“Kaden! What did I tell you about the door?” Amy, Josh’s gorgeous sister, yelled from the kitchen, her expression alarmed. She looked the same, maybe even better, than the last time I saw her from afar. I wondered what their parents looked like, seriously. “I’m sorry, he’s going through a front door phase,” Amy said.
“Oh that’s okay, he just melted my heart is all,” I said. She was sautéing peppers on the stove, Josh was nowhere to be seen. I put Kaden down and walked to the kitchen. Amy wiped her hands on a kitchen towel and then gave me a tight hug.
“He has that super power, yeah,” she said. Kaden ran around to us and handed me an action figure—further melting my heart—then ran back to the living room.
“It’s nice to meet you officially, Josh talks a lot about you guys,” I said. Amy smirked.
“Yeah, he’s one of those sappy family men,” she said with affectionate teasing in her tone.
“That’s one of the first things I learned about him,” I said, chuckling. “The food smells good by the way, what are you making?” I asked. I drifted towards the stove.
“Fajitas, I hope you’re good with spice,” she said. “It’s not too bad but I know some people can’t stand even a bit of flavor,” she added.
“I love spice,” I said and hung my purse on the back of a chair at the kitchen table. “How long have you lived in South Florida?” I asked. Amy pursed her lips as she thought back, she turned off the burner under the frying pan and moved it off of the heat.
“Like seven years, now,” she said.
“Have you tried a lot of local foods?” I asked.
“I’m hooked on Jamaican and Haitian food,” she said, “it’s a problem because of all the rice that I eat,” she chuckled.
“Beautiful,” I said, laughing, “I’ll eat two platters of jerk chicken any day, I love spice that much,” I said. Amy nodded, an approving smile on her lips.
“Sounds like my kinda girl,” she said. The little girl in me cheered for that small victory. Randomly, I wondered how old she was—she looked young—but she carried herself as if she was around Josh’s age.
“Naomi,” Josh emerged from his bedroom, looking surprised. “I thought you were going to call or something when you left your place,” he said. He walked over to me and kissed my cheek. I was acutely aware of Amy’s eyes on us.
“Was I supposed to? I must’ve forgotten, I was anxious to get here on time,” I said with a nervous chuckle. Josh smiled at me indulgently and made to take my hand. I realized that I still had Kaden’s action figure.
“Oh, Kaden gave this to me for safekeeping, I guess,” I said.
“No, he does this thing where he’ll lend out his toys so the next time he sees someone, he’ll want to be able to play with them,” Amy explained. “This kid is gonna be such a weirdo, I love him too much,” she said.
Josh and I both laughed. “It’s true, I have a bucket full of his toys here,” Josh said.
“I’m glad he’ll have a little cousin to play with,” Amy said. Josh grinned and looked at me as if he was unsure if I wanted to talk about the pregnancy so soon. But the truth was, Amy was his sister and his only family in the state. She’d be just as involved as my family in our baby’s life.
“Yeah, then he can trade with him or her,” I said. I put Kaden’s action figure in my purse for safekeeping.
“Josh, can you set up the dining table?” Amy asked. He nodded and then left us to set the table in the other room. “So…you know, I don’t want to get too personal but all I’ve gotten was Josh’s side of the story. How’d you guys get here, basically?” she asked.
“Basically?” I raised my brows, trying to figure out how I was going to summarize everything that went on with me and Josh. “We were attracted to each other but I tried to not be attracted to him just because everyone has a crush on Josh. I just want to get my classes over with…then, um…” I shrugged and smiled sheepishly. Amy smirked knowingly and grabbed serving plates out of a cabinet, I helped her transfer the food from the pots.
“It sounds cheesy to say but things just happened out of the blue and then we went with it. Josh wanted to be a lot closer than I wanted to be—than I thought we should be—and the more time we spent together the more I thought…there was no way we’d realistically have a future or continue any further than what we were,” I said. My voice was low because Amy and I both realized how quiet it had gotten in the dining room. Thankfully, Kaden got up and ran, yelling for his uncle, into the dining room. Kaden’s baby voice and Josh’s deep tone drifted into the kitchen.
“That’s when you guys broke up,” Amy murmured, her voice low too.
I nodded, “Yeah, I was also in denial for how I felt about him….” I paused, still unsure if I’d explored that denial enough or come to a conclusion about what I felt for Josh. Did I love him? I asked myself that over and over in my head but had to drown out that voice in order to keep talking. “Then I started throwing up,” I said and chuckled dryly.
“Ah yes, the wonderful first trimester,” Amy said, no doubt remembering her own pregnancy.
“Exactly,” I sighed. “It took me until my sister brought up pregnancy that I realized I hadn’t had my period since Josh and I started dating,” I said. “Then we talked, he freaked out for a couple of days, we talked again and now I feel like we just actually started our relationship, if that makes sense,” I said.
“No, it completely does. You just allowed yourself to be completely open with him. I’m glad,” she said. “He likes you a lot,” she added. I smiled, hearing that from her made me feel warm. It meant that maybe he talked about me to Amy as much as he talked about her to me, like I was an important part of his life. Amy and I put all of the food out on the dining table and we all sat down to eat. Kaden sat on Josh’s lap and took two strips of steak, one in each fist, and started chowing down.
“So, how bad is your morning sickness?” Amy asked. I took a tortilla and spread some sour cream and guacamole on it then added some peppers and steak.
“I’d say it’s at a solid five right now. I throw up at least once a day but it’s not too bad. It doesn’t knock me out unless I haven’t gotten enough sleep or something,” I said.