Cupid Collections

34. Peyton - 13: The Godchild

I found myself awake most nights like this. The clock shone that it was three in the morning, but there I was lounging on the couch with a bowl of ice cream sitting on my enlarged stomach. Pyro sat near the couch, looking up at me time to time to see if I would offer any scraps. I never did.

Still, he had become quite protective ever since I started to show. Nate thought it was sweet, I thought it was just because I was eating all the time. Whatever the case, we were spending quality time together. Pyro lifted his head to check on me again and I offered him a pat on the head.

“It’s okay,” I told him. I glanced back up at the TV. It was the only light in the room and the volume was on super low. It didn’t really matter since it was just some really old re-run of a show, but I didn’t want to wake up Nate. He was working hard these days now that I wasn’t. We had plenty of money, but Nate got a promotion recently and his boss expected more from him. He liked work, but he was exhausted when he came home.

I was cooking for myself most nights and he would come home after the restaurant closed at ten at night and practically fall asleep as soon as he walked in the door. It didn’t leave for much quality time anymore, but I was busy being pregnant, six and half months to be exact.

My ribs hurt, I had to pee all the time, I wanted to eat everything, but everything gave me heartburn, and my feet would swell if I stood for too long. Pregnancy was so much fun… At least the morning sickness had stopped.

I dug my spoon into the melting bowl of ice cream to get another spoonful into my mouth. Another fun side effect of pregnancy was that this kid inside of me kept me up at night and made me tired during the day. The child had one heck of an active schedule, and right now was one of those times. He was shifting around in there, making the bowl on top of my swelled stomach shift around.

“Settle down in there,” I called to my kid. He didn’t listen…but he never listened. Something Eros said ran in our family, but whatever. And it was for sure a ‘he’. Nate and I were expecting a little boy, much to his excitement. I was excited too, it was just hard to show it when I was constantly in some variation of pain or discomfort.

After another two spoons of ice cream, the heartburn came too much to bear. I set the bowl down on the nearby table and rested back on the sofa, staring at the moving pictures on the television. I wasn’t the least bit tired, thanks to the life kicking away inside of me. I sighed and let my hand drop off the edge of the sofa to pet Pyro. Now that my food had been set aside, he rolled onto his side and just allowed me to pet him.

A little twitch came from my right side, signally that the baby was moving around over there. A second later, there was another little jolt in the same spot. He was super active tonight and set on kicking whatever was on my right side, probably my liver or something, nothing too important.

The TV program went to commercial and the late night infomercials started. There were some products listed that “could help my everyday life”. I only sighed and watched them aimlessly, waiting for the congested pain in my chest to stop. Just as one commercial ended and a new one began, our phone rang.

Pyro’s head lifted up in surprise, and I took sat up in confusion. I stared at my phone, wondering who would be calling at this time of night. The ringing continued breaking my thought that this was all an illusion. I heaved myself off of the sofa with some difficulty and headed over to the phone. The call was from a number that was not in our address book, and it was one I didn’t recognize.

Nevertheless, it kept on ringing, so I answered. “Hello?”

“It’s happening,” a breathless voice called out. “Right now. Oh my God, it’s happening.”