Once she was up, Melanie waddled towards the bathroom, shuffled past Aidan's dirty clothes, sat down on the potty only to realize five minutes later that she didn't really need to use the bathroom when her son shifted off her bladder. Once she finished washing her hands, Melanie headed to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water, a small bottle of apple juice, and after a slight hesitation, she grabbed one of the bags of food that Rebecca dropped off this morning and slowly made her way back to Aidan's bedroom.
Once she was there, she went through another ten minutes of trying to get comfortable only to give up, lay awkwardly on her side, and opened the bag only to groan in defeat when she realized that the bag she'd grabbed was filled with condiments, plastic utensils, rolls, and hand-wipes.
Too exhausted to go back to the kitchen, Melanie broke open a small packet of honey mustard, dipped her roll in it and sighed, hoping that tomorrow was better.
Tuesday
She missed her nightly baths, Melanie thought with a heartfelt sigh as she laid there on the cold bathroom floor, staring ahead at the small bathtub that she would kill to soak in as she waited for the last of the nausea to finally go away. Closing her eyes, she slowly exhaled, and-
“Melanie?”
-realized how late it was. Praying that she didn't do anything to tip off the man determined to nurse her to death, Melanie dragged herself to her feet, headed back to bed, climbed in, settled back against the pillows only to curse and curl up on her side, and tried to act natural.
“How was your day?” Aidan asked absently, walking into the bedroom and tossing his tie aside as he came to check on her.
“Fine,” Melanie said, biting back a sigh as she forced herself to lay there as Aidan went through his five-minute routine to make sure that she was okay. When he finished checking to make sure the baby was okay, he tossed the stethoscope back over the headboard, pulled her shirt back down, and went to tuck her in only to frown when she reached down and beat him to it.
“I picked up dinner from the Fire & Brimstone and dessert from Dixon’s. Is that okay or do you want something else?” Aidan asked, already pulling out his cellphone and heading for the door as he compared her vitals with yesterday’s.
“Thank you, that sounds wonderful. How was your-” Melanie started to ask, but he was already walking out of the room and she found herself alone, once again.
Wednesday
“Oh, my god, why would anyone post something like that?” Melanie mumbled to herself, careful not to wake the man passed out in the other room on the couch as she watched a video on Facebook in horror.
“That’s just all kinds of wrong,” she said, even as she swiped to watch the next video on her phone.
Wincing when her baby boy landed a solid kick to her ribs, Melanie absently rubbed her belly as she rolled over onto her other side and tried to get comfortable only to give up with another sigh. Resigned to spending another sleepless night with only Facebook to keep her company, she forced herself to ignore the cramp in her back and her swollen legs that kept her up most of the night.
It probably wouldn’t be so bad if she could at least work, but that wasn’t a possibility as long as she was stuck on bed rest. Aidan told her that they might let her get off bed rest in a few weeks, but she wasn’t holding her breath. She was probably going to be stuck in this bed until her baby boy was ready to make an appearance. She just wished that it wasn’t three months away.
“Oh, crap!” Melanie whispered somewhat frantically when she heard movement in the other room. Hands trembling, she struggled to shut her phone off and shoved it beneath her pillow, closed her eyes, and prayed that he wasn’t coming in here to fluff her pillows.
When she felt the blankets being moved a minute later, Melanie couldn’t help but cringe. After what felt like an eternity, the blanket was brought up to her shoulders. She felt him gently sweep her hair away and-
Aidan checked her pulse, making her lips twitch.
Once he was done, Melanie heard him walk away. As soon as she was sure that he wasn’t coming back, she pulled her phone back out, returned to Facebook, noted the time, and hoped that exhaustion took over before she got desperate and started looking at Bieber memes to pass the time.
*-*-*-*
Thursday
“How’s life as a kept woman working out for you?”
“I hate you,” Melanie said, sighing softly as she laid there, unable to find the strength to properly torment her best friend today.
“That good?” Rebecca asked as she climbed onto the bed and curled up on her side so that they were facing each other.
“It’s the best,” she said dryly, trying to force a smile and failing miserably.
Sighing, Rebecca reached over and pushed a strand of Melanie’s blonde hair out of her face. “That bad?”
Shrugging, she said, “It’s fine.”
“You could move in with us,” Rebecca offered, and as much as she would love to say yes, she couldn’t do that to her best friend.
She’d married the man of her dreams, had a restaurant to renovate, was going to school, and Melanie wasn’t going to mess that up for her. After all the years of bullshit that Rebecca had endured, she deserved a little happiness and Melanie was going to do her best to make sure that she got it, which meant slapping a smile on her face and saying, “It’s fine, really. I’m just tired.”
For a moment, her best friend didn’t say anything, but then she nodded with a sigh and said, “This is probably the most boring conversation that we’ve ever had.”
“Without a doubt,” Melanie readily agreed.
Friday, Saturday, and so forth…
Too depressing to mention.
Chapter 10
One Month Later…
“I. Will. Kill. You,” the angry pregnant woman that had four minutes left growled from the bathroom while he stood there, shaking his head because this just wasn’t going to work for him.
“You have three minutes,” Aidan said, deciding to use the fourth minute as a buffer to ensure that he had her safely back in bed before he had to leave for work.
“Oh, my god! Are you standing outside the bathroom again?” Melanie demanded, not really sounding all that happy to have him there. “We talked about this!”
“You might need help,” he pointed out when it really should have been more than obvious that he was here to make sure that everything went smoothly.
“Go away!”
“I can’t do that,” Aidan reminded her as he glanced down at the daily schedule that he’d created with Lucifer’s help after the two of them had broken out a couple of ice packs and Advil to make sure that he didn’t fuck this up again after the large bastard had congratulated him on the baby by beating the shit out of him.
“I’m not a patient!” Melanie snapped, again.
“I know that,” he said, staring down at the schedule that they’d come up with and wondering why she was having such a hard time getting on board with his schedule. After three weeks, she should have this thing down, but unfortunately for him and his schedule, the stubborn woman fought him every inch of the way.
“No, you don’t!” she snapped, and since she was clearly still upset that he hadn’t given in to her demands for donuts this morning, he ignored her and focused on everything that he needed to do today.