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“I’m growing an actual person, Navy,” I deadpan.
Navy grins. “Good. That’s good,” she tells me. “Now, let that sink in.”
I’m not sure of her intention, but her comment has me thinking hard.
I’m pregnant. I’ve known this. But I’m so used to thinking I have to have it all together, that I forget I’m warranted a moment not to. A moment to not feel like myself and react out of emotion if I need to.
All I’ve done lately is react out of feeling and it’s been unsettling, to say the least. But that’s normal, right? To feel so unhinged and legit like I’m having an out of body experience? There are days I want to cry because I’m happy and others I want to cry out of fear.
Pregnancy is not for the faint of heart.
“I’m allowed to feel out of sorts,” I mumble, beginning to hype myself up.
Navy nods. “You are. Give yourself grace, Ten. You’re thirty weeks pregnant. You’re supposed to be big. And hate to break it to you, you’re only gonna get bigger.”
I smirk. “Thanks for that.”
She’s not telling me anything I don’t already know. It feels like I just found out I was pregnant. Now there’s only ten weeks left until we get to meet our son.
“You’d do the same for me,” she reminds me, and she’s right. I would. I’ve always been the levelheaded friend who holds everyone accountable.
Life doesn’t care what tests me, so why should I let it bring me down?
“You’re right,” I admit, taking a deep breath.
Grabbing my hand, Navy leads me into another department store. “I sure am. Now, we only have two months until our girls’ trip to Tybee Island. Let’s try on all the dresses and all the sexy bikinis until we find the perfect one for you, you pretty little mommy.”
I smile and nod. I’ve been looking forward to our girls’ trip, also serving as my babymoon, and the chance to relax before life changes forever.
Ourlife changes forever.Mine and August.
At some point, I started calling anything in relation to our sonours.
Because he is. But one thing is also changing: August is starting to feel a lot like mine as well.
And I don’t know what to do with that feeling just yet.
31
AUGUST
“Good afternoon. I’m looking to speak with Mr. August Graves.”
I clear my throat. “Speaking.”
“Excellent,” the deep voice on the phone answers. “This is Jim Bradford with Life Space. How’s it going, young man?”
Shit. I was not expecting this call.
“It’s going well, sir. Packing for another away game series. How about yourself?”
“That’s right. Playing Houston, eh?” he asks.
“Yes, sir. Confident we have the upper hand."
“Glad to hear that,” he tells me. “I’ll go ahead and cut to the chase. After meeting with my team at Life Space, we all came to the agreement that you’ve been putting some great effort into promoting our endorsements. That’s exactly what we were hoping to see, August.”
Thanks to Tenley.
