Pretend (91 page)

             
“Yes,” I said as we continued walking.

             
“Ok, come on we’ll take my car, get her in,” he said as he raced out the door and towards his car.

             
“Ok, it’s not far now Jess, we just need you to hold on ok? You need to breath,” I said as I gently squeezed her hand.

             
“Ok,” she said as she shook her head vigorously as the pain hit her again.

             
“This is
all your
fault, you moron,” she screamed as she tried to catch her breath.

             
“Mine?” Anthony asked as he looked down at her.

             
“Yes! I told you that I wanted to go out that night and now look, here I am having my insides ripped apart because y
our family has the big head gene
,” she said through gritted teeth.

             
“Hey baby, now your uncle Bill has a rather large head too, this could come from him, my family aren’t all to blame-“

             
“Shut up!” She screamed as another wave of pain came over her.

             
“Just drive,” I said as we finally got into the car.

             
“I’ll follow you,” Aiden said as he ran off towards his own car.

             
“Ok.”

             
I guess there really is never a dull moment in my life.

* * *

             
We had been at the hospital for seven hours before Anthony finally came running out of the room with a smile on his face.

             
“It’s a girl!” He screamed as he jumped into Aiden’s arms.

             
“Well done man, I’m
so
proud of you,” Aiden said as he pulled away from him and smiled.

             
“I didn’t really do muc
h to be honest. Jess was great,”
he said as he smiled at us all.

             
“
Aww
, congratulations Ant,” I said as I threw my arms around him.

             
“Thanks Aunty April,” he said as a huge smile filled his face.

             
We all took it in turns to go and take a look at the new edition. We didn’t stay for very long since Jess was so worn out. The baby was absolutely beautiful. They named her Ella-May which was a combination of their mother’s names
.
Jess’ mom was called Ella and Anthony’s mom was called May
and together it really did make a beautiful name
.

             
When I got back home I was really relieved to find that the house had been completely tidied up. It would have been my mom and Susan since neither of them could stand mess, either way I was grateful.

             
I quickly took my phone out of my pocket and sent a picture of Ella-May to Erica just as Jess had asked me to. I knew that she wouldn’t want to miss out on such a beautiful moment and none of us wanted her to either.

             
Six years ago Erica met a really nice guy called Miguel and they seemed to be the missing piece
s
in each other’s lives. After a couple of years Erica had given birth to two beautiful twin girls and a year later they decided to start a new life in France. I missed her like crazy, we all did but it was such a great opportunity and she was so happy. It was very rare that we seen her now but she did try and visit at least once a year, which was nice.

             
“Home at last,” Aiden said as he gently wrapped his arms around my waist.

             
“Yup,” I said as I looked up into his eyes.

             
“Well, I ca
n’t say that I expected the night
to turn out like that but it was quite a nice outcome in the end, wasn’t it?” He asked as he smiled at me.

             
“Yeah, I’m so happy for Anthony and Jess, they’re going to be great parents.”

             
“Yeah, probably a little crazy too though,” he said as he chuckled quietly.

             
“Definitely.”

             
“So, with everything that has happened tonight, do you have room for one more surprise?” He asked as he took a step back from me.

             
“It depends,” I replied.

             
“On what?”

             
“If I like it,” I said as I covered my mouth with my hand as
a
yawn escaped my lips.

             
“Oh, I think you might just like this one,” he said as he smiled at me.

             
“Come on,” He said as he
gently dragged me towards the living room.

             
As I stepped into the room he let go of my hand and took a few steps back so that he could stare into my eyes.

             
“April, when first I met you all of those years ago which I can’t even remember since we were babies, I never knew what an important part of my life you would become. I also didn’t know that you would be the first girl to make me feel so many crazy emotions at the same time. I never even thought that I would ever fall in love but again you changed that. Your friends are my friends, your family are my family and we share everything. What’s yours is mine and vice versa. Losing you would be like losing a part of me, you are me and I want you to be mine, forever because I can’t imagine my life without you. So, before any more games, noise, babies or anything else interrupts us again I want to ask you an important question,” he said as he got down on his knee and pulled something out of his pocket.

             
“What I’m trying to say is
,
will you promise to be my best friend, my lover, my missing puzzle piece for the rest of your life? April, will you marry me?” He said as he smiled up at me.

             
“Yes,” I said as I felt the tears start to spill over my cheeks.

“Thank
God for that, they make this
look easy in the films but that really hurts the knees,” he said as we both burst out laughing.

             
“You are the craziest guy that I know,” I said as I stroked his face with my hand and laughed.

             
“Are you sure that you want
to spend
the rest of your life with me then?” He said as he smiled at me.

             
“One hundred percent, yes,” I said as I crashed my lips into his and kissed him.

             
Yes, this was the man that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

             
“I love you April.”

             
“I love you too.”

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