you Soof.' He says with tenderness as he grabs my arms.

'I know, love you too' I reply with a grin.

He smiles a goofy smile and plants a kiss on my mouth before rushing out the door.

'See you tonight! Have a nice... ' He shouts while walking out, the rest of his sentence not audible any more.

'You too' I say aloud to the now empty looking room. Another day alone with my little worm inside my swollen belly.

I decide to clean up the table and go dress myself. I pull on a maxi skirt with a loose shirt, carefully putting it over my stomach. I've been pregnant for 7 months now, and my belly has swollen clearly. I braid my long, brown hair and grab my bag with phone and keys. As I walk outside the warming sun immediately shines brightly into my face and I quickly put my oversized sunglasses on. 

I walk down the street towards the citycenter of Sydney, enjoying the comfortable morning warmth of the city. I'm still not used to the climate even when I already live here for 6 months. In this time my surroundings have grown quite familiar with me. I know how to walk towards the beach, the library, some parks and the coffee-shop of Mrs Adams, the aunt of James. Since I'm pregnant I decided not to search for a job and just wait till the child-birth. So now I'm enjoying Australia, walking around to all kinds of places. 

I decide to go and see Mrs Adams, or Rose, the name she always insists me to call her since we're practically family. After a short walk of 10 minutes I already see the dark green frontage of her coffee shop. It's past the busiest hour of the day, when everyone gets a coffee before their work starts, so I hope I can say hello. As soon as I open the door, I notice that there's almost no-one inside. There's only an old couple sitting at the window and some teenage boys at the back. Pfiew, somehow I've developed a fear for busy areas. May be because I'm always watching my surroundings, scared to see them.

'Sofie! Darling! How good to see you!' A chubby woman with short blond dyed hair exclaims as she walks from behind a counter. She rushes towards me and immediately envelops me into a hug, which is kinda hard with my fat belly, that always seems to be in my way. 

'Hello mrs Adams. Oh I mean Rose!' I greet her back, while slowly pulling out of the awkward hug. I look up at her and clearly see the resemblance with James. Both have bright green eyes and a small nose, something James hates about his face. I think it looks cute, but he doesn't want to listen to me.

'Oh well how's the little one doing?' Rose asks, not hearing my mistake, as she carefully touches my belly. I allowed her to do that a long time ago, so I'm not amazed by her touching me. Still I feel uncomfortable when people do that. I quickly shake of the thought.

'Well she is doing just fine!' I reply with a smile. I found out that I'm having a girl only a week ago and I'm still not over the shock. I don't mind whether it's going to be a girl or boy but when they told me what it was going to be, I was in a small shock. The fact that I'm actually having a child starts to get a little more real by time.

'Wait, what? She? It's going to be a girl? O my god, this is amazing. Congratulations!' She sqeals, while pulling me into another hug. I start to grin widely, proud of my baby.

'So? Have you decided on the name yet?' Rose asks with curiousness in her eyes. 

'Well.. I'm not really sure. I'm thinking of Charlotte. I can't really decide, there are so many names!'

'I like Charlotte! Just see for yourself, there'll come a time you know it.' She replies with a knowing look. She has 2 children of her own and I know I can always come to her with questions.

'Yeah we'll see! But uh, could I please use your bathroom? She is killing my bladder at the moment!' I ask while rolling my eyes. I really do have to go often to the toilet due to this little worm. 

'Of course sweetie! It's at the back on your right, you'll see it when you're there!' Rose says with tenderness in her voice as she walks back to the counter and continues cleaning up. I rush to the back and I immediately see the unmistakable sign of a woman.

After I'm done, I quickly walk out of the bathroom towards the counter. But what my eyes didn't see were the small dozen of shoppingbags that were next to the boys' table. A small pains shoots up into my toe as I bump my left foot against one of the bags. I stumble a little, out of balance and everything starts to spin. I see the ground coming closer and closer. But just before I hit the ground, two strong hands catch me. 

I let the air that I was holding back out of relieve. That was close. I feel the cold tiles against my back as the person lays me softly down on the ground. I slowly open my eyes and blink a couple of times at the face that's hanging above me. When I gain a sharp sight again I quickly squeeze my eyes together as a small squeak escapes from my lips. It's a face I never wanted to see again. 

Please squeeze me, so I'll wake up from this nightmare. 

~~~