The Girl Next Door | Baby Daddy

4.1 | Sweet Dreams

"Wow, if I knew how expensive cribs are, I would've sold a kidney in advance." Ben commented as he looked at the tag of another crib. We were in a small store full of pregnant women registering for baby showers with their husbands. Needless to say, we didn't exactly fit in.

"Hi! Can I help you two find anything?" A perky woman asked us, peeking around the corner of a shelf display. She wore glasses and a loud, yellow cardigan and floral dress with a neatly styled pixie cut. She noticed Ben glancing at the tags of cribs and took advantage of the opportunity to be a salesman. "Our cribs are very high end for very low prices! When are you due?" She asked me and I glanced down at my completely flat stomach. I wasn't even wearing an unflattering shirt that could have given the impression I was anywhere close to pregnant.

"I'm not pregnant..." I informed her awkwardly and she automatically looked embarrassed, but only to a short extent, as if this was a common mistake she made.

"Oh, I'm sorry! You'll have to forgive me. You just have that glow." She said and I looked at her skeptically. "So who are we looking for a crib for?"

"My daughter, Emma." Ben answered. "She's 3 months old. You wanna see a picture?!" He excitedly grabbed his phone out of his jacket pocket and scrolled through an entire camera roll of pictures of Emma. He pulled up his favorite and showed the clerk, just like he had to every single person he met in the last few weeks having Emma.

"She's your first, isn't she?" the clerk assumed, glancing at the picture.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" He wondered, still excited as he slid his phone back in his pocket.

"Lucky guess." She replied mockingly. "But she's cute. Maybe the Sweet Dreams model will suit your little princess?" The lady showed me and Ben to a crib that made my jaw drop. I think she meant 'maybe this model will suit an actual royal princess.' It was real wood that was painted a pristine white. The display included a pale pink bumper wrapped around the interior of the crib and a mobile that might as well have been a chandelier hanging in Buckingham Palace. The crib was built as if it was intended to survive an apocalypse, or nuclear fallout, or a Wheeler Family Thanksgiving. Ben turned over the price tag and nearly had a heart attack.

"Thirteen hundred dollars?!" He exclaimed, his eyes popping out of his head. "Oh my God, I can't feel my left arm."

"Do you maybe have a less expensive crib? You know, one that let's our little girl sleep and eat this month?" I requested sarcastically and she motioned for us to follow her.

"This is our least expensive crib. It's originally three hundred, but it's on clearance for half off because of a recall due to faulty parents." The woman explained. I had never heard such a salty tone mixed with such a peppy expression. The lady was pointing out a simple white crib in a less than extravagant display. It didn't look as regal as the other, but it still looked sturdy and trustworthy. Both of the short sides of the crib had little cutouts: a moon, a star, and a sun. I traced the edges of the callouts with my finger, admiring the uniqueness.

"We'll take it." Ben told the woman and she nodded triumphantly. "I'll ring you up."

I looked around the quaint store. There were dozens of miniature frilly dresses and lacey prams. Mobiles with clouds and stars and lambs. Pink and blue teddy bears that read 'It's a Girl!' or 'It's a Boy!'

"Cas?" Ben called, snapping me out of my trance. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said, clearing my throat. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You seem a little out of it. Everything with the good doctor okay?" Ben questioned, picking up a stuffed bunny from a round table behind us.

"Yeah, I guess. He was acting a little weird after I told him I was going crib shopping with you today." I explained to him.