Exchanging Valentines’s Gifts by TruthwithaTwist
When my wife, Sherri and I got married, we knew we wanted to have kids quickly. I was 31 at the time and she was a few years older. So the window, as they say, was closing. We didn’t expect her to get pregnant THAT quickly, though! Sherri announced the news in mid-October that she was expecting our first child.
The whole time we were dating and at our wedding, Sherri was a rail-thin blonde with hair halfway down her back. She had small b-cup breasts, tiny waist, wider hips and ass, and long legs. Back in the early-00’s, she was a perfect model for the women’s clothing store “bebe”. As her pregnancy progressed, she started to fill out more. Her breasts got larger and fuller, her ass got bigger and her stomach began to grow. Because she was almost 5 months pregnant, she had a growing baby bump that she mostly hid with her clothes. Bulky sweaters and loose fitting dresses hadn’t yet given way to full maternity-wear.
Still, she tended to hide herself from me as her body changed. When I did see her naked, I noticed even more differences. Her areolae were larger and darker than usual, almost absorbing her small nipples on her swollen breasts. She had also been letting her pubic hair grow in more. Usually, Sherri kept herself closely trimmed but at that point, she had a thicker brown bush that was in a messy triangle.
The most unfortunate part of her early pregnancy? Morning sickness. Actually, to call it that is inaccurate. Sherri suffered from morning, afternoon, evening and night sickness. The poor woman was constantly nauseous with heartburn and after 4-5 months of pregnancy, it was starting to wear on her. She had less energy but was also losing her zest for life in general. Just the aspect of being constantly sick to her stomach made doing everything more difficult and less enjoyable for her.
As a result, we spent most of that winter at home, watching TV, renting movies, and playing games. Oh, and no sex. That one was a joint effort, however. Given her overall condition, she didn’t have much interest in getting bounced around in bed. At the same time, I wasn’t exactly pushing her. Truth be told, I was terrified. I was one of those guys that thought her having sex while she was pregnant would somehow hurt Sherri or our unborn child. No, I didn’t think my dick would be poking the baby in the head … I should be so lucky to be that big… but I was just nervous about the whole idea of sex.
In mid-January as Valentine’s Day approached, I asked Sherri what she wanted to do for the holiday.
“I’ll be honest” she said, “The nausea has been better lately. Heartburn too. But I just don’t feel like going out, is that ok?”
“Whatever you want. But do you just want to make a reservation at the Lakeside Café around the corner? It’s casual with great food, they know us there and if you start to feel sick, we’re close to home.”
Sherri’s eyes started to tear up. “No. Can’t we just stay in? I mean look at me. I have dark circles under my eyes, my hair seems to have these weird curls now” she was now progressing from tears to full crying and sobbing. “Less and less of my clothes fit, my skin is breaking out, I can’t wear high heels because my feet hurt, I’m tired all the time and none of my clothes even fit me!”
I wrapped my arms around Sherri and let her cry into my shoulder. As she started to slowly calm down, I said, “You said your clothes don’t fit twice.” Sherri stifled a small chuckle as she sniffled on my shoulder.
“Shut up. Don’t make me laugh. This sucks.”
“Look Babe, if you don’t want to do anything that night, it’s fine. But you can’t let all this build up! You’re gonna make yourself sick.” I pulled her away from me and looked her in the eye. “Let me look into some options and then we can decide. But if what you want to do is stay in, that’s fine with me, too.”
The next day, I went into my office on a mission. I asked my assistant, Grace, to follow me into my office. I “inherited” Grace from my predecessor and she was a veteran of the company. Grace was in her late-fifties and I was convinced she was more in charge than I was on any given day.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“I need your help. Sherri is in a tough place right now. She was in tears for an hour last night.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing! I asked her what she wanted to do for Valentine’s Day!”
“So, what upset her?”
“Everything. Valentine’s Day, her hair, her feet, her skin. Literally everything.”
“Yeah, you men will never understand, but pregnancy is miserable. I mean the kids are wonderful and motherhood is great — but everything else pretty much sucks. So, what are we doing?”
I gave Grace a sarcastic look, “I don’t know. That’s why I have you, to tell me what to do.”
“Useless. You men are all the same. Fucking useless. Do you have any ideas?”
My latest blank stare seemed to frustrate Grace even more. If we hoped to progress at all, she knew she’d have to take control of all of this.
“OK” she started. “Valentine’s Day is on a Saturday this year. Is there a little restaurant close to you that she likes? Nothing too fancy?”
“There’s the Lakeside Bistro. We know the owner and go there all the time.”
“Great” she continued, “I need you to call him and get a reservation. But warn him that you may end up doing takeout at the last minute if Sherri wants to stay in.”
“Got it” I said as she scribbled in her pad, never looking down, keeping eye contact with me.
“You’re going to treat her to a whole day of pampering to make her feel like her old self for a day. Who’s her best friend?”
“Linda”
“Call Linda. Tell her to block off that day to spend with Sherri.” Grace was in full order-giving mode, now. “I’ll find a salon to get her hair done, plus a facial and massage for her and her friend. I’ll find the most upscale maternity store in the city and set up an appointment and account for the day. Then, I’ll make up a little coupon book for you to give her the week before.”
“You are amazing. What do you need me to do?” I asked.
“Call the restaurant, call Linda and give me a credit card.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a credit card from my wallet, “Y’know Grace, this is why I keep you around.”
As she stood to leave my office, she replied, “Bullshit. Just be glad I keep telling the company to keep you around. Oh, and write down the Chop House restaurant in Middlebury.”
“Why?”
“Because you are treating Ted and me to a romantic dinner on Valentines Day. I’ll take care of it on your card when I do the rest.”
On the Monday before Valentine’s Day, I picked up a dozen roses (that Grace ordered) and got the coupon book to bring home to Sherri. When I got home, she was working on her laptop, curled up on the couch. You could just see her baby bump under her sweatshirt and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. When she looked up, she saw the roses and exclaimed, “Roses?!?! You didn’t have to get those for me.” I handed them to her with the card and coupon book.
“They really are beautiful. Where did Grace order them from?”
“How do you know I didn’t get them myself?”
Sherri’s eyes rolled back so far I thought she would hurt herself. “Because you can barely go piss without her at this point. No way you did this.” She then started to open the card. “What’s in here?”
As Sherri started to read the note and coupons, she started to cry again.
“No. You didn’t have to do all this. This is crazy.”
“Seriously? With everything you’ve been dealing with? I think you deserve some treats for yourself. Besides, Linda is on board so you really have no choice now!”
Sherri stood up and wrapped her arms around my neck, still sniffling into my neck and shoulder, “Thank you, Jay.”
Saturday morning arrived and so did Linda at our condo at 9am sharp. Linda was a travel agent with a big mane of red hair, loud makeup and personality to match it all. We always joked that we could hear Linda enter a room long before we would ever see her. Linda’s wardrobe consisted of short skirts and low cut tops to show off her impressive bust. Sherri and I would often joke that Linda would probably sprain an ankle if she wore heels lower than 4 inches high.
As Sherri’s best friend, Linda knew Sherri was in the doldrums during her pregnancy and was determined to snap her out of it. Sherri was less than enthusiastic as she was second-guessing how she looked and felt heading out for the day. Linda, however, was having none of it.
“Bitch” she started. “You look better 5 months pregnant than most women look on a daily basis. You can still barely see your belly, your skin is fucking glowing and your tits are getting bigger.” She physically spun Sherri around as she continued. “And I’m surprised Jay isn’t trying to tap that ass every night the way it looks right now.”
“Linn…stop” attempted Sherri.
“No. You stop. Cut the shit and let’s go. You admitted to me that the morning sickness has mostly calmed down and you can actually do stuff again. Besides, Jason said he’s paying for everything today, so don’t fuck this up for me, too!”
As Linda pushed Sherri out the front door she turned to me and gave me a wink, “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”
The two women got back to the condo close to 4:00 carrying a bunch of bags of various sizes. I was snoozing on the couch with a college basketball game on in the background. When I looked over, I could see the difference in Sherri right away. She had a relaxed glow on her face from the treatment and her hair had been trimmed and curled with some new highlights added.
“Did you two have fun?” I asked.
“Yes” Sherri replied. “Thank you SO much Jay. If you’re still up for it, we should definitely go out tonight to the bistro. But, I’m going to go crash for an hour or so. I’m exhausted. Linda, are you sure you don’t want to join us tonight?”
I was surprised that Sherri would invite Linda out for our first date in months, but Linda made it a non-issue.
“No. You kids have fun. I have my boy toy Chad taking me out tonight.”
Linda helped Sherri carry the bags to the bedroom and emerged a few minutes later. She flopped on the sofa so we could chat for a minute.