"Oh my god! Look at this!" she held up little booties, "It's so cute."

"I agree." I nodded, "But they're pink."

She put them back and turned to me, "Yeah and?"

"Well," I moved something else that was on the shelf to face the front, "Don't you think we should wait until we know what gender it is before we start buying stuff, though it would probably be best to buy blue ones. If it's a girl then she can wear them with a blue dress or something, but if it's a boy we have to find pink boy clothes. Which is just a pain."

"You're overthinking this." She placed a hand on my shoulder as she walked past.

We'd been parading the Baby Bunting store for about forty minutes now, we had an appointment with the sonologist this afternoon for the ultrasound and we didn't want to be travelling back and forth through the city. Too much attention and too much sunlight, we'd become almost like vampires recently.

"We should do something fun tomorrow or something."

Amara walked around into the next aisle, "Oh yeah, like what?"

I followed, "Go to the beach."

She laughed for about twenty seconds then replied, "You know what? Sure."

"Okay cool." I moved another object to face the front. Didn't the people working here have any sense for presentation? None of this stuff was facing the front.

--

"Man its quiet in here." Amara commented only just before gasps and voices were heard from down the hall, I snorted.

"Mr and Mrs Vitiello?" my ears perked up and we both got up to follow the nurse. I'd almost forgotten we hadn't gotten married yet, the married couple act was stuck though so might as well keep it up until it's official.

I tried not to laugh as 'Mrs. I Don't Need Help' struggled to climb the bed herself, so I had to help her but she was bitter about it. As time passed she got bigger and more frustrated, she was so used to just doing things for herself and on her own. I wanted her to understand that this is our baby, so we both need to be in it – together.

She soon got over it, holding my hand tight as the nurse started doing her job. She spread around the jelly stuff on Amara's stomach then started searching through darkness, I started to get distracted by the actual machine. I wonder how it works.

Amara tugged at my arm, causing me to look at her but my attention soon turned back to the machine – the screen this time. On the screen was a little greyscale person modelling the fatal position, almost sleeping like a fairy.

"Well it's definitely a girl." The woman said moving the thing around a little more, "Congratulations, girls are the best."

"Of course they are." Amara smiled. I did a bit of a tight-lipped shady look around causing her to laugh a little, but I did agree. Girls are the best.

-

We stood in the waiting room looking around and trying not to make eye contact with other couples in the room, the nurse came rushing down the hall carrying the envelop that encased images of our little girl. Amara thanked the lady, holding the envelop tight to her chest and we headed out to the car.

Dominic seemed a bit in a daze, like he was floating. He was extremely happy but not quite there, I could tell. Soon he'd come to reality a little bit and he was totally going to freak out.

"Are we going to the beach tomorrow?" he asked as he opened the door for me and I slid into the car. I nodded. He walked around and opened the door, "Cool. I wanted to pass by the board shop to buy a board because I actually don't have one."

"Suits me." I smiled, he nodded switching on the car and starting in the direction of the shop. I sat in the car fiddling with the envelop whilst Dominic picked his board. I don't know if I should open it or just, let it sit for a while. Actual prints...

That's amazing.

It took some time but Dom was soon back in the car and we were off, I had him stop at a furniture store so we could order a couple things. We went in, sat around on stuff and eventually decided. A white wooden cot, cot-sized mattress and a grey pin armchair. Other things we could get another time, these were things we just couldn't get in a hurry.

We'd spent at least a couple hours in that shop and it was starting to get dark, Dominic was nagging me about how I have to eat often because I'm eating for two. Not like I didn't know that.

But I'll admit I lost track of time.

We parked in the driveway and Dominic opened the door for me, I got my heavy self out and started walking ahead of him. He of course couldn't help himself. I heard a snort from behind me.

"Something you have to say?" I tossed back.

He cleared his throat, "You're walking funny."

"Grow up Dominic."

"Says you."

"Pfft." I rolled my eyes but I was really trying not to smile.

--

"You should teach me to make German food." he mentioned whilst piling things on the bench, I stood next to the fridge with a phone in my hand reading off the ingredients.

I shook my head, "This is better."

"We'll run out of things sooner or later." he sighed plopping the diced tomato next to the pile.

"For now, it'll do." I smiled at the pile, I don't know any good German recipes and even if I did I wouldn't like them better than this anyway.

We started dicing all the things that needed to be diced and put them in seperate bowls like a cooking show, then we mixed other things and blended others - it was a long process but a fun one.

"You just like mixing things." Dominic laughed.

I licked the spoon, "It's so much fun."

"I'm pretty sure you're the child." he commented.

I changed the subject, "I don't believe you can surf."

He switched the pot off, moving it to the mat on the counter. "Oh yeah?"

"Uh huh." I brought out two plates raising an eyebrow in his direction. He tsked, shaking his head.

"I'll prove it, tomorrow."

"Dominic you didn't even have a board!" I laughed.

"I used the ones at home okay?" he defended, "You don't always need a board to surf."

I gave him a weird look but let it go, we sat on top of the counter instead of on the seats because we were home alone and we were adults.

We'd been doing reading recently, it was me reading until Dominic claimed it wasn't fair that I was hogging an entire book to myself and started reading it to me - that's when we started reading together. At first it seemed kind of stupid but now that I think about it, it was super cute. He got bored so easily, there hadn't been any drama lately and that seemed unusual but it was such a privilege. He had nothing better to do than bother me, but bothering me may have been the best idea he's ever had.

"Okay we were up to..." he started flipping through the novel as he rested his head in my lap.

"Chapter 23." I answered holding back a smile as his eyes went a little cross-eyed whilst pulling the pages apart. He looked kind of lost looking for the paragraph and I continued to stare, he was so cute skimming pages with his mouth slightly hanging open. He usually looked royally pissed off when he was searching for things.

"I found it!"

"Hm, good." it came out a little high pitched so I cleared my throat and tried again, "Good." I was trying not to laugh.

I don't know if my reading was quite adequate, it was like I was reading to pre-school children. I'd use different voices for different characters and Amara would laugh occasionally. She always had her eyes closed, probably because she liked listening. Though I did catch her not paying attention a couple of times.

I don't know if I was invading her space or whatever, but isn't this what couples do anyways? The first few times she seemed confused as to why I was stealing her solo reading time, but eventually she started treating me like a child and just giving up when I'd look from behind her and start reading out loud. Now she was having more fun with it, I just wanted her to realise we had to do everything together now.

Maybe she thought I would get distracted by something else and she'd have to go back to doing random things on her own to entertain herself. But we weren't living in a mafia house and I wasn't some business mogul. Right now it was just us, Amara and I. Everything I did had to do with her, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'd just be bored if she didn't play with me.

I remember she used to say that all the time, 'play with me'. I wish I'd done so, but I was so busy. Not anymore.

I literally have nothing to do.

I looked up to find Amara sleeping, I thought I'd felt her breathing get heavier. I don't even know if I was reading this whole time, I wasn't paying any attention. I slid the bookmark in and closed the book. She was semi-sitting up and I had myself spread across the length of the bed with my head on her thighs. I almost couldn't see her face from behind her baby bump.

I placed the book on the side table, I'd have to move her into a better position and I wasn't going to lie - she was definitely heavier.

I was only half asleep but Dominic was moving me, I would let him though and only because I'm getting lazier.

He'd been acting like a real dad lately, preparing for the real thing I guess. Things have been so peaceful, so I guess everything was going well. I couldn't wait to meet with Claire and go clothes shopping for the baby, we'd been waiting to find out if it was a boy or girl just so we could.

I'd been hoping for a boy but it's fine, I'd get along better with a girl anyway. Dominic had wanted a girl, because he's always wanted that father-daughter relationship thing. It was almost like a myth or a legend to him, something far away that needed to be proven. He was like a historian searching for an artefact, the man was drunk with fascination.

I was just hoping nothing bad would happen, at least not until the child's old enough to talk...

I was asking for too much.