Page 6 of How is This My Life? (Shorts)

Elise’s POV

It has been one hell of a year!

We did the paternity test, and it came back as his, like I knew it would.

He signed the paperwork, stating he intended to sign away his parental rights.

I was happy that he still intended to go through with it.

Once it was all confirmed, we had discussed the possibility of moving away to a whole new state, possibly on the other side of the country, getting a fresh start.

When I was around five months pregnant, we, Denise, Aaron, and I, settled on where to move, and picked the other side of town.

Aaron found a complex with five townhouses altogether that had two units, side by side, that were available so we could live right next to each other.

I couldn’t keep staying in their guestroom.

Not when the baby was coming soon, and they needed their own space again.

Aaron and Denise said they were okay with the move because they wanted the baby and I close, just in case, because a single woman with a baby, living alone, was not a safe idea.

Denise threw me a surprise baby shower when I was about seven months along.

She got a bunch of the people we worked with at the hospital to come, and some of our mutual friends from college.

It was so great seeing everyone, and talking with friends I felt like I hadn’t seen in years.

I had decided a while ago that I wanted to keep the gender a surprise and went neutral with everything.

It was crazy going through themes and clothes, and names.

I had Aaron and Denise sit down with me to go through all of our options.

We ultimately decided to go with a 'You are my Sunshine' themed nursery, which she used for the baby shower theme, so the decorations she used could be reused in the nursery. I picked that theme because I wanted it to be bright and happy, no matter what I ended up having. We all loved the baby so much already that it didn’t matter what I was having.

Picking out everything, painting, and decorating the nursery took weeks to finish after we moved in.

Aaron was a huge help in putting in the shelves that were too tall for Denise and me to install.

It was the middle of the night when I went into labor.

I woke up, thinking I had to pee, but when I got up, it looked like I’d peed myself.

I called Denise and told her I thought my waters broke.

She and Aaron rushed over, calling into work letting them know they wouldn’t be coming in.

It was still early spring, so it was a bit chilly outside, but they helped me to the car, put my bags inside, and got me to the hospital.

Aaron waited in the waiting room while Denise coached me through the whole thing, and my little girl was born at three-forty-eight in the morning, weighing seven pounds, ten ounces, at twenty and a half inches long.

We took her home, and we’d all been in love since before we laid eyes on her, but once we did…

it was like she stole our hearts and we were all wrapped around her tiny fingers.

Denise found out not long after I gave birth that they were expecting, so Aaron finally convinced her to make the march down the aisle.

They had been engaged for six years now anyway.

They wanted to be fully done with all the schooling they wanted to do and be settled in their 'grown-up jobs' before they tied the knot.

They also decided to try talking to their families one more time, kind of as a Hail Mary, last attempt, to let them know about the baby and the upcoming wedding.

Both sides reiterated that they wanted nothing to do with them or their baby, although they used much more colorful language.

Even Denise’s mom, who used to love me, condemned me for supporting them and not staying with Trevor.

We promptly ended the call and blocked them on all forms of communication.

I really didn’t understand their families.

All this because they were with someone who wasn't the same skin color.

Made no damn sense, love was love. They were happy and loved each other so much.

I had never seen a couple more in love and dedicated to each other than these two.

Poor Denise, being super hormonal thanks to the early stages of the pregnancy, was an absolute, inconsolable wreck for about three days.

She didn’t get out of bed; she cried and texted for comfort foods, only to barely pick at them.

We were starting to get concerned, and then on the fourth day, the anger set in.

Denise and Aaron were getting married in two weeks, so this had been the sprint, instead of a marathon, wedding planning usually was. There was less than four months from the day they decided until the day they said ‘I do’, to throw a wedding together.

So. Much. Fun. For. Me. It was a race to get it all done and to keep Denise’s stress level to a minimum. She couldn’t handle the stress of planning everything, so it became my job to schedule everything around her schedule.

They found out last week, with the genetic testing, they’re having a boy.

My little lady, Tennley, was already three months old and the definition of perfect.

She had this creamy soft skin, and bright blue eyes, with beautiful dark chocolate hair like mine.

The only parts of her that resembled Trevor were her nose and chin; they were all his.

The day she was born, Aaron called Trevor.

He showed up, didn’t look at me, the bassinet, or anyone but Miss Cunningham.

Tawnya wasn’t with him this time.

Trevor signed over his rights without even asking how the baby or I were or if the baby was a boy or a girl.

He looked a little better than the last time he’d been at the lawyers, a little stronger, a tad bit more color to his face.

I simply couldn’t bring myself to care about him anymore.

Not after he signed his name and walked out the door for the last time without even a glance backwards.

This was the man whom I had once hoped to share these moments with, but we’d be happy in my hopes.

We would have planned it all together; I wouldn’t have needed to plan any of this with my best friends, because he would have lovingly been there.

Watching him walk out, I realized something.

That wasn’t the man I’d fallen in love with.

But he wasn’t the man who had agreed to sign away his daughter all those months ago, either.

Not entirely, at least. I didn’t cry. I didn’t feel anything as he walked away from us, except for relief that it just needed a judge to sign off on it, and it was all official.

I was finally over him and, frankly, exhausted from just giving birth, and didn’t have the energy to waste on him.

Birth was enough of a process. A long thirty-six-hour process, where I had to be cut open because she had a big head.

Thankfully, we were in the final stages of planning the wedding, and living next to each other meant that we had easy access to each other and all planning information.

Each side of the townhouses had three bedrooms, one on the first floor and two on the second floor, with full baths on both floors, and a half bath on the first floor for guests.

We set up wedding headquarters in the bedroom on the first floor of their townhouse because we had to keep her dress in mine, so Aaron wasn’t tempted to peek. He was a very involved groom.

Aaron gave me the heads-up last week that his best friend Adrian was coming into town for the wedding.

He had been away serving in the military since he was seventeen years old and had recently been medically discharged.

He was supposed to be arriving today, and I had offered to let him stay in my townhouse for the next couple of weeks until the wedding.

He and I had talked a few times since Aaron mentioned he’d be coming into town, trying to coordinate with the wedding plans. He seemed like a very nice guy.

After the wedding, I think he planned on living around here since, according to Aaron, ‘he’s my brotha from anotha motha!’ And they weren’t being separated again. Aaron said he’d missed too much of his best friend’s life already.

They were so cute in their little bromance.