The Next Chapter - Chapter 1
The wail of a crying baby is what Riley woke up to usually, and this morning was no different. She reluctantly got out of bed and made her way to the crib. As she picked Jamie up, based on his smell, he needed to be changed. While changing his diaper, Riley tried to think back to the good ole' days, before Jamie started teething. Back when her mornings were peaceful and she thought she had the most wonderful baby in the whole wide world.
"You're no different then all those other babies, are you?" she said to her son as she held him in mid-air, once she had finished. "You're just like all the rest." the baby just smiled at her and made gurgling noises.
"Yeah, keep smiling bub. I know you're enjoying this."
"Threatening him again Riles." Her husband said, just coming from a shower.
"No, but I'm ready to, I'm not sure how much longer I can go on like this. How about you? Did you get any sleep last night?" she said as she sat on the bed, looking defeated.
"About as much as you did, but I'll be okay." Danny said as he took the towel off his waist and used it to dry his hair. Normally Riley would've stared at his glistening body, enjoying the show, but she was so tired lately, she could barely enjoy her naked husband literally standing right in front of her, in all his glory. So she curled up in a ball at the foot of the bed and watched as Danny got dressed and took Jamie into the kitchen for some breakfast.
It was about 2 hours later when Riley woke up from the nap she hadn't realize she'd taken . She got up, went in a shower and threw on some sweats. Long gone were the days where she actually get dressed in more than this, after having all of her nice shirts spit up on she figured, why bother. As she made her way into the kitchen for some brunch, she found Danny sitting with a content Jamie on the couch, watching some kids show that was suppose to be educational. She made herself some toast and coffee and went to go sit next to them. Her hair was still wet, so when she leaned on Danny's shoulder, it made her presence known.
"Oh hey, I didn't hear you get up. Did you finally get some rest?"
"Oh my god yes, thank you for letting me get some sleep."
"HA ha, you'll have to tell me what that's like sometime." he joked. "You know this show isn't half bad. Its got a lot of bright colors and cool songs about the ABC's. I never really liked the other one, just wasn't catchy."
She chuckled. Leave it to Danny to be more into the kids show then the actual baby, who looked more interested in his feet then in the TV. She bit into her toast as Danny put Jamie in his bouncy chair and went and sat back down next to her."
"So," he started. She swallowed what she had been chewing and gave him her full attention. "you know what this weekend is?" Riley thought for a moment,
"Oh does Jamie have a doctors appointment, I though we went to the one for this month already." she said as she got up to check the calendar. She was stopped by Danny's hand on her arm.
"No, it's our anniversary! On Friday we will have been married one whole year."
"Oh my god, our anniversary! I'm so sorry Danny I completely forgot." Riley said with remorse. How could she forget one of the best days of her life.
"It's okay, you've been busy, you know, taking care of our child. That's why you have me. To remember dates of important life altering events." Danny said with that goofy love struck grin that Riley loved so much.
"So I was wondering what you wanted to do to celebrate. Maybe we could go to dinner, or something."
Riley practically jumped at the idea of having some alone time with Danny. Ever since they brought Jamie home they haven't had any at all. But she didn't feel comfortable leaving Jamie, after all he was only 2 months old, and she had been with him every day since he was born. Leaving him felt selfish.
"Danny I would love that, but I don't think it's such a good idea to leave Jamie yet. It's too soon. Maybe we could just have a nice quiet evening at home?"
Riley could see the disappointment in his eyes, but he quickly covered that up with a smile.
"Okay," he agreed, "as long as we're together it doesn't matter where we go."
Riley was thankful for Danny for understanding, even if she didn't quite believe him when he said it.
"You know what," she said hoping to change the conversation, "why don't we go see what everybody's doing over at Ben and Tuckers. We've been in this apartment way too long, I'm starting to get cabin fever."
"Okay." Danny said as he picked up Jamie and headed for the door. That seemed to perk him up. Riley followed suit as they made their way across the hall.
Riley opened the door for Danny, who had his hands full with a squirming Jamie, it seemed teething was once again in full swing. Once she walked in the apartment, she was greeted by Ben and his usual tirade of sarcastic remarks.
"Whoa Riles, you didn't have to get all dressed up for me. What is that, the new spring collection from Sloppy and Elastic." Ben snickered as Tucker gave him a high five before joining in,
"Yeah you know this apartment has a dress code. You have to wear at least one article of real clothing." he said as he looked to Ben for a high five, which he didn't get.
"Mine was funny, yours was just stupid." Ben commented.
"Hey leave Riley alone," said Bonnie Wheeler, as she came out from the bathroom.
"it's not her fault its laundry day, or whatever other reason she has for dressing like a homeless person."
"Danny make them stop." Riley said as she took the baby from his arms.
"Okay you guys, that's enough Riley bashing. You try having a new baby and see how badly you dress."
"Danny that's not helping." Riley scolded.
"Hey I had a new baby and I still put on actual pants." Ben chimed in.
"Oh shut up Ben." was Riley's comeback. She was really off her game today.
"I think you look beautiful" Danny said as he put his arm around her shoulders.
"Thank you baby." she said as she gave him a kiss that was chaste and sweet.
"Hey Danny can you come here for a second." Ben called from the kitchen.
"Yeah." he replied as he got up and walked over.
Bonnie wasted no time in taking his seat next to Riley.
"Mom if you have anything else to say to me just put it in the Christmas letter like you usually do." Riley told her mother-in-law.
"Oh trust me I will. But you need to hear what I have to say. What is with you? Wearing sweats all the time and giving Danny chaste little tap kisses like that. You guys are newlyweds with an anniversary coming up. You should be doing it like bunnies."
"Okay one, eww, and two, that's your son. I don't think I should be talking to you of all people about our sex life. And three, why are you so worried?"
"The question should be, why aren't you? I mean you don't seem to be the least bit concerned about having passion in your love life. That was the first thing to go between Ray and me."
"Could that maybe be because he was gay." Riley retorted "And for your information Danny and I have plenty of passion okay. We've just put it on hold because of the baby that's all."
"Oh okay. Phew. That's good to hear. I mean its not like you guys haven't done it since the baby was born."
Riley's facial expression gave it all away.
"Oh my god," Bonnie said, "you haven't had sex since the baby was born? Why on earth not? I mean sure, you have to wait a couple of weeks for everything to go back to the starting position ,but that was over a month ago!"
"Will you please keep your voice down. Okay no, Danny and I haven't had sex in 2 months but that shouldn't matter. He didn't marry me for sex, he married me because he loves me. I mean sure I use to want to jump his bones all the time and now I only think about it when I'm not too tired to even keep my eyes open, but that's not a big deal right?"
Based on the face Bonnie was giving her, Riley knew it wasn't good at all.
"Okay Riley, whatever you say. Just keep this in mind, every man has needs and no matter how much he may love you, Danny is still a man like all the rest. Just keep that in mind the next time you decide to swap a sundress for some sweat pants ,alright."
And with that Bonnie took Jamie and started walking around with him.
After she left Riley sat there in deep thought. She and Danny had plenty of passion in their relationship, Bonnie didn't know what she was talking about. They were gonna be fine, or at least that's what Riley hoped.