Chapter Three

Valentine

I expected that reaching adulthood is going to be pretty damn boring in the sense that you only have the same scheduled things to do, and just two weeks of being one or at least trying to be one just basically affirmed my expectations. I wake up in the morning, take a nice shower, have my breakfast, go to work, go home and repeat. That's it; there is nothing really interesting or exciting or even fun about it as far as I'm aware of. I admit that I've already seen this one coming and I know it's inevitable, but I wasn't ready for it to quickly happen as if it's a lightning bolt, and I'm shocked about the massive change. I should've prepped myself at least but being a person who loves having fun and just enjoying the many things you can do at the young age makes it hard to face this quick change and being a party whore basically, my whole college life makes it even harder to do this kind of transition in a matter of weeks.

I see this situation going forward until the time that I can say I've had more than enough of it and I should probably do something else. Right now, I sort of like this kind of situation even if I'm having a hard time adjusting with it.

I wonder how Ivana got control of this abrupt turn of life all by herself. She got hit earlier than me, and for her, it's even a sharper turn than mine, and yet she got through it. During high school Ivana wasn't that much of a beautiful head-turning woman per se, yeah she had a perfectly proportionate body which has been her greatest asset up until now, but she wasn't noticeable back then, and maybe that's one of the reasons why I don't remember hitting on her at all, but when we became close during our college days, she was undeniably a bombshell. Puberty did hit her pretty late, but it's always better to be late than never.

Every guy is swooning over her; most of them masturbated countless times to her. The type of relationship we had become mutually beneficial to each of us. On numerous occasions, I would pretend to be her boyfriend whenever guys are trying to hit on her. I'm her repellant, and she's my filter. She's pretty good at filtering the straights ones from the colourful ones. Unfortunately, she got unexpectedly pregnant back when we were already in the second year of college. She told me about it first instead of her boyfriend at that time; she said that she trusts me more than her boyfriend and I guess it's because she caught her boyfriend cheating once before and telling him about the pregnancy thing might probably scare the shit out of him which eventually happened as we expected. The guy doesn't even have a backbone. He just ran away from all of his responsibilities like a scared cat. I suggested abortion which is horrible of me, but Ivana shook her head and said I wanted to keep the baby and she did. The first four months were truly tough for her, I was there supporting her, but she didn't drop out of school, and we finished the same semester together since she can easily hide her belly by wearing loose clothes, but eventually, she had to stop for a whole semester after her belly began growing big enough for everyone to notice.

I adored how much of a strong and independent Ivana is as a woman of this generation, and that's the main reason why I hired her to be my part-time assistant. She still has one more semester to finish before graduating, and I feel totally great to be helping her with her own journey.

I woke up super late this morning feeling a lot slothful comfortable on the fact that after a week of office work, it's already my day off and I've got nothing so essential to do other than be the couch potato that I want to be in this kingdom of isolation I call house. I just finished frying some eggs and bacon for my breakfast and just started having the first sip of my coffee when I heard the doorbell rang.

That can't be my dad since he left early for work and it certainly can't be my brother Vincent either. Feeling a bit lazy, I slowly got up and went to open the door only to be surprised by Ivana along with her cute baby.

"Hey," I said a bit confused to see this woman standing in front of my doorstep with her cute baby.

"Hey Val, I know it's your day off today so can I ask you a small favour?" She spat right after I opened the door and acknowledged her unprecedented presence.

"Uhm, yeah, so long as it's not what I think it would be" I replied looking a little bit unwilling at what might be a sudden babysitting gig. She brought her baby with her to my house, what else could I think of.

"What do you think it would be?" She asked.

"I don't know," I replied clearly, not wanting what I'm thinking to happen.

"Well, today's my exams, and I know you know that because I've been mentioning it a lot of times at the office" Ivana laid the big bag she was carrying on her shoulder on the floor making it seem like I've already said yes to what she's asking. "You're kind of my last resort right now, Val. I don't have much of choice, but I have to ask you to take care of my baby Axelle here just for today."

"Oh, Jesus!!!!" I muttered under my breath. Just when I thought that I would be spending my day off with a great deal of time watching television and a sipping lot of coffee, there's this sharp curve of an event about to happen.

"I'm really, really sorry, Valentine. The babysitter that I hired is, unfortunately, sick today and my parents were out of town as well, and you know I don't want to leave baby Axelle to some random stranger, so I ended up coming here."

"Jesus Ivana. You could've at least called first" I exclaimed and deep down inside me, I'm already dancing with panic. "I don't think I can do this babysitting kind of thing. I'm not sure I'm the right person for this, I mean I've never babysitted before."

"My exam is in about an hour. I don't have much time to look for someone else. This is actually a perfect chance for you to experience taking care of a baby. Who knows what if you decide to have one someday."

"Are you kidding me?"

"I'm going to put my trust in you. Don't you worry dude, I've written all of the important things you need to do here" She reached for her pocket and fished a folded paper with what I expect to be a long-ass list of the things that I need to do.

"Damn it!" I reluctantly took the paper.

"Everything you need is in this bag" She continued subsequently handing me a big bag packed with what I expect to be diapers, milk and some infant items. "And if something goes wrong just hit me up, and I'll make sure to find a way to answer it."

"Are you seriously going to do this to me?" I mouthed not having much of choice, I can only complain. This can't really be happening to me right now. Jesus, a fucking baby? I don't think I'm going to be okay with this.

"So this is uncle Val, he will be taking care of you for today. Don't worry baby I'll be back as soon as I finish my exams" Ivana looked attentively at her baby and then kissed her tiny little nose bidding a temporary goodbye as she subsequently handed me the fucking baby. It was at this moment that I thought I put myself into something unprecedentedly distressing.

"Oh he's really heavy" I reacted as soon as I got the baby on my arms.

"Take good care of him."

"Oh hell yeah, I'mma be a good ass mother to your baby."

Ivana turned around; she quickly fished a thick folder paper that is what I think to be her notes before finally taking her steps away and leaving me distraught. I was enjoying my isolation five minutes ago, and now I have to take care of a motherfucking baby with absolutely a little to none knowledge about it. Ivana disappeared from my view, and I realized I'd have to suck it up. I looked deeply into baby Axelle's fresh eyes that sparkled like diamonds and whispered " bitch!"

I let baby Axelle sat at the table while I take my second sip of coffee and ultimately forced to have a quick breakfast since he kept on reaching for my bacon. Luckily the little guy doesn't seem to be a literal crybaby, and that’s one of the things that I fear. He's really quiet, and he's just looking at me, and he's probably like "who the heck is this man."

I stared at him for about ten minutes having nothing in mind. His cuteness is just taking my breath away, which prompted me to take him to the couch and start thinking about how I would entertain this little fella. I ended up taking a lot of selfies and short video clips with him before I smelled something stinky and that's the moment I realized that he just pooed.

"What the actual fuck" I muttered under my breath.