From Here On Out

32

With her hand locked in Daveed's, Emmy walked out of her "end of first trimester" doctors appointment. Those words by itself compounded the list of words she never thought she'd hear, but here she was.

She had been late scheduling the appointment, she was coming up on 14 weeks when the appointment was meant to be between the 12th and 13th week. However, according to her doctor, everything was generally going pretty well. The baby was small, but not too small where it warranted worry. She also hadn't seen any defects or issues, so things were looking up in that regard.

But if the doctors appointment wasn't causing worry, the fact that her parents were coming up in a week was. She talked to them pretty regularly, but she knew that they had never truly been on board with the whole situation. Emmy so badly wanted to show them that she, that they were doing well.

So, like all good plans, she decided to go shopping.  Their entire friend group was going to go to the baby store and then to a home store to get some stuff for the baby and dress up the apartment.

Daveed and Emmy walked towards the school so they could meet up with everyone. After that, they'd all walk to the Buy Buy Baby that was a couple blocks down.

A chill came across and Daveed used his arm to pull Emmy into the side of his sweatshirt. The temperature was slowly dropping and for the rest of the way to the school, he walked with her nuzzled into his side.

"Well if it isn't the lovebirds," Rafa joked as they came upon the entrance. He spoke as he himself was holding Mary's hand.

"Raf-," Anthony smirked, looking down at his hand.

"Well it's different when I do it," he shrugged in response.

"How so?" Jasmine raised her eyebrows.

Rafa let out a long, drawn out, "Welllllll," before shrugging and adding, "So, are we ready to go?"

Emmy shook her head at him but ultimately nodded yes. With that, the group of six headed down the street to the store.

Once in, they were met with miles upon miles of tiny baby clothes, strollers, and every toy imaginable. The store was also two stories tall, that fact only adding to its overwhelmingness.

"Good Lord," Emmy said in shock, "I have no idea where to start," she turned to Daveed. Her eyes floated past the cribs, and bassinets, and strollers, and clothes. Honestly, she could start anywhere because they had virtually nothing, but choosing a place was still hard.

Daveed turned towards her aswell, "Do we want to try to fix the nursery before your parents come?"

"We probably should, right?" Emmy shrugged, "I mean, we have plenty of time, but might aswell get stuff while we're here," she used her arm to gestures to the many items in the store.

"Divide and conquer?" Jasmine suggested, turning to Emmy.

"Send us to the easy stuff," Rafa chuckled, clapping Anthony on the back.

Emmy thought for a second, "Alright," she began, "Y'all can get pacifiers, bibs, socks, and undershirts. And I'll text you cause I know you already forgot," she said, adding a wink on that last part.

"What else you need, Em?" Mary asked.

"I think I want to start with the big stuff. Like we definitely need a crib, a stroller, one of those bouncy swing sleep things, and- lots of clothes," she talked through her thought process. Her hand moved down to rub the side of her belly, "I can't believe how much stuff you need for a baby the size of a pea pod."

With a giggle directed towards his girlfriend, Daveed asked, "Let's go down the list then. I see some cribs over there."

Together, Jasmine, Emmy, Daveed, and Mary, walked over to the aisles donned with cribs standing 4ft above the air. There were so many of them all
making the promise that their walled box would ensure your baby slept through the night.

Emmy stepped into the aisle and began to read the tiny information cards. She knew it needed to be sturdy, breathable but not where a baby would fall out, and she would love one of the ones with a changing table, but those were her only constraints.

The first one that caught her eye happened to be the same one Daveed had walked in front of. The like mindedness made the two of them laugh as they looked at the grey painted wooden crib with a changing table on its side. It was exactly what she described, and the price point was doable.

"Is it really this easy?" she stared at him with her eyebrows furrowed.

"Maybe we just got lucky," Daveed shrugged, "But you like this one for real?"

"Yeah, I mean I'll look at a few more just in case, but it's cute and has everything I think we need," Emmy shrugged.

Her stroll down the aisle was clouded with thoughts of that first crib and ultimately they decided to go ahead with that one. Daveed went to pull the crib from the aisle and sat the large box on the ground in front of them.

"I should go get a cart," Emmy stated, "Probably two right? Cause this one's gonna take most of one," she thought out loud once more, "Jas come with me to get the second?"

Jasmine nodded and agreement and the two headed to the front of the store to get the carts. "You ever thought you'd be buying cribs right now?" Mary grinned to Daveed once they headed off.

"Never," Daveed immediately shook his head, "I wake up everyday in some variation of shock."

"You adjusted very well though," Mary nodded, "It's hella impressive."

"Thanks," Daveed replied, although he was cut off by a sales associate approaching them. The older woman smiled at the two of them and asked, "Can I help you two with anything?"

"Oh no, we're just waiting on my girlfriend," Daveed said, leisurely pointing to the front of the store.

"Oh?" the associate replied as if his response was unexpected, "Well, just let me know!"

The employee headed off in the other direction and Daveed spinned his head to Mary. "That was weird right?"

"Mhm," she nodded, "She probably thought we was a thing." Mary shrugged it off as an obvious fact, however, the perplexion remained on Daveed's face.

Daveed shook his head, "Everybody always trying to put me and you together," he spoke, "And I don't want to offend you Mary but-"

"Not happening. Trust me, I'm good," she said in response, Emmy and Jasmine walking back right as she said that last half.

"Good with what?" Emmy asked as she pushed up a cart half full with all kinds of small toys.

"Not dating Daveed," Mary answered, "Also... toys?"

Emmy's eyebrows furrowed once more in confusion. She looked down at the basket and then back up at the two of them. "Yeah we made a little detour." she said before pausing, "But... Daveed, you want to date her?"

"Nah baby, some lady just thought we were dating. That's all," he reassured, "Only have room in my heart for you and little you. I promise," he said, walking up to her and reaching out for her belly.

The two of them touched their foreheads for a moment and then pulled away. Daveed moved to lift the crib into the cart and then started to push it. He walked in tandem with Emmy as they headed to get the rest of the stuff on their list.

As the four of them moved through the store, they ran into Rafa and Anthony who, surprisingly, had a good amount of stuff in their cart. They also had diapers, lots of diapers.

"Wow," Emmy said in awe at the fully filled cart. There were pacifiers, t-shirts, plain undershirts as well as every other color, socks, and a couple other little toys.

"Well, from what I know, all babies do is poop, pee, and sleep, so we got y'all covered," Anthony laughed.

"Thanks Ant," Daveed shook his head while laughing all the same, "Y'all might be overestimating the budget though," he eyed everything in the cart.

Daveed and Emmy peeked through and sorted out the collective three carts before they headed on to the next section. The six of them moved throughout the store, picking up the rest of the things on Emmy's mental list, as well as a few more splurges. They were figuring it out as they go, but slowly everything was working out. Emmy just hoped her parents would see that too.