CHAPTER TWO: ALMOST SLEEPLES NIGHT.
Bandit was delightfully trapped in his memories of that moment.
Chilli had smiled to him in a way he had never seen before... it was like her heart was smiling trough her mouth, her eyes, the thump of her tail in the chair, the softness of her hand in his; and the whole world was smiling with her.
And he had provoked that smile... he was in awe because of it. He needed to keep eliciting that smile on her pretty face, every day of his life if it was possible...
So, there it was, he had surrendered his heart completely in that very second, from that moment on, his heart could not belong to another, whatever may come.
He made a pause on his story telling, while remembering it.
--
"Dad? Daaad? DAAAAD?!"
"Uh, yeah mate?"
"I... theres something I don't understand. Why were you so scared? …. Did you have unprotected sex?"
"BLUEEEEY!!", exclaimed Bandit and Bingo at the same time.
"Geeez! I didn't need that image on my subconscious, sister!"
"You are not one for subtleties, don't you?"
"Aw, Cmon dad. Were adults!"
Bandit huffed... "Why me?!", he thought, "This is Chillis terrain!!".
He sighed. "Ok, your Mum was having pills, and she had been very sick that month, little time before departing for N.Z we came into knowledge that certain medicines could reduce the effects of them..."
"Oh, ok".
Suddenly the girls became distracted for a series of messages in their phones:
BLUEY: "Bingo is that true?! :o"
Bingood: "Youre my oldest sister Im the one that should ask that kind of things to you, not the other way around!!"
BLUEY: "But you are studying medicine!"
Bingood: "Im on my first year!"
BLUEY: "OK, ok... its because you are the smartest..."
Bingood: "Thats more how I like it... and yes, its true, some gastric symptoms and some antibiotics can reduce the effect of oral contraceptives"
BLUEY: Oh my!
Bingood: So, if you are on pills and get sick to the point of chuck up for two days in a row, you better tell Mackenzie to get some extra protection! XD
BLUEY: WHAT?! NO! HOW?!
Bingood: I know it all... Its a shame you had not tell me yet!
Bingo snickered at her sister knowingly.
Bluey just stared at her with a guilty grin. "Sorry...", she mouthed. Her phone vibrated with a message: "Bingood: No worries! "
She smiled to her sister.
"Dad, can you continue, please?", she asked.
Bandit quirked an eyebrow "These two had a secret I bet I don't want to know about...", he thought.
"Ok, let's go back to the story..."
--
"We rode back to the beach house in a calm kind of silence... I still remember the moon light over the bay... and your mum smiling smugly because we needed the torches in some parts of the road.
We arrived in half an hour or so ..."
--
"Man, I'm tired!", exclaimed Bandit. "I think we should go to sleep soon".
"Yeah, yet we are both in dire need of a shower!"
"You take the first turn, babe".
She smiled cheekily and took his hand. "I said, WE need a shower..."
Her gaze admitted no opposition, while her smile made her intentions clear to him. Bandit's tail began to wag swiftly, he was happy to comply.
"Yes ma'am !", he chuckled enthusiastically while following her to the bathroom.
--
We got to bed quite early... despite we were exhausted, we talked a lot that night.
She wiggled a little bit, trying to find the perfect spot in the bed to get some sleep, she couldn't, so she ended cuddling up with me.
"Hi", she said.
"Hi gorgeous".
"You cannot sleep?"
I sighed, "No..."
"Me neither... I know we are not teens, we even are at a very good age to have children, yet... Im still nervous about it, I don't think I'm ready yet, Bandit... even though I would love to be a mother someday..."
"Well... whenever that day comes, that kid would be truly fortunate... Chilli, you are kind and tender, and intelligent...youll be a wonderful mother!"
She smiled to me, and I could feel her tail thumping lightly against my leg.
"Thank you for saying so... but...", she breathed in deeply. "I have some friends that are mothers already, and only one of them still have a relationship with the parent of her child. They were all loving, committed couples, yet the stress of raise a child was too much on them so they drifted apart..."
She cuddled her head in the crook of my neck. "We have known each other for less than half a year, we are still getting to know each other... to have a kid right now would change everything! … and I love you, I don't want to stop loving you. What if our love story ends up because of parenting issues?"
I smiled... so she was afraid of losing me? Oh, that would never happen if I could help it!
"So... If the test is positive, are you keeping the pup?", I asked her out of the blue.
"BANDIT!"
"I already know the answer, but I want to hear it"
"Of course, Im keeping the pup!"
I smiled, "Ok, then WE are keeping the pup!".
"WE, Chilli... I have no intention of stop loving you because of parenting discussions, so if we have some difference on that area, well work it trough. Maybe we would need to skip our knowing each other process and begin a family straight away...if you want... but theres no other woman I would do so confidently as I would with you...If the test is positive, that is".
Your mother smiled to me radiantly.
I was amazed at myself, for I had never thought what I just had told her, and yet it was completely true.
Her eyes where shining with unshed tears, yet she asked. "Then... why are you scared?"
I Sighed deeply. "We are adults, and as you said we are in an ideal age to have children, yet I have nothing to my name to offer to you... I only have my car and University debts!"
"Oh Bandit!", she said embracing me. "We both have work!... and you got that wonderfully intelligent brain of yours!"
"Well... I could renounce my Phd. Studies to work for more hours..."
"Dont you dare to think about it!"
"But Chilli... What kind of father I would be If I cant provide for my child?"
She looked at me with determination and cupped my cheek. "The best", she said.
"Now to sleep, my big blue love! Tiredness is finally catching me", she added with a yawn and turned so I could cuddle her from the back.
Yet sleep eluded me... so I began to think... what if this had happened to me with one of my ex-girlfriends? I tried to picture those alternates scenarios, yet in none of them I felt so confident to start a family as I felt with your mother... a family with her felt just... right!
Not that my ex-girlfriends were a bunch of bad women or werent mother material, I just didn't feel like getting old with them.
Then I thought in what your mother feared...
"Hey Bandit!" said an imaginary Chilli opening the door of her house while a pup run to me from behind her. She smiled. "Remember he still got to do some homework, so you see to that".
"Righto. Don't worry Well be here by the six pm of this Sunday, with a very thorough homework!".
She lowered her voice, "He has been having some trouble to sleep so..."
"Ohh... Ill pay attention to it"
"Daaad, Cmon! I want to go to that park you talked to me about!"
"Not so fast young man! You go give a proper bye-bye kiss to your mum!" I said.
Chilli wagged her tail while kissing goodbye to the kid.
She smiled to me kindly. "Bye Bandit", she said and closed the door.
...Aww, that had hurt like the blazes!
"Why I do this to myself!?", I muttered under my breath, determined to never let that happen in real life.
Soon I was able to get some sleep and I dreamed.
--
"What did you dream about dad?"
"Ehm... something that confirmed to me I needed your Mum in my life forever"
--
Bandit opened his eyes slowly, he smiled, Chilli was fast asleep, and her snout was almost touching his.
He cuddled to her playfully, she kissed him tenderly. "So, you awake'", he chuckled in her kiss.
He could feel her smiling into his mouth. It was THAT smile, so he deepened the kiss, while she ran her fingers through the fur behind his ears.
He pulled her closer, and closer, and... "Bandit, we cant...", she protested mildly, not very much convinced.
"Oh... but we want..."
"Yes, very much so, but the kids going to wake up soon...", she said into his neck... the feeling of her breath into his fur not really helping much to her argumentation.
"Aww... we can make it till kid wakes", he protested.
"Seems fair!", she giggled while scooping up atop of him.
Suddenly they felt a little noise behind their door.
"MUUUUM! DAAAAD! Are you in there?!", said a little voice.
"OH, MY GOODNESS!", Chilli exclaimed, while stopping what she was about to do, in a hurry, and slipping into mother mode with expertise.
Bandit groaned out his frustration looking at the ceiling, while she ran to the door of the room.
A little fur ball ran past her and dashed to the bed with a smile. "MORNING DAD!", said the pup.
He laughed; the fire of desire quenched by other fire, bright, pure and uplifting as the sun, as he opened his arms to this child of his.
--
"Dad!", Bingos voice wake him from his reverie. "What did you dream about, that night?"
"Oh... about being a family with your mum, and about a pup".
Bluey smiled. "It was one of us?", she asked.
Bandit almost couldn't find his voice in that moment, he looked on to the distance.
"...No...it wasn't..."