All For Baby Ch. 02

Please be patient with me and my writing, I'm trying to get somewhere with this story which is a little sad. My editor is a great author/editor. It's my writing that's taking leap. Thank you for reading my work and giving me constructive criticism.

After her landlord left, Sheila felt a void in her heart. The cluelessness of Mrs. Downy worried her. The woman was wise beyond her years but she couldn't pin point the fact she and Mike could be more than friends.

Taking the key to his apartment, she sat on the bed observing the sharp curves of the metal which would help her open his door, closing the door of her past forever. Was she ready to start again with her best friend or keep holding the past accountable for staying single and childless?

She thought about Mike feeling like a third wheel all this time. He must've thought wrong when she denied it. Yet something about it pained her.

And then there was Chris' memory plastered all over the apartment. She didn't want to let go of the apartment she owned, in spite of the fact Chris had moved in with her.

They had short-lived a lot of happy times. Although he refused the idea of having kids, she thought their relationship would last forever.It would've lasted forever,Sheila had thought after his death.

Thinking about the what-ifs of life also made her go back to that fateful day.

What if....she'd been there. If she'd been in bed with him, she could've noticed when his heart had stopped, when his breathing had seized instead of him dying of Sudden Death Syndrome, alone.

Tears poured down her face, they had argued that night. Bringing Mike into the argument about the friends he would hang out with. She was surprised when Chris thought she and Mike had something going on between them, when in reality nothing was happening.

She shivered when her imagination took the best of her, wondering if she would've been there for him, in his bed, how she would've reacted to his unpreventable death; all she could've done was to scream, cry and call 911.

"Chris?" Sheila would've opened her sleepy eyes and shaken him.

"Chris, Chris, Chris!" Getting up from the bed, she would've ran to the other side where Chris lay. Her heart would've never beaten any faster.

"Oh my God, Chris!" She would've kept screaming as she saw the love of her life lying on the bed, unresponsive to her calls.

If she'd been there wouldn't change the fact Chris would've died in his sleep. It was a rare case when healthy people like him died suddenly and without warning, but it'd happened to him. Sheila shook her head, a year had passed and she deserved to move on.

Now, she was going to be living with Mike, but she wanted to make sure he'd be fine with every single step they might need to take for a guaranteed pregnancy.

* * * *

"Boy or girl?"

"Hmmm?"

"Boy or girl?"

An angel beamed in the middle of her room, waiting for Sheila's response. He wanted to know or so it seemed her answer, if she wanted her firstborn to be a boy or a girl. And if so what good will it come of it?

"I don't know, I have yet to ask sweet Mickey. Although I wouldn't mind a surprising discovery after I give birth to our sweet little baby." Sheila chuckled, "why do you want to know-- Angel or whatever your name is? You do look awfully familiar."

"Neither my name nor what I look like is important." The angel was now shaking her. "Just remember Sheila, whatever you do, don't mess this up!"

"What do you mean? Mickey and I have an agreement."

The angel let her go. "Just remember what I've told you when you do everything for this baby."

* * * *

When Sheila woke up, crying. She was still in her apartment and it seemed that no matter how much strength she gained to move on, she managed it to lose it every time. She didn't know what she would do if people didn't believe Mike and her could actually make a family together. Nevertheless live with him and feel good about it.

Had her emotions and fears triggered the dream? It'd already been established that Chris' death wasn't her fault.

"Boy or girl? Over and out." She heard someone say. "Now Sheila, you are thinking too much. What do you want, boy or girl? Over and out."

"Mom?" Sheila found her walky-talky under the bed and wondered if her mother heard everything that'd happened with Mickey for the couple of months they'd been sleeping together. Since she'd decided to live alone despite Chris' death making it hard for her, her family had worried in letting her mourn alone. When her sister Lauren had bought her and her mother walky-talkies, it was a way of letting her be alone and still be able to speak to her or cry out for help any time she need it the most.

"No, silly. Mom stopped this childish thing since Mickey came to your rescue. This is your sister! Remember me? I bought you two these damn things. That's the only reason I'll stop saying over and out."

"Yes, they are childish," Sheila laughed. "But...it helped me so much to get rid of a lot of things even if I wanted to be alone all this time. "

Nothing was said by her sister. Somehow her silence admitted that some things were not really over. "I'll call you."

"Wait, Lauren!"

The communication was cut off and Sheila guessed it right. Her sister Lauren had turned off her walky-talky.

When her phone rang, she ran to answer it and was even more surprised when her sister was on the other end.

"Sheila, what are you doing to yourself? It's like I don't know you anymore."

"I'm confused."

"Of course you are. Don't think I'm not aware of what you're doing. You don't visit us anymore and you keep away from your family, Mrs. Downy is not a relative of yours. If it wasn't for me getting into things I shouldn't be, I'd have never known about you and Mickey moving in together. If you haven't noticed, we always knew about Mickey and you wanting to have a baby so why would you keep something like that from me?"

"I just don't want any problems with Chris' family; his mother was awfully rude about Mickey and I being so close after his death. She thought I was waiting for something to happen to Chris to get with him."

"Well, that's stupid! Nobody could have foreseen his death."

Sheila agreed. But then her dream was weird enough to give her chills when remembering it. And then her sister had asked her the same question she'd been asked in her dream.Boy or girl?

"I don't know what I want! A boy or a girl? You'd think I'd have my life figured out by now...but there's been a change of plans, Lauren. I'm scared."

At the last admittance of fear, Sheila almost fell to her knees. Obviously her life wasn't back to normal yet.

"Never mind what anybody thinks, Sheila, it's your life. Go live it to the fullest. I'm surprised you're not at his apartment already!"

Her sister was right. She should have been at Mickey's apartment moments after her landlord had left. Maybe Mrs. Downy had woken up the fear in her, at least her words hadn't been comforting about Mike and her making a great couple.

"I'm surprised I still listen to what everyone else thinks but me."

"Atta girl." It was all her sister said.