𝑨𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒐

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑽𝑰𝑰

.•°𝓜𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓪°•.

I can't believe I'm saying this... but it's Christmas! I don't know where the time went because I didn't realize how quickly it passed. And this Christmas is our first one being married!

And our last as a family of two. Next year, our baby will be with us! I'm seven months along now, which seems weird. I don't know how my body changed this much without my intervention. Vincenzo loves it, of course, but I'm having a more difficult time.

I love our baby, and I get these changes are to accommodate them, but they aren't accommodating me. I wouldn't alter anything, but it's not been the easiest time. I sometimes get mad over the tiniest of things, then cry about it, or I eat something, then regret it and cry about that. I don't know how Vincenzo puts up with me because I'm infuriating at those times.

He has been so supportive it's actually crazy. My Dad wasn't like this, and neither was his. But we swore that we'd do things differently, and that starts with the pregnancy. He comes with me to every session, to birth classes, and goes shopping for the house, the baby, or me since my clothes don't fit me anymore.

At first, I loved it. It was nice having someone, my someone, caring for everything in our shared life. But then, I didn't know how to act. Mom and Nicola told me things, and then Vincenzo did the opposite. Whenever I told him he doesn't have to tire himself out, that I can go shopping for myself while he sleeps, he'd look at me -more like burn holes in my head- and simply sigh. My brothers didn't act like this, and neither did Ignazio. But it looks like when my husband promises something, he intends to keep that promise wholeheartedly and to the extremes.

For the holidays, we're taking a break. Me from everyone calling and checking on the baby -not me, just the baby- and him from work. Much needed, in my opinion.

My husband, in the last few months, has gone back to working full-time, while he previously worked crazy hours to prevent that. He needs to be going into the office, rarely works from home, gets up before I do, sleeps after I've slept -even though I try to wait up for him- and we don't spend that much time together. And even if I want to be mad at him, I can't because I can see what this is doing to him. He's obviously losing weight, has dark circles under his eyes, and doesn't want to tell me what's going on.

I'm not stupid. I know the situation with the Russians has gotten worse. There's no other reason for him to be spreading himself thin, but he doesn't want to worry me. I've asked the guards, who aren't allowed to tell me either. Patricio just told me that, "The Mrs. shouldn't worry herself."

And after all the hours of work he's doing, he continues coming with me everywhere. Once, he was late for my ultrasound. I didn't think anything of it, I guessed that he would have notified me if he wasn't going to show up. I seriously thought that he had forgotten or maybe he'd fallen asleep.

As I was exiting the room, Patricio -he's my guard, if you want. No one else comes this close to me- was taking care of the details. And then, in comes my husband, at full speed, with the most anxious look on his face.

"Baby, hey!"

"Amore, I'm so sorry, I didn't leave the office in time, and then the streets were packed, and I couldn't walk here, your phone was-"

"Hey, Vincenzo, it's okay. It's fine, you didn't have to come here."

"Of course I did! Is everything alright? Did the doctor say anything we should look into?" He was rubbing my belly, looking at the bump with such guilt that he wasn't here that I wanted to make him take a nap and wake up in three years!

"Baby, it's okay. The baby's fine. The heartbeat is strong. She said the usual, no excessive exercises, and lifting heavy stuff."

"And you? How are you? You don't sleep well at night and threw up some days ago." He pointed it out, and I wanted to hit Patricio for stressing him out even more! I looked across the room at him, and he gave me an apologetic shrug. Traitor...