By Grace[BWWM]

Twenty-One

"Ask him if he wants to come over for dinner at six," He explained and opened the refrigerator. They had lots of things to cook, but he wasn't sure what he wanted. Now that Vanessa was pregnant, she was picky. Some days she wanted seafood, other days all she wanted was pizza.

He pulled out a bag of shrimp and a few other ingredients. He was going to make mini shrimp pizzas.

"Daddy says to come for dinner! Six clock! Hi!" Lailah waved at the phone and kissed it.

"Hi to you too, Lailah! If daddy says come for dinner, then I will come for dinner." Cabbrieli answered and Lailah brought the phone to Reid.

"Look, daddy It's Cabby!" She held the phone up so Reid could see.

"Ciao, son. I'm prepping for pizza right now so I can't talk too much, but I can't wait to see you. Vanessa is excited as well, but your little sibling is making her tired." He loved talking about Vanessa, even more now that she was pregnant.

"A native Italian making pizza? I love your pizza," Cabbrieli hummed. "And how is my stepmom doing? Every time I come around, she's asleep." He chuckled.

Lailah sighed and placed Reid's phone on the counter. "My arm is tired, daddy. I'll go be with mommy!" She hugged his leg and ran out of the kitchen.

"She's so cute," Reid shook his head and looked down at his phone. "Vanessa is taking everything well. She's been hands-off lately, which is expected. We're going to find out the baby's gender this week, so we won't have to call the baby, the baby." He couldn't wait to know if it was a boy or a girl. Whether boy or girl, he was going to love them.

"If it's a boy, please don't name him Alreidoculus Jr. I love you, but the name is a mouth full." Cabbrieli pursed his lips.

Reid rolled his eyes. "You didn't complain about your name. I will name my son whatever Vanessa wants. She likes my name,"

"Yeah, yeah. Just name the baby something normal. I'll see you later,"

"Se ne vinci un po', ne perdi un po'." (You win some, you lose some.) Reid shrugged and went back to cooking.

-

It was like the scene from the movie, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, except for the fact that no one was racist. Hopefully, she did not have time to have a racist in her house.

Cabbrieli brought a guest. A 'friend', Heather Odet. She was a beautiful young woman who just so happened to be older than Vanessa. It didn't make Vanessa uncomfortable, however, it seemed to make Heather uncomfortable.

"So, Heather, what do you do for a living?" Reid asked the young lady sitting next to his son. It was awkward, Heather seemed snotty and he didn't like the way she was looking at Vanessa. He didn't want to talk to her, but he was way too old to be petty.

Heather swirled the drink in her hand and smiled. It looked fake. "Actually, I'm what you could call an heiress along with being an Instagram model." She winked at Cabbrieli.

"Oh, that's nice." He had no clue what an Instagram model was.

Vanessa wanted to smile at Heather, she did, but Heather was giving her the stink eye. Cabbrieli sure knew how to pick a lady friend. He specifically called Heather his friend.

"Cabbrieli told me that you're twenty-six, Vanessa. How does it feel to have a stepson who's older than you?" Heather asked with a smirk.

Cabbrieli's eyes widened and he shook his head. "Heather, why do you want to know the answer? Please control your mouth." He sent an apologetic look to Vanessa.

She had the audacity. Vanessa tsked and continued cutting up Lailah's pizza. She never liked entertaining ignorance, at least not anymore. She giggled and cleared her throat.