There was a stir from Hanna and she let out a small groan as she opened her eyes. "Where are we?" she croaked, still hoarse. Hanna rubbed her eyes and looked out of the car window. A sudden burst of excitement sweet through her. "Are we in New York?"
"Yes we are," Caleb replied, grinning. He glanced over at his wife and saw her face light up almost as bright as the buildings they were driving past.
"I can't believe we're here!" Hanna squealed excitedly. She pressed her nose against the cold window and watched the buildings swoosh past. This was her new life. All of it. And it's what she'd been dreaming about for the past four months.
After a few right turns, a few left turns and a few traffic jams, Caleb pulled up into a parking lot. It was located underneath a huge building, one Hanna had only ever seen in movies. It was more than spectacular. There were huge windows on each level, only giving a glimpse at the humungous apartments that were inside.
"W-we live here now?" the blond stuttered. She had picked the apartment, but had no idea it was like…this.
Caleb nodded, chuckling. "Impressive, huh?" He quickly checked the rear view mirror, making sure the truck carrying the furniture had followed. Luckily it had. "Okay, so now we've seen it, can we go to the hotel? I'm shattered."
"Sure, babe." Hanna rested her palm on Caleb's hand, which was resting on the handbrake. The couple had decided earlier on in the day that they would spend the night in a local hotel, and start unpacking in the morning.
They found a Holiday Inn nearby and pulled into a parking space. Both Hanna and Caleb were hoping there would be a spare room this late at night.
Caleb hopped out of the Land Rover and wandered over to where the truck had parked. It was Ezra driving, since he lived in New York anyway, and as Caleb explained what was happening, Ezra nodded.
"Are you going to stay here tonight?" Caleb asked. He was leaning through the window, the edge digging into his chest.
"I think I'll get a cab home," Ezra replied as he opened the truck door and jumped out. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay. Thanks, man." Caleb shook Ezra's hand as a thank you for helping them pack up the house. Ezra gave Hanna—who was still sitting in the car—a smile and waved before wandering off towards the road, where he would later get a cab. "See you tomorrow."
Caleb headed back to the Land Rover and found Hanna on her phone. Her bright pink nail polish was nearly luminous. The blond looked up and gave Caleb a tired smile.
Caleb held out his hand and helped his wife out of the car, grabbing on tight. "Come on, let's go and get a room."
—
"Babe, no. Don't put that there!" Hanna exclaimed as Caleb laid down their bedside cabinet. Caleb sighed, a small groan coming out. Moving house with a pregnant woman was not a fun job; nothing seemed to satisfy Hanna. The bed hadn't been in the middle of the bedroom, the lamp wasn't centered between the couch and the wall—Caleb found it ridiculous.
"Where should it go then?" the brunette asked. He had to use all his might to stay calm.
Hanna shrugged and looked around the room. "I don't know."
"So why can't it go here?"
"It just doesn't look right," Hanna claimed. She pointed to the opposite side of the bed—which was exactly the same as the other—and said, "Just put it there." Caleb rolled his eyes, but did as he was told. Angering Hanna would not help the situation. Once Hanna was happy with the placing of the cabinet, she stood back and admired the newly furnished bedroom. "I love it."
"Thank God," Caleb muttered under his breath. Hanna smiled and wandered out of the room, heading into the living room. It was a complete and utter mess, and Hanna was dreading sorting it out. Caleb followed her through, stretching his arms over his shoulder. He stood to the right of Hanna and stared. "Wow."
Hanna bit her bottom lip and nodded. "Yeah. Wow."
"This is going to take ages."
Lamps, rugs, chairs, TVs, books, movie cases, and random objects—that Hanna was sure she'd never seen before—were scattered everywhere. Hanna puffed out her cheeks and let out a sigh. "Maybe we should have asked Ezra to stay," she said, turning around and looking up at her husband. Ezra had offered to stay and help, but Hanna and Caleb both insisted they could handle it themselves. Well, it didn't look like they could after all.
"No, come on." Caleb clapped his hands together and headed over to the piles and piles and boxes and boxes of things. "We can do this by ourselves." Hanna let out a loud groan; she was tired, she was pregnant, and she was definitely not up to this.
An hour in, Hanna stood back to see what had been done. The couch was now in the correct position, after Hanna and Caleb spending five minutes debating where it should go; the TV had been placed on a table, and that had been put in the right place—again, after much discussion—and the shelves were in the process of being re-built. Unfortunately, they had to be taken down to be able to fit into the truck.
"Can I start putting the books on yet?" Hanna asked for the fifth time. Caleb had refused to let his wife touch anything to do with the shelves—he didn't want her injuring herself or the baby. The only thing she was allowed to do was stack the bottom two shelves with books.
"Not yet," Caleb puffed as he struggled to tighten the screw into place.
Hanna sighed and wandered over to him, holding her hand out. "Let me help."
"No. I don't want you hurting yourself. Anyway, I've got this."
Hanna watched Caleb struggle for another minute and a half, before stepping in again and pushing him out of the way. "I'll do it," she said. And within exactly twenty three seconds, the screw was tightened and in place. "See?" Hanna stood back up and smirked at her husband. Caleb's face has dropped a mile. "You're very welcome, babe."
"Thanks," the brunette mumbled. He sounded like he was in shock. Never had he known Hanna—the all time girly-girl who was obsessed with manicures—to pick up a tool, let alone actually fix something.
"I'm going to make some coffee," Hanna announced as she turned on her heel. Luckily, the kitchen hadn't taken long to sort out. "You want some?" All of a sudden, Hanna stopped in her tracks. "Wait, no. We can't have coffee. There's nothing to make coffee with."
"Why don't you phone your mom and check how Maddie and the dogs are while I finish this?" Caleb suggested as he bent down to pick up a piece of wood. "I won't be long."
"Hey, Mom," Hanna said down the phone. She was sitting in the bedroom, her legs crossed underneath her. Ashley had just picked up, after numerous attempts of calling by Hanna, and sounded out of breath. "What's going on?"
"Your daughter is crazy," Ashley laughed, panting. She took a moment to get her breath back before carrying on. "That child has an endless amount of energy."
Hanna smiled. "She sure does. What have you guys been doing?"
"Well we went to the park, where I thought she would tire herself out, but she didn't. So then we came back and decided to play in the backyard, but that turned into a full-blown came of chase. Maddie's still out there now, chasing Ted," Hanna's mom explained.
"Sounds fun," the blond chuckled. She was definitely glad she didn't have a toddler running around the apartment while she and Caleb sorted everything out. Sending Madelyn to Ted and Ashley's house was a good idea. "Are Bella and Bear okay?"
"They're great! Bear loves Dud," Ashley replied enthusiastically. One worry Hanna had had was that Bear wouldn't adapt to her mom's two pups, Dot and Dudley, and she had expressed her concern multiple times to Ashley, who had just laughed it off. There was a loud giggle from the other end of the line, and Hanna heard her mother whisper, "Do you want to say hi to Mommy?"
"Mommy!" Maddie suddenly squealed. "Hi!"
"Hi, baby! Daddy and I miss you, bug."
There was a moment of silence, before the shuffling of a phone being passed back. "Sorry, she ran off," Ashley's voice announced. "I should probably get back to her. I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Love you, Mom." Hanna hung up and slid her phone into the back pocket of her Hollister denim shorts. She slowly made her way back into the living, her face drooping slightly. But it perked up the second Hanna saw Caleb standing by the finished set of shelves. "You're done!"
"I am," Caleb laughed. The blond hurried over, dodging her way through the remaining boxes. "How is everyone?"
"Maddie seems to be having a good time," Hanna replied sadly, collapsing onto the couch.
Caleb was confused. "Why do you sound so upset? Is the fact our daughter is having a good time with her grandparents while we're busy not a good thing?"
"It is. I just miss her, that's all." The blond cradled her tiny bump and rested her head on a red cushion. She let out a long, quiet sigh, slowly opening and closing her eyes.
"Babe," Caleb whisperer softly, joining his wife on the couch. He began twiddling a strand of her blond locks in his fingers. "We're going to see her tomorrow. Don't get upset about it, okay?"
Hanna lifted her head to find Caleb smiling at her. She couldn't help but crack a smile herself; he was just too cute. "I love you." Carefully, Hanna leant over the cushions and pressed her lips firmly against Caleb's.
"I love you, too," Caleb mumbled as he pulled back for a breath. "But Han," he breathed. "We need to finish unpacking."
Hanna grinned. "That can wait," she said, giving her husband a deeper, more passionate kiss.
"Babe." Caleb pulled back abruptly. "We are not going to have sex until we've unpacked this house!"
"You suck," Hanna groaned. She was clearly sulking, so Caleb placed a small kiss on the side of her forehead before pulling her onto her feet. "I don't want to unpack anymore!" she cried.
"Hanna, it's barely two o'clock. You can't be giving up now."
"Well I am," the blond declared. "So you can either do it yourself or—"
Caleb raised his eyebrows, tutted, and turned around, picking up a box from the living room floor. "You wanted this apartment, you're helping me unpack. Got it?"
Hanna rolled her eyes, but eventually followed her husband. She grabbed a stack of books from the corner of the room and started neatly placing them onto each shelf. Every so often, she would admire the work she had done. Meanwhile, Caleb was moving the two armchairs so they were evenly distributed either side of the couch. He knew how OCD Hanna would get about it if they were even an inch out of place.
And at half past six that evening, after three more arguments, two breakages, and a quick cry from Hanna, the apartment was ready. The bedrooms were perfect, the kitchen was perfect, the living room was perfect and the bathrooms were perfect. Now, all Hanna wanted was to sleep.
"If this is how tired I am at just five months pregnant, I'm really not looking forward to being full-term," she announced suddenly. Caleb looked down at his wife, who was cuddled into his side on the couch. The TV was on, but neither were watching it.
"No wonder you're tired, babe. You have been lugging boxes around all day," Caleb replied, stroking Hanna's hair. She made an "Mhm," sound and nuzzled her head into Caleb's arm.
"I was thinking about that doctor's appointment we have on Friday." Hanna pulled herself up into a reclining position and managed to turn slightly so she was facing Caleb.
"Are we going to not going to finish the other conversation first?"
"No," Hanna said quickly. "But anyway, back to the appointment. I'm, like, 17 weeks now. So doesn't that mean we might be able to find out the gender?"
Caleb shrugged. "I don't know. What did Josie say last time?"
"We don't have Josie anymore." Hanna hadn't been thrilled when she had learned she would be having to find a new OB/GYN, but wasn't prepared for a three hour drive every time she needed an appointment just to stick with Josie. "We have some guy now. His name's…I want to say Peter?"
"Peter? Sounds like a pervert to me," Caleb said, as if it were normal to say something like that.
Hanna slapped his arm and exclaimed, "Caleb!"
"What?" the brunette laughed. He grabbed the beer bottle that was lying on the coffee table and took a long sip. "I'm just saying."
"You can't go around saying those kind of things!" Hanna was trying not to laugh, but the serious
expression on her husband's face was making her crack. "Peter is not a perverted man's name."
"Fine." Caleb held his hand's up in surrender and took another swig of beer. He was reaching over to put the bottle back when a thought popped into his head. "Oh yeah. I found a name for the baby."
"You did?"
Caleb nodded. "Yeah. I can't remember where I saw it now, but I think it's a pretty rad name."
Knowing Caleb, it was going to be something related to sports, beer, or some manly kind of thing. Well at least that's what Hanna thought. She raised her eyebrows and gestured for him to carry on.
"Finn."
Hanna was already to burst out laughing and make comments about how ridiculous the name was, but was surprised when she didn't want to. "Finn?" she repeated. Caleb nodded and smiled. He knew she'd like it. "Finn. I kind of like it. Finn Rivers."
Caleb looked around the room, a smug look on his face. "I'm good at this name stuff."
Hanna scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself, babe. It's one decent name."
"Well do you have any names?"
Of course Hanna had names. What pregnant woman didn't? It was practically all that was on her mind. Day and night. Constantly. There was always a running list of names she had heard about: celebrity children, in magazines, in the coffee shop. But there were way too many to list to Caleb. "I have a couple," she said humbly.
"Would you like to share them with me?"
"Not really," the blond laughed.
Caleb readjusted his position on the couch. "Why not?"
"Because you'll say you hate them all," Hanna said, staring at her freshly painted toenails. She had been wanting to change the color for weeks now, but could never be bothered. Hanna had somehow persuaded Caleb to paint them for her, but not after begging and begging. They were now a pastel blue, a color Hanna had been eyeing up in stores for months.
"Come on, Han. Tell me!"
Hanna sighed. "Fine. But you have to promise not to hate them!"
"I can't promise th—" The death-glare Caleb was being given from Hanna was enough for anyone to give in to anything, even something like murder. It was a look you would not say no to. "Okay, okay. I promise I won't hate them."
"Okay. Well, the first one I heard when I was in the Brew last week with Ali. Some woman was trying to tell her kid off for eating a brownie and—it doesn't matter." Hanna often found herself going into much more detail that she needed to, but always stopped when Caleb started rolling his eyes, which he was currently doing. "Devon."
"Devon? For a girl or boy?"
"Either," Hanna shrugged. She looked up at Caleb, giving him a hopeful side-eye glance. "So. What do you think?"
"I think it's a nice name," Caleb replied, his voice slow.
Hanna squinted at her husband and started shaking her head. "No you don't. You hate it."
"I do not!"
"I've known you for eight years, Caleb. I know when you're lying. You hate the name Devon."
Caleb rolled his eyes again and sighed. He was lying, but he wasn't going to admit it. Hanna would just freak out and get mad because she told him not to hate any of her name suggestions. Sometimes, Caleb hated the fact Hanna was pregnant. She was just too hormonal for him to handle.
"I was also thinking about the name Harper," Hanna said, moving swiftly on from the Devon conversation. "For a girl," she quickly adding, noting Caleb's expression.
"Hey, I like that name!" Caleb sounded utterly surprised. Just as surprised as Hanna when he came out with the name Flynn.
"You do? I was thinking something like Harper Rose Rivers. Or is that too many r's?"
"Babe, hold up." Caleb held up one of his hands, whilst chuckling, like he wanted Hanna to stop. "We don't need to make a decision right now."
Hanna tilted her head to the left so it was just touching the edge of Caleb's sleeve. "I was kind of hoping we could, though," she mumbled.
"Why? We've still got five more months to decide on names," he said, his voice soft and calm. Hanna shrugged and wrapped her arm around Caleb's.
"I don't know. Stability, maybe? Because if we choose a name now, then we know what to call it, we know what to tell Maddie to call it, and we can decorate the nursery."
"Why would a name stop us from decorating the nursery?" Caleb asked. He wasn't aware that the name of the new baby had a real effect on its bedroom.
Hanna looked at Caleb as if he were stupid. "So we can put the name on the wall. Duh?"
"Oh." Clearly Caleb knew nothing about bedrooms for babies, despite having decorated one himself only a year and a half ago. "Are you sure you want to decide now?" he asked Hanna, tapping on her shoulder.
The blond nodded. "A hundred percent."
"Okay then," Caleb breathed. "Let's choose names." He grabbed a piece of paper that happened to be lying on the floor and pulled out a cheap pen he had found from his pocket. "Should we start with boys?"
At quarter past eleven that night, Hanna leaned back against the couch and sighed. She was now sitting on the floor, her legs spread wide apart and a notepad lying in front of her. Filling up three pages were random suggestions for boys names and girls names, middle names and second middle names. She thought she had felt exhausted before, but the feeling was even more defiant now.
"So is that it? Have we decided?" Hanna asked, twisting her head to look back at her husband, who was lying across the couch, his legs hanging over the end. He, too, had pieces of paper filled with names, and was nearly as tired as Hanna.
"I think we have."
"Finley Elliot Rivers," the blond read from the notepad. She grinned. "I love it."
"Or Luna Skye Rivers," Caleb added. He sat up and positioned his legs either side of Hanna, and began stroking her head. "Now all we need is to find out the gender."
Hanna breathed in and puffed out her cheeks. "Yep."
A/N - ooh so what do you think of the names?
im sorry this has taken a while. honestly, i haven't had much motivation for some reason. this chapter isn't very good, and i really apologize for that.
im going to try and begin the next chapter as soon as i can, but i can't promise i'll post it soon.
thank you to everyone who continues to leave reviews. i appreciate it so much!
