Maybe some bacon.
“Aidan?”
“Yeah?” he asked, double-checking his schedule to make sure that there weren’t any last-minute patients added to his day.
“I don’t want oatmeal.”
“It’s good for the baby,” Aidan said absently, forwarding an email to his father, who wasn’t talking to him at the moment and-
“I’m going to say this once and only once,” Melanie said as she wrapped her small hand around his tie and gave it a tug so that they were almost eye to eye. “Do not come between me and my food or I will hurt you.”
“I-”
“I will hurt you, Aidan. If you shove one more baby carrot or freaking plain, fat-free yogurt at me, I will tear you apart with my bare hands,” she bit out with a glare that told him that she’d start with his balls.
“I-”
“I’m not one of your patients,” she informed him.
“I-”
“So, stop treating me like one,” Melanie said before abruptly releasing his tie, turning around and waddling towards the bed only to pause to give the tray of fresh veggies that he’d left for her a look that made his balls pull up tightly in fear before climbing back into bed, curling up on her side and glaring at him with a look that dared him to offer her another baby carrot.
He opened his mouth to point out that she needed a wide variety of fruits and vegetables during her pregnancy, but the look she was giving him had him quickly shutting his mouth and clearing his throat. “What can I get for you?”
In seconds, the glare was gone and in its place was that beautiful, sweet smile that had knocked him on his ass the first time around.
Oh, fuck no…
“I could really use a Bradford Special from the Fire & Brimstone,” Melanie said while he nodded in agreement because he could definitely use one of those as well.
*-*-*-*
Maybe she shouldn’t have threatened to hurt him? Melanie thought as she shifted her attention from the plate piled high with pancakes that he’d handed her a few minutes ago to the man sitting on the floor, doing something on his iPad as he absently ate an egg sandwich that she was kind of hoping that he wasn’t going to finish. She opened her mouth to apologize again but decided against it since he’d ignored her last apology and instead, said, “Thank you for breakfast.”
“You’re welcome,” Aidan said absently as he picked up a file by his side and checked something before returning to his iPad and leaving her sitting there, struggling to come up with something else to say only to realize that she had absolutely no idea what to say to him.
As she sat there on his bed, Melanie realized that she really didn’t know anything about him. She had no idea where he’d gone to school, why he’d wanted to be a doctor, what he liked, what he didn’t like, or any of the thousands of things that she should really know about a man that she was about to have a baby with, and by the looks of things, he wasn’t in any rush to fill in the blanks for her.
She really wasn’t sure how they were going to do this, but for her baby boy, Melanie would find a way. She vowed then and there that as long as he wanted to be in her baby’s life that she would do everything within her power to make it work only to lick her lips hungrily as she watched him put his sandwich back down on the tray of hash browns that looked really good.
“That must be Rebecca. She said that she was going to swing by and drop off more of your stuff this morning,” Aidan said, shoving a hash brown in his mouth as the sounds of the doorbell echoed throughout the large apartment.
“Okay,” Melanie said absently, licking her lips as he grabbed another hash brown, stuffed it in his mouth, and abandoned that egg sandwich that had her stomach growling as he headed for the door.
She looked down at the large stack of pancakes on her plate and then to the sandwich that was sitting there on a lonely wrapper, clearly going to waste, and-
“Son of a bitch!” Aidan yelled, which was followed by the sounds of Lucifer snapping something inaudible at him along with the sounds of a pained grunt that made her realize something important.
His sandwich was getting cold.
“I told Lucifer about Aidan,” Rebecca announced as she strolled into the bedroom and dropped several large bags from Dixon’s bakery on the bed before strolling over to Aidan’s abandoned sandwich and picked it up.
“I figured,” Melanie said, ignoring the grunts, groans, and inaudible shouts coming from the other room as she accepted the sandwich from her best friend, who she loved more than anything in the world at this moment. “Is he mad at me?” she asked as she toyed with the wrapper, not really sure that she could take one more person being mad at her right now.
“Son of a bitch!” Lucifer shouted.
“No. Do you want something to drink?” Rebecca asked.
“No,” Melanie said around a bite of Aidan’s sandwich, “I’m good.”
“You bastard!” came Aidan’s shout as Rebecca nodded and joined her on the bed.
“He’s taking it well,” Melanie said, taking another bite as she took a peek at what was inside all those delicious smelling bags.
Rebecca nodded. “Yeah, he’s really excited about being an official uncle and godfather.”
“Congratulations, asshole!”
“You mean bastard!”
“I can tell,” Melanie murmured in agreement as she savored the last bite of Aidan’s sandwich, wondering if Aidan would mind if she finished off his hash browns. When she heard the gasp of pain and plea for a quick death, she decided to help herself.
Chapter 9
Monday
“Okay, let’s do this,” Melanie said with a determined nod as she pulled the fresh bag of peanut butter M&Ms that Rebecca dropped off a little while ago closer, stacked her pillows, laid down, realized that she couldn’t exactly breathe in that position, shoved her pillows back, sat up, shifted a bit, shoved her pillows back again, shifted again until she finally gave up trying to get comfortable, grabbed the television remote and started the first Indiana Jones movie.
“This isn’t so bad,” she said, shoving a handful of M&Ms in her mouth even as her gaze strayed to the laptop sitting idly on top of one of the boxes in the corner.
Maybe she could write a little code, Melanie thought right around the time that she decided that it would probably be for the best if she laid back down since sitting up was no longer an option. Placing her hand on her belly, she shoved the pile of pillows over, curled up on her side, and sighed with relief when she was able to breathe again.
Telling herself that was fine, more than fine, she focused her attention on the large television in front of her and decided that losing herself in an Indiana Jones movie marathon, only the first three since the fourth one didn’t exist in her mind, was exactly what she needed. Grabbing another handful of peanut butter M&Ms, she shoved them in her mouth with a resigned sigh, shifted a bit, swallowed, and at some point, returned to staring at her neglected computer.
She missed working, missed having a purpose in life other than making it to the bathroom in time.
Speaking of the bathroom, she should probably start waddling in that direction. Tossing another handful of candy in her mouth, Melanie paused her movie, struggled to sit up only to give up, wiggle to the edge and allow gravity to do the rest.