Chapter 3
Sophie
I walk out of the massage rooms with Dani right by my side. I let out a sigh as I think back to how damn good that massage was. I swear nothing will ever compare to how good Tank makes me feel but holy hell, that massage came in a close second.
Dani groans as we make our way up the hallway and into the bathrooms. “What’s your problem?” I ask as I start pulling off my complimentary robe and get dressed back into my normal clothes.
“I fell asleep,” she whines. “All I wanted was to relax and enjoy my massage but then I had to go and fall asleep.”
I can’t help but grin at the idiot. “Come on, it’s not that bad.”
“Are you kidding?” she demands as she strips out of her own robe. “I pushed a watermelon out of my lady taco three months ago, I’ve had that watermelon sucking on my tits ever since, I hardly know what sleep is and my stomach looks like it’s suffered through its own personal hurricane.” She says, “Is it too much to ask that I actually enjoy my massage rather than be unconscious for the whole damn thing?”
“Ok, Mumma,” I say. “Calm down. We’re getting our nails done next. You’ve had your power nap so you can relax while some lady fusses over you without the fear of falling asleep. What do you say to a pedi as well?”
She pouts but the idea of getting pampered cheers her up. “That sounds great,” she says with a little whine. She grabs her bra and starts to get redressed when she puts these weird looking things inside her bra. Now I know for a fact they aren’t chicken fillets, I’ve seen them before and that isn’t it.
“What the fuck are you stuffing your bra with?” I ask as I stare at her like the weirdo she is.
A massive grin cracks across her face. “They’re breast pads for when your breastfeeding,” she tells me.
“What?” I ask, dumbfounded. “You mean, like, menstrual pads but for your tits?”
“Kind of,” she laughs. “Watch this.”
She stands up before me, naked as the day she was born and I watch in disgust as milk starts leaking from her extremely plumped up boobs. “Oh my, God,” I gasp. “Is that shit going to happen to me?”
“Yeah,” she laughs. “If I give it a squeeze, I could squirt you,” she tells me. “Miller hates it when I do it.”
“That’s foul,” I grunt.
“Eh,” she shrugs. “It’s pretty fun when you’re the one doing it, though, be careful, it gets a bit sticky.”
“Would you shut up about your leaky tits and get dressed already,” I moan.
“You’re the one who asked,” she says with shrug before she finishes getting dressed.
I pull my phone out to check the time when I see a text from Tank. I open it up to find a photo of Miller changing Mia’s nappy only it’s not your usual nappy change. Shit is quite literally everywhere. I smirk at the screen before handing the phone over to Dani to check out.
“Oh, geez,” Dani laughs, “Miller is never going to let me leave again.”
“Yeah, he will,” I say. “He is way too in love with you to hold it against you.”
“He is, isn’t he?” she says, getting that dreamy look on her face every time she thinks about how much she loves her man.
“Ugh, don’t start this shit,” I groan as I take the phone back and actually check the time. “Oh shit, our appointment at the nail salon starts any minute.”
“Oh,” she gasps as we collect our belongings and make our way over to the nail salon, making sure to thank our masseurs on the way.
We make it to our appointment right on time and they are more than happy to squeeze us in for pedicures as well. The lady sends us off to choose a nail polish colour, I go with a deep red as Dani chose’s a foul purply colour. I let her know just how awful her choice was as we take our seats and instantly relax before getting pampered.
The ladies taking care of our manicures start speaking what I’m assuming is Korean to each other and I can’t help but feel they’re talking about us. I mean, do I have something on my face? Did I put my dress on backward? Are Dani’s tits leaking through her breast pads? Seriously, what’s up?
I try my best to tune them out and finally make it possible when my little guy starts kicking me in the ribs, reminding me he is there and ready for a little attention. I place my free hand on my stomach and feel as he kicks me while I relax further into the chair.
Yeah, I really needed today.
This pregnancy has been exhausting. I’ve just past the five-month mark and finally have stopped throwing up, though, with that stopping, the heartburn has started. My feet ache at the end of the day, I spend the majority of my time uncomfortable ad I have to sleep with a pillow jammed between my legs. I have no idea how I’m going to cope over the next few months, but it will be worth it when I lay my eyes on my beautiful little boy at the end.
I hear a light snore coming from beside me and grin as I take in my best friend, fast asleep. I consider waking her, knowing she will be pissed she missed yet another chance of being pampered but at the same time, I know she needs her sleep.
Forty minutes later, I wake Dani and we make our way out of the nail salon.
We’re halfway to my car with Dani complaining about falling asleep again when she stops in the middle of the street and bursts into tears. “What the hell?” I gasp as I stare at her like she has gone nuts. I pull her into my arms and she sobs on my shoulder.
“I miss Mia,” she cries.
Oh geez! She’s an emotional, tired wreck. I can’t wait to see how I’ll be handling it. “You’ve only been away from her for like four hours,” I say but apparently that’s the wrong thing.
“Four hours is a lot when I’ve never left her before. I tried to be all brave for Miller so he’d be confident when I left but the second I stepped out the door I had this need to run back to her.”
“Come on,” I say, dragging her out of the centre of the road. “Mia is doing fine. I’m sure the boys have stuck to her schedule and she did a great big shit. They would have called if there were any dramas.”
“No, they wouldn’t,” she scoffs. “Miller would have been all ‘I can handle it’ and ‘Don’t call Dani, she needs her girl’s day’.”
“Hmmm, yeah. You’re probably right but don’t stress we can skip having lunch out. We’ll head home and have lunch with the boys.”
“Are you sure?” she asks with joy lighting up her eyes.
“Yeah, babe,” I smile. “Besides after that hour massage, I could really use a little attention from Tank.”
“Ugh,” she groans as she climbs into the passenger’s side of my car. “That massage was supposed to be relaxing not get you hot.”
I shrug my shoulders. “What can I say? She had her hands all over me.”
“Oh my god, Sophie,” she says, shaking her head.
I pull out of my parking spot and get on our way home when an excruciating pain shoots through my stomach. “Fuck,” I grunt as my hand wraps around my baby and I do my best to swerve off the road and come to a stop.
“What’s wrong?” Dani gasps, wide-eyed.
I can’t answer, all I can manage is focusing on remembering to breathe. Holy shit, it really hurts. I squeeze my eyes closed and lay my chair back, needing to stretch out.
Tears begin streaming down my face. “Fuck, are you having contractions?” Dani asks.
“I don’t know, I don’t think so,” I cry as I try to get back to focusing on breathing. “It freakin hurts.”
“Can you move? I’ll drive us home,” Dani suggests.
I focus on taking quick, short breaths as Dani hops out of her seat and comes around to the driver’s door. She helps me out and gets me comfortable on the other side of the car. The pain slowly starts to fade as Dani pulls out into the traffic.
“You ok now?” she asks as she quietly turns the radio back on.
“I think so,” I say, rubbing the spot on my tummy that had me in incredible pain. “I don’t know what the hell that was but if that was a contraction, there is no way I’ll be doing this without the drugs.”
“I don’t think it was a contraction,” she muses. “It was probably just your muscles cramping, it happened to me quite a bit but I apparently have a higher pain threshold.”
“Whatever,” I scoff. “I was there when you were giving birth, remember? And that was not the picture of a woman who has a high pain threshold.”
“Give me a break,” she grins as she pulls up at the gate for her home and starts punching in the code. “I was pushing a watermelon out of my vag, that’s a little different from having a cramp.”
I roll my eyes and am about to start with my comeback when a male’s voice coming through the radio pulls my attention away. “Breaking news,” the guy says, prompting me to lean forward to turn up the volume. “Marco Cincinnati, founder, and CEO of M.C Constructions, one of the big five Developmental leaders of L.A, has been found dead. The body was discovered at 9.37 this morning in what it is believed to be a high-class brothel. Reports are saying he suffered from a high mix of alcohol and drugs.”
Woah. Something inside me tells me there is so much more to this story as I reach forward and turn it up a little more.
“Holy shit,” Dani grunts as she brings the car to a stop at the top of her driveway.
“Shhhh,” I demand, waving my hand at her, needing to hear what else is being said.
A response comes from the other news reader. “Wow John, can you believe it?” she says. “This comes a week after the death of Andrew Taylor, CEO of Taylors Developments who died of a heart attack and three weeks after Phillip McDonald, CEO of McDonalds Constructions who passed of natural causes in his sleep.”
“Right,” John replies. “Sounds like there is a curse for all the leading developmental companies going around. I‘d hate to be the CEO’s of Baxter Corporations and First Choice Constructions, looks like they’re up next.”
Too freaking right. What’s the bet that one of these CEO’s had something to do with it? I mean, I could only imagine the type of money that would be coming their way if all the competitors are out of the way.
“Indeed,” the woman replies. “It will be interesting to see how these companies recover from these tragic losses.”
The news bulletin cuts out to an ad break and I turn the radio down before getting out.
“You’ve got that look,” Dani murmurs with disapproval as she reaches into the backseat and grabs her handbag.
“What look?” I ask, knowing exactly what she’s talking about.
“You’re not seriously going to investigate that, are you?” she asks.
“Of course, I am. Did you not hear how suspicious that was? Three of the five leading CEO’s in the construction world are all dead within three weeks of each other. It practically screams suspicious. There is no way I’m not looking into this story. If I’m right, which I usually am, this could be huge.”
“Soph,” she sighs. “It was an overdose. The other guy had a heart attack and the one before that died in his sleep. It’s just coincidence that it happened in such a short time frame,” she says.
“You know I don’t believe in coincidences,” I say bluntly.
“Sophie,” she grunts. “You’re pregnant, you really shouldn’t be doing this. If you’re right, then the police should be handling it. You should be concentrating on growing that baby.”
I roll my eyes. God, she sounds like she has been letting Tank get in her ear. “Come on, Dani. You know I can’t just sit around and do nothing. If there’s a story here, I’m going to find it. I’ll be careful, ok,” I promise her.
She lets out a huff. “Tank’s going to be pissed,” she warns.
“Please,” I scoff, “I can handle Tank.”
She rolls her eyes and pushes through the front door, only to find the boys fast asleep on the ground next to a snoring Mia.
“Looks like she wore them out,” Dani laughs.
“Sure does.”