The Good Life

*Jack*

Since today was the day of our baby shower, Cassadee and my mom kicked Alex and me out so they could decorate our house. It started at six pm so we had almost two hours to kill before it started. Alex didn’t want to go out to eat because there was going to be tons of food at the shower. So we just went to a park around the corner from our house to just walk.

“When our princess is born we can push her around the park in her stroller.” I told Alex.

“It’s going to be colder when she’s born. It’s October and it’s kind of freezing now.” He complained.

“Eh that’s true. We’ll have to wait til it warms up again in March.” I said.

“Maybe she’ll know how to walk by then!” Alex said hopefully. I almost didn’t want to tell him.
“Babe, she won’t know how to walk at four months.” I said.

“March sounds way more than four months away. I wasn’t thinking.” He chuckled.

“She’ll be able to lift her head by then.” I said.

“That’s it?” He asked throwing his hands in the air.

“Well she’ll be able to smile and recognize our voice.” It frustrated me that we still had to say ‘she’ when referring to our daughter because she still didn’t have a name.

“I want her to talk to me.” He whined.

“Well you’re going to have to wait until she’s almost one.” I laughed. “So since it’s October have you thought of any names?” I asked Alex, who was looking over his shoulder at some girl. I would have choked him, but it didn’t look like he was checking her out.

“Taylor?” He said quietly.

“Yeah I like the name Taylor too.” I agreed, but he shook his head.

“No no the girl over there, her name is Taylor.” He pointed to a girl a few feet away from us. She had short brown hair and cute dimples. She was pushing a stroller with a cute little baby inside.

“Who is she?” I asked Alex as he tried to hide behind a tree so she wouldn’t see him.

“Let’s just say she and I were friends with benefits in college and now she hates me.” He said and I frowned feeling myself become a little jealous.

“Why does she hate you?” I asked.

“Uh she wanted a serious relationship and I didn’t. So I stopped talking to her so she would leave me alone about it.” He said and I scoffed.

“You’re an asshole, do you know that?” I shook my head at him.

“I was nineteen!!” He said as if that would make it all better.

“Oh whatever! And get up, I look like an idiot talking to a tree.” I said, but he stayed crouched behind the tree.

“No it’ll be awkward if she sees me.” He cried. “Let’s just go home.”

“We still have thirty minutes left.” I informed him.

“Okay can go anywhere that’s not here?” He said and I laughed at how desperate he was to leave. “This isn’t funny!” He pouted.

“I’m sorry but you got yourself into this mess.” I chuckled.

“Come on.” He grabbed my hand and started to pull me in a direction going away from that Taylor girl, but it was no use she still saw us.

“Alex?” She called out and Alex stopped moving. I felt his hands tense in mine as he turned us around to face her.

“Oh god Taylor is that you? I didn’t even see you standing there.” He lied and I tried my best not to laugh.

“You are so fake.” I whispered and he glared at me before turning back to her.

“Long time no see, Alex.” She said a little bitterly.

“Yeah…uh how have you been?” Alex asked her.

“Fine.” She answered quickly and turned to me. “Hi it’s nice to meet you! I’m Taylor, but you can call me Tay.” She stuck her hand out for me to shake. Clearly trying to ignore Alex.

“Hi I’m Jack.” I smiled. “And who is this cutie?” I let go of Alex’s hand and gestured to the baby in the stroller.

“This is my nephew, Kellin.” She tickled his side and he let out a little giggle.

“Aw he’s so cute! And his eyes are gorgeous!” That baby had the biggest bluest eye’s I’d ever seen.
“He has my sister’s boyfriend’s eyes!” She exclaimed.

“All the girls are going to love him.” I said and Tay laughed.

“Yeah I’ll have to teach him not to play with girls emotions so he doesn’t end up becoming an asshole.” She glared at Alex and he looked down. I know she was still angry, but it did kind of bother me to see her make Alex feel bad.

“Yeah I was just telling Alex he’s going to have to teach our daughter to stay away from guys like that.” I said to let her know Alex and I were dating.

“You two have a daughter?” She asked confused.

“We’re adopting. She’s going to be born in November.” I said.

“That’s so cute! We should have a play date some time. Kellin is only four months old so they’ll be able to play together.” She exclaimed. Besides her hating Alex, she seemed like a pretty nice girl.

“That sounds like a great idea.” I said and she took out her phone and added my number and texted me so I could have her number.

“Text me when she’s born and ready to make friends.” Tay laughed.

“Of course! It was nice to meet you Tay!” I waved.

“Nice to meet you too, Jack.” She said. “Alex.” She stated, her way of saying bye.

“Bye Taylor.” Alex sighed and she nodded and kept walking.

“She seemed so nice.” I said and Alex glared at me. “What?” I asked.

“You just had to become friends with her.” He complained.

“Hey! She hates you not me.” I joked.

“Well hating me is like hating you, because you love me.” He said.

"I don’t understand your logic. Now let’s go. Cass just texted me and said we can come back.” I said.

We walked back to our house and saw tons of cars parked outside which meant everyone was here already. Our front yard had decorations all over. There were pink and white balloons on the mailbox, a sign in our yard the shape of a stroller that said it’s a girl, and pink and white streamers across the door. There were even more decorations inside the house. More balloons all over, glass bowls full of pink candy on the coffee table and streamers hanging on the wall. Everyone was in the living room talking amongst themselves until Alex and I walked in. Our family and friends came up to hug and greet us.

“What do you two think?” My mom asked Alex and I about the party.

“You and Cass did a great job, Joyce!” Alex said and I agreed.

“Thank you! Cassadee is so creative.” My mom said. Before we could continue that conversation, Alex’s dad and Dr. Fey walked in holding presents for us. Yes we still called her Dr. Fey for some reason.

“Dad over here!” Alex yelled to get Peter’s attention.

“Hey!” Peter said as he hugged Alex and then turned to hug me.

“Peter, Dr.- I mean Tina, this is my mother, Joyce. And mom this is Alex’s father, Peter…and his… wife Tina.” I introduced our parents in the most awkward way possible.

“Nice to meet you both. I met you before… at parent teacher night when our boys were in high school.” My mom said to Peter.

“I can’t really remember because I met a lot of parents at those things, but it’s nice to meet you again.” Peter said and mom my laughed. Alex and I walked away to the kitchen and left our parents to talk.

“There are the parents to be!” David yelled standing next to his once again boyfriend, Kendell. They were back together of course. David sat his wine glass down and he came over to hug Alex and me both. “I hope you don’t mind, but I brought a plus one.” He said and I laughed.

“I guess since you didn’t have to RSVP it’s okay.” I joked and waved to Kendell.

“Have you seen the amount of presents you guys have to open?” David asked.

“No, is there a lot?” I said eager to go look.

“Yes there’s like millions!” He exaggerated.

“Oh shut up there isn’t that many.” I hit David’s arm. Alex whispered in my ear that he was going to go hang out with his friends and I let him go.

“You’ll see them later. Is your sister coming?” David asked.

“No I didn’t even bother trying to tell her about it.” I told him.

“Yeah don’t worry about it. Let’s go get you some wine.” He said as he handed me a glass.

***

*Alex*

I left Jack and David to go talk with my friends. Rian was standing with Cass, Alan, Oli, Hannah, and Austin. Those were the only people I cared to invite. The rest of the people there were some of Jack’s co-workers, Vicki and Emilio from across the street, and a few other neighbors Jack invited to come. I was surprised Hannah decided to come with Oli, but apparently she and Lisa aren’t talking to each other, so she’s probably here to take pictures and rub it in Lisa’s face.

“Here have a beer, dad.” Oli smirked as he handed me a beer from a cooler. I almost grimaced at the name, because I still wasn’t used to the name.

“Oh god I’m going to have to get used to that.” I said and they all laughed.

“She probably won’t be able to speak for a year so you have time.” Rian said.

“If she calls you dad then what will she call Jack?” Austin asked.

“Uh we actually haven’t thought of that yet. Shit! We are so behind.” I stressed.

“No you’re not. Look she can call you Dad and call Jack, Papa.” Cass said.

“Yeah I like that. I’ll ask Jack later on what he thinks about it.” I said.

“Buuuuuut she still doesn’t have a name.” Oli said and I sighed.

“I know I know. We still can’t think of one.” I ran my fingers through my hair.

“There’s no name that you’ve heard and thought ‘wow that’s a beautiful name’?” Cass asked me.

“Well there’s this one, but I don’t know if Jack would be okay with it.” I played with my fingers nervously.

“What is it?” They all shouted at me.

“…Isabella. But I don’t know because it’s too close to my mother’s name and Jack might think I can’t handle that. But her nickname could be Izzy so we would rarely call her Isabella.” I took a deep breath.

“Oh Alex I love it! You should have told me.” Jack exclaimed behind me. Of course he would be behind me.

“I was just afraid you’d say no.” I turned around to face him.

“That’s why you’ve been turning down every other name I’ve said.” He laughed.

“Yeah. So you’re okay with that name?” I asked.

“Yes! Isabella Barakat-Gaskarth!” He smiled and everyone in the kitchen awed.

“Is Barakat her middle name?” Oli asked.

“No she’ll have two last names.” Hannah told him.

“Yeah I feel like it’ll be overwhelming for her to have a middle name with two last names.” Jack chuckled.

“Yeah and those are two hard to spell last names.” I added.

“I’ll paint her name above her crib tomorrow!” Cass said excitedly.

“You guys came up with a name?” Joyce asked as she walked into the kitchen.

“Yeah we’re going to name her Isabella!” Jack exclaimed.

“It’s so beautiful! It sounds like a name for a princess.” She said.

“Well we’re going to treat her like royalty.” Jack said jokingly…I hope.

We spent the rest of the time playing games for prizes and eating food and dessert. It was finally time to open the dozens of gifts everyone brought for us. We set up a registry at different stores so everyone would know what we needed, but it looks like we got way more than we needed.

The first gift was from Vicki and Emilio and it was a basket full of medical supplies like a thermometer, medicine droppers, and other medicines Isabella might need. The next gift was from Oli and Hannah and it was a basket full of baby lotion, shampoo, diaper rash cream, a pack of wipes, a 60 count of diapers, and a cute towel that looked like a duck. Rian and Cass brought a pink swing set that probably cost an arm and a leg. David and his boyfriend brought a pink and black high chair. My dad and Dr. Fey brought a black stroller, a baby bath tub, and more soap and baby lotion. Jack’s mom showed us her gift earlier, it was a really nice baby monitor that came with a camera so we could see Izzy while we were in our room.

The rest of the gifts were onesies, bottles, formula, blankets, diaper bags, wipes, and more diapers. Almost every gift we open came with diapers since babies apparently went through like 90 a day. Some of the parents that lived around the neighborhood brought us gift cards to restaurants so we could have date nights some nights, but I don’t think Jack would be caught dead without Izzy anytime soon.

When we finished opening our…well Izzy’s gifts Jack said he had a present for us in the garage. He had been yelling at me for the past two days telling me not to go in there so I was super curious to see what it was. I, unlike Jack, like to be surprised so it wasn’t hard for me to control myself and not go look. We all followed behind him to the garage and he opened the door to reveal a brand new silver Audi Q5 SUV.

“It’s our family car! We needed one since both of our cars aren’t really for children.” Jack said.

“I didn’t think about that. You should have told me so I could help out.” I said. Since Jack basically pays all the bills I have extra money to help out more.

“No this is my gift to us. To our family!” he said as he unlocked the car so everyone could look inside of it.

“Thank you.” I hugged him and he hugged me back tightly.

We got everything we asked for on the registry. The only items Jack and I had left to buy were a car seat, a playpen, and a changing table. We wanted to buy something’s ourselves so we didn’t feel like slackers.

We only have a month left to go.

Notes

I love the name Isabella! We might get to meet her next chapter... maybe.