Stay Gold

twenty

chapter forty two ~ the one with baby names
Heather's POV

Today I turned thirty and I was terrified. Even though Joey had promised me that there was nothing scary about this number, I couldn't help but get anxious about what would happen now that I had hit this milestone. The only thing that was getting me through this day was the fact that I knew I'd be spending it with my best friends, as we had organised a little dinner party in the apartment for them all to come over. We had decided not to invite parents because it would snowball into a much bigger party and instead it would just be close friends that were invited, including Melissa who had brought along baby Charlotte because Nick was working and couldn't take time off. Which I was not complaining about. The apartment was decorated in balloons and the table was laid with a white tablecloth which was saved for special occasions, my favourite thing was the handmade banner that was hung over the window which Joey had hung up himself.

That morning, Joey had woken me up with a birthday kiss and had brought me some tea in bed because I couldn't drink coffee whilst I was pregnant. He would have offered to make me breakfast but explained that the dinner party would be soon and I would eat with everyone else. Then he sat next to me in the bed and pulled out his gift from underneath the frame, a small basket with a lid was pushed onto my lap as I wondered what he could have bought me. I put my tea on the bedside table and carefully lifted the top of the basket up to see what he had bought me, the first thing that I saw was the picture of our ultrasound, the more recent one where you can see the outline of the baby more clearly and it almost made me cry just by seeing the picture. I carefully put it on the bed and moved onto the next thing, a jar of pickles and a bag of jelly sweets; two things that had been my newest cravings as Monica's candy wasn't hitting the right spot anymore. At the bottom of the basket there was a tub of peanut butter which I had been layering on toast every morning and finally a large lavender scented candle because the one smell that didn't make me feel sick was lavender.

He cleared his throat. "It's a pregnancy survival kit, everything that you need to make it through the last two months of your pregnancy."

"Oh, it's perfect." I wiped my eyes, trying not to cry but I was really emotional these days and this thoughtful gift was really hard not to cry about.

"Do you like it?"

I reached over and hugged him tightly, glad that I had found the right man to spend the rest of my life with because there was no one else that I could imagine wanting to spend my future with. "I love it!"

After everyone singing 'Happy Birthday' to me, the attention of the birthday girl settled down which I was thankful for because it meant that I could sit at the head of the table and just enjoy light-hearted conversations with my friends. As long as it wasn't about turning thirty then I didn't care what we discussed, however, that was before my brother opened his mouth and created an atmosphere that was about to turn hostile. "So, have you discussed baby names?" This was something that no one had dared to ask us because they knew how many arguments had stemmed from this topic, Joey and I just couldn't agree on a baby name. All we needed was one boy name and one girl name but even that was difficult. He preferred to pick really unique names that no one would have ever used before and I wanted a more traditional name so that our baby wouldn't be bullied in school.

I sighed, rubbing my temples because I knew this wasn't going to end well. "Only briefly, it always ends in an argument."

"Why? What's so difficult about deciding on one boy name and one girl name?"

"Everything, Chandler, you don't understand." I argued, catching the attention of my husband, who had been talking to Ross but now heard what we were discussing and decided that this conversation was more interesting. "Joey has the most unrealistic name ideas ever."

"My ideas are modern and exciting, the names that Heather likes are boring." He retorted, starting the argument even though this was what I had wanted to avoid.

"I just don't want our child to be bullied in school."

"Hey, why don't I help you decide?" Chandler interrupted the fight and wanted to help pick a baby name. "Give me your suggestions and I'll tell them whether they're good or not."

I shrugged, knowing that it wasn't the worst idea that he'd had. "That could work?"

"Yeah, I mean, we need someone to be honest and Chandler's the most brutally honest person we know." Joey nodded, before starting the ball rolling. "I'll go first. For a boy, Seamus."

"It's not awful." Chandler complimented, thinking about the name.

Joey smirked, glad that he had the approval for his first name. "It's Irish."

"And you're Italian." I argued, thinking that it was stupid to use an Irish name if we weren't Irish, it just sounded strange when this was no part of our heritage.

"Okay, well, you pick a boy name."

I thought about it for a second before randomly selecting one from my list. "Gilbert."

"Gilbert?" Chandler repeated, his face turning sour. "Seriously, what the hell is that?"

"I told you, boring."

Rolling my eyes, I turned to the other ideas that I had because I had more ideas for girl names. "Girl name, I like Darcy."

"Darcy's cute, that could work?" Chandler nodded, liking the name that I had picked for a girl which made me stick my tongue out at my husband childishly.

Joey cleared his throat, obviously worried that I was going to steal the limelight with my girl name ideas. "Think that's cute, hear this, Yasmine."

"Yasmine? Let me guess, Baywatch?"

He nodded, nudging Chandler's shoulder. "Obviously."

Knowing that we weren't getting anywhere with our baby name ideas, we decided to call it a day and not argue about something when the baby wasn't even here yet. If worst came to worst, we would name the baby when it was born, maybe when we saw it for the first time, then we would know what the name should be. If not, then we would have a little bit of time after the birth to come up with something or else we would have to ask our friends to name our baby because it couldn't go nameless for the rest of its life. I just didn't want Joey and I to argue every time that we discussed baby names because it was exhausting.

a/n: i know it's a shorter chapter but things will get more interesting 🥰 also, thank u so much for 5k!❤️ -lizzie ⭐️

date published: 12/02/21