She was in the middle of a dream. It was a particularly nice dream with a beach and a clear night sky and an abundance of candy floss.Nothing especially exciting was happening but it was just apleasnant relaxing dream.So when she heard a voice calling her name she ignored it and continued to walk along the shore. Unfortunately the voice did not disappear as she had hoped.
"Michelle." It was more persistent this time. Still she kept her eyes squeezed shut and focused on her wriggling her toes in the sand.
"Michelle," She felt a hand shake her, "Hey, wake up."
Still she ignored it. Her dream was still so close and she was certain that she could hold onto it.
"Michelle!"
That was it, ruined. She opened her eyes slowly and glared at the man who was still shaking her.
"What!" She snapped. She resisted the temptation to suffocate him with a pillow.
"Diego!" He exclaimed excitedly.
Her forehead creased in confusion. Was she still dreaming? Groggily she sat up and looked at the LCD clock, the glowing green figures read 4:08. She groaned aloud.
"What?" she asked desperately trying to remain patient.
"Diego!" he repeated more excitedly and then seeing the confusion writtenaccross her face he elaborated, "If it's a boy."
She rubbed her eyes and turned to her husband.
"Diego?" She asked, "Diego Almeida?"
He nodded vigorously.
"Tony!" Shemoaned exasperatedlyand dramatically fell back down onto her pillow.
"What?" he asked innocently, "You don't like it?"
"Diego Almeida," she repeated once more, her voice slightly testy "Tony, why do you hate our child?"
She heard the familiar sound of him scratching the side of his face.
"You don't like it." He said again, sounding disheartened.
Feeling somewhat guilty she turned to face him.
"Tony, if we ever get a dog I will gladly let you call him Diego. Our child, however, is not going to suffer the years of bullying that will accompany that name."
He turned to lie on his back, facing the ceiling.She watched him in the dark for a moment and then she began to giggle.He looked at her curiously. Although she couldn't see it she was sure he had raised an eyebrow in her direction. This onlycaused her to giggle more.
"Care to let me in on this joke?" he asked, annoyance heavy in his voice.
"It's just," She continued to laugh, "you wake me up at 4am... for Diego!"
Her laugh was obviously infectious because he found himself joining in.
"Ok so maybe Deigo was a bad idea. What about Anthony Junior?" he asked, still chuckling.
This only served to make her laugh harder.
"I must love you Tony Almeida, to put up with this!" He leaned over tokiss her forehead and she could feel his smile. He pulled her closer and rested one hand on the bump which was growing bigger by the day.
"So that's a no then, huh?"
"Definite veto."
After a moment the laughter died down and they lay in the dark.
"Besides," Michelle broke the silence, "It's gonna be a girl."
She felt Tony pull her closer still.
"Yeah right." He whispered, "We can't call a girl Diego."
