Changes Ch 14
“So where are we going Donna?” CJ asked.
“You’ll see in a minute.”
“Okay.”
Donna opened the door and they found Carol, Ginger,
Bonnie, Margaret, and Mrs. Landingham in the room.
There were a bunch of presents sitting on the table.
“Surprise.” Carol said. “We decided to throw you a
surprise baby shower.”
“Thanks so much. You guys are great.” CJ said.
“Well, we couldn’t let your last day go by without
doing something special for you.” Margaret said.
“Come and sit down. You should start opening
everything, since we all have to go back to work
soon.” Mrs Landingham said.
CJ sat down on the couch and opened the presents.
Donna had bought a pink dress. Carol a tiny pair of
white shoes. Ginger had bought a white dress with a
matching bonnnet. Margaret had gotten a yellow dress.
From Mrs. Landingham there was a white crocheted
blanket.
“I started making that just after you told all of us
you were pregnant. I hope you like it.”
“I love it.”
“We’ll help you carry everything back to your office.
We should all be getting back to work.” Mrs.
Landingham said.
“That’s okay. I’ll help her.” Toby said from the
doorway.
He sat down on the couch beside her. “I don’t think
we’ll have to buy her many clothes for awhile.”
“No, neither do I. Mrs. Landingham made the blanket
herself.”
“She did?”
“Yes.”
“There’s something else for you.” He said taking a
small package from his pocket.
“You didn’t have to get me anything else. In fact, I
think you’ve gotten me too much already.” She said,
fingering the necklace around her neck.
“Just open it.”
“Okay.” She took the package from him and opened it.
She found a charm bracelet. The charm on the
bracelet was a little baby shoe. “That’s her
birthstone?”
“Yes.”
“You buy me too many things.” She said.
“I don’t buy you enough things.” Toby replied and
kissed her softly on the lips. “We should take these
things back to your office.”
“Okay.”
Toby started to put the gifts back in their boxes.
CJ twisted the bracelet around on her wrist. Toby
watched her as he was putting the things in their
boxes, he smiled to himself as he watched her. She
looked up and caught him watching her.
“Toby, you do know how much I love you?”
Toby sat down on the couch beside her. “What brought
that up?”
“I don’t know.”
He reached over and touched her cheek. “You show me
how much you love me everyday. I love you more than
you will ever know.”
CJ sighed and rested her forehead against his. “I
guess we should go back to work.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CJ glanced around her office. In less than an hour she
was going home. The next time she came back, the baby
would be a few months old, and everything would be
over with. Hopefully hopefully everything would be
fine.
“Can I come in?” Danny asked as he knocked on her
open door.
“Yeah, Danny, come in.”
“How are you?”
“Okay.”
“That’s good. Today’s your last day isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Well, I have something for you and the baby.” Danny
said handing a package to her.
“Thank you.” CJ said as she took the package. She
opened it and found a small pink bib. “You didn’t
have to do anything.”
“I know, but I wanted to.”
“Thank you.” CJ said.
“You're welcome.”
“CJ, I hope everything will be okay.”
“Thanks Danny.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CJ laughed when she heard the phone ringing. “Hello,
Toby.” She said as she picked it up.
“How did you know it was me?” He asked.
“You have a distinctive ring. Plus it’s been ten
minutes, so it was time for you to call.”
“How are you?”
“The same as I have been the last fifty times you
called, fine.”
“I don’t like leaving you there alone.”
“I know but I’m fine.”
“Okay.”
“I guess I’ll talk to you again in ten minutes.”
“CJ.”
“I will. You will call me again in ten minutes.”
“I will?”
“You have a pattern, you’re calling every ten
minutes.”
“I’ll see you when I get home.”
“Okay.” CJ laughed. “Bye.”
“Bye.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The apartment was dark when Toby got home. When he
had last talked to CJ she had told him she was
planning to take a nap. He assumed she was in the
bedroom, and went looking for her in there. She was
asleep with a book laying beside her on the bed. He
picked the book up, and saw it was one of the
pregnancy books she had bought months earlier. She
had a pen placed towards the end of it. He opened it
up to see what she had been reading, and saw it was a
list of baby names. She had circled the names she
liked. He smiled as he saw what she had marked. He
agreed with her on most of the names, but there were a
few he didn’t particularly care for. She also had not
marked a few names he liked. He picked the pen up,
and begun to mark the names he liked. About fifteen
minutes later CJ woke up.
“When did you get home?” She asked.
“About twenty minutes ago.”
“I see you’re looking at the book.” She said and
begun to sit up.
Yes I was looking at the book.” Toby then he sat
the book on the nightstand, and helped CJ to sit up.
After she was sitting he placed the pillows against
the small of her back.
“Thank you.” She said quietly. “You know, I feel like
a beached whale when I’m laying down.”
“I don’t think you do. In fact, you look very
beautiful to me.”
“You really should borrow my glasses.” She said
picking her glasses up from the nightstand and handing
them to him.
“I’m serious.”
“So, am I.”
“I think that our daughter should know that Mommy is
being very silly and not believing Daddy when he’s
being serious.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then.” CJ laughed. “I’ll have to say that
Mommy does actually believe what Daddy is saying. She
just likes to tease him.”
“You like to tease me?”
“Yes, you hadn’t noticed that before?”
“Yes, I had noticed that.”
“Good.” CJ said. “You were looking at the names in
the book?”
“Yeah. We only have six weeks so we should chose a
name soon.”
“Yeah we should.”
“I liked most of the names you chose.”
“Maybe we should see which names we both like?”
“That would probably be a good idea.” Toby said and
reached to get the book from the nightstand.
After a couple of hours, they had narrowed the list
to three names.
“You like all of these right?” Toby asked.
“Yes.” CJ replied. “We should wait until she is born
to make the final decision.”
“Okay.”
to be continued...