Chapter One
1037 Words
Chapter One
One year later
Eliza had never been happier. Everything in her life had finally come together. She’d thought she’d had a good and loving relationship with Andrew, but with Hayden, everything was perfect. She felt safe, happy and complete all at once. She was in heaven. Even after the trying year she’d had.
She was doing some tidying up in her and Hayden’s new home when there was a knock at the door. She peered through the peephole and smiled, opening the door wide.
“Hey Melissa!” Eliza gave her a quick hug before moving the two of them into the house.
“I’m glad to see that you took Theo’s advice to heart.” Melissa chuckled as she hung her jacket in the closet.
“What’s that?” Eliza asked, a little confused.
“Always check to see who is at the door before you open it.” Melissa mimicked Theo’s alpha tone as best she could.
Eliza laughed at her and then yawned.
“Are you tired already? It’s only ten in the morning.” Melissa quickly started brewing some coffee.
“I haven’t been sleeping well lately.” Eliza shrugged her shoulders as she pulled out cups for the coffee and set them down on the counter.
“Why, what’s going on?” Melissa asked, waiting for the tap to fill up the coffee pot.
“Nothing really. I’ve just been having these strange dreams,” Eliza explained. “Except that they don’t seem like dreams. More like somebody is watching my life from the outside. Like they’re watching a TV show.”
Melissa frowned. This confused her just as much as it did Eliza.
“I’m sure they are just dreams. They will pass.” Melissa smiled and gave Eliza a comforting squeeze.
“Yeah, maybe. Well, since you’re here, I have some news I need to tell you,” Eliza said casually.
“Oh, what is your news?” Melissa poured each of them a cup of coffee.
“Well, it will involve you helping me plan a few things after I tell you. Are you sure you’re up for that?” Eliza teased.
“Spit it out already, woman!” Melissa shouted excitedly.
“Hayden and I are expecting.” Eliza’s smile threatened to split her face in two.
“What!?” Melissa screamed and set her cup down. She grabbed Eliza and pulled her into a huge hug. “That is amazing! Oh my God!” Melissa did a little happy dance around the kitchen. “Who all knows?”
“Just you so far. I wanted to tell you first so that you could help me plan how to tell Hayden and everyone else. I always see these really cute pregnancy announcements on Pinterest, and I decided that I would like to come up with something creative to announce my pregnancy.” Eliza sat down at the kitchen table and watched Melissa dance around.
“What? I want to be told creatively, too!” Melissa glared at Eliza and crossed her arms, but she was too happy and excited to hold the fake tantrum for long. “I would love to help you. Do you have any ideas so far?”
Eliza pulled out her laptop and fired it up. Once she got logged on, she typed in the address for Pinterest and searched pregnancy announcements. She and Melissa scrolled through the thousands of different tags, pointing out the ones each of them liked and jotting them down. Eventually they came up with the perfect way to tell Hayden, and another way to tell friends and family.
Melissa and Eliza got everything ready to make the pregnancy announcement to Hayden. Melissa stayed almost too long and Eliza had to help her make a narrow escape out the back door so that Hayden wouldn’t see her.
Eliza carefully pulled out the plain white coffee mug that they had bought and decorated with a big heart. Inside the heart, Eliza had written, There is something special on the horizon, and then on the bottom of the inside of the cup, I’m pregnant. She smiled. It was so simple but she was sure that Hayden would love it. She quickly filled it with coffee and added the sugar and cream before she stood by the door.
Hayden opened the door and smiled when he saw Eliza standing there waiting for him. He kicked off his work boots and gave Eliza a soft kiss on the lips as he took the coffee cup.
“I made it just for you.” Eliza smiled. “The cup. Not the coffee. Melissa made the coffee.”
Hayden laughed and read the side of the cup and made a funny face at Eliza. He took a few sips of his coffee.
“Well, what else did you do today besides make me this completely random but absolutely wonderful coffee cup?” Hayden tilted his head and took another sip of coffee.
“Not a lot. I did some cleaning and Melissa came over for a visit.” Eliza leaned against the counter. “What about you? How was work today?”
“Same old, same old. Although it’s usually a good thing when nothing exciting happens in the mines.” Hayden smiled a tired smile. He brought the cup up to his lips again and stopped as he brought it down.
He looked at Eliza with a confused look on his face. Eliza shrugged and smiled. Hayden took another sip of his coffee so that he could see what was written on the bottom of the cup without spilling coffee on himself.
All of a sudden, he smiled and slammed the cup down on the counter as he threw his arms around Eliza and spun her around and around in circles.
“Are you serious? We’re having a baby?” Hayden’s face was glowing with happiness, which made Eliza’s smile grow brighter as well.
“Yes, we are having a baby,” Eliza tried to answer between Hayden’s showers of kisses.
“How long have you known?” Hayden asked excitedly.
“Not long. About a week. I was trying to figure out how to tell you. Melissa helped.” Eliza smiled against Hayden’s chest and then wrinkled her nose. “You really need a shower.”
Hayden nodded and gave her another kiss.
“So we’re having an August baby,” he said as he dashed up the stairs.
Eliza smiled. She was so happy that he was as excited about the baby as she was. Once Hayden was done in the shower, she would run the plan of how to tell everyone else by him and see what he thought. She hugged herself with happiness and then started searching the fridge for something to make for supper.
- Writer
