In My Shoes (37 page)

Jake wasn’t going to be home for an hour and
a half, and that’s if everything went well. So, I decided to watch
a movie. I hadn’t seen
Moulin Rouge
in a while. I’ve loved
that movie since I first saw it as a teenager. Jake didn’t really
like it, so I don’t put him through it.

Actually, I almost turned it off after the
first fifteen minutes the first time I watched it. I’m glad I
didn’t, though. After that, the music was amazing and the story
actually started making sense. It’s funny how a movie I almost
turned off became one of my favorite musicals ever. Now that I know
the whole story, the first fifteen minutes aren’t even so bad.

The nice thing about watching
Moulin
Rouge
alone is that I can sing all of the songs without
bothering anyone. Well, except maybe the baby. Although, I couldn’t
help but think the baby liked it. When he doesn’t like something, I
can feel a nice swift kick that feels like he’s bouncing on my
kidneys. This was more of a slow rolling kick, which I usually felt
when he seemed to be happy. Interestingly enough, it usually
coincided with when
I
was happy.

My frustration with Jake seemed to subside as
I had dinner and watched the movie. This wasn’t so bad, though it’s
not really about whether I can find a way to entertain myself or
not.

It’s more about knowing my husband will be
there when I need him. He is, though. Jake really is great. He’s
been to every doctor’s appointment so far for the baby. That’s
probably why he’s late tonight. I just wish he would have thought
about it earlier and let me know sooner. Oh well, nobody’s perfect,
right?

Jake came in toward the end of the movie.

“Ahh…
Moulin Rouge
, huh?” he asked as
he kissed me on my forehead.

“Yeah, although I should have made you suffer
through it for being late,” I said, playfully.

“I’ll allow my ears to bleed for you
anytime,” he played back. He doesn’t like musicals.

“Ha…ha…ha.”

“So, how’s my favorite child?”

“You’d better be talking about the baby.”

“I am,” he said rolling his eyes. “Am I still
in trouble?”

“Not at the moment, but you’ve still got
time.”

“You only get the foot massage if it gets me
out of trouble.”

“When I get the foot massage, you’ll
officially be out of trouble.”

“Hmm…let me get a bite to eat and I’ll get
started.”

“I made you a plate. It’s in the fridge.”

“Thank you, Love.”

He heated up his food and brought his plate
and a glass of milk over to the couch where I was sitting.

“The baby’s fine, by the way.”

“Good,” he said, rubbing my belly. I love it
when he does that. Not anybody else, but I love it when he does
it.

“We’re getting pretty close,” I said. “We
probably should decide on a name.”

“I still like Evan Keith.”

“Evan Keith Matthews. It’s good, but you
don’t think it’s weird having his first name so close to my maiden
name?”

“No, my opinion hasn’t changed since the last
time you asked me,” he said smiling. I gave him a playful shove,
and he started coughing. “Hey, I’m eating here,” he said, feigning
irritation.

“Sorry,” I said, smiling.

“I think it’s a good name, and it has family
ties with it. We still have a few weeks, so we don’t have to decide
tonight. If I had to choose tonight, that would be my vote.”

“Okay. Evan Keith. My dad will like it.”

“I would imagine so.”

He finished his food, washed the dishes and
motioned for me to turn myself around as he sat back on the couch.
“Oh, wait,” he said getting up and leaving the room.

After a minute, he returned with lotion. He
grabbed my left foot and started massaging it. He gives the best
massages.

“That feels
really
good,” I said.

“Well, I would hope so.”

“My feet are so swollen.”

“It’s temporary. You’ll spring back after the
baby is born.”

“I hope so.”

“Me, too,” he said smiling. I kicked him. Not
hard enough to hurt. Just hard enough to playfully make my
point.

“Umph. Thanks for that.”

“Anytime,” I said, smiling big.

“Remind me never to meet you in a dark
alley.”

“Don’t you forget it. You should just be glad
you don’t have to be carrying a bowling ball around in your
stomach. You should be thankful you’ll never have to know what this
feels like. Not to mention, the fact that I have to go to the
bathroom every twenty minutes. And sometimes…I feel like a pinball
machine.”

“Well, it could be worse,” he said, finishing
up my right foot, “you could have to deal with the woman who is
carrying around a bowling ball in her stomach and has to go to the
bathroom every twenty minutes.”

He was joking, but it’s not the first time
I’ve heard that joke, and it’s still not funny. I pulled my foot
away.

“Oh, come on…I’m just joking around with
you.”

“It’s not funny.”

“Well, what am I supposed to say when you
start talking about how I should be glad I’ll never have to go
through all that stuff? I’m sorry you have to go through it all,
but it’s not my fault.”

“Last time I checked, you got me
pregnant!”

“Last time
I
checked, we made that
decision together. This is how the process works, Nicole. I get you
pregnant, you carry the baby, we both raise it.”

“Yeah, not exactly a fair trade there.”

“Maybe not, but it’s still not my fault. I
don’t make the rules on pregnancy.”

“And if you had, I’m sure you would have
decided to make it so the man carries the baby, right?”

“Well, it couldn’t be any worse than having
to deal with this? What are we even arguing about?”

“We’re arguing about the fact that you are
insensitive.”

“Nicole, I was just joking. What happened to
your sense of humor?”

“Nothing has happened to my sense of humor. I
have no trouble laughing when I hear something that is funny.”

“Honey,” he said, trying to bring his tone
back down, “we need to stop this. It’s not good for you or the
baby. I’m sorry if I offended you. I’m sorry you are uncomfortable.
You don’t have much longer, and then the baby will be born, and
you’ll start to feel better.”

Once again, I took a deep breath. It hasn’t
been like this the whole pregnancy, but I seem to be taking lots of
deep breaths over the last week. I don’t know why I get so worked
up over things. Insensitive or not, I usually handle things better
than this. All of a sudden, a wave of emotion came over me and I
started crying.

“Sweetheart, please don’t cry. I’m
sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. This whole thing is dumb. I
don’t even know why I’m crying.”

“I’m sure it’s perfectly normal. It’s
just…well, it’s just your hormones are all out of whack right
now.”

I started crying even harder.

“Nicole,” he said hugging me. He didn’t
finish his thought. He just kept holding me, and I slowly gained my
composure.

I snuggled my head in Jake’s chest, and
everything just melted away. I don’t know how much time passed, but
we stayed like that for a while.

Before I knew it, it was time to head up to
bed.

“So, did you have a tough day?” Jake asked as
we crawled under the covers.

“No, not really. I mean, right now every day
is uncomfortable, but it wasn’t really a bad day. I just can’t wait
for…Evan…to be born.”

“That’s the first time you’ve called the baby
Evan.”

“Yeah, it felt kind of nice. It makes it a
little more real.”

“It’s going to be very real very soon.”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling at him.

“I love you. Sleep well.”

“I’ll try,” I said as he gave me a kiss
goodnight.

Chances were slim to none I was going to
sleep well tonight. I haven’t really slept well in weeks. Normally,
I would sleep on my back, which I can’t do being this far along in
my pregnancy. I’ve had to sleep on my left side to keep the blood
circulating, and I’m just not used to doing that.

As I lay in bed in the dark, I started
thinking about the day. It had gone fairly smoothly for most of the
day. At lunch time, Jake and I had an ultrasound and got to see the
baby. That has been my favorite part of the week these days. The
doctor said that the baby looked strong and healthy, which is
always a relief.

As the day went on, it just seemed like all
of the little things started to build up. When Jake called to tell
me he was going to be late, that was kind of the icing on the
cake.

Jake and I have been married for almost four
years. We were originally going to wait until we were done with
college, but after our junior year, we decided it was time.

Sometimes we have disagreements. I mean, we
grew up with different family lives, so we are naturally going to
see things differently. Sometimes. Over the last nearly eight years
we’ve been together, we have grown to share a lot of the same
interests, and we agree on most of the big issues in our lives. It
wasn’t always that way, but when you are together with someone for
so long, you learn to compromise.

That’s what has made it so hard lately. It
has seemed exceedingly difficult to be on the same page with Jake.
What should be little things have been big things, and it has just
felt like he has been very insensitive. He probably hasn’t been as
thoughtless as it has seemed, but that hardly made me feel better.
If he only knew what it was like to be in my shoes, maybe he would
have had a different respect for what I have been feeling. Every
man should have to spend some time in their wives’ shoes so they
could understand exactly what we have to go through.

It definitely has not been easy being
pregnant. As much as I’m looking forward to baby Evan coming into
our lives, I am just as excited to get my body back to normal. It
will be nice not to feel short of breath so much. I’ll probably
feel light on my feet, too.

I was feeling unusually drowsy as I allowed
my mind to wander. Maybe tonight I would actually get some sleep. I
can only hope.

As the alarm clock went off, I slowly opened
my eyes. I was staring at myself. Uh-oh.

~~~~

This book was set in Times New Roman, 11
point font

Headings were set in Garamond, 14 point font
(bold)

Nicole’s mother’s note was set in Brush
Script MT, 11.0 point font (italicized)

Nicole’s signature was set in Kunstler
Script, 11 point font

About the Author

Adrian Stephens was born in southern
California, but has lived most of his life in Las Vegas, NV, where
he currently resides with his wife, Cristy, and two children,
Bailey and Brendan. Adrian never had an interest in reading for fun
until his brother, Dustin, bought him the first six books of the
Harry Potter series for Christmas in 2006. He read the entire set
in less than a month, and never stopped reading. A few years later,
the first of several story ideas came to Adrian, with this novel
being the first to be completed.