Evan scoffed. "Come on, Maria, I know it's a girl. The baby is a girl."
I rolled my eyes. "Really? Well too bad for you, it's a boy."
"Whatever." He mumbled and looked at the rat eating rice grain.
Here's the thing. We had our scan two weeks ago where we were supposed to find out the gender of the baby. Eventually, Evan agreed about not knowing the gender because he claims that he already knows it so he found it useless for the doctor to say the same thing. Since then he always teases me about the baby being a girl and how sure he is of himself. When I asked him how he knew this, he said it's a 'Dada instinct'.
But that's where he is wrong. My 'Mama instinct' says that it's a boy and one should never question my 'Mama instinct'.
At first, I wanted a girl just like I did years ago, but then something deep inside keeps nagging me that it's going to be a boy who will look like Evan and hopefully with my nature. I am already having a hard time keeping myself sane with him, I don't want another person who will team up with him and drive me insane.
Or else I have to be a strict mommy.
I don't want to be a strict mommy.
I scoffed. "Fine. Don't start throwing tantrums when you hold a boy in your arms."
He smirked. "Oh really? Fine. Let's make a deal. If the baby is a girl, I get to name her."
"NO!" I gasped and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You'll name the child Mademoiselle Philip."
"Dammit!" He cursed under his breath. "I have to think of a new name now."
I simply shook my head in disbelief and continued reading my book. Evan gets up from the couch and picks up the rat cage. The poor rat keeps stumbling till he is resting on the table in front of me and Evan opens the cage.
My eyes widened in shock and I scooted over. "What the hell are you doing, Williams?!"
He picks up the rat on his palm and tickles behind the rat's ear. "Don't you want a female companion, Monsieur Philip? Don't you want someone to carry on with your legacy? Yes, you do. Yes, you do." He cooed.
I kept staring at the duo in disgust. There are many things which Evan does all the time and most of them annoy me but this one, it disgusts me. First was Fiona with her crazy love for dogs and now it's Evan with his rat.
He makes a kissy face and keeps tickling the rat. "Why don't you tell your Mama that you want a girl? I know you want to. Yes, you want to."
Then out of nowhere he places the rat on my stomach.
I emitted a blood curdling scream. Evan started laughing.
"WILLIAMS! GET THAT RAT OFF ME!"
"No." He laughed.
"Evan!" I cried and tried to move my stomach so that the rat could fall on the floor, but it stayed right there.
He snickered. "This is so fun. I didn't know that you are actually scared of Monsieur Philip."
"I'm not scared of the rat!" I snapped. "I'm terrified!"
His lips turned into an evil smile. "Let's have a deal. I will put the guinea pig back to it's cage if you say that Monsieur Philip is a guinea pig."
I shot him a deadly glare. "Why are you doing this?" I hissed.
He smirked. "Cause it's fun. Just fun."
The rat moved on my stomach and I shrieked. "Evan! Stop this nuisance right now."
"I am not doing anything." He said casually. "Monsieur Philip is just showing you his love and adoration for you. Pat his head."
"No! It's a fucking rat!"
"Maria, it won't bite you." He frowned. "See, it's just nibbling your dress."
I looked down and screamed again.
"I wonder how you will handle a baby if you can't handle a guinea pig." He mumbled and sighed profoundly.
I smacked his arm. "Because it's a baby and this is a rat!"
"Guinea pig, cupcake. Monsieur Philip is a guinea pig." He said smoothly. "Come on, you can say it."
I shook my head violently and tried to flick the rat off my stomach, but screamed again when it touched my finger with its dirty little paw.
"Evan, get it off me...please." I begged him.
He sighed. "Fine. Just repeat after me. You can do that, right?"
I shot him a glare and gulped inaudibly, slowly nodding my head in defeat.
He grinned. "Monsieur Philip."
"Monsieur Philip." I repeated.
"Is."
"Is."
"A."
"A."
"Guinea pig."
"Rat."
He face palmed and groaned in frustration. "It's a guinea pig. G-U-I-N-E-A P-I-G."
"Rat." I deadpanned. "Now take it off!"
"No." I need to do something to get rid of his stubbornness. Suddenly we heard the doorbell ring. We gave each other a confused look.
"Are you expecting someone?" I asked.
"No." He got up from the couch. "You stay here and practice saying guinea pig, I'll see who it is."
I glared at the creature sitting on my stomach. "It's a boy and you are a rat. You belong to a family of rats."
Philip kept staring at me innocently with small black eyes. Hmm. This has to be the first time I am seeing him this close to me. Brown white fur, black eyes, weird looking pink nose and legs hidden somewhere below his fat stomach.
He looks disgusting.
I kept staring at Philip when suddenly he twitched his nose.
I twitched mine in return.
He twitched his nose again.
I twitched mine again.
No. He's not that disgusting. He is a silent nose twitching rodent who does nothing all day. But I don't like him. It's a rat. I hate rats.
We continue our nose twitching silent conversation till I hear a small thud which makes me jump in fright and the rat falls on the floor.
Oops. I am not sorry.
My blood drained from my face when I saw the object on the table. It's silver, shiny and a bit bigger than the usual envelopes.
It's another wedding invitation.
You have got to be shitting me. Why does it always have to be silver and always arriving at some very wrong timings? These blasted weddings always do some damage to me. There's no way I am going anywhere now. Nobody can make me so. Not even Thomas.
I frowned when I saw Evan standing in front of me, cross armed and frowning at the envelope.
"What's...What's wrong Evan?" I ask him curiously.
"Nothing." He said quickly. "It's just Mark and Arianna's wedding next week."
"Oh." I mumbled and looked away, trying to ignore that familiar pang in my chest.
"Um, yeah. But I am not going." I look at him in surprise. Is he out of his mind?
"Why?" I questioned. "You should go."
He chuckled and shook his head. "I already told them that I am not coming because things are getting busy at the shop and I can't take a leave right now. Besides, I can't leave any of you alone."
I sighed. "Evan, you don't need to worry about us. We'll be fine. Just go the wedding, meet your friends and--"
"No." He interrupted. "Not going anywhere without you unless you come with me and I don't think that a five month old pregnant woman is going to travel to New York for a wedding."
I scoffed. "I am the one who is pregnant. Not you. You can travel."
He runs his fingers through his hair and sighs loudly. "I am not going anywhere. You, the baby and my bakery are more important than their wedding and they understand it yet they sent me the invite hoping that I would change my plans at the last minute which is something that is not going to happen."
I bit my inner cheek and pouted, giving him an innocent look. "But...but you'll meet your niece and nephew. You didn't get to meet them properly last time and Katherine will also be there. I'm sure she misses you."
He pinched the bridge of his nose and knelt down in front me, cupping my face. "I know she does, but I'll meet her someday later. Right now, being here in Paris with you is my priority and not going to some wedding."
I bit my lower lip and stared at him in pure amazement. That has to be the most beautiful thing someone has ever said to me in a long time. I remember how it feels like to put someone first in your life, but I had forgotten how it feels like to be the first in someone's life. Evan just did that for me.
It's been a very long time since someone did that for me.
"Okay." I murmured, looking straight into his eyes. "Nobody is going anywhere."
He grinned and pecked my nose. "I am glad that we have come to an agreement."
"Me too." I whispered.
My breath hitched and I felt my heart do some familiar movements as we slowly leaned our faces. I closed my eyes and moaned in bliss when I felt the softest touch of his lips on mine. My hands slowly moved up to his collar and gripped it tightly, pulling him closer to me as an effort to deepen the kiss. He emitted an animalistic sound which did wonders to the region between my legs. The need to feel him and touch him was consuming me. His one hand was secured on my belly while the other kept touching me at places I wanted to be touched at. He broke off the kiss and latched his mouth onto my neck, peppering it with small kisses.
"I can never get enough of you." He murmured huskily and bit my earlobe.
"That makes both of us." I moaned.
We kept discovering each other by our sensual touches and kisses when suddenly we froze and looked at each other in astonishment.
"D–Did you...Did you feel that?" I asked with tears brimming up in my eyes.
He kept staring at me with wide eyes. "The baby just kicked."
My lips started quivering and placed my hands on my stomach.
"C–Can you hear me?" I gasped in surprise when we felt another kick. "Mommy loves you so much and she can't wait to meet you. You hear me? I–I love you so much."
Evan wiped my tears of joy and placed a big kiss on my stomach.
"Dada loves you too and he can't wait to hold you." He murmured against my stomach and laughed when he earned a kick. "This is so amazing." He whispered in awe. "Both of you are amazing and I love you both so much." He got up and placed a soft kiss on my lips.
I kissed him back, ignoring the fluttering in my chest and gave him a small smile. "And the baby loves you too. I am sure of it."
He grinned and knelt down again, stroking my stomach and mumbling some things I couldn't hear.
And just like that all those thoughts about everything turned into a feeling. I watched the man saying things to our child in awe and I felt my heart doing strange yet familiar things to me.
"Evan," He looked up. "I am glad that I got to share this moment with you."
Somehow, I don't see myself sharing this moment with Thomas because I had not even had the chance to think of our future. I had never imagined that I would share this moment with anybody because I had never thought that I would ever get a chance to have this moment.
Yet here I am, feeling the baby's first kick with Evan.
He smiled and held my face. "Well, if that's the case then I am glad that I got to share this moment with you too."
I held his hand and mumbled, "Thank you, for not going to the wedding."
He chuckled. "Wasn't even planning to go, but we need to dress all fancy and stuff and FaceTime during the time of the ceremony or else Arianna will have my head."
"Yeah, we can do that." I agreed. If Evan can decide not to go to the wedding for me, this is the least I can do for him.
"Oh! And one more thing. I am naming the baby girl." He motioned between him and my swollen belly. "We just agreed on it."
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "For the last time, it's a boy. The baby is a boy."
He gave me one of his mischievous smiles. "Majority wins, Maria. You can't do anything anymore."
"You wish." I snorted. "I am naming the baby boy."
"No, you won't." He argued and turned around. "Isn't that right Mon—where the fuck is Monsieur Philip?!"