Chapter 6
A few weeks later, they were at the ultrasound, eager to find out the gender. They still weren’t entirely living together, and hadn’t found a house they’d both liked, but they’d grown closer together with each afternoon and night they’d spent in each other’s company.
“And… it’s a girl!” The tech announced, and showed them the three little lines that indicated gender. “Congratulations.”
“A daughter,” Charlie said and felt panic. The idea of chasing off boys, brushing pony tails, and fluffy dresses had him swallow hard. He had been kind of hoping for a rough and tumble boy, at least a boy he knew what to do with. Since he was a boy. Man… correction. He was a man.
Shareena beamed at him. “A little girl, how exciting.”
“Guess we really need to knuckle down and start picking out a house.” Charlie muttered and gave her a smile, he was happy. He just felt a little frightened at the prospect of raising a girl. The next words out of his mouth were a surprise to him, and shocked Shareena.
“She’s going to need a brother. At least I know what to do with boys.”
“Woah!” Shareena’s eyes widened and she choked, “how about we have this one, before we start talking about anymore.”
Charlie nodded, and wasn’t even sure where the thought had come from, he placed a hand on her belly after the tech had finished wiping it off and leaned down and kissed her.
“Marry me?” He asked her. It wasn’t the most romantic of proposals, but in the moment, with his hand on her belly, looking down at her, it felt right. And sometimes, timing and the rightness of the situation, made up for everything else.
Shareena blinked at him, and then nodded, though she was a little frightened by how fast everything was moving and almost worried that things would be too good to be true. She wanted to believe and have faith that this could work out like a fairytale, but something was holding her back.
When they got back home, he pulled out some fliers he’d been saving to show her of houses in nicer areas. He handed them to her and shrugged.
“If you want to see any of them, just let me know. If you don’t like any of them, we can keep looking. I know you’re doing all the work being pregnant, but I can do heavy lifting, painting, and anything else that needs done, if you tell me.” Charlie told her quietly. He wasn’t a person who had felt insecure very often in his life, but this was such a big deal, he wasn’t sure how he’d handle it if she rejected his offers to help.
Shareena looked down at the papers and burst into tears, Charlie panicked and wasn’t sure if he should hug her, or back away slowly. So he just stood there. Staring, and waiting for her to tell him what to do.
She sobbed harder and finally he reached out and hugged her tight, patting her on the back and not saying a word. He was too worried if he opened his mouth, it would make her cry harder.
After a few minutes, she settled down and her sobs turned to sniffles and then quiet snorts until finally she buried her face against his chest and took soft, little breaths until she could talk again.
“Are you okay?” He asked gently, his hand still rubbing her back softly.
“Yes, it’s just… you’re so good to me, and everything is happening so fast, and I’m not ready for a baby, but there’s a time limit on how long I’ll be pregnant and then it will just be here. No, she will be here, and I don’t even have a name picked out.” Shareena talked fast, then sniffled when she took a breath.
“Well, we can pick a name, and if you don’t want to look at houses, we don’t have to right now.” Charlie said, trying to accommodate her.
“No, we can’t put it off any longer, I don’t want to be so big, and fat I can’t move things around the way I want them.” She looked up at him, and her eyes were big and red from her crying.
“Okay, then we can start looking, and we can look at baby names together. We can pick something out so she has a name.” Charlie told her and then hugged her, resting his chin on the top of her head and closing his eyes, taking a deep breath. As far as hormonal pregnant women went, she wasn’t so bad, but the panic he felt at seeing her burst into tears made him realize he’d rather face down a million men with guns aimed at him, than not know how to help her when she was upset.
“Okay, that sounds good. I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to cry,” Shareena wiped a hand on her cheek and then leaned up on her toes and kissed him. “Take me to bed, I need a distraction.”
Charlie nodded. That he could do. Sex was something that came naturally to him and he was good at it. Learning how to navigate the pregnancy hormones, and a new relationship and trying not to screw it up, was a lot scarier to him.
In the end, they might not know how it was going to play out, but he knew, that whatever was growing between them, would last if they paid attention to it and didn’t let it slip away.
As he followed her to the bedroom, he knew that he was right where he wanted to be, and despite his fears about the future, he didn’t have any regrets.