19. Gigi
CHAPTER 19
Gigi
“Whoa.” Kai enters what will be the nursery with a challenging look on his face. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Building the crib.” I shrug. “Was I too loud? Sorry. Sorry. I didn’t know you were home.”
“Just got back from campus. Why are you doing all this?” His eyes scan the room, probably judging all the clutter in here created by yours truly.
“Uhmm, because I’m thirty-one weeks pregnant and it’s about time I start nesting?”
“I mean why isn’t Luke doing any of this? I thought he’s Richie Rich now. He has all the time in the world to do this shit.”
Because I’m paying for my sins, and he’s doing everything in his power to avoid me and not be at home. It has been almost two weeks since our fight about Zach, and Luke and I aren’t back to our usual selves yet. I don’t tell Kai the truth, though. I’ve learned my lesson. Luke likes to keep family things private. For me, sharing with my friends comes so naturally. I forget that Luke is not wired like me. “He’s busy.”
When Kai sees what I’m doing, he grunts. “You’re fighting a losing battle, Gigi.” He kneels next to me and picks up something else from Luke’s toolbox. “You can’t use a hammer to assemble these things. You need a screwdriver.” Oooh, that makes sense . Taking the two pieces of wood from my hands, he does God’s work. “I got it.”
We both work in tandem. Kai builds one of the two cribs we need to have ready for A and B while I fold all the used baby clothes from June that I just washed and put another load in the machine. He doesn’t pry about why Luke and I are barely spending any time together anymore. If it was bad before the fight, it’s horrible now.
Congratulations, Gigi. You've made a wonderful mess of everything.
“I’m going on a date,” he announces once he’s done. I turn around and marvel at the finished work. A place for either A or B to sleep in. I just need to wait for the mattress to arrive and the whole setup is complete. “I’ll do the other one once I’m back.”
“You don’t have to. Thanks for this, Kai. I owe you one.” My vision is blurred from all the tears flowing courtesy of my hormones. I quickly brush them away and give him a grateful smile. “A date, huh?”
“Yeah.” He grins as he stands up. “Time for me to move on, don’t you think? Met this girl on Tinder a week ago. Before you say anything, I know Zoey is going on dates, too. We’re good. We’re friends.”
I open my eyes to the already dark sky. My ears perk up when I hear a rustling sound on the other side of the bedroom door. Still in a sleepy haze, my feet drag me to the kitchen to get myself a glass of water.
I hear them before I see them. Muffled conversations mentioning my name inside the nursery, barely audible with the sound of what I now know is an electric screwdriver. The both of them must think I’m at work if they’re talking about me this freely. Kai already left when my manager called to tell me I shouldn’t come in to work tonight, giving me the lunch shift for tomorrow instead. He’s been doing this a lot lately. I’m starting to think it has something to do with me being pregnant. He always picks the prettier waitresses to work during the dinner shift.
“I’m not being an asshole, Kai,” I hear Luke say, his tone defensive.
“Dude, you only come here to sleep. You think I missed that? Your pregnant wife was here trying to screw together parts with a hammer.”
My cheeks turn red at Kai’s words. I couldn’t read the manual for shit. When I couldn’t identify which tool was the screwdriver, I thought I could just hammer everything together and assemble the crib that way.
“I was going to do this anyway.” Luke’s tone is rising. “Just butt out of it.”
“I think she’s depressed.” Luke doesn’t respond to that. Maybe he’s nodding his head. Maybe he’s shaking it. I don’t know. “All she does is sleep and go to work at the restaurant.”
“She hangs out with Zach.” I don’t miss the hint of sarcasm coming out of Luke. “That’s what pregnant women do, man. They get tired and they sleep.”
“Luke,” Kai sighs. “I’m telling you this as your friend. That girl is bored out of her fucking mind. You working all the time doesn’t help.”
Luke scoffs at that comment, the sound making my heart sink. “I’m doing the best I can for my family, man. Someone needs to think about the future. If the only sin I’m guilty of is trying to provide fucking stability for her and my kids, then it sounds like Gigi’s not in a bad position to be in right now.”
I guess he’s right…
“What happened to the two of you?” Kai presses on. “You were all lovey-dovey and then suddenly, boom. You’re on the Gigi hate train.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’m not on the Gigi hate train.” The chill in his voice says otherwise.
With trembling hands, I quietly open the door to the bedroom and go back to bed.
Congratulations, Gigi. You've made a wonderful mess of everything.