PregBNB

PregBNB

DAY 1

Following an unpleasant and protracted break-up, I scheduled a three-day vacation at an AirBNB in the middle of nowhere. It had seclusion, a pool, a long path through the surrounding forest, and no Wi-Fi or cell service. It was perfect, a true escape from the everyday life that currently felt so thoroughly soured. When I pulled up to the modest vacation house I was surprised to see a woman standing at the front door. The rental had a keypad for a locking mechanism: I didn't need to interact with any other humans in order to gain entry to the house, which was something I very much appreciated. I had no idea who this person I had had no reason to expect was, and I wasn't thrilled with the situation I was facing when I exited my car.

"Hello?" I said loudly as I began my approach. She turned around and showed me another surprise: she was quite heavily pregnant.

"Oh, thank God!" she said, shoulders relaxing and hand rubbing her bump idly. "Are you the owner? My code isn't working." This was rather confusing.

I shook my head as I stopped my approach 6 or 7 feet away from this stranger. "No, I'm not the owner. I rented this place through AirBNB for a few days."

"What?!" she said immediately. "I rented this place! My code's not working, though..." I stepped up to the keypad, took out my phone to see the email I'd opened prior to losing reception. The lock audibly disengaged once I'd entered the 6-digit code. "What the hell? So..."

"Here," I offered her my phone, showing the rental details had me arriving right when I had and staying for two nights.

She read it two or three times and handed it back to me, taking out her own phone. Similarly to my planning ahead, she had the confirmation email open already. "Fuck. Fuck!" Handing me the phone, she put her head down into her palms in frustration. Her confirmation email showed she'd shown up a week late: she'd confused the dates and missed her reserved time entirely. "I'm sorry...I screwed it up. Shit! All right, I guess that's it for me, the place is obviously yours. Great vacation, Anna!" She laughed at herself derisively.

"Tom," I introduced myself, extending my hand. "Nice to meet you, Anna. Listen, I'm here alone, I don't have any big plans, I know there are two bedrooms..." I was feeling half-generous and half-eager to spend a few days with an attractive pregnant woman, a specific subset of people to whom I happened to be highly attracted. Not that I thought anything sexual would happen with her or anything: it was as simple as enjoying the company of expectant mothers. "Why don't you stay, too?" I offered.

She looked taken aback. "Well...I...don't know you...And I came here to be alone, which seems to be your situation, too...I really don't want to put you out, or to put myself into a potentially dangerous situation. No offense or anything; a lady's just gotta be careful, you know?"

"No offense taken," I reassured her. "So, there's more than enough room for both of us to get plenty of alone time, I'm sure. As for the safety thing...I don't know what to do about that. How can I prove I'm not a creep or anything? Without cell or internet service you can't really look me up. Could we talk a little; maybe I'll come off as harmless?"

Silence ensued for well over a minute as Anna considered her options. "Okay," she said finally. "Let's have a chat. Sit at the bonfire?" We sat facing each other across the soot-filled fire pit a dozen yards from the front door. Her two-handed grip on her belly struck me as protective, and understandably so. "What's your deal?" she asked.

"Well, I just got out of a three-year relationship. It was pretty messy, and I wanted a few days to get my head straight in a nice, neutral environment. I'm a lawyer, which, now that I say it out loud, absolutely does not disqualify me from being a creep." She laughed. "I'm not really sure exactly what to say to make you comfortable enough to stay, except that it'd be my pleasure to do a small kindness for someone and I think we can very easily stay out of each other's way. How about you? Pregnant women aren't the most threatening demographic, but I should probably make sure I'm safe, too."

She smiled for a few seconds before speaking. "Okay. Well, obviously, I'm pregnant. I'm 8 months along, to be precise. The trip I planned and fucked up was supposed to be my 'babymoon,' which is kind of like a honeymoon for a pregnant person, just to enjoy some of your final time before the responsibilities of parenthood kick in. I'm single, hence my being alone for the trip. I have a boring office job. Had a boring office job, rather. People start looking at you differently when you're single and knocked-up, and I needed to not be around people constantly judging me. I just..." I could see tears welling up in her eyes. "I just wanted a few days of not being stared at or murmured about, of being by myself and not worrying about other people."

I nodded, hoping my empathy came through on my face. "That's a tough situation. I'm sorry you probably can't realize the completely alone aspect of your plan, but I can stay as out of your way as possible. And I won't judge you for a second, don't worry about that at all." I paused. "Well, I don't think you're a creep or a murderer or anything, so you're absolutely welcome to stay here. Do you want to see my credit card with a picture of a puppy on it? Would that be endearing enough for you to trust me?"

This produced full-on laughter from her. "I will never pass up the opportunity to see a picture of a puppy." I took the aforementioned card out of my wallet and handed it to her. She took in the image and smiled. "Okay, the puppy's really cute. That settles it, for whatever reason. I don't know, I'm probably being stupid and reckless, but I really need this fucking vacation. Housemates, Tom?" She extended her hand.

I smiled and met her hand for a shake. "Housemates, Anna. You can even have first choice of bedroom."

We proceeded to settle ourselves in our respective bedrooms. I stayed in my designated space for a while, unpacking and reading. This continued for maybe an hour before there was a knock on my door. I pulled the door open for Anna, who was holding a Jenga box in her hand. "Hey, I hope I'm not bothering you, but they have a few board games and I thought it might be fun to play?" I agreed, and together we headed to the kitchen table and set up the precarious tower that is Jenga. I took the first turn, pulling a middle piece from about halfway up the tower. When she leaned in for her first turn, Anna's belly bumped the table and knocked the entire thing over. She apologized profusely and complained about the bump getting in the way of just about everything at this point. I found it kinda funny, kinda cute, and kinda hot; for her sake, I just tried to impart that it wasn't a big deal at all.

Aggravated with the board game avenue of activity, Anna next suggested we play a game of 8-ball on the pool table in the basement. I had a feeling we might encounter similar issues with her expectant form, but I didn't want to say anything and thought maybe she knew better than me. She really didn't, though. Her arms weren't long enough to comfortably rest past her protruding belly and on the table in order to take a steady shot. Giving it her all, though, she didn't give in to the frustration until her fourth or fifth turn. Then she threw her cue on the floor and yelled "Fuck pregnancy!"

"Do you want to watch a little TV?" I asked, thinking it might be time for me to suggest an activity following her repeated difficulties. She liked the idea, so we sat in the living room and flipped through the five channels available at this isolated location. We settled on a soap opera over a field of exclusively bad choices, figuring it would at least be entertaining as camp. Sitting on the couch with a cushion between us, we got into a rhythm of cracking jokes about the acting and writing, cracking each other up over and over. It was a ton of fun; she felt like a good friend after this far more successful activity. I was enjoying her company more and more.

I couldn't keep my eyes off her all day: her gravid physique was majorly doing it for me. By the time we retired to our bedrooms it felt like both of us had pretty thoroughly abandoned the whole "solo vacation" idea and were in this together. That made me very happy indeed. I wanted to soak up as much time with this lovely preggo as I possibly could. Hell of a lot more exciting than spending three days reading alone.

DAY 2

"Good morning! What should we today?" Anna was sitting at the kitchen table when I got out of my room at about 8 AM, apparently having risen early enough to already be peppy by the time I arose. I was very happy with her question, as it cemented the in-this-together situation I'd been hoping we achieved the previous day. More time with Anna was exactly what I wanted, and I sensed I'd get plenty of it on this single full day we'd have together.

"I'm not sure," I replied sleepily. "How long have you been up?"

"Since 5:30." She slapped her belly with both hands, the sound surprisingly loud. "This thing does not make for good sleep, both getting kicked from your insides-wise and bulky bump-wise. I probably get 4 hours on a good night."

"Well, you're remarkably energetic given the circumstances. Sorry if it takes me a minute to wake up fully."

"Oh, no problem, I've been not-pregnant before, too. I apologize if I'm obnoxiously alert. I'm sure I'll be exhausted in an hour or so. It all comes in waves!"

I laughed. "Sounds like so much fun." I sat across from her at the table. "Do you like being pregnant, overall? Like, despite the many hardships?"

She only had to consider the question for a moment before answering. "Yeah, absolutely. Even with all the public shame of the being single part, it's pretty fucking magical to be growing a human inside me. Probably the majority of the physical changes and whatnot are unpleasant, but it feels completely worth it. And I imagine it'll feel 100 times more worth it once I'm holding my baby."

I nodded slowly and thoughtfully, considering whether to share something rather strange then deciding to just go for it. "I've always been jealous of women's reproductive abilities, to be sort of embarrassingly honest. It's such an amazing power. I really envy the experience. If male pregnancy became possible I'd be first in line."

Anna was quiet, her eyes not meeting mine. Awkwardness suffused the room. "Yeah, that would be really cool," she said quietly. "I think I'm going to take a shower, unless you were planning to?"

"No, no, go ahead." Shit. I said too much, it got uncomfortable as hell, and Anna doesn't seem to want to talk to this weirdo anymore. I'd gone out on a limb expressing my rather odd ideas, and it had not gone my way. I wondered if I'd be able to regain the level of comfort we'd seemed to have established prior to mere minutes ago. Back in my bedroom, I laid down with my head buried in a pillow to wallow in self-pity for a few minutes and collect myself.

A few minutes later (my head still in the pillow) I heard the shower stop, the bathroom door open, Anna's bedroom door close. She emerged shortly thereafter and knocked softly on my door jamb before popping her head in. I lifted my head to meet her eyes. "Hey...I think I'm going to take a dip in the pool, get some of this weight off me with the buoyancy. You can join me, if you want." It was a pretty tepid invitation, especially considering her markedly unexcited tone of voice. I wanted to patch up what I'd fucked up between us, though, so I agreed to join her in a few minutes. Hopefully we could have more positive interactions and get back to being buddies.

I was out at the pool in my bathing suit 10 minutes later. She was floating in the deep end in a disappointingly-not-revealing one-piece swimsuit. The pool's concrete stairs led me into the shallow end, where I stayed so as not to approach Anna too closely and potentially continue to make things awkward. "The water's nice and warm, huh?" she shouted over to me.

"Yeah, it's really comfortable," I replied. We were back to some disappointingly shallow conversation, it seemed. "Have you been swimming a lot? A prenatal class or anything?" I attempted to get something a tad more substantial going.

"No, I haven't," she said rather flatly. "This is my first time swimming during the pregnancy, actually. It's pretty nice." We swam mostly in silence for a solid 30 minutes that felt like a painfully drawn-out four hours. We exchanged occasional pleasantries and dull remarks about the weather and other boring topics. I was getting pretty depressed at how this time with a pregnant woman that I'd been so lucky to happen upon was being wasted so thoroughly.

Anna left the pool to lay down for a bit; I continued to tread water for a few more minutes, trying desperately and failing miserably to come up with a way to fix our newly-awkward situation. Eventually I gave up and rested in my bedroom again (door closed this time), unable to pay attention to the book I attempted to read. I rested in silent disappointment for about an hour before Anna knocked twice and opened the door. "Let's walk the forest trail out back," she said, her tone leaving no room for argument. I got up and put my shoes on, not seeing another option besides obeying her.

Our walk was silent for the 15 minutes or so it took to reach a small, picturesque pond. "I'm kinda tired: can we sit so I can put my legs in?" I agreed, and we sat a few feet apart on the bank of the pond, both with our legs cooling in the water. Things were silent for another minute or two, then Anna abruptly began speaking rather rapidly.

"I'm really sorry things got so awkward, Tom. I was being judgmental and unfair to you, I think. I've never heard a man talk about wishing he could experience pregnancy, and I had a knee-jerk reaction to it. New ideas can seem weird at first, but the more time we spent in awkward silence the more time I had to think about what you said and how I automatically reacted. It's a sweet thought, honestly. Unusual, sure, but you seem to really respect pregnancy as an empowering journey, and I can't argue with that. I should be complimented, actually. And I think I am now, after having to think about it for a while. Does that make any sense? I feel like I'm rambling..."

I inched toward her and placed my hand over hers. "Yes, it makes sense. And you're not rambling. Thank you for saying all that, it means a lot. I really thought I'd fucked up and made things super awkward for us for the rest of our time here. I just felt comfortable with you so quickly, like I could share some of my weirder opinions. Maybe I did it too soon, I don't know. I find pregnant women fascinating and inspiring, so you bring out some excited feelings in me. I may have gotten carried away."

She shook her head emphatically. "No, you did nothing wrong. At all. I think what you said was really cool, and the fact that you felt you could share it is really awesome. Let's be comfortable around each other again, okay?"

"Sure, okay. That would be really great."

She pulled her t-shirt up to reveal her bump, took my hand and placed it on the side. "If you find pregnancy so interesting I'm sure you'd appreciate a peek and a rub, right?" I nodded and smiled. I rubbed her bump gently, applying just a bit of pressure as I moved my palm in concentric circles, feeling both the softness of the skin and outer layer of fat and the inner firmness of her uterus. It felt amazing. It looked amazing, too, smooth with just a few stretch marks, a prominent linea nigra, and an adorable outie belly button.

"I love getting my bump rubbed," she said contentedly, head rolled back and eyes closed, a blissed-out posture. We both seemed to be really enjoying this, and I had no intention of stopping anytime soon. Neither of us even had a watch on; time seemed to stand perfectly still in the middle of the forest, the atmosphere silent save for the wind occasionally rustling leaves and animals producing their usual background chorus. We only got up because both of us had our legs go numb in the cool water. We even held hands on the walk back to the house.

After watching some TV and sharing a cheap frozen pizza for dinner, we decided to take advantage of the fire pit. I got the bonfire going just as the sun was setting and sat right next to Anna; she took my hand in hers and held it firmly. "It's beautiful. This all is really nice," she said quietly.

"It really is, isn't it? I can't believe I wanted to be here alone. I guess I couldn't have predicted a confused preggo might join me, but still..."

She laughed. "We're an unpredictable lot, the expectant. In all seriousness, though, I'm truly grateful to you. Single pregnant chicks aren't met with a ton of positive attention, and you've been exceedingly sweet and understanding. I really can't tell you how much I appreciate it."

I had a question I'd wondered about in the past regarding unattached preggos. "Speaking of positive attention, as a single woman, have you been hit on much during your pregnancy? Or, any luck dating while pregnant?"

"I've been hit on a little, haven't dated whatsoever since I started showing. Like, not even a hook-up. Certain guys will approach you when you're visibly pregnant, though, that's for sure. They're usually weird; might as well be wearing hats that say 'Pregnancy Fetishist.' Which...I'm sorry, I've kinda gotten the impression that you might identify as one of them, I didn't mean to insult you." I shook my head, relieved not to be counted as a creep by Anna. "You're not creepy at all, you're really sweet and extremely respectful of my pregnancy. Maybe even 'reverent' could be the right word?"

I nodded, never having self-applied that particular word but instantly identifying with it. "Yeah, that works, you're right about me. I think for me it's not just a fetish, but also a fascination. Like, you can strip all my sexual feelings from it and I still want to talk to a pregnant woman all damn day about what she's going through. It's the most interesting thing in the world to me. But then, yeah, there's the sexual aspect for sure. Nothing I'm more into than a pregnant belly."

She leaned towards me, chin resting thoughtfully in her hand. "Why are you into it, if you don't mind my asking? Not just the belly, though that too, but pregnancy in general? What about it turns you on?"

"Everything about it turns me on. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it's a tiny, tiny exaggeration. I'm not personally into the birth part, but that may be the only aspect of it that doesn't do it for me. As for the belly? It's the best curve you'll ever have, the most feminine thing in the world! It's shaped kinda like a breast but keeps getting bigger and bigger! Pregnancy comes with so many swelling curves, that's a huge part of it for me sexually. The idea that a pregnant woman is off-limits because she has a partner. The indisputable evidence that she's had sex. The loss of bodily autonomy, perversely enough. And the magic, mother nature and/or fertility goddess feminine power of it all! I'm telling you, just about everything you could think of that's related to pregnancy, I'm there."

Anna laughed. "I'm sorry! I don't mean to laugh at you, it's just...you're so enthusiastic about it that you're improving my opinion of my condition in real-time. I mean, I won't lie: curves-wise, I've been thinking it's hot all along. It does wonders in a lot of places a girl can really appreciate. And I'll tell you this that you probably already know: the horny pregnancy hormones thing is 100% real. I can't believe I'm telling you this, but despite not having had sex while pregnant, I've had at least three times as many orgasms in the past 8 months as in any other 8 month period in my life." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I am constantly in the bathroom rubbing one out." She covered her mouth. "Oh my God, I shouldn't be saying this shit, I'm so sorry. You know, it's getting pretty late, I think I'm going to go in and get to bed..."