Before you knew

153. Coming up.

'Who else do we need to tell?' I ask as I hold a pen in my hand.
Clay hums as he goes through his contacts.

'Im going to tell George and Nick.'
'Oh I wanna be there with Nick.'
I write the names down, a circle around Nick.
His parents know, but they don't know our plans yet.
My mom and sister know, but my uncle doesn't yet.

'My grandparents.' I say.
'They're... alive?' Clay asks.
I chuckle and nod, writing it down.

'God....'
I look down at the list of people.

The list of what we need to do, get, or say piles up.
We decide to not care, though.
Take our time.

There's something more important at the moment.
The phone gets picked up.
'Hey George.'

'Amelia?'
He sound surprised and still sleepy.
'Yeah, you up to talk about the idea?'
'Yeah, I've been looking around and I may have found a fitting one.'

We make plans.
Clays birthday is coming up, and I'm trying to surprise him.
For that, I need Sapnap and George's help.

'Hey, are you coming?'
Clay pops his head into the office.
'Yeah one sec, I need to figure something out.'
I quickly close the tab I was looking at as Clay steps into the room.
'Something I can help with?' I shake my head as he stops next to me, so I close all tabs and get up. 'Never mind let's go to the store first.' I say as I pull him out with me.

We pick out paint for the new office, the outhouse, and the baby room.
Some new lamps are needed too.

'This is enough right?'
I nod as we carry four buckets of paint.

'What do you want to do on your birthday?' I ask as we pull out of the parking lot. 'Not too much, just the family, and maybe Nick.' I look at him, I thought he liked birthdays. 'That's it?' He nods 'I don't want to go full out.' He says. But I do.

His birthday is still three weeks away.
By then we'll know the gender of the baby. And the surprise will be here.
Nick and George have been of great help so far.

His parents, grandparents, and siblings will be there.
Couple of friends too.
Dinner at the place he loved when he was young, but didn't return to in the past couple of years.

I smile at the thought, having a couple of surprises up my sleeve.
'Why do you look so happy? You're not planning anything are you?'
I grin 'now why would I? You didn't want anything.'
He scoffs but smiles 'oh come on now, I know that look.' My grin widens as a smile breaks through. 'Oh do you?' I ask. 'I do.' He answers confidently.

We pull up onto the driveway, and I lean over to clays seat.
'I'll do better then last year.' I tell him.

Last year I had to work a long shift, and when I came home, a fell asleep on the couch.
Very anticlimactic, and I still feel bad for it. Though I gave him a old book, from 1876 that was hard to find. And he loved it, seeing how it was about most common birds in South America. Handwritten and old sketches.

'Im sure you will.' He says as I lay my hand on his cheek and kiss him. The moment is quiet and warm after the constant rumbling of the engine. When I pull back, I unbuckle my seatbelt 'not that it's hard to surpass last year.' We both chuckle before getting out.

'I need to make a deal with you though.' I say as I watch him open the trunk. 'Hmm?' The trunk opens and he takes some thing to the front door, opening that door to make it easier to carry everything in. Patches her curious nose sniffing the outside air. 'The room downstairs is forbidden territory. You're not allowed to be in it.' I say. 'But I need to-' 'shush. No trespassing.' I say.

'Alright fine. For how long?'

'Till I say so.'