Fate Knows How to Play ✔️ || 1 || Off the Ice Series

09 | The Blueberry

R O S E

"What about this one?" Keelie holds up a small cream baby jumpsuit.

A pout forms on my face as I walk closer to it and hold it in my hands. Tears spring to my eyes.

Zhala scoffs and takes a step away from me. "You're doing that thing again."

"What thing?" Keelie asks, bending down to look at my face. I hide it in the cream fabric as I feel my face flame.

"That thing with the tears, it's creeping me out."

"You mean she's crying?" Keelie rolls her eyes and folds me in a hug, her embrace causing more tears to fall.

"Yeah that." Zhala mumbles.

"Wow, you're such a good friend." Keepies voice is mumbled against my hair, the vibrations tickling my scalp.

I don't hear the reply but knowing Zhala I can see the tongue she's sticking out in my mind.

Keelie rests her hands on my shoulders and moves me back a step so she can see my face. I pull the fabric away and make eye contact with her.

She smiles sadly. "You have to buy that now." She whispers and points to the baby clothes in my hand.

I look down and cringe. "Ew." Tears and other substances stain the cotton and I pull it away from me. "Let's go buy this and get out of here so I can stop crying over cute clothes."

"Do you think you're having a boy or girl?" Zhala asks and fingers a cute floral dress hanging on the rack.

I place a hand on my stomach, gazing down at it. "What are you?" I whisper so quietly, rubbing a thumb just below my belly button.

"Blueberry." Zhala says quietly, looking at her phone intently.

"What?" I mutter, still clutching the soiled cloth in my hand and avoiding staring at the little overalls with cherries all over them, or the matching red Mary Jane's below.

"The baby is a size of a blueberry." She smiles and spins her phone to show me the chart she pulled up. " You're seven weeks aren't you?"

I nod. "Almost eight."

It's been five weeks since I found out I was pregnant, and still the news hit me like a freight train every time I reminded myself.

"Our blueberry is growing into a raspberry."

A small laugh escapes me at the image that conjures, and I look down at my little blueberry.

"I think I'm having a girl." I finally answer the question. "I've had the same dream of a little girl every night this week."

"You'd be such a perfect girl mum." Keelie adds, grinning like a loon. "Imagine how cute she'd be?"

I rub a thumb on my tummy again and walk to the counter, handing over the clothes I cried into with a wince at the cashier.

The man at the counter smiles kindly as he scans the tear stained product through. "First child?"

I nod as I pay, taking a deep breath in.

Maybe one day I'll get used to it.

"I remember my wife with our first, the hormones don't get better, trust me." He laughs and I smile but inside I'm dying.

Am I going to cry at every little thing?

"How many have you got now?" I ask, tilting my head curiously and paying.