The Bloomer Legacy: 5.8 Perfect

~ Liv’s POV ~

Aunt Yenn and Ethan have been really good to me. They’ve been really supportive, and I feel a lot calmer about the baby coming thanks to them.

Some days I really look forward to it, think about baby names, and wonder if he or she will look more like me or like Malakai… Other days, I wish I could slow down time, because I know my life will never be the same again. But I guess that’s kind of the point in life. Change. Going forward. That kinda thing.

I got myself a job in catering to help out. I don’t really know squat about cooking, but luckily my role pretty much just involves plopping a chunk of food one people’s plates and smiling.

Still, I need to learn more about cooking and baking if I want to get anywhere in this career… and it’ll come in handy once I’m a mom too. I mean, moms are really good cooks, right? Well, other people’s moms are. I don’t really remember my mom ever making much more than a garden salad.

Speaking of my mom, she showed up at the house the other day, surrounded by children. It was weird. I watched her through the window and she just stood there, looking at them run around, like she was thinking about something.

I almost thought she was going to leave, but she did end up knocking on our door eventually.

She walked in and prickled her nose: “What’s that smell?”

“I’m making brownies,” I replied. “Well, trying to… the first batch is in the oven already. I guess it does smell a bit burnt. I’ll take them out…”

She gave me a funny look, and I half-expected her to say that I was fat and shouldn’t be making brownies. But what she actually said was:

“Oh. I’d love to try one!”

Huh?

“That tastes very good,” she said. It didn’t. I could hear the brownie make a cracking noise as she was chewing. Yep, I most definitely burnt them.

“Thanks mom,” I smiled at her gratefully. “You don’t have to finish it. I know you’re, err on a diet, right?”

“Yes! As a matter of fact I am,” she dropped the brownie with visible relief. “But they are really tasty.”

I was so perplexed by her behaviour I took a huge bite out of one of the brownies. Took a lot of willpower not to spit that thing out.

“You look good, Olivia,” she said stiffly. “And… I thought about it, and I think it’s going to be fun to be a grandma. A really stylish one, of course.”

I nearly choked on that brownie. I finally realised what was going on. This was her way of saying she was sorry.

“I bet there’s a magazine like that out there. Stylish Grandma,” I joked. She laughed a little, to be polite.

I knew we were never going to be extremely close. But wow, she was trying really hard. That was more than I’d ever hoped for.

When she left, I decided to cook dinner. I thought I was getting pretty good at this grown-up thing. Getting on with my parents, starting a career… maybe one day, I’d be able to become a chef, and open a restaurant!

It was that moment the sauce started overflowing all over the stove. The restaurant thing might not happen for a while…

***

I got home from work feeling rubbish. It was like the baby was playing rodeo inside me. This could only mean one thing…

“Aunt Yenn!”

She rushed into the room.

“I’m 90% sure the baby wants out,” I told her.

She suddenly got this look of determination on her face. She’d been preparing for this moment, I realised.

“Let’s get you to the hospital to see if we can be a 100% sure, shall we?”

All of the medical equipment looked really intimidating. I was so nervous I was making small talk with the doctor during the entire surgery:

“So doctor Kreutzinger, what made you want to become a doctor?”

“Well, I love people, so I wanted to make sure I do my part to help keep them as healthy as possible,” the doctor smiled. “But you shouldn’t be talking, you’re putting an extra strain on yourself…”

The thing was, if I stopped talking, I’d have to focus on being in a weird giant tube and having things poke into me. I didn’t like that thought.

“I imagine your profession must be really rewarding,” I ignored her suggestion.

Her face lit up; “It is! Especially in moments like these… meet your baby boy!”

This little bundle came straight out of me. It was the most surreal thing I’d ever seen in my life. I tilted my neck to see it a bit better, but I couldn’t really see.

“Hi little one,” aunt Yenn lifted the baby gently. “You want to hold him Liv?”

Of course I wanted to hold him! And I really wanted to get out of that giant tube.

“You should pace yourself a bit more, Miss Bloomer,” the doctor warned me. “You’ve just had a major procedure…”

“Don’t worry, I feel great!” I told the doctor quickly.

And I did. Well, no. Not great. I felt amazing.

***

“Who’s momma’s little boy?”

“Hey,” Malakai interrupted. “He can’t possibly answer that without getting in trouble with one of us!”

I laughed: “Yup, I’m sure that’s the only reason why he isn’t talking yet…”

“I wish you had called me when you went into labour,” he grew more serious. “I would have come to the hospital with you!”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t really thinking straight. I just wanted aunt Yenn. But isn’t he perfect? And I named him what we agreed on. Montgomery.”

“Monty for short,” Malakai nodded. “And yeah. He’s totally perfect.”

In the next few days, Monty had a lot of visitors. The whole family wanted to meet him, of course.

My dad looked really proud. I could see him pinch a tissue from the Kleenex box. He asked for a moment alone with the baby, but I bet he mainly didn’t want anyone see him well up. It wouldn’t go with the big tough body builder image.

Of course, as soon as Monty started crying, he called me back into the room. It’s safe to say he hadn’t changed any of my diapers when I was a baby….

(Plumbob’s Note: I only just noticed that Monty has experienced the same odd cross-dressing bug we had with Peter. I think I need baby outfit default replacements!)