Their Perfect Gift

I just got Oliver down for the night. He's been home from the hospital for three weeks now and I couldn't be more elated. He seems too perfect and fragile to be mine.

All mine and mine alone.

Being a single parent isn't what I expected to be at the age of 24 but here I am. Sure I was reckless but having a baby wasn't something I wanted until I was in my early thirties.

With the little free time I do have I clean up my apartment that seems more like a cubicle than what one would call a home. Just as I'm about to sit down to finally relax, Oliver wakes up two hours later screaming his head head off, demanding I feed him and change his diaper.

"It's okay." I cooed as if he understood me.

After feeding, burping, and changing his diaper, I put him in the stroller and the dirty bag of clothes underneath it and head for the laundry mat a block away.

|Some Time Later|

"He's just too cute!" An older lady who had been staring at me for the past few minutes exclaimed.

"Thank you." I smiled letting my pride pump her fist in the air.

"You better get home with him soon. It's getting dark out." She points to the sky through the window, spouting her wisdom. I've been so focused on washing and drying my clothes for the past hour that I haven't even been paying attention to the time.

"I will, thank you." I smile.

The dryer has seven minutes left on it so I wait for it to finish out It's cycle.

Oliver is wide awake, taking in the scene before him, me. We stare at each other for a moment before he looks elsewhere, and I can't help but to smile.

I'm a mom. I'm responsible for this little human. I check the time on the phone and it reads 6:44.

"It's not even late and it's already getting dark."

The dryer beeps, signalling the time is up. I put the now clean clothes back in the bag and under the stroller, and we subsequently left not wasting another second.

Admiring the baby, I kiss his little hand before walking out of the laundry mat. I make sure he's wrapped in his blanket inside his car seat, and that the car seat is properly secured to the stroller before I officially start walking home.

The street lights are on and there is hardly anyone out.

My phone rings, startling me.

"Hello?" I answer, picking up my pace. 

"Hey girly. Can you hear me okay?" My best friend answers.

"Yeah I can, but can I call you back? I'm walking home." She gasp.

"Your walking home? This late? Where's Ollie?"

"Shelby, It's only six and he's here with me." I laugh out loud.

"I'm coming to get you, so stay where your at!"

"No. I'm halfway home now so I'll just see you whe-"

I get pushed on the shoulder by someone walking past me and I stumble, dropping my phone in the process.

"Hey, watch it! Can you not see the stroller with the baby in it?"

I yell protectively, forgetting about my phone being somewhere on the floor, possibly with a cracked screen.

"I'm so sorry! Is the baby okay? Are you okay?"

I quickly check over Oliver, making sure he's not hurt.

He's not crying nor is he physically hurt so those are good signs.

The man picks up my phone and tries to hand it back to me, but when I go to reach for it my eyes meet the strangers. It takes me a minute to register who this man is and how he knows my name. I'm too stunned to speak so he says something first. 

"Naomi? What are you doing out here by yourself and with a baby on top of that?" 

The wind blows in my face, snapping me out of my trance. I quickly push the stroller forward to try and ignore him, but he follows me.

"Ni, let me walk you home?" He stops me in my place by standing in front of the stroller, and I have no choice but to face him.

I really wanna cry, but I'm not gonna let him see what I'm feeling. Chris, the man I love with everything in me. Oliver's father. My ex boyfriend.

"No, Just leave me be. I can walk myself home."

Really looking at him, he seems different. I can tell that the man I remembered wasn't there. His physical appearance was slightly different but something about him seemed off. His shoulder length hair is up in a bun and his green eyes are red and puffy. Some memories all come crashing back and I can't control my emotions. Suddenly my eyes water, and Ironically the baby starts crying.

"What's wrong?" He walks around to the stroller and looks to the baby for an answer.

I grab the pacifier out of the baby bag and put it in Oliver's mouth to try and calm him down, and it does after a moment.

"I need to go." I finally say, wiping my tears away and calming myself.

"Let me walk you home, it's dark out. It's the least I can do." He looks at me, waiting for me to start walking, not giving me a choice really.

"I don't have time to argue about this, nor do I want you to walk with me, but I know you won't leave so just be quiet and walk."

Chris leads more than follows, knowing all too well where I live. He kept true to staying quiet, but I don't think he would've said anything to me. There was nothing to say.

"Thank you for walking me home but please just go." I say once we reach my apartment.

"Ni, I know I hurt you but I need to talk to you, that's why I'm here. I just left looking for you."

"I don't care, go home." But I do care, I really do. I just can't let you know that because I'm too hurt to listen.

I turn around and open my door intending to go inside. Once I've pushed the stroller inside I try to close the door, but Chris pushes it back open.

"We need to talk, please."

"No we don't, In fact if you don't leave I'm calling the police." I threaten.

"Just hear me out, ten minutes is all I need, plus I have your things."

Oliver starts crying again, spitting out his pacifier. My boobs ache, signalling my baby's hunger but I won't breastfeed. Instead I'll use the already refrigerated breast milk. I don't reply to Chris but instead I leave the door open, and push the stroller further inside.

"You have ten minutes. Say what you need to say and go. I don't wanna hear from you after this." I say while taking Oliver out of of the stroller and into my arms.

"Yeah, okay."

Turning around to walk to my bedroom, I bump into Chris's chest. He puts his arms on my shoulders to steady me. My body tenses and I can't bring myself to look into his eyes, so instead I quickly shake his arms off me and head to my bedroom, putting Ollie in his crib. He continues to cry from the bedroom as I walk from the room and into the living.

"Why are you here Chris?"

I ask as I move past him and into the kitchen, making Ollie a bottle. Chris takes this as an opportunity to make himself comfortable, sitting on the couch in his old spot. This pisses me off. He no longer lives here so he's not allowed to do what he pleases.

"Finish what your doing, we'll talk when the kid is calm. I need you to really hear me and what I have to say."

I nod, continuing to make the bottle. Once I'm done I take Oliver out of the crib and head into the living room where I sit down on the couch and feed him. Oliver greedily sucks on the bottle, instantly stopping his crying. Chris stares, looking at me in amusement.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking." He shifts and leans forward, resting his arms on his knees.

"About?" I ask my temper slowly rising. 

"About that time we-"

"What did you need to talk to me about?" I say with an annoyed tone as Chris sits up straight.

"Geez, you asked Naomi. There's no need to be so hostile towards me." 

He's right. I knew I'd get emotional in his presence but I didn't expect my anger to get the best of me. I refuse to apologize though, he doesn't deserve my apology. I take a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself.  

"I can see I hurt you pretty badly but I came here to tell you how sorry I am and how I never meant for things to end the way they did. That was a pretty awful day for you I imagine, but moving out was the only way for you to let me go. You should know that we weren't good for each other back then, we wanted different things in life."

I wanna laugh in his face. Is her serious? 

"Yeah well It didn't work and me thinking about you is the last thing you should be worried about." He doesn't say anything, just stares with a bland expression so I seize the opportunity. "You've come to apologize? To get my respect back? To possibly get me back?"

Chris face scrunches up in hearing my tone, but eventually shakes his head yes. I scoff and roll my eyes.

"I'm busy Chris if you haven't noticed and I don't mean just right now in this moment, so your apology and idea of us being together again can go straight to the trash. You're delusional if you think I'd take you back after what you did. You were right about us wanting different things, and I admit I was immature back then but I've grown in more ways than you can imagine. My life is better than I could've asked for. So with that being said, I don't care for how you meant for things to end, things ended and that's it. As for my respect you still don't have it." 

My breathing is harsher than before but I remain calm. Oliver is still drinking his milk, his eyes trying to stay open. Seeing as Chris got his answer from me, he's silent. There's not much one can say. I watch oliver and see that his bottle is nearly empty.

"Who's kid is that?" He motions towards Ollie, clearly embarrassed and shocked. He has nothing to say so he's changing the topic.

"A friends. She's out of town for the week as a mini vacation."

"He's so small, no older than a month yeah?" The bottle is now empty so I place it on the coffee table and place Oliver over my shoulder to burp him. He shifts into the crook of my neck, giving me comfort. I sigh not out of bliss but annoyance.

"Look, if your done talking then you should leave. I want nothing to do with you." Chris stares intently and nods his head in compliance, then stands to take his leave.

"Here's your phone. The screen has cracked at the bottom, I'll pay you back for it this weekend okay." He had pulled my phone from his pocket then placed it on the coffee table.

"No forget it. You've done enough, please leave." Ollie burps and I stand and cradle him in my arms, feeling his soggy diaper.

He walks towards me but looks towards the baby. "Goodbye baby- What was his name again?" I shift, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

"Oliver, now please go. He needs to be changed and be put into bed." He stiffens at hearing the name but shakes it off. 

"Bye Ollie." He touches the baby's feet, causing Oliver's eyes to open. Chris seems startled to see the same pair of green eyes staring back at him. "Having green eyes is kind of rare, how beautiful." 

"Chris go, I won't ask you again." 

"Yes, later Naomi." 

He's brief with me as he walks towards the front door and opens it. Just when he steps outside of the door he turns around and smiles at me, then looks at Oliver one last time before he closes the door behind him. I quickly go behind him and the lock the door.

I sigh and head to the bedroom where I get Oliver ready for bed. After he's asleep in his crib I take a shower and think about the events of tonight.

I can't believe I listened to what he had to say! Now that he's back I know that I must tell him about Oliver being his. No doubt he'll want to know, but there's no way I'm getting back together with him! We can learn to co-parent as majority of people do. For now, Ollie is my safe haven.