The Good Life

Alex

"A boy!! Aww I'm going to have a great-grandson!" Joyce exclaimed. Her taxi dropped her off a few minutes ago and Jack couldn't wait to tell her the good news.

"Yeah I'm so excited!" Jack chuckled.

We took Izzy to the doctor two days ago and the doctor told us the gender of the baby. Jack was excited to hear it, but I was indifferent. A baby is a baby. The only difference was the color of the decorations we were going to put up at baby shower Jack was throwing her in a week or two.

"Have you set up his room yet?" Joyce asked Jack.

"No we just bought the furniture so far. I was waiting for you so we could decorate it together." He told her.

Watching them get so excited for the baby was giving me a headache. I went to the kitchen and grabbed a beer. I was planning on sitting on the couch, drinking, and watching TV for the rest of my day. I sat down and put my feet on the coffee table finally able to relax.

"Alex can you come put the crib together?" Jack asked and I groaned.

"But I'm so warm and comfortable right now. I don't feel like moving." I complained.

"Please babe! It won't take longer than an hour." He told me.

"Ugh that's forever. Can I do it later, like next week sometime?"

"Never mind I can just ask Emilio to come over and do it." He joked and I glared at him. I got up without another word and went to the baby's room.

The box for the crib was sitting on the floor waiting for me. Jack and I put together the other furniture a few days ago. We had nothing better to do over this summer break. I took the pieces out of the box and stared at them. I wished I could pay someone to do this for me.

"What are you doing?" Izzy asked as she walked in the room.

"I'm putting together a crib for your baby." I told her.

"Oh sorry. I can ask Mike to come over and help you if you want." She said.

"Why do you and you dad keep threatening me with the Fuentes family?" I sighed and she chuckled.

"No I was being serious. Mike is really nice, he always checks on me when he can. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind helping." She said and I rolled my eyes.

"He's just doing that for Vic."

"Well it's still pretty nice of him."

"Yeah sure." I mumbled. I don't understand how we hung out with them or were actually friends with them before.

"Lex you haven't even started yet!" Jack scolded me as he and Joyce walked in the room.

"I took all of the pieces out of the box, that's a start!" I argued.

"Can you please have something done by the time we get back?" He asked.

"Where are you going?"

"To PoshTots to find bedding and potential decorations." He said and I raised an eyebrow at him.

“PoshTots? You mean the store that sells baby decorations for thousands of dollars?”

“That’s such an exaggeration.” He rolled his eyes.

“I don’t think that store has anything under a thousand dollars. We didn’t spend that much on Izzy’s room.”

“This is different.” He said stubbornly.

“How?”

“It just is.”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t go overboard.” Joyce chuckled.

“It’s harder than you think.” I joked and Jack rolled his eyes.

“You just worry about this crib. Make sure it’s up by the time we get back, Cinderella.” He said and I glared at him.

"I'll try." I mumbled.

"Do you want to help us pick out decorations, Izzy?" Jack asked her.

"Nah you're doing a great job so far." She told him. She was lucky to have someone like Jack who enjoyed doing things like this, so she wouldn’t have to do any of it.

"Okay. We'll be back." He leaned down and kissed me. He and Joyce left and I didn't attempt to touch the crib. I drunk from my beer as I stared at it hoping it would put itself together.

"Maybe you should call Uncle Rian to come help you fix it?" Izzy suggested.

"No no I'll do it. Just let me lay here for a minute." I laid back on the floor and shut my eyes.

I woke up sometime later to someone kicking my leg. I thought it was Jack so I quickly sat up apologizing.

"I'm so sorry! I fell asleep!" I said and Rian chuckled.

"Apology accepted." He said as he took out the instructions for the crib.

"Oh God, I thought you were Jack." I yawned. “What are you doing here?"

"Izzy asked me to come over and put the crib together before Jack got home and beat your sorry ass." He joked.

"Yeah thanks because I'm definitely not in the mood to do this."

"It's no problem. I needed to get out of the house anyways." He sighed.

"Don't tell me you and Cass are having problems." I said.

"No, her parents are visiting. Remember I told you they were coming, at Jack's birthday party."

"Oh yeah. That must be a pain in the ass."

"It is. I feel like I can't do anything in my own home. Her mom complains about every single thing, it drives me crazy." He explained.

"Well feel free to stop by here any time you need a break." I laughed.

"Isn't Jack's mom staying with you guys for a little bit?"

"Yeah but Joyce is cool. She usually only complains if we haven't eaten the food she cooks us. Plus every time she visits she cleans the house and does our laundry for us. She's literally the best mother-in-law."

"Oh lucky you." He said sarcastically.

"I really did get lucky. If Jack's mom was anything like Cassadee's I don't think I would be able to be civil with her."

"I try to avoid her at all cost. I pretty much don't leave the bed room unless it's time to eat." He sighed.

"Rian that's so depressing." I laughed. "Definitely come over if you need a break."

"Thanks, I will." He nodded. He sat the pieces to the crib down and we just ended up talking to each other.

"Have you talked to Austin today?" He asked.

"No not since Jack's party. Why?"

"He called yesterday to vent about Alan. He said Alan stopped by the house a few days ago begging him to take him back, but Aus told him no. Then he said the next morning his car windows were smashed out." He told me.

"Wow that's crazy." I said.

"Yeah I didn't believe it. I can't believe that people actually do crazy things like that when someone rejected them."

"I can because that asshole, Tyler, went crazy when Jack rejected him." I reminded him.

"Yeah that did happen." He nodded.

I was about to speak again when I heard the front door open. Jack was back and Rian and I hadn't even really touched the crib. It was basically in the same position it was in when Jack left.

"Shit." I panicked and Rian tried to look over the instructions really quick.

We both picked up pieces and tried to figure out what they went to but it was too late. Jack was standing at the door way with a disappointed look on his face.

"It's not what it looks like." I said and he shook his head at me.

"Unbelievable." He stated.

"Jack it's my fault. I came over and distracted him from working on it." Rian said taking the blame for me. "But if you give us one hour I promise we'll have it perfectly put together."

"Okay. Thanks Rian." He said and left back downstairs.

I turned to Rian and exhaled in relief. I didn't feel like getting a lecture from a Jack about not listening.

"Thank you so much." I told him.

"No problem. But let's put this thing together before he comes back." He chuckled.

***

Rian and I had finished putting together the crib and he had left. I was sitting in bed with Jack now, we were just lying in bed. We weren't going to go to sleep anytime soon. Since it was summer we usually stayed up until two or three am talking or watching TV.

"You know what would be a great reward for me putting together the crib?" I asked Jack and started kissing his neck.

"What?" He giggled.

"You." I whispered.

"Hmm no."

"No?!? Why not??"

"Because you didn't listen the first time I asked you to do it." He said and I rolled my eyes and pulled him on top of me.

"But it got finished. I think that should account for something."

"I told you thank you."

"That's not good enough." I complained and he kissed me.

"It's more than enough. Plus your grandson will thank you after he sleeps in it." He said and I groaned and rolled from him. Hearing the words grandson and grandpa made me feel old. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to be a grandpa." I complained.

"Alex it's just a title. It doesn't mean you're old or anything. You're not even in your fifties."

"I know but it still makes me feel old. Who wants to be called grandpa at my age?"

"What if he calls you something else, like peepa?!" He suggested.

"Jack I would rather die than be called peepa." I said and he laughed.

"What about G-pa?"

"No."

"Granpop?"

"No Jack."

"Gramps?" He giggled.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?"

"Only a little because of how annoyed you are."

"What's he going to call you?" I asked.

"Papa, like Izzy does." He said and I rolled my eyes.

"Well he can just call me Alex." I said and Jack laughed harder.

"No come on don't be like that. The name doesn't really matter. You can be his cool young hip grandpa."

"Putting all those adjectives in front of grandpa doesn't change the fact that I'm still a grandpa." I told him.

"No I just meant it won't be as bad as you think it will." He said and I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I guess Pops doesn't seem so bad." I mumbled.

"It isn't! You can be his Pops!" He exclaimed and I smiled.

"Fine."

"You know I'm starting to find older men really attractive." He said, trying to make me feel better.

"Really?" I asked, playing along.

"Yeah." He said seductively.

"Well in that case, I'm going to go get a pair of dentures and a cane to look even sexier for you." I joked and he rolled his eyes.

"You always have to ruin the mood don't you?" He giggled and pulled my face to kiss him.

Notes

Aw Alex is kind of warming up to the idea of being a Grandpa.

Sorry the chapters are slow and fillers. School has been kicking my butt, but it always gets like this towards the end of the semester. The next few chapters should be better!

*Sorry this is kind of late, my internet was down for a few hours.*