I woke up to the glamorous smell of breakfast. Somewhere outside the door of the bedroom James and I were occupying for our four-days stay in Paris with our friends for Arden's birthday, I could hear faint voices and laughters of the people sharing the house with us. I kept my eyes closed while with a smile lingering on my lips, I stretched my body on this king size bed that was just as comfortable as the one I had left in my bedroom back home in New York City.
My other senses seemed heightened, the smell of pancakes, bacon and fried eggs stronger, the voices outside the room louder which was almost enough to make me get off this bed, to pull me out of this coziness of firm-ish pillows, soft as velvet covers and a bed that adjusted to my body for one hundred percent comfort .
I thought about it for a second, I needed to get up because, now that I thought about it, I was pretty hungry, but food could wait a little and plus, I doubt it was even ready since I was almost certain someone would have come to wake me up if it was. Such a dilemma that was. To get up and leave the confort of this bed, or to stay and miss out on quality time with my friends.
There was more laughter traveling from where I was certain was the living room to my bedroom. And, just as I decided to get up because my curiosity was getting the best of me and I certainly wanted to be in on the joke, someone knocked on the door and a tiny voice, which I could easily attribute to my son, called out to me.
I sighed, a smile spreading on my face right as I was getting up. I guess the choice was made for me. I slid my feet easily into my house slippers and since I was naked, by James' demands of me rarely wearing anything to bed nowadays, I grabbed the robe that I had left on the chair that sat in corner of the room last night to cover my body, and quickly found my discarded black and white Pajama set that I quickly put on, along with the robe, for added coverage.
Finally, after making sure that I was decent and thus avoiding a very real possibility of scarring my son for life with live images of things that he was not supposed to see, I opened the door to find Sebastian, still in his pajamas, holding his white bunny, patiently waiting. He looked up while I smiled brightly at him and without uttering a word, took the few steps necessary and hugged my legs which immediately told me that he had just woken up, himself.
I pulled him away slightly to be able to crouch in front of him so that I could be at eye level with him while I spoke. But, the moment I went down, I was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea that was so very unexpected that I heaved before quickly getting up and running to the bathroom inside the room, barely making it to the toilet before letting out whatever I had last night which I was sure was some sort of fish for dinner and later on a burger because Eva wanted one and it smelled so good that my belly was grumbling, I just needed to have one.
I was sitting on the bathroom's floor, my head hanging above the toilet bowl, my fingers holding tightly to the toilet. It wasn't first time it had happened, actually, now that I thought about it, this same situation had occurred the day before which told me that I was either coming down with something, or French food really didn't suit me.
There was the sweet voice of Sebastian calling out to me and seconds later, I heard his foot steps as he walked in behind me. I smiled weakly, and before I could tell him that I was okay and that he shouldn't worry, because I heard the concern in my three years old's voice, that feeling that so closely resembled sea sickness came back with a furry and just like that, the rest of my stomach's content was gone and I felt so much better afterwards.
"Ahhhhh," I sighed heavily, flushed the toilet and got up to find Sebastian clutching Mr. Bunny to his side and staring at me with uncertainty in his eyes. I smiled.
"Hey baby, can you go tell daddy that I'm coming?" I asked him, grabbing my toothbrush and toothpaste from the holder as if nothing happened. Sebastian, who looked like he didn't know what to make of everything because he had never seen me sick and was probably a little freaked out, simply nodded once before leaving. I waited until he was out of the room before I started brushing my teeth.
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Everyone was sitting around the huge dining table by the time I joined them and for the billionth time, I was amazed at the people in my life. Because, for the longest of time, the only person close to me had been Rose. Now, looking at all those faces laughing and smiling, I couldn't help but be thankful, also be glad that the penthouse we were renting for this weekend had a twelve chairs dining table that could seat all twelve of us. Which, if I had to name us all would go this way: Me (Charlotte), James Darcy, Eva, Frederick Halter, Rose, William, Billie, Jonah, Dimitri, Sebastian Darcy-Welch, Arden Erica, and lastly, Levy Brice. The only person missing was Royce who was out of the country on business.
"Guys come, I'm starving." I yelled out for them all to hear me and walked over to the empty seat next to James to sit.
"Says the person we've all been waiting for." Billie responded jokingly which made everyone laugh, even the kids.
"What? I needed my beauty sleep to be able to wake up and look like I slept with my make up on. Looking good is hard work." I retorted, laughing all throughout.
James leaned over to me and spoke quietly in my ears. "You know I will always find you incredibly beautiful, even when you snore like a wild animal."
I turned my face to meet his eyes and frowned, pretending to have gotten my feelings hurt. "Asshole," I mouthed out the words because we had kids at the table. James started laughing loudly before placing a kiss on my lips, then turned towards everyone to address us.
"So, how about we start eating before we starve our kids to death?" He said and started serving Sebastian a plate of eggs, toasts, and vegetables while I pored him some fresh milk.
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Breakfast was good, really good. But the thing that surprised me the most, while I was stuffing my face like a mad woman or a kid who was tasting ice cream for the very first time, was the fact that I ate more than three bacon strips. Anyone who knew me, knew that I hated bacon, which was the reason why almost everyone at the table had stopped eating and simply stared at me, either in amazement or confusion.
It had taken James clearing his throat loudly for me to stop eating long enough and lift my head to notice that all eyes were on me. I frowned.
"What?"
"Uhm babe, you do know what you're eating is bacon right?" James was the one who spoke first. I looked down at my plate, reached for that last bacon in my nearly empty plate and smiled before bitting.
"What? I can't enjoy bacon like y'all, that's selfish if you ask me." I said while finishing my food. Rose, who was sitting two chairs down from me next to William and Levy, spoke out next.
"But you hate bacon. Do you not remember the fit you made when you realized there were bits of bacon in your mashed potato? You all but freaked out, totally pissed, looking revolted as hell."
"Well, I mean it wasn't that bad. I simply told them I didn't like it. Plus I'm allowed to change my mind about things, am I not?" I replied, feeling hot as I remembered the freak out mode I was in at that restaurant. Definitely wasn't one of my best moments.
The table was still quiet for a few more seconds which might have been way longer in my book but felt relieved when Eva spoke. "Welcome to humanity, we've greatly missed you." Everyone started laughing at her reference of me not being a human because I didn't like bacon. Billie used to always say, Charlotte, I like you but I'm going to ask you to go back to your planet and come back to Earth when you like bacon. That used to always make me laugh.
So yeah, breakfast was good but in the back of my mind, I kept going over what all of it meant. This whole scene at breakfast stayed with me the whole day even while we took the kids to the Luxembourg Gardens so that they could enjoy playing at the playground with other kids and sail wooden boats in the fountain with their dads.
"Are you okay?" I heard from Rose I hadn't noticed was standing next to me. I smiled and turned to her.
"Uhm, yeah. Why would you ask?"
She simply shrugged "You've been staring into this fountain for awhile now. Something tells me you aren't actually watching the boats." She replied, then asked. "What's going on?"
I shook my head and tried a smile, directing my eyes towards James and Sebastian who stood a few feet from me, playing with the remote that controlled the boat they had let into the fountain. I smiled faintly.
"I think you forget who you're lying to. I know you, and surely know when something is bugging you. You've been like this since the whole bacon thing. Are you upset? Because you know we were joking around like we always do."
I shook my head again, this time I met her eyes, "So, uhm I just realized I'm late."
Her eyes widened, she leaned over me and whispered loudly. "Holy shit! How long?"
"I'm not sure, a week and a half, give and take. I've been so busy with last minute planning for this wedding that I just forgot...until this morning at least. You guys were right, I don't eat bacon, actually, I can't stand it. But today, I just couldn't get enough of it." I said and suddenly, it was as if I could finally breathe again. I had been thinking about it since this morning, going over it in my head, trying to maintain my calm and not freak out but the truth was, now that I was able to at least speak to someone else about it, I felt relieved, even though it made it seem real. I breathed out heavily.
"Aw Char, this is great news." Rose smiled brightly and pulled me in for a hug which I welcomed with opened arms.
"I'm freaking out." I said softly and sunk in the hug while Rose massaged my back.
"Don't worry, it's going to be okay. I have an extra pregnancy test back at the penthouse that I brought with me." I pulled away and frowned, forgetting my own problems for a second.
She simply shrugged which told me she already knew what I wanted to ask. "I thought I was pregnant so I brought it with me but then my period started the same night we got here so I didn't have to use it." She answered my question without my having to utter a word. I started laughing.
"Pregnancy Tests are so scary." I say and turned my attention back to the little wooden boats on the water.
Rose laughed. "That I know."
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