"How's Andrew?"
He meant the baby and Eric had to remind himself that everyone else referred to him by name, like a person.
It was only him and Gabi who just called him "the baby."
"He's good."
"Are you getting any sleep?"
Eric made a noise into the phone, almost a snort. It meant "sleep, what fucking sleep?" But out loud, he just said, "Sure, sometimes." He and Gabi had come up with a sleep schedule that she had read about online. It was great. Now if they could just get the baby to do his part but so far, no dice.
"Are you getting laid?"
Eric couldn't hold back a guffaw and then immediately whispered, "fuck." He hoped that he hadn't just disturbed his wife and the baby. It was his turn in a bit and he was determined to milk his free time for all it was worth. "Yeah right," he muttered in a sarcastic voice to Steve. Steve was Andrew's godfather second and Eric's best buddy first, otherwise he'd never be talking about this with another guy. "Dude, it's only been six weeks," Eric told his friend, like he wasn't counting every day, check, check, check. "She's on lockdown until she sees the gyno."
"That's how it starts, my friend." Steve sounded ominous and Eric could feel the tension between his shoulders. There was some extra weight there and it could just be the result of stress, but Eric wondered if it wasn't more. He was worried, although he'd never admit it. Because of course, it echoed what all of his male acquaintances seemed to hint at: once you have a kid, the pussy is doled out sparingly.
After he'd announced that Gabi was pregnant, it was the second thing that happened after a round of high fives and a few fist pumps and pats on the back. Like if you do chores and if you agree and if you mind your manners, then you might get some. At least that's what they all said with tight lipped expressions, like smiling was suddenly painful.
A few months ago, his wife had laughed about those guys and said they had no cojones.
"Come on, Steve, we are talking about Gabi here," it was all that he would say and he felt he shouldn't have to say more. Just a few short months ago, Gabi was the sexiest woman any of them had ever known. All of his friends, including Steve, would elbow Eric when she walked away or whisper, "damn,". They would draw it out to sound like "day-ummmm."
Gabi was hot. Gabi was hot and she knew it. Gabi had long black hair that was a wild mane of inky curls. Gabi had brown eyes that looked like melted pools of chocolate. Gabi was thick in all the right places and his friends said she was shaped like a Coke bottle. Gabi's skin was somewhere between caramel and café au lait and it gleamed almost golden. Gabi wore her jeans tight and her heels high. Gabi was spicy and feisty and flirtatious and she and Eric were first dating, men would buy her drinks right in front of Eric.
She would purr in his ear, "What's the matter, Papi? You know you're the only man getting this pussy tonight, right?" Her accent gave him goosebumps and her hot breath on his neck made him hard. He would be on the verge of melting world melt with a whisper and a slow stroke of her crimson nails down his inner thigh.
She'd take the drink and wink at the sender though. And Eric would still be just a little jealous.
The sexiest woman they knew. Even pregnant, maybe even especially pregnant. Gabi had flaunted the extra weight and it just made her more lush and almost opulent. She rubbed it in everyone's face and she looked like an exotic fertility goddess, a statue that women worshipped in the hopes of becoming pregnant. Her breasts were huge and her ass was heavy and wide and it had seemed like the changes in her body had made Gabi even more hedonistic than usual. She had fucked him twice a day in the middle months, sometimes he'd even protested that he couldn't go again. He had always managed to get it up and she had always managed to make him cum faster than he wanted to.
During those few months, it seemed like she couldn't cum often enough and Eric had been ecstatic to come along for the ride.
It had all tapered off when she was about seven months along. Eric was fairly certain that Gabi hadn't shaved her legs since then but then again, he wouldn't know for sure because she'd been in yoga pants and thick, woolly socks ever since.
"Yeah, I know we're talking about Gabi, dude." His friend continued, "and it pains me to say this because fuck, she is still smoking hot. But I'm just saying, it's never the same after the kids come."
"Well, I'm sure we will be fine."
Eric was irritated with his buddy now. He wanted to blame his mood swings on the lack of sleep and the shitty diet he'd been eating for a month and a half. He had existed on leftover casseroles that the neighbors brought over. Leftover food and leftover bits of sleep and half a shower and a page of the newspaper, really what did he expect?
You know what else makes you crabby though, the voice inside reminded him, like a mental elbow to the ribs. Not getting laid.
"Yeah, well call me when you can get out for some beers, dude." Steve wasn't sensitive enough to pick up on Eric's or anyone else's irritation and that was the bedrock that their friendship was built on.
"Later."
Eric tossed the phone on the side table and scowled at it. Fuck Steve. Fuck all those guys, they had always been jealous of him having Gabi on lockdown. He knew she was out of his league but those guys never let him forget it. Now they were just getting back at him and the timing couldn't have been worse.
Eric didn't think Gabi had really kissed him since they came home from the hospital. Sure, sure, a peck here and there but not like a full on, hands in his hair, kiss. Not a kiss with her ripe, voluptuous breasts of hers pressed against his chest. Not a kiss with her tongue, fully touching his. Oh, that tongue that knew him so well. Her tongue and her hungry lips, tasting his mouth like it was tres leches.
Early dating kisses, he thought with a gulp.
Stop, he told himself, she had just given birth six weeks ago. Everything was a little off kilter for everyone. Kids were life changing and needed to just be patient.
And in the meantime, there was porn.
Gabi didn't like it when Eric watched porn; at least the old Gabi didn't. She wanted him to talk to her about his fantasies and maybe she made an exception here and there when they watched something together. That hadn't been too successful though. Either Gabi couldn't stop giggling, which killed the mood or she started yelling at the screen. Something about her yelling, "Hey fuck you, asshole, someone should pull your hair," to the television killed the mood too, even though it always made him laugh.
Eric still had a window. He was still awake and it wasn't his turn to do anything for another thirty minutes. Gabi, if she was even awake, was quiet and probably completely drawn into online shopping for the new man in her life, the baby.
He grabbed his tablet and went to the den. Ah, the den, it wasn't quite a mancave but he was working on it. He'd hung all of his Chicago Bears and Cubs memorabilia and Gabi had shaken her head in disgust. "Fine, the den is yours now," she had told him with a shrug of her shoulders about a week before Andrew was born. She muttered to herself in Spanish as she walked away and so far, she'd never come back to the den.
It was the perfect place to watch porn now, Eric surmised as he closed the door behind him and got settled on his old leather couch from his bachelor days. He lay back and stretched out. He scrolled and clicked until he got to a familiar site that he'd spent some viewing time viewing in the past. The girls were Latina and more natural than average. There wasn't much dialogue, which seemed better. Here was something promising, Eric thought. It featured a girl with big, brown eyes that reminded him of Gabi.
He pressed play.
She really did look like Gabi, the Gabi he had known when they first met. She was curvaceous with a little waist. She wore white bikini panties and nothing else. She lay on the bed, open legs and arms up, overhead. Her breasts were large and her nipples were almost blood red. Her lover was a white guy with an impressive build and an even more impressive sized cock. The two lay on the bed and her tan calves were wrapped between his paler, muscular legs. Their kiss didn't seem to be for the camera and she seemed almost bashful, which was charming. The kiss started slowly and tenderly, almost as if they were in love. Almost, Eric thought wistfully, like him and Gabi, in what was beginning to seem like a long time ago. As the kiss continued, her lover reached into the white panties that clung to her wetness and Eric could almost feel her sweetness in his hand.
He flashed back to the first time he'd fondled Gabi between her legs. Her thick thighs parted, just for him and the rich, exotic scent of her wetness had perfumed the air.
Eric exhaled slowly and held the tablet up, out of the way, while he pushed his sweatpants down to his knees. He was hard already. It had taken less than a minute and here he was, standing at full mast. Just thinking about touching the girl under her panties brought the desire in waves. It had been a long time, long enough to admit that his hand felt really good.
The caramel colored girl had an actual bush and that was a delight. A thick, black trail of hair ran, like a vine from her dusty pink lips up to the slope under her belly. Her lover got to push her panties down for the camera and the young Gabi lookalike opened her thighs greedily for his touch. She was damp and her creamy wetness glistened on her lips. Her lover's fingers were glazed with her longing and and the man licked his fingers slowly before exploring her crevice once more. It was sweet and sexy and Eric groaned as his hand gripped his cock at the base. He squeezed and felt how hot and full his balls were. His sack was weighty, heavy with all of his pent up frustration. He stroked himself slowly all the way to the tip and then back.
