Cozy on a winter's day

 

Valentina couldn't stop smiling. She was elated seeing Matty with the baby. Of course, it wasn't like she was completely resting. She was certain now she might never sleep a night through. She couldn't help but check on Foster every few minutes even when he was asleep on his back in his crib.

"Nobody's said why we named him Foster," Val said to Matty who remained unchanged as he smiled at the plump baby who curled his fingers around Matty's.

"Well, we can't forget we both were foster kids," he said. "I would never want Foster to go through it, but still I'm glad we both had amazing foster parents." He looked a little sad. 

"Foster was really the last name I was thinking, you know." She remembered how they were looking at old names like Ned and Noah.

"I'm glad you weren't mad at me," he finally smiled at her. "But as soon as I saw him, I knew I wanted him to be Foster."

She understood. She felt they were together on this. Yes, maybe too much together, but she liked it that way. She thought of her brother Dan who was at the hospital with them. He was there for the birth of their baby. After all, he was a nurse.

She touched her forehead, thinking that was not the way she wanted her biological brother to see her, at her worst. After all, she kept squeezing Matty's hand. At times, she wanted to pull his hair, but she wasn't that awful. She winced wondering what Dan thought now. Of course, she was happy everything went well. It still made her laugh when the doctor told her she could have a lot more kids. She was certain this was enough. Especially, for right now. 

Of course, there was this semester to think about. She would take one college class and it was online. Hopefully, she wasn't asking for too much.

Steve didn't know if he could take another sentence from Alfie and his chaotic holiday. He sighed. Was it always this way? Alfie talked so much about himself.

"Look, we have a baby now," Steve hated to be the barrier of bad news, but he didn't think they could hang out anymore. "You can't just come when..when you feel like it. We're very busy."

"I know. I get that." Alfie looked a little bug-eyed. "But..but I still need to hear from you."

Steve laughed at that as he picked up a crying True from her crib. Really, she wasn't that fussy, but Steve could even tell True might not be that crazy about Alfie, either.

"Oh really," Steve looked at him blankly. "All you've done since you got here was talk about yourself."

He didn't even bring disposable diapers. It was the least he could do, but Steve knew it was not on Alfie's radar. He didn't mean to ask, but this was getting old with his college friend. Things had changed.

"Got it." Alfie was even-lipped as if he'd take note. "How does it really feel to be a dad?"

"A little intoxicating," Steve smiled. "In a very good way." He told Alfie that he loved Victoria even more. "You know, in a deeper way that..that I've never experienced before."

"Oh," Alfie nodded as if he understood, but Steve knew he couldn't have an inkling about this sort of thing. 

"Maybe you'll experience it yourself one day," Steve told him. Alfie only laughed at him.

"Oh, you really are a fool," Steve smiled back. "It really isn't love  until you give it away."

Alfie couldn't respond. He shoved his hands into his hoodie as if he'd had too much of this. 

"I'm going to see if Victoria made that coffee she promised," Alfie said. He was quiet then. Steve sighed. He knew he couldn't turn his friend away, but he hoped something good happened to Alfie this year and he'd know where Steve was coming from.

He put the baby up to his shoulder. She burped like she might be an old sailor then. He smiled. She pushed her head up like a little turtle seeing the world for the first time out of her shell and she drooled on him. Of course, this only delighted Steve.