"Do you know if he's okay?"
"I don't know," a distressed voice said. "He doesn't come to work anymore."
"What do you mean he doesn't come to work anymore?"
"Just what the fuck I said. He doesn't come in."
"Well... can you find out if he's okay?"
"Why the hell do you want me to do that when you're the one who fucked up? Look, I've already talked to you about this. You hurt him. I told you not to hurt him, and you did. You could've told him the truth, but you decided to be a little bitch and leave him while he's pregnant thinking that was going to make everything alright. Don't you dare try to get me to fix your mistakes. Make things right with him and maybe, maybe I'll think about being your friend again. Until then, don't call my fucking phone."
--------------------
"Ughhh," Remi groaned. He genuinely hated being pregnant now. Yeah, the sickness at the beginning was bad. But always being tired because you can never get any sleep because you have a little gymnast inside of you is worse. Seriously, why in the hell is this child so squirmy? "Eli, baby, calm down. I wanna sleep. Just l-let me take a nap since you wouldn't let m-me sleep last night."
That's right. Remi really named the baby Elio.
Elio Rowan Declan.
Remi was relieved to finally be able to pick a name. He won't have to worry about that anymore. Now, he only has one thing to worry about. The fucking crib and bassinet in the corner of the room that he's had yet to build. He wants to hurry up and do it before he gets as big as a watermelon, but as mentioned, little baby gymnast is always taking his energy.
Remi closed his eyes and breathed in carefully. He had his diffuser turned on with a lavender scent inside of it. He hoped that as he inhaled the mist as it flowed through the room, the scent would reach Elio, and he would relax. But that is definitely not the case.
"Eliiiiiiiiiiiiiii, please." Remi whined and flipped over onto his back. He lifted his shirt and rubbed his belly slowly. "You really d-don't want Mama to sleep, do you, buddy?"
Remi looked over at the boxes in the corner of the room again. Maybe Elio wanted him to get the hell up and do what he needed to do.
Groaning once more, Remi stood up from the bed. He walked over to the corner and pulled the box that held the crib into the middle of the room before he sat down on the chest that was in front of his bed. He ripped the tape off of the box and lifted the tabs. Inside was a bunch of styrofoam sheets, packing peanuts, and bubble wrap. He took as much of it out as he could before reaching in and grabbing a little packet of paper that he felt.
An instruction pamphlet.
Remi exhaled in relief. He might actually have some hope. The first thing that he did was go straight to the ᴛᴏᴏʟs ɴᴇᴇᴅᴇᴅ section of the book.
"Allen wrench that is included and a Phillips h-head screwdriver." Remi turned the page before turning back. He smiled. "That's all?!"
Remi stood and went over to his home library. He had a desk in there that had a drawer. He opened said drawer up and saw his very own Phillips head screwdriver. He'd needed it when he put his bookshelves together. Then, he closed the drawer and turned back around to go to his room.
"Let's do this, Eli."
Remi grabbed a pillow from the bed and put it on the floor before he sat down on it and got comfortable. Then, he pulled the box down on its side and began pulling items out. First, it was the bag full of bolts, dowels, and washers. Then, it was all of the actual wood pieces that were needed for the crib.
"Okay, attach legs E and G t-to the left panel with two 1 inch metal dowels, four 1-3/4 inch Allen head bolts, and lock washers." Remi turned around to the bag of items and opened it. He looked at the pictures on the instructions as he picked out each thing that he needed. As he did so, Paxton ended up coming over and trying to pick the metal items up with his mouth.
"Pax, no. Don't d-do that. Those are for Eli's bed, okay?"
Paxton put the items down. He climbed up onto the chest in front of Remi's bed and settled there. Remi rubbed behind his ears in thanks before going back to what he was doing.
As instructed, Remi attached each leg to the left panel that was presented as (B). It was a bit confusing at first to see what item went where just by looking at the picture in the pamphlet, but Remi eventually adjusted. He saw that he had to attach legs to the right panel (A) as well so he quickly did that one too before he went back and tightened everything up with the Allen Wrench.
Then, he had to do pretty much the same thing with the headboard, the spring frame, and the footboard. He was beginning to get even more tired, but he kept going, determined to see the finish product.
And after a few hours, he did. A few hours being because of the fact that he had to stop every now and then to rest or eat a snack or use the restroom because, you know, pregnancy bladder issues. He pulled himself up to a standing position with his hands on his hips. He felt so good to have done this all by himself.
Getting closer to the crib, Remi put a hand on it and tried to rock it back and forth. Nope, it was solid. "Whoa. And it's actually... sturdy," he smiled. "We did it, Eli belly."
Remi then turned and looked around. He had a spot next to the bathroom that this could go in. He wanted to turn his library into a nursery, but that was too much to have to move by himself, so he just opted to let the baby sleep in his room until he outgrew his crib. By then, Remi should have enough money for a bigger apartment or maybe even a small house perhaps.
Carefully, Remi pushed the crib over to the spot on the room that he wanted it to go in. It wasn't too heavy so he wasn't worried about hurting himself. When he'd gotten the crib where he wanted it, he stood back and looked at how the crib looked in comparison to everything else. It looked great. Not too crowded and not tacky at all. Remi was happy that he'd gotten a light brown colored crib that matched his own bed.
Now, he'd only have to buy a mattress and sheets.
Turning back around, Remi looked at the second box that was in the corner. The bassinet. Oh, how he wanted to put that together as well, but it seemed like Elio finally wanted him to go to sleep. Remi didn't even have any energy to get rid of the empty crib box. That could wait. He went over to his bed and climbed onto it, collapsing.
He was out like a light.