Page 27 of Our Time

With the promises of seeing each other soon, everyone else slowly begins to trickle out for the night. I look around our apartment littered with tossed paper and boxes of new things. With only a few months before the twins are here, I realize suddenly that our apartment is small. We’re about to have two extra bodies in this place and sometimes it feels cramped with just the two of us.

“Baby?”

“Yes, Ben?”

“Do you think we should look into buying a house?”

Ryder’s face breaks out into a wide smile. “Oh my god, I thought you’d never ask.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

RYDER

“Happy removal day!”

Ben lets out a deep sigh that makes me crack a smile. “Fine. You can call it removal day. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.” He might be stern but I can see the excitement in his eyes. We’re meeting our babies today and I couldn’t be happier.

Instead of waiting to go into labor, my doctor and I decided it was safest to have a planned C-section. Ben stays beside me during the entire process. He holds my hand as they give me my epidural. He whispers soft words as they put up the divider between my head and my belly. He looks hilariously adorable in his scrubs when they take me to the operating room.

“You’re gonna do amazing,” he tells me, leaning down and kissing my forehead.

“Thanks. I’m working like super, super hard right now, Ben. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my life.”

Ben snorts, shaking his head at me. “Do you have any idea how much I fucking love you?”

“I have an idea or two,” I murmur, smiling up at my mate. The sound of a buzzer makes me pause. “What the fuck?”

A nurse’s voice comes from the other side of the curtain. “We just have to shave this area before we make the incision.”

“Oh my god, Ben. They’re shaving my pubes! I grew those out and now all that work is for nothing!” After quitting Studio C, I decided I needed a change. When I was on camera, I always made sure I was completely smooth down there, so now that I’m no longer doing any adult films, I grew my pubes out. They were so cute and curly and now they’regone. I groan.

The nurse chuckles from behind the curtain but I look up at Ben with a pout. “It’s okay, Ryder. I have no doubt you can grow them back out again.”

“I was smooth for so long,” I lament. “I was so proud of my bush, Ben!”

“It was a lovely bush,” he tells me seriously, his cheeks pinkening. God, he’s adorable.

“Okay, we’re all ready to get started,” the nurse tells us as the surgeon walks in. “Let’s get these babies delivered.”

I lay back and close my eyes. Everything below the screen is completely numb and I have no idea what’s going on to be honest. All I know is that I lay here and eventually I’ll be gifted with two beautiful babies.

“Alright, that’s one,” the surgeon says. I look up at Ben who’s staring to the side. He’s seeing our child for the first time and I’m seeing him become a dad before my eyes. His face is achingly soft, his eyes welling up with tears. “Firstborn is a little girl.”

“They’re taking her over to the scale to measure and weigh her,” Ben says to me, his voice shaky with emotion. “She’s beautiful, baby. You did such a good job making her.”

“You helped,” I tell him with a grin. A moment later the surgeon is speaking again.

“And baby number two is out. Another girl! Congrats, dads.”

“Oh my god. Our entire group have all had girls,” I say with a wide smile. “The next generation of empowered women.”

“They’re gonna move mountains if we have anything to say about it,” Ben says, leaning down and kissing my face. “They’re gonna stitch you up and then you’ll be all good to go. You did great, Ryder.”

Ben’s praise washes over me and soothes the ache that’s threatening to split me open, wanting to see our girls.

“Do you wanna hold your firstborn, Dad?”

Ben looks over at me and I nod, wanting him to bring her over here. He reaches out and takes our firstborn. “She's perfect,” Ben whispers, staring down at our daughter. He steps over and crouches so that I can see her and he’s right, sheisperfect.

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