“You should be happy. This is your last week of freedom.” I didn’t see it like that at all. I hadn’t been “free” (so to speak) since the moment Lucah stepped into my office. I’d been his and he’d been mine and that was it. I didn’t want it any other way.
“That doesn’t matter,” I said.
“Agreed,” Lucah said, leaning over and kissing my cheek. He hadn’t even really had a bachelor party, just gone out with Ryder and Fin to have a few drinks two weeks ago. It had probably been the most dull bachelor party ever. He hadn’t even been hung over the next morning, the bastard.
“You’d better agree.”
“Well, I can’t abandon you and our future child, now can I?” he said. Oh, right. I’d forgotten that the two of us were tied together forever by what was growing inside me.
“You know, I don’t want to call the baby ‘it’, but I also don’t want to call it ‘him or her’ because that’s just too much. So we need a nickname,” I said. I knew they’d come up with something.
“How about spawn?” Sloane said. I made a face.
“Ugh. That makes it sound like an alien that’s going to, like, try to take over my body,” I said and Lucah agreed.
“How about fetus?” Ryder said and the rest of us vetoed that.
“Blob? Bit?” Lucah threw out. Nope. None of them were right.
“What about BG? For Baby Ginger?” Sloane said. I snapped my fingers.
“That’s it. That’s totally it.” I looked down at my belly.
“You will hereby be known as BG, until you are born and we can give you a proper name. Okay? Okay,” I said. It wasn’t like BG could protest the name at this point anyway.
“You okay with that BG?” Lucah said, leaning over and talking to my lower half. It was a little silly at this point, but still sweet.
“It’ll work,” I said, patting my belly.
~*~*~
Monday at work was strange. I was still feeling off, but at least I now knew that it was due to BG and not to wine. I was also tired and since I couldn’t have coffee, even getting dressed and out the door was a process.
There were several presents on my desk when I got in and several cards as well to wish me luck on my upcoming wedding.
“Hey, how are you?” Lilia said, handing me my usual cup of coffee and strawberry donut. I could have the donut, but not the coffee. I let myself get one good whiff before I told her that I’d already had a cup.
“Sure, I can just warm this one up for you for later.” Figuring it would be easier just to tell her, I shut the door and made her sit down.
“I’m about to tell you something and I need you to keep it to yourself. It’s really important and I’m asking you to do it both as your boss and as your friend. Can you do that for me?” I wanted to keep the pregnancy under wraps as long as I could. Or at least until I could figure out what to do when I had to go on maternity leave. God, that was weird to think about now. Last week, I hadn’t been thinking about any of these things. Life changed so fast sometimes.
Lilia’s eyes went the size of dinner plates and I could tell she thought that this was something really bad.
“It’s not a bad thing, I promise,” I said to reassure her. “It’s actually kind of exciting.” I wasn’t quite to Lucah or Sloane’s level yet, but I’d get there.
“So, I’m pregnant,” I said. She squealed and jumped up to give me a hug.
“I’m so relieved. I wasn’t going to say anything, but I just had this feeling. You’ve been so off the past few weeks and I knew something was up. I’m so glad it’s this. Oh, this is so exciting! A baby and a wedding all at once.” She beamed and I gave her a thumbs up.
“Yeah, it’s… awesome.” I didn’t sound enthusiastic, even though I was.
“Oh, I’m sorry, everything’s probably all crazy right now. How are you doing with it?” I leaned against my desk and sighed.
“I’m… I’m getting through it. Lucah is absolutely over the moon. He’s so excited. I could probably ask for anything right now and he’d give it to me. It’s kind of nice, but I’m pregnant, so there’s that.” She laughed a little.
“Wow, that’s crazy. But also cool.” I guess that was a good way to put it. Crazy and cool.
“Yeah, it is. I just don’t want it to get out, for a lot of obvious reasons,” I said and she nodded.