Always been you//Jolex

Chapter 21

"Morning." I say, rolling over to give Alex a kiss.
"Morning, beautiful. How's our girl?"
"20 weeks today!" I laugh.
"Today is the first day on the schedule that we both have off, I thought we could go shopping for the nursery."
"Finally! But what about Sadie? I wanted her to come with us so she could help."
"How about she takes the day off from school? If we don't do it today, we're going to have to do all the shopping online." He snickers.
We both get up after a few minutes of talking, and Sadie is already dressed and eating cereal in the living room. She's watching some TV show on Nickelodeon, and she's snuggled up with a blanket. She looks up at the sound of out footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Hey, Sadiebug." Alex says, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Mom and I thought you could stay home from school today and take a trip to the store for your baby sister, so we can start decorating the nursery."
"How does that sound?" I add, turning on a pot of coffee.
"Good! I can't wait! Can we go now?"
"I...think it's a little early, so how about we watch some TV and make a shopping list, and we go in an hour or two?" I say. She simply nods, taking another bite of cereal. "I'm thinking...lavender for the walls. Or, like, a light fuchsia." I go over to a drawer and pull out some paint samples I have.
"Where'd you get those?" Alex asks.
"From when we painted Sadies room." I say. "Which one do you guys like?" I say, fanning out my top 3 choices.
"Dude, I see purple, purple, and... purple."
I sigh. "You're no help. What do you think, Sadie?"
"The middle one." She says.
"That's what I was thinking. Perfect. Now, what do we need to get?" I ask.
"Uhhh... crib, mattress, sheets, a mobile, a changing table, bottles, diapers, blankets, bibs, toys, clothes, a stroller, a car seat-" Alex starts, ready to list off more items.
"Seriously?" I cut him off. "That sounds like a lot of stuff for such a tiny person."
"Yeah, well, we don't have anything, so we've got some work to do."
For some reason, I'm really craving pickles despite it being 9:00 in the morning, so I get the jar out of the fridge and eat one. Sadie and Alex both look at me funny.
"Mama, why are you eating a pickle for breakfast?" Sadie says. Alex is laughing so hard that he has to brace himself.
"I...don't know." I say, starting to laugh a bit myself.
A few hours later, we drive to the Buy Buy Baby a few miles away, ready to buy a crapload of baby stuff. We park near the front, in a spot reserved for expectant mothers. Alex grabs a nearby shopping cart and we walk into the store.
"Holy mother of..." I say, looking around the few dozen rows of isles lining the store.
We start down the first isle, and I start throwing random stuff in the shopping cart.
"Do you even know what that is?" Alex asks, as I toss another thing into the cart.
"It looks...useful."
We end up filling a cart before we even make it half way through the store, and we have to get another.
"Aw, look at all the tiny pink clothes!" I say. "Alex, look! Scrubs!" I hold up a little blue onesie with a stethoscope painted on.
"How 'bout this one?" Alex says with a grin, the first suggestion he's made since we got here.
"It's a football onesie! She doesn't like football."
"Oh yeah, did she tell you that?" He smiles.
"Ow." I say hitching my breath and leaning on the cart for support.
"Hey, you alright?" He asks quietly, rubbing circles on my back.
"Yeah, she's just kicking. Not to mention my back is killing me. I feel huge, and I'm only 5 months."
"You wanna sit? Or go home? We can finish another day."
"No, we need to save our vacation days for when baby gets here. I'm fine. Thank you, though." I say, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. He runs his fingers through my hair and smiles, but I can tell he worried.
"Really, Alex, I'm fine."
"Mama, can we get baby sister this?" She says, running over holding up a tiny pink tutu.
"...sure. Why not?"
We spend at least another two hours in the store, stressing over which crib to buy and what car seat has the best safety ratings. By the time we have all of the essentials, we've filled up the second cart to the point of near overflow.
The cashier scans up the stuff, and Alex throws another concerned look my way.
"Hey, we're done here, so why don't you go get Sadie in the car and rest a second? I'll pay and bring it out." He can see that I'm hesitant to comply; I feel bad leaving him with all this stuff. But I have to admit, everything burns and I'm exhausted, and I really need to rest my feet. "Please?" He asks one more time.
I can't help but wonder how I got so lucky with Alex. He's the first person I've ever loved, and the only person I ever want to love. I love the way my needs become his own, but I sometimes worry he gets so busy taking care of me that he forgets to take time for himself.
I know he won't feel better until I get in the car, so I reluctantly agree and take Sadies hand.
I get Sadie buckled into her car seat and start the car, pulling it up to the front of the store so he doesn't have to lug two shopping carts across the parking lot.
"Ow!"
"Mommy, where do you hurt?" Sadie asks.
"I'm fine baby girl. Your sister won't stop kicking me, though."
The trunk pops open in the back, and Alex begins loading several bags into the car.
"I can drive, baby." I say. Alex nods and sits in the passenger seat, and I grab his hand and give him another kiss. I'm kind of surprised Alex didn't put up more of a fight about driving since he was so hell bent on me resting, but I guess he doesn't want to piss me off since he knows I like to drive, and I don't like being told what to do.
Smart.
By the time we get home and unpack the car, it's already 5. Alex starts dinner and I lay on the couch and finally put my feet feet up.
Alex and I used to eat takeout at 9 o'clock on the couch with a bottle of booze, but now we have a daughter and we have to actually cook. By we, I mean Alex, because I've been kicked out of the kitchen on multiple occasions.
After we eat and put Sadie to bed, we sit in bed with the TV playing quietly in the background.
"Have you thought about taking a leave?"
"Nope. I'm working until this baby falls out of me."
"Jo-"
"Nope."
"Okay, then." That was easy. "Are you sure?"
Never mind.
"If you keep working at the rate you've been going, your gonna go into premature labor. From stress, or whatever."
"I'm getting in all the hours I can before I'm stuck at home with 2 kids for 3 months. And then, you know, 18 years."
He shakes his head and smiles, then goes back to whatever he was doing before.
"I love you." He says, without looking up from his work.
I smile, watching him for a minute. When he notices me staring, he looks up.
"What?" He snickers.
I contemplate for a moment more, than close his laptop and put it to the side. I straddle him, sitting on his lap facing him with one leg on either side of him. His hands move onto my waist and I pull him in for a kiss, caressing his face. It starts off slow and sweet, and becomes more and more passionate until our tongues intertwine and we're both gasping for air. We stay like that for what feels like forever, making out like horny teenagers. Each time he kisses me, I feel it everywhere, but I need more.
I tug at his shirt and he lifts it over his head, pulling mine off next. I push him backwards so that he's lying all the way back and crawl on top of him, my bump making it difficult for me to get as close to him as I'd like. I lean into him, kissing him with even more lust and desire than before, and his hands move up and down my back for a moment, eventually unclasping my bra and letting it hang off my shoulders.
We don't say a word between passionate kisses and soft moans.
Every tense muscle in my body relaxes, every ache melts away. Alex seems to know a little something about natural pain relief.

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