Her Bundles Of Joy

Chapter 11

Nicole opened her eyes as the sun light invaded her room through the window. The dancer mentally cursed herself for forgetting to close the curtains the night before. She was the kind of person who simply couldn’t go back to sleep once she was woken up by external forces. Nicole stretched as best as she could, given her belly of a six months pregnant woman. Pregnant with twins, that was. She figured her belly wouldn’t be so gigantic if she was only expecting one child instead of two. She felt something poking her backside and her heart stopped for a millisecond. Nicole had almost forgotten that she’d had company last night. She smiled when she turned her head and saw a peaceful Evan sleeping soundly. The blond man had been a sweetheart since that night at the hospital. He really meant it when he said he’d make it up to Nicole for all the months they missed.

Over the past month he’d taken her out on a few dates, nothing too fancy or over the top, but enough to make Nicole’s heart melt at the gesture. She didn’t really enjoy those cliches in books where the rich guy takes the girl to the top of the Empire State and shows her all the beauty of New York City at night. Yeah, it would be awesome to do something like that, but she would rather have Evan do something original, creative, thoughtful. Such as the date they’d gone on the previous night. Nicole had once mentioned in one of their conversations that she’d always imagined going to a bar, meeting someone and getting to connect with that person, and then they’d leave the bar and just walk around New York, stop by a food truck and sit on the sidewalk to eat an extremely caloric sandwich while talking about random things and laughing uncontrollably together. Nicole’s ideal of love was to have lots of fun with the person she loved. To share internal jokes, to laugh together, to make fun of people and of each other. For the dancer, love meant happiness, and happiness meant having fun with the person she was in love with. She was more than pleased to note that she did have that with Evan, they shared a similar sense of humor, so their time together this month had meant lots of moments of laughter and silly jokes. Nicole was genuinely surprised when Evan showed up at Brandi’s apartment—which had basically been Nicole’s apartment since she’d moved in, provided that the singer had gone on tour the day after Nicole was released from the hospital—and asked Nicole if she’d like to go on a date with him. She hadn’t been expecting anyone, thus the dancer was wearing the most comfortable pajamas she owned, fluffy sweatpants and an overly large Stanford sweater that covered her belly and yet wasn’t tight-fitting at all. Evan told her she didn’t have to change her clothes, no matter how much she protested against it. She was definitely not about to go out with him while wearing her pajamas, for God’s sake! The blond man then told her he’d go back home. Nicole was utterly disappointed when he literally went home. If she’d known he’d actually leave, she would have gone out as soon as he was done asking her out.

The doorbell rang a few minutes after he’d left and Nicole reluctantly opened the door. She thought it was Leon, as he had the tendency of showing up uninvited. Unlike Evan’s surprise visits, which always warmed her heart, Nicole wasn’t really happy whenever she opened the front door and saw it was Leon. He was still a great friend, but lately he’d been all over Nicole, and she didn’t enjoy that. She cursed herself whenever he got too close because it was partially her fault for letting him become too clingy back when she was living in his apartment. Nicole knew she’d given off the wrong idea; she’d tried to seem friendly and thankful, and not to seem as if she were about to give him a chance.

Nicole’s disappointment had vanished the minute she saw it was a pajama-clad Evan. The dancer laughed in joy when she realized he’d gone back to his apartment, which wasn’t that far from Brandi’s building, and changed into his pajamas just so he could take Nicole out. A pajama date, he said. They went to a bar nearby, where Evan had Nicole sitting on a stool by the counter, and left. She panicked for a second, but relaxed when she saw the blond man coming back. Evan started a sort of role-play, pretending he was just meeting Nicole for the first time, and it was then that she realized he was actually making her dream date come true. Her eyes filled with tears as it dawned upon her how thoughtful Evan truly was. The fact that he remembered a conversation they’d had what felt like centuries ago was mind-blowing. Nicole blamed the pregnancy hormones for making her cry in front of Evan, in a packed bar, no less. Truth was, Nicole was blaming the pregnancy hormones for many things lately. Even her arousal was reaching its peak lately, all due to the amount of hormones being released in her body..Yeah, it definitely had nothing to do with the fact that Evan had been spending a lot of time at the apartment and she’d caught him shirtless on more than one occasion. Or the fact that Evan had taken a liking to hugging Nicole from behind—as her belly made front hugs kind of awkward for both parties—pressing his front flush against Nicole’s back, allowing her to feel all of his…manhood…pressed against her, just like it was pressing against her right now, as Evan slept on her bed.

Anyway.

The two of them had spent the evening chatting away, occasionally sipping the non-alcoholic drinks they’d ordered. Nicole was glad to know that she could still have fun even if alcohol wasn’t part of the equation. When they were told the bar was about to close, Evan took Nicole to a nearby food truck.

I know your dream date involved large sandwiches, but I hope it’s okay if we eat tacos? Evan said while rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Nicole thought it was an endearing sight to see this usually confident man acting so shy and nervous in front of her. It made the dancer feel like the the two of them were teenagers on their first date ever.

All in all, it had been the perfect night. Nicole had an even better time than on their previous dates, which had all ended in the two of them going to a chic restaurant, where Nicole had to act all calm and collected in front of the rich people that frequented those sort of places. Sitting on a sidewalk, as unhygienic as it was, allowed Nicole to feel free to be herself. She laughed her loud, contagious laugh without being ashamed of what other people would think, she joked around with Evan, making funny faces and bursting into laughter when her companion dropped hot sauce all over his gray cotton shirt. The walk back home was just as good. Evan wrapped an arm around Nicole’s shoulder and kept her body close to his as they headed back to her apartment building. Nicole knew they shouldn’t have been so careless, walking through the city streets at two in the morning, but she had a feeling that they weren’t actually alone. She didn’t spot any bulky men in black, but the dancer knew that Evan had a bodyguard, or more than one, watching them from afar. It was weird knowing that the father of her children was a billionaire who needed armed protection to keep him safe from any possible attacks.