Opening Up

You're My Ideal

The Massachusetts sun seeps through the blinds, creating golden stripes on the white bedspread. Summer on the cape. Jackie awakes to the sound of sloshing bathwater and the smell of shaving lotion. She stretches her arms upward before resting them on her abdomen.

Groan.

Much to Jackie's dismay, her stomach was swelling more and more everyday. She wasn't due for another 3 months, yet she could barley see her own feet; just ten toes peeking over her basketball of a bump. Her fashion choices were limited to loose slip-dresses and oversized nighties. Her slim-waisted Cassini gowns were now in the pooper.  

In the end, however, she couldn't complain.

"Morning baby." She whispers gently grazing her thumb over the fabric of her night gown.

She reaches for the pillow beside her, stuffs it under her head, and props herself up with a wince. Grabbing the yellow legal pad on her nightstand, she begins to add to her list.

Just then, the bathroom door swings open and Jack emerges with a towel wrapped loosely around his hips.

"How's your back?" Jackie inquires, furrowing her eyebrows sympathetically. She can tell by his tight-lipped expression he is in pain.

"Like hell."

He hobbles to the end of the bed and lays himself in between her legs, his face in her crotch like he was trying to burry himself. He lets out an I'm-so-done-with-this-pain moan. Rather than offer more sympathy, Jackie simply giggles at the puddle of a man that's lifelessly poured itself between her legs. His warm breath tickles her inner thighs.

"Don't ever let me talk to that asshole again." Jack groans, his voice muffled.

"Governor Wallace is still not backing down?"

Jack shakes his head.

The defiant Alabama governor, George Wallace, still refused to comply with federal orders to allow two African American students to attend Alabama University. Him and Jack have been in heated, over-the-phone, showdown for days.

"The President always wins." Jackie smirks.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Now get up. I'm pregnant and my bladder may burst any second."

"Sorry."

Before moving, he hoists himself up on his elbows and drags himself forward. He places a kiss on her stomach before rolling over and collapsing beside her. He then pokes his head in front of the yellow legal pad she is writing on.

"Watcha writing?"

"A list of things to do before baby comes."

Jack nods, watching his wife intently as she scrawls words onto her note pad. Slowly, Jackie stops what she is doing. She feels a hand gingerly creep onto her stomach and rub it gently.

"After all we've been through and now we're pregnant." Jack says gazing at her baby bump and shaking his head in disbelief, as if it were one of the great wonders of the world.

'All we've been through.'

She knows he means the crisis.

He leans forward to kiss her temple. "We deserve this—you deserve this."

Jackie is taken aback by his sudden tenderness. She smiles, her cheeks rosy, grabs him from under the chin, and pecks his lips.

"You know I love you?"

"You can show me with that cute little belly of yours..." Jack grins, his hands fiddling with the buttons of her night gown.

Slap.