I had one more shift left at work before my two-week holiday. I had some pretty big plans for it, the most important task being my sister's wedding. My bags packed and ready in the boot of my car, all I had to do was pick up the customised bouquet from the florist down the road and head up to Louth. I spent ages searching for ideas on a wedding gift for my sister, choosing the flowers because I knew she had a soft spot for them.
I moved the pile of Biology books from the box in the learning quarter and loaded them onto the shelves, positioning each book in order by the numbers printed on the front cover. I swear half of them were always missing in another department, a lot of the times because people got lost in this enormous place and gave up trying to find where the book lived.
"Excuse me," a timid voice said from behind me. "Can you point me toward the Physiology section?"
I glanced up at the young girl who was a regular here from the local college and used my finger to guide her in the right direction. "Physiology is on the far right, honey."
"Of course, it is." She palmed her forehead. "What an idiot am I? Is the sign not big enough to see?"
I giggled and rested my palms on my knees, thinking she wasn't the only one to do that. "Not to worry. It's late, and I'm sure you've been studying all day."
"Yeah, thanks!" She scuttled off in the direction I told her to go and disappeared from view.
I put away the rest of the books, checked up on library cards and noted who was overdue before Diane came in at five o'clock to relieve me. My stomach turned with nerves. This would be my longest drive to date and knowing it was rush hour didn't help. I hurried along to the staff room and collected my belongings, giving a few other students a wave when they told me goodbye in the couch corner.
"Wait, a second." Diane met me near the entrance door holding a gift-wrapped box. "This is for your sister and her husband from all of us here."
How touching. I took the gift from her hands with a warm heart. "Wow, thank you, Diane. They will be so touched."
She smiled before giving me a quick hug. "You take care and enjoy yourself, okay? That is an order."
"I will. See you in a few weeks."
The road heading towards the dual-carriageway wasn't as bad as I expected and before I knew it I was driving towards Hanna's house and parking next to their Land Rover. My car door was halfway open when the front door flew open and my sister was near the hood of my car. The swell of her belly noticeable with the tight jumper she wore.
"How was your drive up here? Any problems?" she said, giving me a long squeeze.
My family were still wary of my driving alone since it wasn't all that long ago that I passed my test. I rested my hand on her belly. "All fine. Look at you."
Her hand brushed around her belly with a grin. "Oh, I know. Time is going by too fast, but I'm not sad about that. Not when we'll have our little boy in our arms sooner."
I stopped dead. "Boy?!"
Her eyes sparkled in my direction. "Yes! We're having a baby boy."
"Stop it." I wriggled my hands about as my feet left the ground on a big jump. "Shut the heck up."
Not wasting any time, I sprang forward to hold my sister again, burying my nose in her hair, whispering, "Stop it."
"Oh, Tabby," she whispered back, and we must have stayed there for a good ten minutes, laughing in each other's arms, high on freaking life. A nephew. The thought sent me into a spin. "A real life baby boy that's all ours."
Bruce's soft voice startled us both. "Is everything okay here?"
I let go and threw myself at his body, forcing him to grab onto me before I sent us both tumbling to the floor. It was a hard fall that sent an "Oof!" out of him, but he took it all in his stride as usual. Cool as a cucumber. "Congratulations! A baby boy!" I said in his face.
"Ah," his hand stroked my back as he chuckled to himself. My sister's husband was a handsome man at just over six foot with choppy auburn hair, the brightest blue eyes framed by the longest eyelashes ever, and when he smiled it just lit up every piece of you. "I understand the giggles now. Yes, we're having a boy. Can you believe it?"
I pulled back with my hands resting on his shoulders when he followed me and accepted the quick hug I gave before climbing to my feet, holding a tonne of respect for him. "I couldn't have wished for a better husband for my sister. I love you so much, Bruce."
It seemed impossible for him to speak when he choked out. "You're so wonderful to me. I love you very much too."
I patted his elbow in thanks, looking between the pair of them. "So, what's the plan for tonight? Are we going to see mum and dad or do you both have plans?"
Hanna grabbed my hand while Bruce got my bag from the boot of my car, walking the quick steps to their house. "Did you think we would let you visit and not spend quality time with you? Really, sis?"
I shrugged my shoulders out of my jacket and hung it up on their fancy coat rail. "I'm easy. I thought if you had plans already, I could go spend some time with mum and dad. No worries."
She shook her head at me, ushering me further into the house so the warmth of the coal fire submerged us into the living room. I loved that they kept the original features of their Victorian home. The intricate trim on the high ceilings was really something else. It echoed if you spoke loud enough sometimes, too. "Not going to happen. Time with my baby sis will be precious soon."
To me, it was as if the devastation had brought us closer somehow. It forced us back in one another's lives again, and for that I was grateful. I had always adored my sister; she was my absolute world. "I know, that's all going to change soon. Especially now you're going to be a mummy. I want to help as much as possible with the baby."
"That's great, Tabby. I want you here with us as much as you can be," she replied, lowering herself down on the couch to turn on the television.
I pulled the enormous leather bean bag from its place near the grandfather clock to settle down. It was big enough to lie out on, so I did, enjoying the warmth from the fire blowing over my feet. "You'll both be sick of me by the time baby turns one."
Hanna snuggled down with a blanket wrapped around her feet. "You're kidding, aren't you? My friend from work said that she didn't know how she would've survived without help from family when her little one got here. I'm taking all I can get."
Bruce came back into the room with a handful of takeout leaflets, handing a few to me, before plonking himself next to Hanna. They kissed hard on the mouth, hands wandering underneath the blanket when she pulled it over him as well. "You choose, sis."
I picked up the Thai menu. Red Thai beef curry, I thought. Hell, yes! "Is Thai going to upset your belly?"
Hanna shook her head when she caught my eyes on her, enjoying the way Bruce played with her hair. "Nope. I'm good for a bit of curry. Thai is my craving food."
"Shall we have that then?" I said, reading every dish carefully to be sure I missed nothing. Bruce kept his fingers in Hanna's hair as he bent over the arm of the couch to grab the house phone from the table beside him. "Yeah, sounds good to me. I'll order it now because they get busy on a Friday night. What does everybody want?"
Well, that was a loaded question. I counted at least five things. "You might need a pen to write this down."
...
Two hours later, with plastic tubs and plates spread on the table, we were most definitely in a food coma. Like always, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Hanna moved around quietly to grab the iPad from Bruce, who was snoring across from us on the armchair while the television played gently in the background. Opening the side drawer, Hanna pulled out a pair of earphones, plugging them into the device to give me one earbud while she used the other. Our foreheads touched as we stared down at the big screen.
"I want to show you the band we're having at the wedding reception," she whispered, pulling up her emails to click on a link.
It brought up the band's website. They looked young, maybe in their late-twenties, all sporting a similar look with tousled hair and tweed jackets. A beautiful woman sung between them with her hair plaited with daisies. Their page looked professional with countless five-star reviews. There were several pictures of them playing different venues, which came to life as Hanna clicked on the play button.
"They're great." I nudged her side when the first song played out to us. "They remind me of a mix between Birdy and Mumford and Sons."
Hanna snuggled closer to me. "Aren't they? I like that they have a woman singer. It seems to be all boy bands recently. Girl power and all that."
I agreed wholeheartedly. "Do they play all original songs?"
"Amanda, the singer, told us they will play anything we'd like, but their primary focus is their own material. They were on BBC Lincolnshire introducing last month. I think they're going to be big one day," she said, and it was very possible with their two hundred thousand followers on Instagram.
I swiped my finger on the screen when the video finished to click on another. "The best of both worlds, then? I suppose that way people can enjoy some new music or request a classic if there's something they want to hear."
"Yeah, exactly," she replied.
We spent another five minutes searching through their catalogue of songs before clearing the table of the dirty dishes and tubs. I offered to take the carrier bag of empty takeout dishes to the bins outside, remembering the flowers sitting on my backseat. It skipped my mind with the excitement of my arrival.
Hanna loved the bouquet of wildflowers so much that she gushed about it for a full minute, removing the glittering cellophane with care and trimming the stems to submerge them into her favourite vase. They were really something, and it pleased me greatly that she liked them so much.
While she found the perfect space for the flowers in the house, I got to washing the dishes. It was an impossible task to find where everything went because her cupboards were so unorganised. Plates were with the pots and pans and cutlery went near the chopping boards. I wondered how Hanna's pregnant mind would deal with this once she started nesting.
A tiny squeal stole my attention from rinsing the dishcloth out. A manly chuckle following it. My sister laughed out loud then, and Bruce made a loud kissing noise. They were giddy. Most couples liked to spend the last night before the wedding away from one another. But not them. They had hardly spent a moment away from each other for seven years and weren't about to start now. I found it adorable.
"Bruce, no fair, don't tickle me while I need to pee," Hanna squealed, followed by his grunt."There's no need to hit me," he complained.
I reached behind me and dug my hand into my pant pocket to pull up the handwritten note—I will wait forever for you to be ready to forgive me. Your Joshua X
When I approached my car after work, I found the note secured underneath my windscreen wiper. I gathered it had just been delivered from the slight drizzle of rain barely touching the paper. I didn't know what to think when I read the words, spinning around to see if he was still around.
It had some effect on me because I rushed to unblock his number from my phone, listening to a playlist he created on my journey up here. I don't know... he seemed sincere enough. He was all I could think about. Night and day. I messed all of those feelings up in my head.
"Tabitha, Bruce is being mean to me," Hanna called through here rather childishly, snorting giggles leaving her mouth after it.
Bruce bellowed back. "It's the other way around, sis!"
Hanna gasped. "Only I can call her sis. Back off, Bruce."
His chuckle was richer that I had ever heard it, a playful note ringing through. "Oops, my bad."
All hell broke loose then as Hanna squawked for him to stop tickling her once again, letting him know she was close to peeing on his leg. The ache in my gut grew into something bigger. I wanted to share moments like these with my love. I wanted to be someone's everything. I wanted it so much that the need turned into a madness inside of me.