Brad is here!

I don’t know if it’s me alone or does anybody else notice that newly born kids all look alike? Most babies I have seen after they had been born all looked like potatoes! This was so different! He was really cute with big cheeks! Fred, Mike and I were all looking through the glass mirror to the kids’ nursery. We were not allowed to enter so we watched the kids sleeping in the beds with little name tags attached. The other kids in the incubator were not as many so they were all spread across the room near the walls. We were lucky to be able to see Ann and Mike’s baby. He was lying peacefully in the incubator right near the window that we were standing at.

“So, have you thought about a name yet?” I asked Mike.

“We had a couple of names selected but we had not chosen one yet.” He answered putting his hand on the window as if to pat the child.

“Ann will have to decide on the name of this handsome one.” He added. “She deserves to choose.”

“Congratulations man.” Fred said patting Mike on the back. “This is really big!”

“I know! I still can’t believe it yet that the baby is here! I thought he would come later on.” Mike replied.             

“Yea, most of us were thinking we had a few more weeks to see him. What did your parents say?”

“Oh shit! I haven’t called them.” Mike exclaimed. “Where is my phone?”

He searched his trouser pockets but he couldn’t find the gadget. He touched his breast pocket and found it. He quickly dialed his father and broke the good news to his family. He was so happy conveying the message. Next, he called Ann’s family and informed them. Her mum promised to come over the next day.

After a while, we had to go home. Ann and the baby needed to catch on some rest. This was also a good opportunity for Mike to grab some clean clothes for Ann. The ones she had on were soiled with blood as we were driving her to the hospital. Fred and I dropped Mike at his place then went home. I was so tired that I simply collapsed on the bed. My eyes were so heavy but I couldn’t help smile. The baby was here! No complications, no nothing! Ann was healthy as one could ever wish. On the other hand, the surprise coming of the baby meant change of plans. No more planning on how to prepare him to the world. He was here already. I wonder what they would name him.

“Do you want anything to eat?” I heard Fred shout from the kitchen.

“No, not really. A glass of warm milk would do.” I replied.

Early next morning, I received a short text from Ann. It simply said:-

            To an aunt who deserves applause, thank you so much. From Mike, Ann and Baby Brad.

Fred received a message also from Ann thanking him for what we had done. They were really excited about baby Brad.

Prematurely

Mike was finally able to come to the hospital an hour later. He had seen our voice messages that we had left on his phone while driving Ann to the hospital. He came running to where we were seated on the waiting room.

“Where is she?” Mike asked looking around.

“Hey chill, she is being checked out by the doctors.” Fred said while trying to hold him still.

“How could I be so stupid?” Mike said softly while holding head looking at the cold white tiled floor.

“It wasn’t your fault Mike.” I said to him.

“No, I shouldn’t have gone out drinking! I could have been able to assist her early. I could have done something about it if she felt pain first or noticed something. What if she loses the baby? What if…” He said.

“No, no, no. She will be alright.” Fred interjected while holding him on his shoulders. “We just have to wait for the doctors’ word when they finish with her.”

“But she asked me to stay with her but I didn’t listen!” Mike cried.

“Dude, it will be alright.”

We all sat down and waited for the doctor. The clock on the center of the room made the waiting seem longer. The minute hand seemed like it was not moving! The waiting room had eight chairs all facing to one side with a TV screen on one end and the clock in the center. Mike, who was sitting besides me, was weeping silently. His veins stood out across his forehead while his eyes were wet from crying.

Finally, the doctor came out. He looked across the room and spotted us. We all stood up and keenly listened to him.

“She is stable. She was bleeding profusely but we managed to contain it. We had to perform an emergency surgery to be able to save the child. He is doing well also but we have to keep him in an incubator since he was born prematurely.”

“It’s a boy?” Mike asked excitedly.

“Congratulations!” The doctor said with a broad smile.

“Can we see her?” I asked.

“Yes but you will have to wait a bit since she is being transferred to the wards. Ill send one of the nurses to come call you.” The doctor replied.

“Thank you so much.” Mike said while giving the doctor a handshake.

We were finally allowed to go see Ann. She was lying on the hospital bed half asleep. She looked tired, maybe from the drugs that she was given. Her hair was uncombed giving her a crazy look.

"Congratulations dear! So sorry on what you went through." Mike said while planting a kiss on her lips.

"Congratulations too. You are now a dad to a handsome son." Ann replied.

"You are a mother too! How are you feeling?" he asked.

"A bit tired. I wish i could take a nap but i can't. I want to hold the baby." she replied.

"I know but the baby is in the incubator. He needs to rest too."

I guess. Oh, Kate and Fred. Thank you so much for everything." she said as soon as she noticed we were in the room.

"Its nothing really. As long as you are okay and the baby too. Congratulations to your new addition to the family!" I said giving her a hug.

"Thank you."

Hospital

The three of us all agreed and ended up calling the first and the last candidate for the job. They had performed well in the interviews compared to others. I called them and asked if they could start working on Monday. We needed them to start working as soon as possible.

That evening, we decided to stay indoors. Fred was to cook dinner while I went to do laundry in the other room. I heard my phone vibrate. I looked at the caller ID and saw it was Ann. I picked it up and said hello but all I could hear was gasps.

“Ann!” I called out.         

I could hear some movements but no one said anything.

“Ann, can you hear me? Are you all right?” I asked again almost shouting on the phone.

When I didn’t get an answer for the third time, my heart skipped a beat. Was she alright? She was pregnant and I was worried that something could have happened. I ran to the kitchen and told Fred about it. He suggested we go to their apartment and see if they are okay. I turned off the cooker and grabbed the car keys and shoes and went down the stairs following Fred. He drove us to Mike and Ann’s apartment.

The house light was on and could tell that there was someone in the house. The windows were still opened. I knocked the door then pushed it inside. Ann was lying on her back on the corridor floor. Her mobile phone was on her right hand side on the floor. I looked at her face and could tell she was in pain. She was cringing while holding her tummy with her left hand.

“Ann, where is Mike?” Fred asked.       

She shook her head.

“Okay, just try and relax. I’ll call an ambulance for you.” Fred said while trying to assure her.

Ann shook her head vigorously.

“What?” I asked.

She managed to whisper. “Just take me to the hospital.”

I raised my head and looked at Fred. He nodded and instinctively, we tried to carry her down to where we had packed the car. The stairs made it a bit awkward as we struggled to keep the balance. As soon as we were able to place her on the car, I raced to the apartment. I looked for the key at the usual place they put it on the table and locked the house.

Lucky for us, there was no traffic all the way to the hospital. As soon as we arrived to the front entrance of the hospital, Fred called out and a stretcher was brought out. Ann was quickly rushed inside and taken to one of the rooms while we were told to wait. I was so scared that I had not noticed I was crying all that time that we were coming over. I sat on one of the chairs in the waiting room and waited. Fred was trying to call Mike but it went straight to voice mail.

New Additions

I had a busy work this week. The company had decided to hire two IT guys. The last guy had left the firm two months ago. He didn’t even give a notice or anything. He just didn’t show up for work that day only calling to tell us he would not be coming back. The IT department had recommended the company hire two guys since the work had increased two-folds since we installed a new system for the office.

The HR suggested we place an advert for the vacancy in the local dailies. It was a bit expensive but it would give us a lot of reach to the wide demographic of people who read the paper daily. My boss, Mrs. Wright was against us getting the new employees through the Employment Agencies since its really costly and may delay the whole process.

I searched for the newspapers contacts via the internet on the website. I called the sales office for the most read daily and inquired about advertising costs. The figure was not as high as I figured so forwarded the typed words for the advert and paid via a cheque. The advert was to be printed the next day.

Early the following day, I bought the newspaper and checked how the advert came out. It was as I wanted. The advert was placed on the first page of classifieds and the company name was not mentioned. By around two o’clock, my inbox was full with applications coming in. The advert seemed to have attracted a lot of interested people. I went through some of the applications and shortlisted them to a figure around ten. I showed the HR the final list. She was impressed but she thought it would be best if we called in the head of IT, Fred, to come and screen the list to about five who would be contacted later on for interviews.

Fred came in and gave his opinion on how we would take in the candidates. We decided to call in the ones who had a bit of experience of about two years. The date set for the interviews was for this Friday. It was only two days away. Since we really needed to fill the vacancy as soon as possible, Friday was the perfect date for it.

On Friday morning, I set up the boardroom to be used for the interviews. Three of us, Fred, the HR and I were the ones to conduct the interviews. The candidates were expected to arrive from 10am. I was hopeful that we would get a good candidate and end this process. I went back into my office and worked on some work that I had. After some time, the phone rang.

“Excuse me but the candidates are here.” The secretary said.

“Thank you; please show the first one to the boardroom in five minutes.” I replied and hanged up.

I alerted the HR and called Fred from the extension and asked him to meet us at the boardroom. The first candidate was a young man aged twenty four. He had a Diploma from a well-known college with two years’ experience. He seemed confident enough. He answered the questions well. The second candidate was a lady. This would be interesting since the IT department had no female. I was impressed with her but she didn’t perform well at some of the questions. The third and fourth candidates flanked out from the first questions they were asked. The fifth candidate performed fairly well. We promised all of them to call them and let them know on how they had performed. We were left with the tedious work of discussing would best fit in the organization.

Baby?

“So you think we can start trying for a baby?” Fred asked when we made love that night.

“Huh?” I responded.

“I think it’s time we started thinking about having a baby.” He said.

“I was rather enjoying the adventure.” I replied. “Having a baby is a task.”

“I know. We can just enjoy the lovemaking until the baby comes.” He said.

“Are you ready for one?” I asked.

“I think I am. We are at a happy moment of our lives and the little one can as well as enjoy. What do you think?” he asked.

“I think it’s a bit soon.”

“Kate, but it might not happen right away. Just try to enjoy the moment and everything will fall in place.” He said running his fingers on my hair.

“I know.” I said. “I have been on contraceptives for a while now and guess I’ll have to stop.”

“I hope I am not pushing you into this.”

“No, you are not. It was about time anyway.” I reassured him.

“Good.” He added. “Guess it won’t hurt to start practicing.”

He proceeded to kiss my lips and it was then that I automatically knew what he meant.

We both laughed and started foreplay.

Ann and I met the following day after work at a cupcakes shop. As we waited for our orders, we took time to catch up on each other lives. It seemed like a lot of stuff had happened that I wasn’t aware of.  Apparently, Ann had a scare a few days ago when she spotted some blood stains on her underwear. She went into shock and ran hysterically to Mike. They went to hospital and got checked out but luckily it wasn’t something serious. Ann also told me how her cravings have increased especially during the night times.

“I am really craving junk food.” Ann said. “I can’t stop eating them.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“I really crave French fries especially at night. It is so bad that it has already caused friction between Mike and me. I keep on waking him up at midnight demanding them!”

 “Are you serious?” I asked.

“Very serious.”  She replied “There have been several instances where he actually went and bought them for me.”

“What?”

“Yea, it is really hard to control the craving. If I don’t have the food, I turn into a mad woman.”

“So how is the pregnancy?”

“I can’t wait to pop out the kid. It is really tiring especially right now. Only a few weeks to go then I can relax!”

“You call having a baby relaxing?” I asked. “You are in for a shock!”

“But I am tired!”

“I know. Days are going so fast and in no time, you will have the bundle of joy.” I consoled her.

“Thank you. On that note, why haven’t they brought our cupcakes?” She shouted. “Can’t they see a pregnant woman here?”

We laughed out loud. Clearly, this woman has issues.

“I will miss taking advantage of being pregnant. It has saved me a lot!” Ann said pointing to her tummy.

Morning After

I know most of you are wondering why I made that hasty decision to forgive Fred. It was quick. Honestly, I missed him. I missed my best friend. I wanted my marriage to work and not be brought down by that issue. I remember the advices my mum and aunties gave me before the wedding. They told me, marriage is work in progress. It’s an institution that is meant to be worked on between two people and most of the time we won’t agree on something. I had to be patient for my marriage to work and that is what I am doing; but this does not mean I will take shit from him.

The day after Valentines, we chose to go for dinner at a local restaurant. It was a start on giving the relationship the boost it needed. It was Fred who gave the idea and together, we dressed up and enjoyed the night. I wore a red short dress while he was dressed in black. It was romantic all right. The candles, the reserved table made me so happy. When we went back home, I gave my all to him. My body was yearning for him. The kisses ignited my flames and I kissed him back hard. His large arms cupped my waist and lifted me off the floor to the bed. The clothes came off quickly and together we made love. It was slow but pleasurable. It was just what I needed.

The next morning, I was woken up by Fred when he called my name. I opened up my eyes and saw him with a tray. Breakfast was arranged and he placed it by the bed.

“Morning honey.” He said and kissed me on the forehead.

“Morning.” I replied while smiling. “This is a nice surprise.”

“I thought you would like it.” He replied.

“Yes I do.  Thank you very much.”

I took a bit on the cereal. I looked up to Fred and found him watching me. I giggled. I was blushing.

“What?” I asked covering my mouth with my left hand.

“You really are beautiful.” He said.         

“Aaaww..”

“You had a good night?” he asked.

“Yes I did.” I replied. “And you made it happen.”

We both laughed.

“I had a great night too. I had really missed you.”  He said.

We continue speaking sweet nothings to each other until I finished my breakfast. I got up then decided to go take a shower. Fred got a little naughty and decided to follow me to the bathroom. His morning boner was already up. We had a couple of minutes to ourselves getting a dose of morning sex before dressing up. This set me up on a good mood for that day. I couldn’t stop smiling.