Alpha Billionaire Series

BROOKE

I carried another box into our apartment and set it down in the small living room. I looked around and couldn't believe we were here. The apartment was small, but we each had our own rooms. The living room was long with a large window at one end. A long counter separated the living room from the small galley kitchen. We had a full kitchen with an oven and a full- size refrigerator. With a deep breath, I headed back outside and downstairs.

There were only stairs and no elevator from our front door to the outside. But this was our first apartment, so it was wonderful. As I skipped down the stairs, Angela lugged another box up the stairs. The weather was hot but not nearly as humid as it would have been in Atlanta. We were going to need to get a small air conditioning unit to hang out the window, but otherwise, it was going to be amazing.

The excitement of Living on my own with Angela as a roommate fueled my energy for climbing all those stairs over and over again. After several hours of hauling boxes, we both collapsed, using the aforementioned boxes as places to sit. The only big pieces of furniture either of us had were our beds. Those were only mattresses on the floor at this point.

Angela groaned, “That was a lot of work. Now I understand why people hire movers.”

“Everything is going to hurt in the morning." I rubbed my face. “Want to stop for pizza after we drop off the trailer?" I asked. “I think our first official meal in Chicago should absolutely be pizza,’ Angela said with sudden renewed energy.

“We should finish moving these things into our rooms,” I said in a slow moaning voice. I didn't want to move. My legs were tired from going up and down the stairs with boxes all afternoon.

“Yeah, we should probably do the responsible thing like setting up our beds or something.” She didn’t look like she was, moving anywhere fast either.

“You're right, that does sound too responsible. What time does the U-haul place close?”

She glanced at her smartwatch and replied, “In like twenty minutes.”

I pushed my feet and rubbed my lower back. I was going to be crazy sore. Angela lifted her arm and waved her hand at me. “You really shouldn't do that, Brooke. It makes you look pregnant.”

I stopped and stared at her. “Do what?”

“Hold your back and pooch your tummy out like that.”

I looked down at my stomach. I didn't take my hands off my back. I was kind of pushing it out, to be honest. Is this what I wa gonna look like in a couple of months?

“Well,” I started, extending the word into several syllables. “Now that you've mentioned it."

“Mentioned what?" she asked in a sharp tone. Angela was a smart cookie. By the look on her face, she had it figured out before I managed to say anything. “Oh my God. That's why you've been sick.”

let a grin play across my face. “Not exactly sick," I said. “Pregnant.”

I wrapped my hands over my distended stomach, cradling the baby bump that really wasn't there yet.

She blew out a long breath making her mouth into a perfect O shape. “Is this your secret doctor?”

Ibit my lip and scrunched up my nose.

“This was why you wanted to get out of Atlanta so fast, isn't it?”

I nodded. “Both,” I confessed.

“0h my God, Brooke, does your mother know? Never mind, of course, your mother doesn't know. She would never have let you move if she knew you were going to have a baby. Seriously, you're going to have a baby?”

I nodded.

“How is this going to impact school?”

“Well, I started. “I did look up the schedule and the last testing day of the semester is in early December. I should be okay." “What do you mean it should be? When's your due date?”

I made another face at her. “I don't know exactly. I haven't been to a doctor yet”

“What do you mean you haven't been to a doctor yet. You worked at a hospital full of doctors. How pregnant are you?”

I shrugged. “I really don't know.”

“You're killing me here. What do you mean you don’t know? Don't you keep track of these things?”

Ishook my head.

“Brooke, you're supposed to keep track of these things. Otherwise, you end up not knowing how pregnant you are when you find out you're pregnant. Oh my gosh."

Her outrage wasn't very serious because she was laughing the entire time.

“I guess when we go furniture shopping, we're looking for a crib too.”

I nodded.

“It seems an extreme way of going about it, but, okay, you can have the bigger of the two bedrooms.”

Isat back down on the box and laughed to the point of tears. Both bedrooms were exactly the same tiny size. Each one would barely fit a single bed and a dresser. I guess in my case, that would be a single bed and a crib. I'd have to figure out where to put my clothes later.

“This is going to be... Expressions played across her face.

My stomach knotted up with nerves. This is going to be what? I bit my lip and cringed waiting for her to finish her sentence. Abroad grin lit up her face. She looked so happy. She finally said, “..Amazing. I'm going to be an auntie. After the baby is born, I can help you. I can watch the baby while you do classes. We can juggle our schedules and we can make this work. Yo won't have to do this alone.”

“Really, you'll help me?”

Hey, I'm your best friend, and that baby's auntie, of course, I'll help."

Tears pricked my eyes. I crossed the room and wrapped her in a hug. She hugged me back.

“I've already started thinking of some baby names,” she said.

“It's been less than five minutes!”

She laughed, and I started to giggle along with her.

“We have work to do, and there is pizza waiting somewhere for us."

I wiped my eyes. “You're right”

“I'm always right. Haven't you figured that out yet?”

“Im sorry. I didn't tell you sooner.”

“0h, don't worry about that. How are you going to keep this a secret from your parents?”

“That's easy,’ I said. “My Mom is afraid to leave Atlanta. She gets nervous going down to Pensacola. She sure as hell is not going to come up to Chicago. So, I figure I have a few months before they expect me home for a visit. And well, with the job V'm gonna get I'm probably not going to have any time off to go home for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. And by then...” “And by then you'll have a baby." Angela finished my thought for me.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Have you started shopping yet?”

“For what?"

“Baby clothes, and diapers.’

“Angela, I'm barely pregnant.”

“Yeah, but you're going to need a lot to get started. If you start buying stuff now, not only will you have a supply ready and waiting, but it also won't be a super huge expense all at once. It's something my cousin did, and I thought it was brilliant." “That is a good idea.” I hadn't even thought of the related expenses this was going to cost me. I was going to have to plan foy diapers and clothes. The laundry room was down three floors.

“You aren't going to let the father know, are you?”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Ishook my head. “He was a mistake. I'd rather he never finds out than accept a penny of support from him. He's the type who would think that paying child support would mean he could tell me what I could and couldn't do. I'm not doing that.” “Fair enough. And when are you planning on telling your parents?”

I put my hand on my stomach. I wouldn't be able to keep this from them forever. “When she’s ten?”

“You think it's a girl? I was thinking of boy names, like Duke, or Danger”

“Danger DeBoise? That's the name of some action-adventure character, not a little boy."

“I think it's an epic name. He could be an actor with a name like that."

“If my child grows up to be an actor, they can change their name.”

“You should at least consider giving them an epic middle name, so they say things like “Trouble is my middle name; and not be lying”

“You've put way too much thought into this I chuckled.

“And you haven't?”

I contemplated if I should admit to thinking of names almost every night before I fell asleep. The names I thought of were silly, not epic. I wanted a strawberry girl. “I was thinking I really liked the name Strawberry."

Angela flopped her hands at me. “Strawberry? That's something you name a pony or a kitten. We are definitely going to have to work on names.’

I'stood and turned to pick up a box to take into my room.

“No, let me get that!” Angela was on her feet suddenly.

“Angela” I chastised her. “I am perfectly capable of moving boxes. I have been all afternoon. I can take a box from here into my bedroom. And as s00n as we get the U-haul returned we still have to unpack my car?”

“Are you sure you'll be okay?”

“I'll be fine. I'm just tired. As soon as I have some pizza in me, I'll be pumped back up and we can start unpacking”