I help her off the bus. It's not exactly hard to step down to the curb, but for a heavily pregnant woman it's a bit trickier. That, and I like taking her hand and helping her down. She's never expressed any particular desire to feel like a princess, but I still want to make her feel like one.
It's a few blocks to our destination, but we've come a little early so we can take it slow. I don't want her to push herself or anything, and walking at a brisk clip isn't any fun on her swollen feet. Instead we get to go at a leisurely pace, enjoying the scenery, such as it is. More than that, we enjoy the looks we get from other people.
After our long hiatus, we've been trying to make up for lost couple's time, and one of the major ways we've been doing that has been going out on the town together. When we walk around downtown or a busy park, people smile at us. Other couples who think we can't see them nudge one another and point. She's radiant, and we are, to any observer, an adorable expectant couple. And, well, we are an adorable expectant couple, but it's fun to be recognized for that.
This evening isn't just about being seen, though. A friend had spare tickets to the opera, and when we heard, we jumped on the opportunity. In less than a month she's going to give birth to what the doctor says will be a healthy baby girl, and then it'll be pretty damn difficult to go out for shows. Or dinners. Or really anything. We're excited about this baby and all, but just the same we want to get in as much adult stuff as we can before this sweet bundle of joy and chaos arrives.
As soon as we arrive and pick up our tickets, we hurry off to find the bathrooms. Being super pregnant, as it turns out, makes one have to pee pretty frequently. We meet up again in the hallway outside the bathrooms, then set off to find our seats.
She's palpably relieved to find that our seats are only two in from the aisle. It's not a long opera, and there's an intermission midway through, but if she has to get up to pee in the middle of the show she won't have too many people to climb over. Even the two people we do have to scoot past to sit down- a couple in their mid-sixties, by the look of them- don't seem particularly bothered, smiling at her as she apologizes while squeezing her pregnant form by.
The lights go down and the orchestra starts up. The arm rests don't fold up, but she tries to snuggle up next to me as best she can under the circumstances. She rests her head against my shoulder and I, in turn, put my arm around her and stroke her shoulder. My free hand takes one of hers, and our fingers intertwine.
It's not a long opera, luckily. Fifty five minutes, a fifteen minute intermission, then another fifty five minutes. Not exactly the Ring Cycle, but a good length for us right now. At intermission she rushes out to pee, and when the lights go up at the end of the show she does the same. I take her coat and leave the house to wait for her out in the lobby.
"Okay, ready to head home?" I ask once she finds me, looking relieved. She smiles as I speak. It's still a novel idea that we, jointly, have a home. Arm in arm, we make our way to the bus stop, and luckily ours is the first to arrive, and we climb aboard.
It's pretty late by the time we shuffle through our front door. Late for us, anyway. In reality, it's only about ten, but that's a good time for us to be getting ready for bed. She slumps onto the couch and kicks off her shoes, and I settle down beside her. She stretches out her legs and rests her feet on the coffee table.
"That was fun," she sighs, resting her head back, "By the time the next show in the season opens, we'll have our hands full." She rubs her belly and flashes me a tired smile.
"I guess new parents don't go out to a lot of operas," I remark, putting my arm around her, "But do you think your folks would watch her to give us a night out every now and then?"
"They are excited about having a grandbaby," she concedes, leaning over to nuzzle against my shoulder, "We can probably talk them into it. It'll be nice to have date nights."
"We have date nights now," I point out, and she responds with a cheery hum.
"Yeah, we do," she agrees, "But it's not just the two of us." She pats her belly again for effect. "We've got a baby on board. Dampens the mood a little." I shake my head.
