So it’s Halloween and I figured we should check in with our little fave who looooooved her some Halloween, Ciel, Kirk’s niece from Last First Kiss. When I went back to the text to see where their tale had ended I discovered something I’d forgotten, which made writing this short even more delightful. Anyhoot, hope you enjoy. xo, Nic.
***
October 30, 2019 4:30 pm
Calista
I’d felt the eyes on me for the past five to seven minutes and it was to the point that I could pinpoint from whom the gaze originated. I stayed quiet for as long as I could, but quickly became unnerved so I finally spoke up.
“If you are coming in here to tell me that I’m doing too much, you can turn your behind around and leave me alone,” I chastised, turning in my chair from the sewing machine in my office.
When my eyes fell upon my husband, he stood braced against the doorframe, hands aloft as if a robber had told him to stick ‘em up.
“I’m not saying anything. I just came to see if I could bring you anything. See how you were feeling.”
“You know how I am feeling. I’m feeling like you better be lucky I ever let you impregnate me because the way this one is taking up residence as if he or she never needs to leave? This ensures that we won’t be doing this ever again.”
“Not even…practice?” Kirk joked and I couldn’t help but crack a grin at his ribbing.
I was cranky for a multitude of reasons. The first was that our first child together had overstayed their time in my uterine hotel and refused to actually make an appearance in the real world. I was due a week before Halloween, October 24th, a fine day. Aeryn’s birthday, which she was super excited about when I told her. But then the 24th came and went…then the 25th, 26th, 27th…and so on. Coming up on nearly a week overdue, I was exhausted. But I had to ensure that despite my state of being that our…diece Ciel was handling all of these changes well. She had endured entirely too much trauma over the past year or so and I knew that a new baby coming on the scene would just add to her feelings of upheaval. She was excited, at times it felt like even more than Kirk and I were, for the new baby to be in the house, though. She was front and center at every appointment, helped us get the nursery together and everything. But still…I was careful to make sure her world remained as close to intact as possible.
“You know,” I said, rising from the chair slowly, my lower back killing me as I tried to act like I was unbothered, “they say practice sometimes helps induce labor so…maybe later. Where’s Ci?”
Kirk met me halfway as I tried exiting the office, “Eating her snack and doing her homework. I came up here to make sure you were all good.”
I slid into his open arms, breathing a sigh of relief when he immediately pulled me into him with a tight grip.
“Just finished up our costumes. Did you get that paint for mine?”
“Babe,” Kirk said, as he leveled me with a stare.
“Doc said I should do some walking.”
“I’m pretty sure she meant a bit of pacing within the confines of our home, love. Not traipsing all over the neighborhood, trick or treating.”
“So, did you get my paint, yes or no?” I pressed sweetly, tipping up on my toes to drop a quick kiss on his mouth.
I should have known that would turn into him taking control of my mouth completely, plying me with slow, tongue lashing kisses that definitely made me want to take him up on his offer of practicing making more little succubi like the one who had planted his or her flag in my uterus currently. We’d decided not to learn the sex of the baby, preferring to obsess over delivering a healthy child rather than obsessing about names and all of the additional stuff while the baby was cooking.
“Hey Auntie Cal…ugh, here you guys go again,” Ciel groaned.
Her presence broke up any of my previously lusty thoughts as I broke out into giggles and pulled back from Kirk.
“Hey Cici Ma, how’s my girl today?”
“I had a great day. Stayed on green all day. Is that my costume?”
“Sure is, lil mama. I was just about to tell Uncle Kirk to go get you so we could do your last fitting. You excited for tomorrow?”
She nodded with a wide grin on her face, “I can’t wait ‘til we go out trick or treatin’. Camari said her mama said they couldn’t do a family costume because it’s too many of them. I’m glad it’s just enough of us.”
I laughed again because my sister in law was right, trying to coordinate something that her entire brood would go for was an undertaking that I definitely would not want to have to do. She was better off letting everyone do their thang individually. Ciel was insistent that we remain one unit and quite frankly, that little girl had me so wrapped around her finger that I would go along with whatever she wanted for as long as she wanted. Since the Langley’s neighbors who usually threw a party for the kids in the neighborhood were out of town this year at Disney, we would just be showing our costumes off around our little part of town. Surprisingly, the idea for our group costume came from Kirk. We were going to be characters from Monsters Inc. Ciel was Boo, Kirk was Sully, and since I had this big ass belly, I was going to be Mike Wazowski – my bump being his oversized eye.
“Come on, let’s make sure this fits you, boo,” I said, leading her over to the fabric draped bench where I’d laid her costume out. She was going for the look when Boo was the little monster in disguise in the silver and light purple contraption cobbled together by Mike and Sully. The outfit we saw Boo in for most of the movie was easily accomplished as she had tons of t-shirts and leggings. I helped Ciel slip on her faux monster costume and my heart damn near skipped a beat at her squeal of delight as she twirled in the mirror taking it all in. Over her head, my eyes locked with Kirk’s as I mouthed, “See…worth it!”
His response was nothing but a smirk and eye roll in return. He thought I spoiled her and maybe I did a little, but Ciel was a special child and she deserved to be made aware of it at every turn. I winced a little, feeling what I now knew not to be a contraction, but this damn baby just digging itself into a more comfortable position and making me uncomfortable as hell in the process. Doc said that if I didn’t go into labor by November first, we’d have to induce, which was fine by me. I was ready for this little sucker to make his or her grand entrance.
[***]
Hours later, after we’d eaten dinner and Ciel was tucked in tight, Kirk and I sat in the living room watching the evening news when our doorbell rang.
“I got it, baby,” Kirk said, rising up with a confused expression on his face that I was sure mirrored my own.
We weren’t expecting anyone, and our family nor friends weren’t the drop by on a whim type. So, I was extremely surprised to see a bubbly Aeryn and shell-shocked Dustin making their way into my living room.
“Hey guys, just in the neighborhood?” I asked.
“Guess what?” Aeryn trilled.
“I…” I started but trailed off into a grimace as the baby shifted and sent what felt like a direct shot to my ribs, “You’re just gonna have to tell me, Aer.”
“We’re pregnant!” she shrieked.
“Are you serious? Oh my god!” I wanted to jump up to celebrate with her, but my movements were much slower than my brain wanted them to be.
Nevertheless, I pulled Aeryn in for as tight a squeeze as my big belly would allow, and squealed, “Congrats, mama!”
She pulled back, beaming, “Now we can have babies who are besties too!”
We embraced again and over my shoulder I saw Kirk bringing Dustin a short, squat glass of some brown liquor or other.
“Baby daddy shook?” I whispered into Aeryn’s ear.
“He thought we’d be honeymooning a bit longer,” she giggled.
She and I broke apart and I sat back on the couch with Aeryn falling in right beside me.
“When’d you find out? How did you know?”
“So many questions. I’d been feeling…off this past week but thought maybe it was just my normal pre-menstrual exhaustion until I sat down trying to recall my last period and couldn’t. Opened up Clue and it told me that I was well past the normal time period of being overdue, so I went and bought a ClearBlue.”
“Are…you sure D’s okay?” I asked, peering over to see him and Kirk embroiled in what looked to be a pretty serious conversation.
Aeryn waved a hand in his general direction, “Meh, he’ll be aight.”
“Aer, I’m so, so happy for you, friend. The both of you,” I gushed.
“It’s unexpected, but I’m thrilled, Cal. Absolutely over the moon.”
October 30, 2019 10:13 pm
Kirk
“Cap, how the fuck am I gonna be a father?” Dustin gritted out, casting furtive glances over to the couch where Cali and Aeryn were sitting deep in conversation.
“Man, it’s an on the job learning type of situation. Hell, you think I was ready to step into these shoes with Ciel when Kyle and Daya passed?”
“That’s different though…you had help, man.”
I shook my head, “Nah, it was me and Baby Blue in the trenches, dawg. Moms was tryna be hands on, but I needed her to step back and let me get acclimated.”
“And you got one that was damn near full grown. Mine finna be fresh outta the…”
“Aye, man!” I broke in.
“I was gonna say womb, man. Fresh outta the womb outchea. You know I don’t really get along with kids kiddingly.”
“That’s not true, Ciel loves Uncle D.”
“She’s the exception, not the rule bro. What if the baby come out with bad vibes?”
I guffawed, “You are wildin’, D. What’s this really about?”
“You know I’ve never…really had a father or father figure in my life to show me what this Dad shit looks like. You grew up with fuckin’ Uncle Phil, so even though you didn’t know what you were doing with Blue, you at least had that example.”
I shook my head, muttering under my breath, “Uncle Phil. Wow, Pops couldn’t even get that Heathcliff Hux comparison.”
“Really, that’s what you’re taking away from this now,” Dustin screeched.
“Bro, you’re really freaking out about this, huh?” I chuckled.
“Uh…yeah, nigga. And you ain’t helping.”
“Aye man, breathe. Let me grab you a drink.”
I left the area in the living room that we were in, going to my bar and hooking him up with a couple fingers of scotch. I’d barely passed him the glass before he drained it, face still looking as white as a ghost.
“D, I got one question.”
He looked up at me, silently.
“When Aeryn first told you that you were going to be a dad, how did you feel?”
“Before the fear?”
I nodded.
“I was geeked, fam. A junior or perhaps a little princess that takes after her mama. And you know no matter what our baby would be cute as hell. Give you and CaliCal a run for your money. But that feeling was short lived, g. All the ways I wouldn’t measure up, crept in faster than Michael Johnson’s gold footed ass in a two hundred.”
“You gotta let that shit go, bro. I’m telling you…it’s gonna be some days where you wonder if you getting any of it right, but the rewards greatly outweigh the risks. And you got a smooth…how far along is she?”
“We’re actually not sure yet…got a trip to the doc lined up in a couple days.”
“Well, let’s say it’s about three months. That gives you six months to cram all you can learn about parenting before your little bundle of joy comes into the world.”
“Man, here you go with this sage advice, Dr. Phil spiel. You ain’t nervous? For whenever Lil Kirk decides he wants his free from his mama’s womb?”
I shook my head, “Nope because I know two things for certain – I will do everything in my power to ensure that my new son or daughter will have everything that they need in life to be healthy, happy, and successful. And my wife is going to go even harder than me. That’s all I need to know that we got this. Do you have that same trust in Aeryn?”
“Implicitly bro. It’s me that’s the uncontrolled variable in this situation.”
I shook my head, “Nah, man. You aren’t. You’re one of the most self-composed and confident cats I know out here. You finna let a fetus have you shook? Damn, you hate to see it.”
Dustin scoffed, “Man, get outta here with that.”
“For real, dawg. For the record, I think you’ll make an incredible father. But you need to talk over your fears with Aeryn – work together to ensure you all will be on the same page with this parenting thing and it’ll be a wrap. The Dustin I know always says it’s impossible to fail, so I know you won’t let your kid down, bruh,” I concluded with a clap to his shoulder.
“If you say so, bruh,” he sighed.
I looked over at Cali and Aeryn over on the couch – Aeryn was going a mile a minute and Cali was trying to keep up, but I could see her lids drooping as she fought to stay engaged.
“Say bruh, I’m happy for y’all, but my lady is about to fall out where she sits. We’ll get up with y’all a little later, yeah?”
“Aight bro. Hey…thanks.”
“Ain’t nothing to thank me for,” I replied, watching him stroll over to get Aeryn and convince her to let us get some shut eye.
Cali tried insisting that she was fine, but I could see the day wearing on her face the more she protested. Seconds later, Dustin and Aeryn were on their way out of the door and I was locking the door behind them before leading Cali upstairs. They’d completely thrown salt in my game, but I couldn’t front on them because welcoming new life into the world was always amazing news. It was also news, however, they could have delivered over the phone so I could have possibly convinced my wife into getting a little more practice in. Sex with Calista had been magnetic from jump, but sex with pregnant, hormone raging Cali had transformed our bedroom in ways I could have never imagined. As soon as she settled into bed onto her side, with a pillow tucked between her knees, she KOd. I slid in right behind her, resting my hands on her belly and pressing a soft kiss onto her neck as I settled in for the night as well.
October 31, 2019 2:45 pm
Kirk
“Baby, you know you don’t have to do this, right?”
I thought my tone was conciliatory but from the glare Cali sent my way, maybe it was more condescending. She was completely adorable though, dressed in bright green fabric from head to toe, with a hole cut out of her shirt to display the big eye on her belly that made the Mike Wazowski costume. Ciel flipped when she saw Cali all done up when we made our way into the house after she’d gotten out of school. The kids had a half day since Halloween also coincided with parent teacher conferences. I’d spent the last seventy-five minutes trying to convince Calista that coming with us to trick or treat wasn’t the best idea, but she was hell bent on coming, despite being supremely uncomfortable. She tried to play off her wincing, but I knew she was in pain from her labored breathing.
“My love, are you going to keep our diece waiting or are we gonna get to it?” Calista gritted out.
I had to smile at the word she and Ciel had come up with the designate Ciel’s relationship to us since we were well beyond the normal aunt/uncle/niece relationship. So, they decided on combining daughter and niece into diece instead of the alternative – naughter, which sounded too much like naughty for anyone to get on board. I blew out a breath, knowing that short of an act of God, nothing would move this willful woman.
“Okay, baby. What you say goes.”
“Oh, here you go with this condescending mess.”
“Blue!” I called out, not even letting myself be baited into this argument that Cali was spoiling for, “Let’s fly, baby girl.”
Ciel came flouncing into the kitchen and I brought up the rear as she and Cali exited our front door. We were a solid three steps out of the door before Cali yelped sharply in pain.
“Uh…Auntie Cali? Maybe you should change, it looks like you wet yourself,” Ciel piped up as we all looked down to see the spreading of darkened neon green taking over Cali’s lower half.
“Calista Marie Langley…” I groaned.
She threw on her most pitiful face as another contraction, now what I knew those winces of pain that she’d been trying to hide were, flowed through her body. I said nothing more, helping Cali down the stairs and into the car. We clearly needed to get to the hospital asap if she was far enough along that her water had finally broken on its own. On the way to the hospital, I called my parents so they could come get Blue since I had no idea how long Calista would be in labor and what I could do to keep her occupied while we were busy birthing a baby. I also made a call to Cali’s doc to give her a heads up that we’d be pulling into the ER pretty soon.
By the time we made it to the hospital, my parents had beaten us to collect Blue and they were all sitting in the waiting room with Cali’s mom, brother, sister in law, and their kids. Cali and I were currently in a delivery room, as she was fully effaced and dilated to eight centimeters. The contractions were coming in good and strong now and with each one Calista called me everything but a child of God as she vowed to never put herself through this pain again to birth one of my big-headed babies. Never mind the fact that the baby had yet to make his or her debut, she kept saying that she felt it in her shundo that this baby was gonna have a moonpie head. My mother had told me that I needed not take anything that Calista said in the throes of labor personally, but I was definitely looking at my head in the mirror, questioning if it was abnormally shaped or oversized.
October 31, 2019 11:47 pm
Calista
After all of the hustle and bustle of today, the room was finally quiet. Between both of our families and various friends dropping in once they’d heard I had the baby; my room had been a hotbed of activity beyond normal visiting hours of the maternity ward. I wasn’t quite sure how any of them had gotten away with lingering for as long as they had – likely a product of Dustin throwing some weight around – but I was glad they were gone. We needed time to ourselves. And so now it was just my little family left – Ciel knocked out on the second bed in the room that I’d somehow managed to have all to myself and Kirk pacing back and forth cradling his namesake as he spoke softly to him. I smiled at the sight of our son in his arms – my baby daddy looked good as hell with that little baby enveloped by his large frame.
“Babe,” I called out softly, garnering Kirk’s attention and gesturing for him to bring our son back toward me.
Kirk Aron Langley II.
He was perfect – all eight pounds, six ounces, and twenty-two inches of him.
He moved slowly, as if he were savoring his time with Deuce already before he needed to hand him over to me. I greedily held out my arms once they were in reach, snuggling closely with my baby boy, inhaling the sweetness of his fresh infant smell, pressing my nose to the downy, dark brown curls that dominated his little head. Just as I pulled back, Deuce opened his eyes appearing to stare right into mine and stealing my entire soul – an item given with no reservation. I’d always heard that the depth of love you felt for your child was unlike any you’d ever feel in life and they told no lies. I was completely smitten, overcome by just how much of my heart so little of a human had already captured in such a short period of time.
I sighed deeply, causing Deuce to stir a little. I should have laid him down in the little bedside bassinette, but I wasn’t ready to let him go quite yet, already obsessed with him. The activity of the day – having a whole ass baby – weighed heavy on my shoulders and I was exhausted, but I didn’t want to miss a moment with him. I snuggled him closer to my bosom, resting my eyes for just a second before I’d hand him off to Kirk to place him in the bassinette. That was the last thing I remembered before awakening the next morning with Kirk trying to keep Ciel quiet to not disturb me. They’d been going back and forth for a few minutes about Kirk letting her hold her brousin by herself, as awareness filtered into my consciousness.
“Just let her try, babe,” I croaked, alerting them that I’d joined them in the land of the awake, “You remember how we practiced, Ci Ma?”
She nodded furiously, then held her arms out for Deuce who was, unsurprisingly, nestled in his daddy’s arms. I’d bet dollars to donuts Kirk had cradled him all night long, already spoiling the boy. Ciel sat up straight, back braced on the couch arms cradled ready for Kirk to lay Deuce in them. Just like we’d practiced with her baby doll, one of her little arms nestled under his neck to support it and the other was braced at the base of his spine. And when she leaned down to nuzzle her nose against his, cooing sweet words to Deuce I was upset that my phone wasn’t in arm’s reach. Luckily, Kirk captured the sweet moment between the two until Deuce got a little fussy. Kirk picked him up from Ciel’s arms and brought him over to me.
“Hey mama’s baby,” I cooed softly.
Kirk leaned down, wrapping the both of us in his embrace, pressing a soft kiss at my temple before leaning down to speak into my ear.
“How you holdin’ up, mama?”
I grinned up at him, “I’m doing just fine, babe.”
“Can you believe we have two kids now? Holy…”
“You better not curse in front of my babies,” I broke in.
“Okay, Mama Bear,” Kirk laughed, “I was gonna say cow, though…”
“Mmmmhmmm…”
So many changes had happened in my life in such a short period of time, but all of them were for the better. In just over a year’s time I’d not only met and married my soulmate, but we had now expanded our family. I was looking forward to the road ahead of us, marveling over how all of the troubles of my past had led to this beautiful, damn near fairytale like ending. Ciel got up from the couch to join us and as I looked over at my little family, my heart skipped a beat.
“Thank you,” I whispered, just barely audible. A brief exhalation to the universe paying homage to all of the positive energy that had been sent my way. It was overwhelming, but oh so deliciously satisfying.
