Stephanie was sitting on Paul's bed feeding Madison while Paul's mom was in the bedroom arranging her clothes. Paul had 'gone out' again, leaving the three of them alone together. Her mom hadn't even talked to her yet, just said hi back at the airport, it felt awkward to want to talk to her, so she just closed the bedroom door and hid.
The TV was on low volume, showing Paula Deen make some chicken dish, she stared at it until the door opened and Paul looked at her, confused, "haven't you learned to knock?" She grabbed a blanket and covered herself with it, "the door was closed for a reason you know."
"I didn't think I would have to knock to come in my own bedroom." He looked down at the grey carpet, "sorry, I should have warned you I was coming in, are you covered?"
"Yeah, now." He looked down the hallway before coming in and closing the door, "here, I got you flowers for your birthday." He placed a bouquet of white roses on the bed and walked to the bathroom, "I asked my mom to watch Madison for us if you want to go somewhere for dinner."
"You mean like, just us two? Sure, where do you feel like going? We had Chinese food earlier for lunch, what sounds good? I'll buy us dinner since you already bought us food."
"No, it's your birthday, I'll buy you dinner. It's not a problem. You tell me what sounds good and we'll go there." He closed the bathroom door behind him.
"I just want cake really." She wondered why he was being so nice to her today, was it just because, or was it only because his mom was here? She sat thinking to herself quietly.
He came back out and waved his hand in front of her, "I know of a cupcake place like right down the street, you can buy as many cupcakes as you want, you pay for each one, and its real cheap too. You want to have dinner somewhere and then go over there? We could do that."
"Cupcakes sound so good too." She was smiling up at him when his mom knocked on the door, "let me get to the bathroom so I can fix myself."
"She's not gonna say anything about that. She probably heard you yelling at me about knocking and thinks something's wrong." He whispered, opening the door before she could even move, "hi mom."
"I thought I heard you guys arguing, is everything okay?" She looked at Stephanie, "I'm so sorry I've been ignoring you today, I feel so bad, I always take the first day to unpack and usually Paul's at work when I do it. I hope you don't think I don't like you and don't want to talk to you." She sat beside her on the bed, "oh, is this the new bed?"
"Yeah," Paul crossed his arms, "its so comfortable, I'm not tossing and turning all night anymore."
"That's good." She looked up to him, "so, are you two going out tonight? Paul told me it was your birthday today, did he get you these?" She picked up the bouquet and smiled, "white roses are beautiful."
"They're my favorite flower." Stephanie was staring at Paul, who wouldn't look back at her, "yeah, me and Paul are gonna go out, I don't know where yet."
"Well, we're gonna go out for dinner, than go eat cupcakes at Crumbs Bake Shop." He fidgeted his hands, "or we could eat dinner here, and just go out to the cupcake place."
"That would be nice too." She bit her lip, "I'm not even hungry after lunch though."
"Me neither." Talking to each other in front of Paul's mom felt awkward for the both of them, they made eye contact for a split-second but he looked away.
"What's with you two?" His mom interrupted, "you guys are acting all weird, this is way different than at the wedding, you guys were all over each other then."
He grunted, "yeah, I know, Shawn got a pretty bad picture of us." He wiped his forehead before walking out of the room.
"Shawn sent me that picture too. I thought it was cute, so what if you guys had a few drinks, who doesn't?" She tried not to stare at Madison, "so you breastfeed huh? When I had Paul and Laurie, I tried breastfeeding back then, but it just seemed too hard because they were always hungry, like more than they were when I just used the powdered stuff."
"Yeah, I do both usually, I breastfeed when I can, but I'm not that big on using the pump thing I have, if I have things to do and don't have time, I just make the formula. The pump is just too weird for me."
"Does Paul get all creeped out when you breastfeed? He used to when he learned that Laurie did. She was in my living room with her oldest Samantha when he walked in, I didn't notice him stare at another woman's chest after that." She was trying not to laugh out loud.
"He just makes it seem really hard to look at me when I'm feeding her." Stephanie smiled and pulled her top up, "its really nice of you to offer to take Madison for us while we go out."
"I don't see why it would be hard for any man to look at boobs when they're out. Paul's just weird like that I guess." She held out her hands for Madison, "its no problem honey, I'm just hoping I'll have my own grandkids from you guys soon, although I know this little one's still a baby and there's gotta be enough time."
Steph blushed at the thought of wanting more kids, she did, but she knew it wouldn't happen with Paul, "I know you want grandkids Mrs. Levesque, Laurie talks about it all the time."
"Honey, please call me Leona, or mom, not Mrs. Levesque, I hate being all formal like that." Leona smiled down at Maddy in her arms, "Laurie told me you wished Madison was Paul's so you wouldn't have to tell her later on about her father. Why don't you just have Paul adopt her, you guys are married and all, she has the right to be able to call someone her father."
"I know, but that's up to him if he wants to do that. I don't want to push that on him. We just got married, maybe we'll talk about it after a few months at least." She bit her lip, she'd already pushed him into marrying her, it probably wasn't the time to say that if he adopted Madison, they're marriage could be shorter. She was starting to like living with him, he was funny, and helped her, living with him was way better than living alone.
"I was thinking that maybe later in the week I could take Madison to Laurie's and you guys could be alone or something, I know how hard it was to have alone time when you have a baby. It just doesn't work."
"Thanks Leona, I'm sure Laurie would love to see her." Stephanie knew that alone time for her and Paul consisted of them eating dinner or lunch in awkward silence, then they would go back to his house and watch TV, sometimes ending the night with Paul falling asleep in his chair, or he would be wide awake and it would be too late for him to take his sleeping medication, so she would be the one falling asleep.
Paul sat back and watched at Stephanie ate a chocolate cupcake, he waited as the waitress came back to start smiling at her again. Stephanie wiped her mouth with her napkin, looking down and noticing Paul wasn't wearing his ring. She didn't know what to say to him, she wanted to ask him right in front of the younger, quite flirty waitress, but to her it didn't seem right. She waited until she walked away, then looked at him, "what are you doing?"
He tried to seem innocent, "what? I know her, I always come here so over time I got to know her, I'm not doing anything." He took a drink of soda and looked away, as he always did when she stared at him, "what does it matter what I'm doing anyway?"
She shook her head, "nevermind." She kept her left hand on the table when the waitress came back with another cupcake, "oh, thanks," she tried to make her ring visible to her, "can I get another cup of decaf please?" The girl looked at Paul before walking away, "why aren't you wearing your ring?"
"Because I forgot to put it on after I did dishes this morning, sorry." He looked down at his watch, "is that one good? Can I have half?"
She handed him the whole plate, "sure," she handed him the whole plate with a knife, "thanks for everything tonight." She looked down at her empty cup of coffee, "you know, I didn't even expect you to remember it was my birthday."
"Really? I always knew when your birthday was, its only a couple months after mine." He cut the cupcake in two and stuffed his half in his mouth, "this place is probably the reason I'm fat."
"You are not fat, you just aren't exactly skinny." She smiled and covered her mouth, "you're like average, in the middle."
"Thanks," he gave her a slight smile back, taking what she said as a compliment, then the waitress came back again with Stephanie's coffee.
"Can I get you guys anything else?" She smiled at them, holding her little notebook, "do you want more coffee Paul?"
"I'm okay, no thanks, but can I get the check please?" He got up and followed her to the front counter, where Steph sat in her chair, watching them jealously.
She couldn't understand why she felt so jealous of it all. By the looks of it, he had asked her out, and in return, got her phone number, which he stuffed into his pocket quickly. Was she jealous of the waitress? Or was it because Paul was totally into her when he usually pretended Stephanie wasn't there, or wasn't even his wife, as he was doing now.
"You ready?" He stood next to her with his hands in his pockets, "everything's all paid for, for your birthday." He pushed in her chair after she got up and followed her out to his car, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing," she lied, still feeling jealous, "you asked her out didn't you?"
He rolled his eyes, ignoring her. They sat in silence until he turned on his street, then he noticed she was sniffling, "Stephanie, what's wrong with you?" She waited until he was in the garage and put the car in park, then she got out and slammed the door on him, "don't do this in front of my mom."