Chapter Four

Nicole woke up as soon at the alarm went off. She was due to go for an interview at a boutique in Yabbie Creek later today for a job and she wanted to get an early start so she could plan out a few wedding details.
'Hey!' she thought, 'if this wedding went ok maybe she could become a wedding planner!'. But the thought was only fleeting, she wanted to go into fashion and although working in a boutique was a little low key for her considering she wanted to be a designer, it was a fine place to work to earn some money for the wedding. Not that she was going to pay for much as Roman was picking up the bill.
And that plan that Ella had come up with, of looking at baby stuff all the time, so that he'd be so distracted he wouldn't look at the prices of anything was working, she'd even scammed a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes out of him yesterday! Nicole looked at the shoes she'd placed on her bedside unit so she would be able to look at them first thing this morning!
She rolled over and stretched. Just then her phone beeped with an incoming message.
"Just a test to see if this works…. Bridezilla!… Love G xxx"
"Damn it!" she shouted, and then looked around the room, "I mean darn." Despite the fact that Geoff wasn't there to hear her. Now she couldn't do any wedding prep for an hour. Oh well she'd just have to take a shower and do her hair.
She was sitting in the kitchen eating a late breakfast with her hair perfectly conditioned when her dad walked down the stairs. He looked in a bad mood.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing except I had to take a cold shower!" he grouched.
"Jeez' Dad!" she exclaimed, "I don't want to hear about your sex life! I'm going out!" she picked up her handbag and left the house before he could say anything.
"Because you used all the hot water." He explained to no one.
He walked over to the coffee-pot and saw that it was empty.
"Great!" he muttered. He stomped over to the cupboard when he usually kept the coffee and found it wasn't there. Since when did he keep the pickles in this cupboard and how come he had so many jars of them? It must have been moved again. Ella had started rearranging stuff in his kitchen. His Kitchen. He opened up all the cupboards until he found the coffee.
"Yuk!" he exclaimed. It was decaff. It was a good job she was off picking up Mike for the weekend or they would probably be having words.
He decided to go to the diner for a late breakfast and a coffee or maybe an expresso, he thought and went to grab his keys from the counter near the door and noticed a shopping bag by the door. He accidentally knocked it and out rolled a ball of pink yarn. He bent down to pick it up and opened the bag to put it back, when he found some knitting. He pulled it out and looked at it.
"It's a bootie!" he said aloud.
He found it was suddenly hard to breathe, he thought loosening his collar. He dropped it back in the bag and looked around. Pickles, Decaff, Baby shoes and dresses, Knitting. All the clues were there. He swallowed. Pulling out his phone he gasped and dialled a number.
"Hi," he said when the call connected. "Don't talk I need to meet you for a coffee in the diner, now!" Was that his voice that sounded so strangled he wondered? He stormed out of the house and ran down to the diner.
Miles looked around his class.
"Class I have a bit of an emergency. Continue with your assignment and I'll be back soon!" he told them standing up from his desk. He walked out of the classroom and into Barletts office.
"Emergency!" he gasped, "Back soon." He told the headmaster, not even waiting for a response as he ran out and down to the diner.
"What's happened?" he asked Roman as soon as he saw him.
Good Grief he thought, the other man looked pale.
"Knitting!" Roman exclaimed. "There's knitting!"
"What?!" Miles looked thoroughly confused.
"There are pickles and knitting and decaff. And Nicole is getting married and Maurice wanted me to flex my biceps!" Roman shouted. He found himself gasping for breath and turning a strange shade of purple.
"Colleen bring me a glass of water and two coffees!" Miles shouted to the woman now blatantly eaves dropping. She hurried away looking flustered.
"Roman I want you to breath, in and out." Miles told him.
He was relieved when Irene was the one to bring over the drinks.
"Shouldn't you be in school?" Irene asked Miles.
"Er…" Miles muttered. "Free Period!" he lied as Roman's head snapped up at the question, although the other man looked calmer now and a normal looking colour was returning to his face.
He made Roman sip the water and tell him again what was happening.
"So let me get this straight." He began, "When you had Nicole you had no idea what you were doing, aside from the obvious bit of course, and now you do know what you are doing, again aside from the obvious bit, you're having a panic attack?"
"Er… when you put it like that it does sound a bit silly. I mean how hard can a new kid be? Nicole will have moved out by then … Nicole is going to move out isn't she?" Roman suddenly found something else to panic over. "Tell me she's going to move out?" he begged Miles his voice rising.
"Lord! Are you sure you were in the Army?" Irene said to him.
The other woman had walked over to their table without them noticing.
Roman stood up.
He grabbed hold of Irene by her shoulders and shook her gently.
"They give you guns in the Army and point you at bad guys they don't teach you how to deal with Nicole!" he said his voice raised "and weddings! Sure, give me Saddam's imperial guard or Afghani terrorists and I'm fine but not …." His voice rose in panic again. "Nicole and weddings!"
Miles hid a smile.
"Come on, I have to get back to the school." He steered the other man out, winking at Irene behind Roman's back.
"Well." Said Colleen watching as the men leave. "I never did find out what was happening to his Bicepticles."
"Lord!" said Irene. "Give me strength!"