A Dream I Had

It’s been a month or so since Fae had spent time with Joey, and she was already starting to show. She was pregnant, and was waiting for her and Joey to see each other again to tell him. Fae felt that the best way to tell Joey that she was pregnant was in person, and not over the phone or text. But the more time they spent apart, the more she started to grow. And the longer he was unaware.

It had been another month of the two talking over text and on the phone, when Joey showed up at Fae’s apartment. An apartment the two of them actually shared, but Joey worked a lot, so he stayed with his parents most nights because their house was closer to his workplace.

“Baby?” Joey called.

Fae was startled, she was wearing a night gown, as she hadn’t planned to go out that day, but she got excited when she heard her partners voice.

“I’m in here!” She called back to him.

They only saw each other for long enough to exchange one kiss before Joey spoke.

“Can I take you out tonight? Dress up, and let’s go on a date!” Joey said, walking to the door.

Before Fae could even answer, Joey’s phone rang.

“Hello? Uh huh, uh huh, alright. Well, I can’t stay very long but I can come do that. Alright Gerald, I’ll see you soon.” Joey said before hanging up the phone.

Fae’s heart sank into her stomach. Gerald was Joey’s boss, and she knew that when Gerald needed him, Joey would drop anything he was doing to go help.

“So I guess that means we aren’t going out?” Fae asked, the pain audible in her voice.

“Oh baby, no. I said I’m gonna take you out, so I’m gonna take you out.” Joey said, grabbing Fae by the face softly and kissing her on the forehead. “Get ready, I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

Fae nodded, closing the door behind Joey.

A couple hours went by and Fae was ready. She picked out the cutest, short, flowy strawberry dress, one that really highlighted her pregnant belly, and the cutest boots to go with it. When the time came for Joey to come pick her up, she had heard nothing from him.

“Joey? Are we going out still?” She asked him in a text.

“I don’t know baby, shits real bad at the shop right now. I’m sorry.” He replied back.

Fae sat there, confused and feeling betrayed.

“But you said we would? I haven’t seen you or spent any time with you in months. What could be more important than this??” Fae asked, feeling frustrated.

“Nothing is more important than you, I promise.”

Fae rolled her eyes.

“Well obviously a lot of things are, especially since you haven’t even noticed.” She said, hinting at her pregnancy.

“Noticed what?”

“Nothing. Forget it. I hope work is more fun than spending time with me.” Fae said before she muted his text message notifications.

She had decided that she was going to go out either way that day, whether it was with Joey or not. And so she did.

One of her very good friends, Cooper, had been kept in the loop about everything, and told her that he was going to take her to a local pond for them to go fishing. So Fae changed into something that she doesn’t care about getting ruined, and went outside to where Cooper was waiting for her.

“So, he’s still at work?” Cooper asked when Fae got into his car.

“Yeah. Work. He didn’t even notice that I’m pregnant earlier when he was home for the first time in two months.” Fae said, obviously ranting to her friend. “Let’s just go catch some fish and get my mind off of this.”

“Alright.” Cooper said, driving to the pond.

When the two got to the pond, they saw someone there that caught them off guard. Gerald.

“Gerald?” Fae said, climbing out of Cooper’s car. “I thought there was trouble at the shop, why are you here?”

“What? I mean there was but it was resolved pretty much as soon as Joey got there. Then he found whatever he could to do.” Gerald said, looking Fae up and down. Not realizing that she was pregnant for a moment. “Woah woah woah, you’re pregnant?! Does Joey know?”

Fae shrugged. “I haven’t spent any quality time with him in months, and we were supposed to go out tonight and he would have seen me then and I would tell him, but he bailed on me.” Fae said, holding back tears.

“Oh man, is he in for one hell of a surprise. You have no idea how happy he’ll be.” Gerald said, smiling at Fae.

“Well, he has no idea how sad he’s making me.” Fae said, shrugging as Cooper handed her her fishing rod, and she casted it out to escape the conversation.

“I told him I’d be here, maybe he’ll show up and we can trap him.” Gerald said, shrugging his shoulders.

Fae nodded. To her, seeing him was all she cared about. She was pregnant and basically alone, all she wanted was for him to hug her. A silent tear fell from her eye and rolled down her cheek as she set the hook on a giant catfish.

The fish almost pulled her into the water, it took both Gerald and Cooper to keep her from going in. Both of which are large, muscular men.

“Holy shit, Fae, how’d you manage that!” Cooper yelled, trying to hold to rod up so that Gerald could reel it in.

The whole ordeal was over and done with in an instant, the catfish weighed more than Fae did, and was almost as big as her.

“Damn Fae, good job! I’m proud of you.” Gerald said, patting her gently on the back.

“Well, y’all did all the work. I’m good for nothing.” Fae said, shrugging. “Can someone take a picture of me with it before we let it go?” Fae asked, wiping more tears from her eyes.

Cooper nodded and took multiple pictures for her, hoping that the variety and options would make her feel less bad about herself.

Just then, Joey pulled up in his truck. He saw Fae, looked at her belly, then immediately felt like a total douche bag. And even worse so when he saw the tears coming from her eyes.

“Oh baby, I’m so sorry.” Joey said, walking over to her and cupping her face in his hands, wiping her tears with his hands. “I had no idea the damage I was causing.” He said, kissing her softly on the forehead.

“It’s okay baby, just don’t do it again and all is forgiven.” Fae said, but not before she hugged him with everything she had.