Authors note: Saw 50 Shades of Grey on Saturday… boy was it a terribly boring movie, but boy does Jamie Dornan's abs, back muscles and butt make it all worth it. (He's the only reason I saw the shit because I fell in love with him in Once Upon A Time…)
I woke up that morning and I felt somewhat better than usual, but I wasn't going to start doing anything to tempt my body to stay feeling like I had been run over once again. I started to smell something that smelled pretty amazing, but my heart dropped when I remembered I couldn't eat it. 'Hey Erik can you bring me some of the broth please?!' I didn't get a response but hoped he was just working on it or something. A minute or so later he came in with two plates and I felt my stomach grumble. 'Why are you taunting me?'
'I'm not. C'mon sit up I don't want your breakfast to get cold.' I worked on sitting up, but without my stomach it took a bit longer than usual. After I was up he set one of the plates down on my lap and my mouth watered when I saw the omelette, hash browns and bacon on the plate.
'How is this not taunting me?'
'Because you can eat it.' He set his plate down next to me and left the room again, but came back with two glasses. 'Miss I Fart In My Sleep.'
'You fart in your sleep too so be quiet.'
'I'm in no way judging, but you get to eat so eat up.'
'You're serious?' I didn't want to get my hopes up bcause it had been like way too long since the last actual meal I had- had.
'Yes. I'm not that big of a dick.' He sat down on the bed and turned the TV on and apparently we were gonna watch Saving Mr. Banks.
'Where's Alli?'
'Dunno. She never came back from that party she went to last night.' I picked my fork up and waited for his actual answer. 'Asleep. It's noon so it's nap time. She's been up since like seven.'
'You've been up since seven?' I felt bad for being such a lazy prick.
'Give or take. We went to the store and I bought stuff for breakfast. Apparently men with babies is a really big attraction for women because I got like three women who came up to me and said hi.'
'Yeah we find it attractive for some reason. So you've been busy then.' He nodded and I took a bite of my hash browns since he was nice enough to pre-ketchup them for me. It was like heaven in potato form.
'Just keeping busy. Plus I wanted to make you something after you like nearly blew the place up last night.' I smiled and swatted his shoulder making him chuckle and kiss my cheek. 'I love you.'
'I love you too. This seriously is so amazing.' I cut the edge of the omelette off and consumed that bite like I hadn't eaten in months. I sighed when I realized there were veggies and meats in the omelette making it even better. 'You're a saint.'
'I'm glad you like it. So how'd you sleep?'
'Pretty well. I'm feeling a bit better today which is nice. I think I'll skip my meds today.'
'Alrighty we aren't doing anything today so it's not like you won't be able to take them if they end up being needed.'
'Yeah. Do we have anything sweet?'
'There's ice cream in the freezer.' I scrunched my face up and he seemed entertained by my reaction. 'I'll pick something up later.'
'Thank you.' I took a bite of bacon and moaned due to how amazing it tasted.
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'Okay, so there is nine hundred here so how about one hundred thousand for the wedding and honeymoon.' Erik waited a moment before writing one hundred K on a piece of paper and what it was for. 'Two hundred for Alli's college and anything she may need.'
'Two fifty?'
'That works.' He wrote that down while I thought of how much to do next. 'One for charity and the rest in savings or we can maybe look at houses in the near future.'
'House?' Erik looked at me after writing the last bit down. 'Like not an apartment house?'
'Yeah why not. We're gonna want a house someday so we might as well buy one while we can pay in cash or most of it at least.'
'Yeah true... Do you want to look at like already built or do you want to see if we would be able to build one? I'm not sure how it works so we may not be able to.'
'I think it has to do with credit and yearly income, but don't quote me. Either way if we pay with cash so the monthly payment is down to where it would be had we gotten a house in our range or lower, what does it matter?'
'True. Well we'll figure it out when the time comes. We still have... Damn only nine months left on the lease here. I guess if you want a house we should start looking.'
'If you don't want a house then getting one would be dumb. We fit in this apartment, so there's no immediate need for one. Plus we don't know where we'll end up so buying a house would be a bit silly.'
'What do you mean?'
'Well we're just getting started. We may end up in New York or London or wherever work takes us.'
'True. So maybe we should just put it away and if we end up staying here then we'll buy a house. Let's say in five years if we're not moving around by then we'll start looking. Sound good?'
'Yeah that's a good plan.'
'Hey sorry to interrupt, but I'm going to the store do you guys want or need anything?' Erik and I looked at Anne who was standing in the doorway for our room.
'Cupcakes... Chocolate preferably.' I jumped on the opportunity of not having to have Erik go to the store.
'What she said.' Erik pointed at me while writing something down on the paper.
'Okay... See you guys in a while.' She left our room and I picked the pencil up from the paper and wrote two numbers down so I could add them together. I was truly terrible at math.
'Well what we could do is cut twenty five out of her college fund, twenty five from the charity fund and set them aside for a down payment so no matter what we'll be able to get a house in the future.'
'We could do that. We'll just get everything put where it should be then if we change our minds we'll move it around. I just want the check cashed so we don't misplace it.'
'Yeah no totally. So where do you want to go for our honeymoon?' I figured there was nothing else to do and Alli was asleep so why not plan?
'Hmm good question. Not California because we could easily go there on vacation. Maybe back up to Toronto or somewhere in Europe? I do like the idea of Germany. My dad said it's pretty cool.'
'Germany does sound fun. We could take a train over to Paris and London as well. Maybe Amsterdam, then stop in New York and come back. We could see whatever's on at the Palais Garnier and then see some West End shows. I also think Aladdin is opening in Hamburg in December so we could see that too! Oh this could be so much fun!' I started smiling like an idiot as I started writing all the places and ideas down on the other side of the paper we were using. 'Tomorrow we're going to go to that bakery and see what we can do, and tonight we're gonna start looking at venues. We also should book things for the New York trip. I'm thinking March? Like mid March.'
'See when you can get an appointment then we'll book everything around it since that's the most important and probably hardest thing to.'
'Good point. Okay I'll- can you grab the laptop please?' He got up and went over to the bed then picked the laptop up off the bed. 'I think I can schedule an appointment online.' He nodded and set the laptop down in front of me and I thanked him while opening it up. 'Am I going to find porn on here?' He smiled and shook his head.
'Nope. When I know what I'm gonna be getting in a couple months porn seems not worth it.'
'You use incognito don't you.'
'Yeah.' I giggled and opened a new window up so I could go to the Kleinfeld website and look around for a make an appointment tab. 'Only once though.'
'Erik I really don't mind. Everyone watches porn and I don't expect you to stop having hormones because I can't do anything right now. It's better than you going out and finding a girl that can give you what I can't at this point so go crazy. Just make sure the anti virus software is up to date. This is a new laptop.' He seemed a bit embarrassed so I lightly pressed my lips against his. 'I love you.'
'I love you too.' I went back to looking for the appointment thing, and I smiled triumphantly when I found what I was looking for.
'Ah there you are. Let's see how about March twenty second.' I put the date in and smiled when a single appointment popped up at eight thirty. 'There's one appointment at eight thirty in the morning. Should I take it?'
'Yeah I would.' I nodded and accepted the appointment time and worked on doing everything I needed to do from there.
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'I probably should've let everyone know first. Luckily its during spring break but still.'
'Well just call them and let them know. I'll start looking at plane tickets, you send a text out.' He slid me my phone and I unlocked it before going to messages and adding Sam, Meg and Eilish's number into the recipient bar.
'We're going to New York March 20th through March 24878th. Be ready whores.'
Meg responded first. 'For what?'
'I'm going dress shopping and I want my bridesmaids there.'
'Ooo alright I'll be ready! Just let me know the details and if I need to supply a ride or not :)'
The next was Sam. 'Sounds good. Anything specific I need to pack?'
'Nope just clothes. I'm probably going to drag Erik to a couple shows so if you wanna join you can.'
'Alrighty!'
'How does leaving at seven and getting there at eight sound?' I looked up from my phone at Erik and he was rubbing his chin while looking at me.
'That sounds good. We need at least four tickets. Eilish hasn't responded yet.'
'Alright I can wait I was just curious.' I nodded and looked down at my phone as if looking at it twenty times a minute would get Eilish to text back.
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I was sitting down on the couch feeding Alli when my phone buzzed catching my attention. I situated it so I could feed her with one hand and grabbed my phone. I couldn't stop smiling when it was Eilish. 'Ooo I've always wanted to go to New York, but what for? What flight? I may have enough money for a ticket...'
'Tickets on me since I'm dragging you guys there to go dress shopping :)) just be ready!'
'Oh well if you insist haha. Alrighty I'll be ready, just give me flight deets!' I tossed my phone to the side and went back to my two handed feeding.
'Hey Erik, Eilish is down for New York so we should buy tickets.' He came out from the kitchen and nodded while eating a chip.
'Sounds good. Once she's done eating we'll go book the flights and rooms. So what shows do you want to see while we're there?' He put a chip in my mouth and I happily chewed it.
'Hmm...' I swallowed and skimmed the short lists of musicals I wanted to see. 'Wicked… Aladdin, Phantom of the Opera, It Shoulda Been You, Mamma Mia and Les Miserables.'
'We're gonna need two days extra to see all of those so do you want to leave to days early or leave two days after everyone else?'
'Early.' He gave me another chip and I broke it in half with my tongue before working on chewing it up.
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'So we're leaving the fourteenth and will be coming back the twenty third.' I nodded and he put all the information into the computer. 'Is leaving at seven cool still?'
'Yeah that's good.'
'And coming back at three forty five?'
'That's good. We can grab lunch and all that.' I scratched my nose while continuing to lightly rock Alli's rocker with my toe since the swings rocker setting was ridiculous.
'Cool.' He picked the card up that we had for the savings account checking account, and got to being the long slow process of putting the card information in. 'I found a Hilton in Times Square for two thirty a night, I figured we get two queens for the three of them and then a king for us which is only two ten a night.'
'That sounds perfect. We'll book that next.' I looked down at Alli since he was focusing and she was asleep... Shocker. 'Do we need Anne here? I feel like we don't do anything because of how easy she is.'
'I was thinking that earlier. We should probably let her go home so she can sleep in her own bed and things like that.' I nodded in agreement as I continued looking at Alli. Since my toe was getting tired I stopped pushing the swing, and when she stayed aslee I turned my attention back to Erik.
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'So two things, Anne.' I walked into the kitchen where she was making spaghetti despite Erik and I insisting that pizza was fine for dinner.
'What would that be?'
'One, I'm going to New York March eighteenth through the twenty third to go dress shopping and I want you to be there. We bought the plane tickets for everyone but you since you have a little less flexible job than Sam, but once you know you can go we'll buy it. I really want you to be there, but if you can't make it I understand.'
'That works. I have time off I should be able to use so I'll ask tonight. What's the second thing?'
'Oh right- uh Erik and I were talking and if you want to go home you can. She's turning out to me tremendously easier than expected, and I can't imagine that blow up mattress is all that comfortable.'
'Are you sure? Because helping out for a couple more days really isn't any trouble. I just want to make sure you two are alright. It's been a stressful past few months and you just went through a major surgery so you're asleep a lot, Erik has Alli and cooking and cleaning...' Her eyes let off she was more worried than she was letting off which warmed my heart.
'Mom, we'll be okay. We have to grow up sometime, and now is as good of time as any. I really appreciate your concern, and if we end up getting to the point of desperation we'll call you, but right now you're just damaging your back for nothing.' She finished stirring the sauce before nodding and smiling.
'Okay just promise you won't hesitate to call and ask for help?'
I decided to try and hug her, and I scrunched my face up when I felt the pulling of the stitches under my breast. 'I promise.' I let go since the pully feeling wasn't all that comfortable.
'So what else happened in the hospital that landed you in there for six days? The c-section is only four days so there's two dates that are unaccounted for.' I tried leaning against the counter but I couldn't get myself to fully try and do it in fears of what it'd do to my stomach so I didn't.
'Just something that popped up that needed to be dealt with.'
'Did they find a clot?' She grabbed a plate and started fanning herself off while staring at me and I guessed she was having a hot flash.
'No... They found a mass in my left breast. I had it removed since when I tried feeding her it hurt like hell, and they tested it and it was cancerous. They did a PET scan and nothing else showed up but they want me to stay on top of the PET scanning and mammogram for the next year in case it comes back or is found somewhere else.'
'Breast cancer? Where on earth did you get that from?' I shrugged my shoulders.
'No clue, but luckily they found it before it had spread.' I rolled my shirt up and showed the underneath of my breast so she could see the stitches.
'Oh wow that's pretty big. Was it really that large?' She leaned down to look at it closer as I nodded.
'They said it was a little bit bigger than a golf ball. How Erik or me didn't notice it but either way it was found and dealt with accordingly.' I lowered my breast down before letting my shirt drop. 'Okay so don't forget about the days off, don't tell anyone about the boob thing and get going after you eat. Ken probably misses you.'
'Yeah he does. Well after dinner is cleaned up I'll head home, but if you change your minds before then just let me know.' Knowing arguing that Erik or I could clean up would be useless, I side hugged her before going back into Erik and I's room. A napped seemed in order.
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'Chris?' I opened my eyes and sat up when I realized I had fallen asleep while pumping.
'Yeah?' The nap didn't officially happen obviously.
'Are you hungry yet? Anne really was insistent that I have you eat. I don't want to be on her bad side shockingly.'
'Once I'm done I'll eat.' He set the plate down on the nightstand and the throbbing him sitting down caused I figured it was time to take my meds. 'What time is it?'
'Eleven. You were done pumping... Like an hour ago.' I looked down at my breast and it was put away, and I realized Erik seemed entertained. 'So what are you going to finish before eating?'
'Uh... Drooling on your pillow.' He put his hand over his pillow before I could grab it and lick it, and I tried hiding my smile while taking my plate from him. 'So you let me sleep?'
'I figured I could do it this one time. I don't want you getting too used to sleeping.' He grabbed my pill bottle off the nightstand and dropped a pill into his hand. The rattling noise made Leila come out from under the bed and jump up onto the bed. She started meowing as I set my plate down on my lap and took the pill from him, and as I was taking a drink of my water Leila came up to my plate and started licking. 'Hey that's not yours.' Erik scooted her back a few inches and she looked at Erik like he just said her cat box wasn't hers.
'When did daddy last feed you?' Instead of answering she started meowing, but Erik answered the question by getting up off the bed and heading towards the laundry room. She jumped off the bed and chased after him as usual. My inability to laugh was really starting to put a damper on my mood which I didn't like seeing that depression and I didn't really get along.
'Okay she's fed now.' I grabbed my plate before Erik saw me sitting there staring at nothing. I took a bite as Erik finally got back into the room and I glanced at him.
'That's good. We need to find her some stairs so she doesn't hurt herself jumping onto the bed.'
'Or we could ditch the bed frame.' I shook my head and he sat down next to me again. 'Are you alright?'
'Yeah I'm fine. Why would you think I'm not?'
'I don't know you just seem more out of it than usual.'
'What do you mean by that? I just got major surgery, expecting me to be normal could cause some major disappointment. Plus I learned that I could've been dealing with cancer right now which I'm still processing.'
'You're right, I'm sorry. Just don't forget I'm here if you need to talk, okay?' I nodded and he kissed my cheek. I'm gonna get her laundry started, maybe watch a movie or something in the living room. Do you want to join me for that?'
'I'll try, but I took my meds so I may fall asleep soon. If I haven't I will though.' He nodded and stood up, and before leaving the room he stopped and scratched his head.
'At least try and stay awake long enough to eat the rest of your dinner. I love you.'
'I will, and I love you too.' He left the room and I took a bite of spaghetti since I didn't need to talk anymore.
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'Chris? Where are you?' I opened my eyes and Erik was walking out of our room, Alli had been up nearly the entire time he had been gone, but luckily I got her to go to sleep so I could relax... I of course ending up napping. 'Oh there you are. Are you alright?' I nodded and he came over to the couch. 'Was Alli difficult?'
'No she cried for a while but I realized she was hungry. Then we sat and watched Pocahontas until she fell asleep. Then mommy went to sleep. Where's the groceries?'
'On the counter. I realized you weren't in bed and you usually don't nap on the couch so I didn't think that I'd wake you up.'
'You didn't. God I'm sore.' I rolled onto my side but immediately moved back onto my back when I remembered the last six months I had so sleep on my back.
'I'm sorry, did you take ibuprofen?' I shook my head and sighed while feeling around for the Xbox controller so I could put another movie on. Once I picked Wayne's World I got up and went into the kitchen to help put the food away and see if he got anything snack worthy. The first bag I started taking things out of I found a box of condoms and lube.
'Five weeks left minimum and not until we're married maybe not even then. What were you thinking?'
'Because you may not want to do it after John gives you the okay and so I want to have them and know that we do in case it's not something planned that we can stop and pick a box up before, and Sam was telling me you can be a bit dry no matter how hard I try to make it enjoyable and she said water based is good because it doesn't eat through the latex. Again, pre-planning.'
'Oh... Well that's a good idea now that I think about it. Why were you and Sam talking about that?'
'I don't know. She was just like just so you know get some water based lube when you guys plan to start having sex again because she could be dry and it would suck to be like in the middle of it and realize it's not goin' in or it hurts her.'
'So it was like a little tip thing?' He nodded and pulled a box of pads out which I quickly took seeing that I was almost out. 'Thank you. I'm so tired of bleeding.'
'You're welcome, and it's only been a week so you have a little while left. Then you get to find out when your period starts. Having a baby could've changed your hormones.' I groaned instead of attempting to put together response. 'Yeah I know it sucks. Well I don't know know but you know what I mean.' He pulled out a box of Ho Hos and I dropped my pack of pads to grab the box.
'Oh my God I love you so much.'
'I know.' I smiled at his confidence, and used the most self control I had to set the box down and help him finish putting things away. 'Save at least one for me.'
'I think I can manage that.' He kissed my head and took a couple of the bags over to the fridge.
'So I was thinking since you've showered today that we could go to work so Valerie and Mary can see her, and then maybe go get dinner? If you're not feeling up to it then that's fine, I just thought since you showered we would make the most of it.
'No that sounds good. Can you help me change once we're done? We should probably feed and change her before we leave so we'll have a somewhat happy baby when being shown off.'
'That's probably a good idea. Okay so change you, wake her up and change her then feed her, change her again if need be and go. If you want to feed her I'll get her diaper bag together.'
'That works.' I handed him a block of cheese and a container of cream cheese to put in the fridge.
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We walked over to the stage door and I was hesitant to go any further when I remembered/saw the six steps that went up to the door. 'I'll help you up them.' I nodded and grabbed the handrail and put my left foot on the first step, aaand the easy part was over. Erik pushed up on my butt and I lifted my right foot up, and I tried deciding if I even had stomach muscles anymore. We repeated the process and after a minute or so we managed to get up the stairs. I put the code on the door in and Erik opened the door for me which I was thankful for. Luckily we were early so there weren't too many people there, but Mary was always there early checking the costumes over to make sure she didn't miss any damages the night before. We waved at a couple of the stage hands, and at least for me I drew a blank on their names at that point in time. We snaked our way back to the costume department, and as I guessed Mary was at her table sewing something on while mumbling to herself.
'You really need to dust.' I ran my finger over the edge of the table she was using and smiled when she looked up.
'Oh my Goodness is that you Christine?' She came over to me and cupped my cheeks while inspecting me. 'You've definitely lost some weight.'
'Yeah it's been a rough couple weeks... Anyway, we brought someone for you to meet.' I stepped to the side and Erik came forward with her car seat and set it on the table, and Mary tried wiping a smile off her face but couldn't do it.
'Is this her?' I smiled and nodded making her squeal. 'Oh hold on let me wash my hands.' She hurried over to the bathroom and I pulled the blanket back from over her seat. I sighed when she was asleep- that was all she seemed to do. Mary came nearly sprinting out and stopped next to Erik and I and was practically jumping in her spot. 'Oh she's so beautiful! Can I hold her?' Both Erik and I nodded and she undid the straps before slowly picking her up. 'What's her name?'
'Alli Nicole Destler.'
'Oh that's beautiful. So how was labor? Not too traumatizing I hope?'
'Well I had a abruption at seven or nine centimeters, so I had to get a C-section, and they also found a cancerous mass in my left breast that I had removed.'
'Holy moly that doesn't sound very fun. I mean giving birth isn't fun but that's just downright miserable.'
'Yeah it was... Yeah.'
'So what's her birthday?'
'January sixteenth.' Mary smiled as Alli grabbed her pinkie finger, and she tried sucking on it but Mary giggled and pulled her finger away.
'Nu-uh I know how painful that baby jaw can get, does she have a binkie?' Erik started rummaging through the diaper bag and pulled one out a few seconds later. Mary took it and popped it in her mouth so she'd give up on Mary's pinkie. 'There. She's precious you two, and I'd love to stare at her longer but Valerie ripped her dress last night getting off the lift and I'm still working on fixing it.' She set Alli back in her seat before giving Erik and I a hug. 'She's in her dressing room if you're wanting to see her.'
'Thanks, and good luck with her dress. I'll make sure and punch her in the boob.' She laughed making me smile while Erik picked Alli up.
'Please do. Have a good rest of the day!' We waved before leaving the costume area and made our way towards our dressing room. Once getting to Valerie's I knocked on the door and after a few seconds I heard a click then the door open. I grinned when she did, and she finally squealed and hugged me.
'Oh God please be gentle.' I returned the hug and she loosened her death grip.
'Sorry I got really excited. Come in and sit down I have a little bit before I can get dressed.' She was already wearing her wig and necessary undergarments since she was wearing a pink silk robe. I let Erik go first since he was carrying everything, and he set Alli and the diaper bag down but didn't sit down. 'So how are you two? You had Alli obviously.' Erik helped me sit down which explained why he hadn't sat down immediately.
'I'm sore, tired and drugged up. Erik I don't know- he seems to be handling this a lot better than I am.' We watched him sit down and then waited for his response.
'Uh I'm tired but not as tired as you. I'm thinking you're overly tired because of the two surgeries you went through less than two weeks ago.'
'True. Anyway so how's the show going?'
'Good! We miss you guys, but we're having fun anyway. Shows are still sold out and all of that, but I think it has to do with the annoying ass snow birds.'
I groaned and rubbed my eyes at the mention of those fucks. 'God I hate the snow birds. They ruin winter for me.'
'What are snow birds?'
'People, mostly older, come from snowy states and hang out here for the winter. So we get to deal with their miserable asses for the fucking season.'
'Oh! Is that what they're called? Alright that makes sense.' Erik scratched his chin and looked down at Alli.
I glanced at Valerie and she was looking at Alli as well. 'Do you want to hold her?' She got up and hurried into the bathroom, and I decided that was a yes. People and babies.
