Demons Don't Smile

Chapter Four

"Tell him yes. Even if you are dying of fear, even if you are sorry later, because whatever you do, you will be sorry all the rest of your life if you say no."

― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

Valeria

"You think this is going to work?" I asked Nicolas as we got dressed for Cara's surprise proposal planned by none other than Victor Mosello himself. I just had an enjoyable round of puking my guts out in the bathroom thanks to the morning sickness and thanked God that my stomach had finally given me a break. I was so over this part of my pregnancy, I wanted to be at the part where you saw all the mothers on the pamphlet smiling and holding their stomachs with content.

I was at the far end of that.

"I'm sure it will work, Valeria...you know Victor is a master of spontaneous behavior." Nicolas reminded me as he slipped on my flats for my lazy ass sitting on the bed swinging my feet, really too weak to do anything.

"Thanks baby." I smiled as he placed a kiss on my forehead and stood up straight.

"Are you sure you're feeling well enough to attend, love?" He asked me with concern lacing his face.

I swear ever since this man learned that I was pregnant with his child, he's become extra protective of me and has been doing everything that I pretty much could do on my own like I don't know...walk.

He'd carry me around the house sometimes as if I were incapable of placing one foot in front of the other and navigating around the house. I mean I knew I was having a hell of a ride with the morning sickness and it was worrying him how weak I was getting, the lack of food I was eating, the drop in my initial weight, and my constant fatigue and sleepiness but I was doing fine enough to still work at the office until I've had enough.

"There's no way in hell that I'm going to miss my best friend's proposal! That's a memory you probably can never get back in life so I'm going...I don't care if I throw up on the way." I said stubbornly.

Nicolas sighed and nodded. "Then it is set." He said in his native Italian tongue.

I took a deep breath and with exhaustion I slid off the bed, "I have to pee again...hold on." I said as I stood up abruptly and literally almost toppled over, this wave of dizziness just struck me and I lost my footing but Nicolas was thankfully there and caught me in time.

"Whoops!" I grabbed my head and waited momentarily for the world to stop spinning before I stood up straight and walked to the bathroom.

"You are not okay!" Nicolas called out to me.

"It was just a dizzy spell, I started having those a couple of days ago...shut up!" I was already in the bathroom taking a tinkle. When I was finished I washed my hands and made sure that I looked mostly presentable for the night out in Napa Valley in California.

I was dressed in a simple green bodycon sleeveless dress with a crisscross design on the back. I wore that with my Chanel flats, and hair in a laid-back ponytail. I was 12 weeks pregnant now, my body still seemed to look pretty normal except for the little pudgy area in my abdomen that looked like I had snacked on a little too many caramel popcorn snacks.

I was excited about having a baby and Nicolas and I were still trying to figure out how to tell his family and mine. We already knew we wanted to gather everyone together to tell them all together so everyone could feel like a family and included, it was just a matter of how we were going to tell them which was going to be the challenge.