A Collection of Stories

One Year

We left Las Vegas a few days later and moved onto Denver, Colorado. We stayed there a month, starting our Christmas dances. Anton and Tobias officially banned me from dancing once I hit the four month mark with my baby. Once we were done in Denver, we flew to Huston as I reached my fifth month. Tobias became extremely overprotective of me, as well as my family.

Tobias and I shared a room, looking in baby catalogs to find a baby carriage and a travel crib and a regular crib; so much stuff for a baby and not enough money in our budget. I sat surrounded on our bed by magazines, unsure what to do with all the prices. I’ve always hated the whole shopping thing and trying to buy good baby items on a cheap budget pissed me off.

Tobias found me on my back, my hands on my protruded stomach. He sighed and came over to the bed, crawling over the magazines and hovered over me. I smiled at him as I ran my hands down his chest. He smiled and pecked my lips lightly, stroking my stomach with his thumb.

“How’s the shopping going,” He asked, looking at the magazines around us. I moaned and rubbed my hands over my face. “Not well I take it?” I nodded and wrapped my arms around his waist.

“I don’t know what to choose and it doesn’t help that I hate shopping and the baby keeps moving around and it’s just not a good day.” I mumbled against his shoulder. He chuckled softly and stroked my hair gently.

“Shh, let Will and I handle it.” He murmured. “He’s already got a lot of stuff on the way.” He said, scooting down and kissing the top of my stomach. “Hey little one,” He whispered.

I smiled and ran my fingers through his hair, my other hand resting next to his. “I’m finding out the gender tomorrow,” I murmured. “You—you don’t mind if I take Sofiya this time, do you?” I asked. He shook his head and pulled himself up so he was lying next to me.

I looked at him, my fingers in his hair as I looked into his eyes. He was my Tobias; the spark in his eyes when he looked at me confirmed it. But there was also mystery in his eyes; like there was something he wasn’t telling me. I bit my lip, looking down at my stomach. He leaned in and kissed my forehead, cupping the back of my neck in his warm hand.

“Ana, what’s on your mind?” He murmured. I rested my head under his chin as I rubbed my stomach nervously.

“I just—I don’t want to lose you. And the new doctor has been telling me terrifying things about child birth. And Nikki’s been trying to scare me and I don’t know whether it’s just the added hormones or not; I’m—“ I cut myself off with a sudden rush of tears. It was definitely the added hormones making me cry right now, but its Nikki making me feel this way. She was threatening to take my baby away, to take Tobias and William away from me.

Tobias held me close, trying to stop the tears. I buried my face in his neck, muffling the sobs in an attempt to stop the tears. He just held me, letting the tears run their course before pulling back slightly. He reached behind me and grabbed my phone, dialing William’s number and putting it on speaker phone. William answered almost immediately.

“Hello,” He said in a cheery voice.

“Hey, Will, its Tobias. We’ve got a problem.” He said, running his hand through my hair.

“It’s not a baby problem is it? Or an Ana and baby problem,” He asked.

“No, it’s just an Ana problem.” Tobias said, looking at me. William sighed into the phone.

“Okay, what’s the problem?” He asked.

“Nikki’s been threatening me,” I said in a hoarse voice. Tobias kissed my forehead gently, still trying to comfort me.