PHOEBE'S POV
Man I am beat!
We have shopped for hours! Carly is on another level when she shops. She definitely got that gene from Aunt Mia even if they are not biologically related.
We got AJ a small princess bed and a booster seat and my mom also insisted on getting us both a new wardrobe. She has never been any good at spending money on herself but let her loose and tell her to buy for her kids and now grandchild and she really went to town. What made my day though was when Carly disappeared for about 10 minutes with her CPO and then came back and handed me a gift bag..
"Here, this is for AJ"
I opened up the bag and laughed. Bed sheet with ice cream cones on them.
"Carly, she will love these!"
"I want to be her cool aunt, like Mia is with us"
"Trust me, if you give her anything remotely related to ice cream, you will be"
We get back to the house and when we open the front door we find Gail hiding behind one of the pillars in the foyer with a camera in her hands.
"Gail, what are you doing?" my mom ask making Gail jump. She then quickly puts a finger on her lips to tell us to be quite.
"Ana, I could not resist taking a picture. I have seen some adorable things before but nothing like this. Go take a look"
The three of us slowly make our way into the family room and when we see what Gail was on about, I get tears in my eyes.
My big strong CEO father who is known throughout the country as a hard ass, is leaning back against the sofa fast asleep with AJ tucked under one arm fast asleep, Matthew under the other asleep, a golden retriever puppy asleep at his feet and a ball of fluff asleep on his lap.
I walk over to Gail and take the camera from her. I creep up to stand directly in front of my father and take a few snaps.
I will treasure these photo for ever.
It's 6pm and we are waiting for Teddy and Joey to get here. First we are going to have dinner so my parents can get to know Joey and then put the kids to bed and look at the pictures and video clips I have .
I don't want my parents to feel bad when we watch them. I want to give them piece of mind that I really was OK.
I am talking to my parents at the kitchen counter keeping my eye on AJ while she plays with her puppy in the family room when Teddy walks in soon followed by a wide eyed Joey.
"Hey" I greet them. Teddy gives me a kiss on the cheek but Joey glares at me. What's his problem?
"Joey, what's wrong?"
"Is AJ out of earshot and eyesight?"
"Um yes. She's playing in the other room with Matthew but Carly is with them. Why did you want to know that?"
"Because I am about kill her mother and I don't want her to witness it!"
Before I can react he has me down on the floor pinning my arms above my head while sitting on me!
"What the fuck Joey! Get off me!"
"Not until you admit that you are the worlds most stupid human being ever! You need to go to a shrink and get yourself checked because there is something wrong with you!"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"You. Left. This. Mansion. To. Live. In. our. Shithole. Apartment? Shame on you Phoebe Grey, shame on you" he grins at me and now I know he is messing with me.
"And you had to sit on me to tell me this?" I huff.
"Yes. You know I like to be dramatic" he gets up and pulls me with him. I had completely forgotten that my parents and Teddy were in the room. Teddy and my mom are giggling and even my dad is laughing at Joeys drama queen antics.
"Mom, Dad this crazy person is Joey. ..Crazy weirdo, my parents, Christian and Anastasia Grey"
"Nice to meet you, Joey" my Mom holds out his hand and he just stares at it then engulfs her in a hug.
"Mrs G, we are practically family, no need for formal hand shakes"
I can see my father tense up. He has never been OK with strangers touching him so he is wary Joey is going to hug him. Thank God he doesn't because he extends his hand to my father.
"Nice to meet you, Mr Grey "
"Same to you Joey and please call me Christian"
Joeys fits right in with my family. He has everyone in stitches when he tells them some of the stories about when AJ was first born. Like the time I hunted the apartment up and down for her pacifier and then realized I had it in my mouth. Or the first time she sneezed and I cried for an hour solid.
My father is really relaxed around him and I think it may have something to do with the fact that he knows that Joey is not interested in my mom. He even gets jealous sometimes if my uncle Elliott hugs her a little longer than usual so having my gay best friend who would rather get in my dads pants than my moms panties seems to have a calming affect on him and he doesn't have to keep his guard up. Well he will if he ever gets drunk around Joey.
My mom and I get AJ and Matthew ready for bed and after making sure they are both settled for the evening we go back downstairs to watch some video clips of my time in Texas. My dad has hooked his laptop up to the cinema sized screen in our home theater.
This has always been one of my favorite places in this house. It has 15 lazy boy chairs all built in with surround sound. It was the place I always used to come just to chill out when I was a teenager. Joey has decided that he is going to give a running commentary about what we will all see on the screen. Great! I know he is going to be razzing me throughout it all.
"OK Grey family welcome to the first showing of what I like to call: Phoebe Grey, Large in the Lone star state" he chuckles.
"Large?" Carly queries.
"Oh Carly Cat. Your sister was huge and I don't mean like she looked fat huge, think whale!" He holds his hands out about two frrt from his belly to show how big I was.
I throw my shoe at his head for that one.
The first video clip shows Joey laughing in the kitchen of our old apartment talking into the camera.
"Hi little jelly bean. I'm your uncle Joey! I will give you this video diary I am making of your mom, on your 16th birthday. Why you ask? Because this will ensure you never have unprotected sex. Now, if you listen carefully you will hear the delicate soothing tones of your mommy"
He starts to walk down the hall and you can hear me getting louder and louder. I groan because this is sooo embarrassing!
"Fucking piece of fucking shit! Why the fuck would they say it's a size 6 when it clearly is not? I should sue the mother fuckers!…OH FOR FUCK SAKE!"
The camera shows Joey having to clamp his hand over his mouth to stop from laughing.
"Are you OK in there Pheebs?"
"AM I OK? Am I OK? NO! I am not fucking OK! Nothing fucking fits because the stupid fucking factory that makes them put the wrong fucking label on my jeans! Its says size 6 but I cant get them fucking on! Ahh!
The camera shows Joey open the door of my room, and me laying on the bed on my back struggling to get a pair of jeans on that are clearly to small for me.
My whole family gasp. Probably because this is the first time they have seen my pregnant self.
Then at the same time they all start laughing! Thanks guys!
"Oh honey…. I think its time you gave up. You're not a size 6 sweetie. Come to Joey, Sweety come on"
The clips ends and all my family stare at me.
"She was like that every single time she tried to get something on. In the end I went and got her a shit load of sweat pants and wouldn't let her wear anything else"
"Wow Phoebe! That was like a demon possessed you" Carly say laughing.
"Yeah well, that's what hormones do to you"
Over the next hour Joey shoes us clips of me eating what looked like my own weigh in pizza. Me dipping a banana in BBQ sauce. Us putting marbles on my swollen belly and waiting for an in-the-womb AJ to kick them off.
My parents are very emotional while looking at me on the screen. They are both sharing a lazy-boy and every so often I see them each whispering to each other. I cant change the last four years but I will spend the next 40 if I have to making it up to my family.
The next round of clips are AJ over the last 3 and half years. Her first steps, her first tooth, her first birthday, her first Halloween when I dressed her as a lady-bug. She gets a lot of aww's for that clip. She was and is a very cute kid.
The very last clip is of her actual birth. I assure a very worried looking father and brother that you can not see my lady parts on the clip.
Joey said and I quote "Darling I ain't been that close to a woman's vagina yet and I don't plan to start now".
The first shot is of a very happy smiling me, hooked up to a verity of machines with Joey asking me how I am and if it hurts to which I reply
"What's the big fuss, this isn't that bad".
The next clip is of me screaming and swearing like a banshee.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD! Oh fuck…. Ahh… this fucking hurts! Get me more drugs! Oh dear lord what am I giving birth to? A toddler? Joey please help me I beg you! Kill me now I cant fucking do this!"
"Phoebe, come on! Yes you can do this just remember the breathing we learned…"
"Fuck that fucking hippie shit!…. Give me drugs! I don't even care which ones! It can be fucking weed for all I care but please get me something. NOW!"
The next shot is of when they place AJ on my chest and they ask me what her name is. All my family are now crying quietly at what is unfolding on the screen, a mother and her daughter meeting each other for the first time. The following clips are of me dressing her and feeding her, then the student doctor that helped deliver her comes in to check her over. Oh, God. He was so dreamy. How I snagged him I will never know.
"Well Miss Grey, looks like your daughter is perfectly healthy. She will need to come back in a few weeks for her first round of shots. I want to keep you both in over night just for observation and if all is well tomorrow morning you can go home. She is a cute little thing isn't she?"
"I think so as well. She is perfect. Thank you so much Dr. Colby and please call me Phoebe. I appreciate everything you have done for us and umm…. I'm sorry for screaming profanities at you and questioning where you got your medical degree"
"Trust me I have heard worse and please call me Jesse"
"Jesse. Thank you"
You can clearly tell I am smitten with the handsome doctor. I am blushing and spluttering all over the place.
After that clip is finished Joey starts to sing "Can you feel the love tonight" which makes me throw my other shoe at him.
"Oh come on Pheebs. Even you have to admit after watching that clip it was weird that you two dated. I mean that man was down the businesses end of that birth"
"Wait hold on whoa whoa whoa! You dated your doctor?" my mom is shocked.
I blush because even though it's obvious I have been with a man, the evidence is up stairs asleep on a princess bed, but I have never told my Mom and Dad about my dating life. Not that there is much to tell I have only been with two men and I don't think the first one falls into the "dating" category.
"Yes I did. AJ was almost 2 and I was on the late shift at the diner and he walked in for a burger and we just started talking. When my shift finished he walked me back to my apartment and he asked me out and I said yes. He was my very own Texas cowboy. Wore a hat and everything" I say shyly.
"How long did you date? And how old was he?" my dad ask.
"We dated a little over a year and he was 25 when we started dating and I was 18 almost 19. He was like a medical genius. He graduated early from both high school and collage and he trained at some of the best hospitals in the country "
"Why did you break up? He was like Dr. Mc Hotstuff" Carly giggles and my Dad glares at her.
"He had a opportunity to work with Doctors without Borders. He said he would turn them down and stay and finish off his degree in Texas but I told him to go. It was a great opportunity for him and I didn't want to hold him back. Last I heard he was working in New York. We tried to keep in touch but he was so busy and I had AJ"
"That's a bit of and age difference and I don't think it was appropriate that he pursued you considering that he was your doctor" my dad frowns when he says this, no doubt thinking of Jesse someone who abused his position.
"Dad it wasn't like that. It was only 7 years. There are 6 between you an Mom. He was always a gentlemen and he was great with AJ and I loved hanging out with him"
"Did you love him?" My Dad hets straight to the point.
"Yes. I did. But at the back of my mind I always knew it would end. I never told him who you guys were and I though of it as a relationship based on a lie because I couldn't open up to him and with me having AJ it's not like we could be a normal couple. I mean he never once stayed over the whole night at my place or me at his because I had to get back for AJ before Joey went to work. Anyway I'm over it. We broke up 6 months ago and we parted on friendly terms. Beside there are plenty more fish in the sea but I want to concentrate on AJ. She is and will always be my first priority. Dating Jesse was easy because he already knew I had a kid but just the though of putting myself out there and meeting a random guy and dating gives me a headache. I have my daughter and I have my family and that's all I need. Maybe one day when AJ is all grown up I might try dating again but at the moment, I don't see a guy in my future"
We hang out and chat for another hour and then my parents excuse themselves to go to bed, leaving Joey, Teddy, Carly and myself.
"Now the parents are out the way, lets talk about how we are going to get little miss prude here Back in the dating game" Joey announces to the room.
"Joey, I don't need a boyfriend!" with that he jumps across the chairs and for the second time tonight sits on me only this time he is Straddling my lap and pining my arms above my head.
"Now now Pheebs. You don't mean that. And come on! What about sex? You must miss it? It's not like you and Dr. Jesse were celibate. We both remember the screaming banshee part 2!"
"What's the screaming banshee part 2?" Carly definitely gets her thirst for gossip from Mia.
"Well little lady I wont go into details but it involved me coming home early from work, AJ asleep in her playpen in the living room and some very weird noises coming from your sisters room.. I remember thinking Dr. Jesse must be good with his hands to make a woman squeal like that…. Turns out it was Jesse that was making the noise" he falls back off me laughing his head off remembering that very embarrassing moment in my life.
"Eww OK TMI that's my sister!"
"Sorry dude.. OK then so you, me and your old spinster sister over there, this Saturday, clubbing, what do you say?"
"I'm game!" Teddy is very on board with this.
"I would love to go but I have a ice cubes chance in hell for dad to let me go" Carly looks gutted but her time will come.
"First of all you weren't invited kiddo and second of all I am not going. I have a daughter Joey. I cant just go out clubbing when I have responsibilities"
"Phoebe Grace Grey! Not once in almost four years have me and you been clubbing! You were the size of a whale to start with and then you would never trust anyone to baby-sit AJ. But now, oh young one, you have a house full of people who will willingly look after and protect your child. Not to mention state of the art security and a army of very buff security guards patrolling the ground! So in conclusion, NO is not a option!"
He is like a god damn dog with a fucking bone and I know he won't drop it.
"Fine OK! I'll go ok! As long as Mom and Dad doesn't mind watching AJ and I don't interrupt my parents plans, I'll go"
"Excellent! Like I have always said, you are a great Mom and I know nothing comes above your daughter but Phoebe, she wont resent you if for a few hours maybe twice a month you hang with your friends and let off some steam" he tells me kindly.
"He is right Pheebs. Besides, it will give Mom and Dad a chance to bond with her"
"OK I'm game. Twice a month, I am all yours"
"Oh Pheebs, you will not regret this I promise. Over the next few months we are going to unleash your inner party girl"
"I don't have a inner party girl Joey"
"We'll see about that"