by Bijou Hunter
I guess I’m a late bloomer because I’m twenty-six when I finally get my happily ever after with a man I’ve known for over ten years. I get a dream job I didn’t know I wanted. I make a friend after thinking only my sisters were worth my effort. For me, all the pieces fell into place after Bonn showed up at my trailer with a plan.
Epilogue – Bonn
Ruby and I decide to let nature take its course with having a second child. We figure the sooner, the better since Elle is already nearing her ninth birthday. Once Ruby stops taking the pill, our son is conceived almost immediately.
We learn about her pregnancy a few weeks after returning from Dollywood on our first real family vacation. I feel like a fucking king being able to take Chevelle to the amusement park of her dreams. She brags so much to the twins when we return that they guilt Hayes into taking them. My badass boss can’t get shown up.
Ruby’s the picture of health and happiness until her fifth month when her high blood pressure kicks in. Though I suspect she worries about a replay of my freak-out during her first pregnancy, she never mentions Kim.
Alone during the day, Ruby works online to get the restaurant’s catering business started. Most days, I bring Chevelle home to find Ruby cooking us dinner. While she doesn’t stay in bed as much remain homebound, that’s a big step for a woman unaccustomed to sitting on her butt all day.
The last two months are the toughest. Daisy and Harmony visit nearly daily to entertain her with gossip and karaoke. Sally comes over a few days a week to pamper her first born.
Remaining home with Ruby as much as possible, I lie every day when Ruby asks if I miss sex. The lack of fucking and her weight gain leave her cranky many nights. My solution is to dance naked, usually to Puttin’ On The Ritz. Every single time, her mood improves.
“I need to get more dollar bills,” she says while we cuddle in bed. “Do you want me to give you satisfaction?”
“Nope,” I murmur, shooing her hand from my crotch. “If we get started, I’ll want a taste, and we both know one lick won’t be enough.”
Every time we have this conversation, Ruby’s expression reminds me that she misses sex even more than I do. Talk about feeding a man’s ego.
Our son, Adric, doesn’t look anything like Chevelle, surprising the hell out of me. His skin is darker, his hair straighter, his eyes more like mine than Ruby’s. I’m fascinated by his handsome little face after nine months of imagining a male mini-Chevelle.
“Mine is cuter,” Chevelle says, showing off the baby doll Ruby bought her. “Cries less too.”
“Chip and Cricket have been a bad influence on you.”
Chevelle gives me a wonderful smile, but she isn’t happy about her baby brother. The jealousy takes us by surprise since she bounced for days after learning Ruby was pregnant. She was thrilled with being a sister until Adric first cried in the hospital. Chevelle backed away from him and kept her distance ever since.
Ruby tells me not to worry. She was jealous of Daisy who was in turn jealous of Harmony. Change is tricky, and Chevelle will like her brother more when he can do more than cry and poop.
By the time our energetic son is crawling, we’re in the market for a new place. The condo went from spacious to cramped with the addition of a single tiny person.
“Babies need a lot of crap,” Ruby says, looking over the cluttered living room. “I guess I forgot that part.”
We buy a three-bedroom stone front ranch with a sizable back yard in the nicer end of Common Bend. Ruby and Chevelle bounce around the house once it’s ours while I hold Adric and enjoy the show. They begin talking about getting a cat and a dog and maybe fish too. We do eventually adopt a fat middle-aged cat from the shelter. Ruby can’t believe Chevelle wants Biscuit, but our daughter falls hard for the chubby furball.
With our two kids, Ruby and I settle in for a quiet life. She works at the restaurant a few days a week and runs the catering business from home. I get to know so many people in Common Bend that I’m a town fixture long before I buy into the zip code.
Occasionally during our busiest days, reality hits me on how much I’ve built in such a short time. How I took a movie night with Ruby and Chevelle and created my dream life. Everything I have is a million times better than what I imagined as a kid. I often wanted to be happy just to stick it to Howler. Now I rarely think of him. My life is too big for such an insignificant fucker.
Sometimes when Ruby looks at me, I wonder if she’s thinking about what I did and the time we lost. As if reading my mind, she always smiles like a woman in love. We might have taken a long damn time getting to where we were going, but my love and I are finally there.
THE END
About Bijou
Living in Indiana with my three sweet sons, three wacky cats, one super mom (and her ugly dog), I love cats, Denny's, 1970s rock, Beanie Boos, and sitcoms canceled before their time.
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