I groaned when I heard the doorbell. I was hungover and definitely did not want to be around anyone.

After 3 days of locking myself in and asking how and why my previously perfect life had turned to shit and not finding the answer I needed, I just drank and slept and watched movies to drown my pain and confusion.

Why did my father leave? Why is he suddenly interested in me? Oh now he wants to be in my life. Why? After lying for over ten years? How could mother look me in the eyes all this time and still continue lying to me?

Those were my thoughts throughout those days and at times like this I needed my friends around to help me snap out of it, especially Leo but even Leo left after taking my crap for so long and I understand why. If I give my friend an advise over and over again and he refuses to abide by them, I would leave them be. I would stop giving the advice but I wouldn't drop him like a bad habit.

The sound of the doorbell and pounding on the door made the trolls in my head pound against my eyeballs and my mouth tasted like vomit. Rolling over and hitting the floor, I realized that I was on the couch and the pain I thought I imagined in my shoulder shot up enough to make me hiss.

Oh Fuck. That's too real to be my imagination.

Before I could collect my thoughts, the doorbell rang again. I stumbled towards the door and checked who it was through the peephole. If the light of the day wasn't blinding my eyes already, my eyes would have widened in surprise when I saw Leo standing at the other side of the door with a patient look on his face.

"Keith?!" he called out and I unlocked the door. Every movement hurt my back and I didn't even know why. I couldn't recollect everything that happened the day before,so I didn't even know if I had gotten hurt.

I turned the key and invited him in. He came in and I closed the door behind him before walking towards the kitchen.

"What's up?" he asked as he followed slowly.

"Nothing much."

I replied as I pulled out a bottle of water from the fridge while wishing there was q mirror nearby so that I could look at my back to know why it was throbbing so bad.

After drinking some water, I relaxed a little and then turned to Leo, who had followed me into the kitchen and was looking at me with those hawk like eyes of his.

"What's up? What are you doing here?" I asked as I reached into the freezer for the ice tray in there to rub on my sore back.

"You look like hell." he said and I rolled my eyes before asking the same question again.

"What exactly are you doing here? I know you didn't come here for small talk." I grumbled before leaving the kitchen. Leo was not the type to beat around the bush or make small talks. He said things the way he saw them. And I was too irritated and hungover to beat around the bush and make small talk with him.

"Your mother called and said I should check up on you. Said something about you getting a news you wouldn't know how to deal with."

"You can tell her that I said she can take her concern and shove it into a dark corner. I don't want it."

I replied as I went to the mirror close to the entrance door and pulled off my shirt to know why my back was throbbing back.

"Dude what were you thinking?" I heard Leo ask behind me and I turned around and stared at the mirror for a moment in shock.

I❤Maya was tattooed to my back. My mind went into overdrive and I forgot about my hangover as I tried to recollect the activities of the previous night.

"Tattoos are permanent Keith. Are you sure that's what you wanted tattooed on to your skin?"

"Will you please stop?" I snapped at him when he said something completely opposite from what I was thinking. "I could be really sick right now because infected needles were used. It could be infected because I sure as hell know I didn't follow the instructions given to me yesterday, and that is if I even went to a good tattoo artist. Oh God. This is what I get for being irresponsible and going out and getting drunk."

"Keith calm down."

"Do not fucking tell me to calm down."

"Fine. Do whatever you want. It's not like you've ever been one to listen. This right here is why Maya up and left you. You do not listen. You do not think before you act, you just up and do whatever you want to do without thinking about the consequences. You are hotheaded. Okay tell me how panicking will possibly change the fact that infected needles could have been used on you? And I tell you to calm down and you say you want to do the opposite? Sure then go ahead. Panic all you want. Do not sit down and try to recall your thoughts and the tattoo shop. Just keep panicking."

I glared at him and then sat down and pressed my fingers against my eyes while trying to calm down. After taking deep breaths, I calmed down and something else clicked in my head. Something I had completely forgotten about.

"Ohhh fuck" I muttered as I reached for my phone and checked my messages. Scrolling down past the new messages, I found the one I had forgotten because of the shit I found myself in 3 days ago.

Hey Keith. I'm hungry. Please can you get some ice cream and cake and maybe cookies for me? Thanks if you can☺

I felt like shit and a huge disappointment. I had promised to get her something she craved and k had forgotten. I had not called her in the past three days and that was my pregnant wife (soon to be ex if she won't have me) who had gone into preterm labor once and risked going into it again. A lot could have happened in three days. She could have given birth and moved to Asia for all I knew.

Stop overreacting. She probably didn't move to Asia. But she'd just kick your ass out because she doesn't want to see you, a part of my brain whispered.

I dialled her number and patiently waited for her to pick, which she did at the fifth tone.

"Hello." she said, sounding like she had been asleep before I called. Hearing her voice made me feel better and I relaxed and sank into the chair.

"hey. Good morning. How are you this morning?"

"I've been better." she replied with a yawn and I actually felt bad for waking her up.

"Go back to sleep. Just wanted to check on you. I'll be over to see you once I'm done with what I have to do today."

"Alright. Bye." and she disconnected.

"Here" Leo said as he pushed a glass of water and Tylenol into my hands which I swallowed quickly and then I carefully laid down on the couch so as to not hurt my back.

After close to 30 minutes of listening to him shuffle around while putting things back where they should be, I heard him sit when he was done. Another 5 minutes passed before he said anything.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked and I chuckled. There was nothing to talk about.

"There's nothing to talk about. It's not a big deal, just the usual my-dad-coming-back-from-the-dead-and-wanting-to-be-in-my-life kind of thing. Nothing special. Well you can tell my mother that I don't care about her concern. Thank you." I said as I stood up and carefully started making my way towards the stairs but his next words made me pause.

"I'm sorry."

"I don't want your apology."

"Well it's all I can give since I can't turn back time to change the way I reacted about the whole thing."

Turning fully to face him, I began. "Why? We've been best friends for basically 22 years give or take and you suddenly drop me like a bad habit and then months later you're apologizing to me? Please forgive me for not wanting your apology."

"I liked her."

"What?" I snarled.

"I liked Maya. I thought she was cool and funny she everything a man wants in a woman. But she was your wife and so I hated myself for even thinking that way. But you kept acting like an ass and treating her like shit."

"Wait a minute. That night you gave me that long lecture that made me see her for who she really is, were you talking about yourself?"

"Not exactly because I would never betray you like that to go for your woman. But the difference between me and the men out there is that most wouldn't give a shit about her marriage and would still go for her."

"Like that nurse she went out with back then."

"Yes. So I wasn't happy with the way you reacted when you found out about the pregnancy and the whole divorce brouhaha. You hurt her, and I couldn't go to her because I think of you as my brother and didn't want to feel like I betrayed you by going after your wife when I knew that you were also going through your own emotional turmoil and didn't really mean or realize what you were doing. So I just stayed away. Well I still like Maya but only as a friend, not any other way, and I have calmed down, so when your mother called me this morning, I used that opportunity to just come over and apologize to you like I'd been meaning to."

I stared at Leo for what felt like hours whereas it was at most 2 minutes and then said "okay. It's cool." and started upstairs. "I'm going to shower and then go back to that tattoo shop since I remember it now."

"Which one is it?"

"The one run by the hippie couple a couple of blocks away from your restaurant."

"Ohhh. Sam and Jill. Lucky you they're actually reputable. It's in your best interest not to repeat what you did last night. You may not be so lucky next time. But it's still better to get checked out. When you are done we will find something with which to waste the day." he said with a grin but I shook my head. I already had plans for the day.

"I have to go and see Maya. Haven't seen her in three days and the babies will soon be here."

He nodded and gave me a thumbs up before returning to the sitting room while I went upstairs to shower and brush my teeth and soon, I was on my way to my doctor's place and after the test, I went to the bakery to get a set of freshly baked chocolate cupcakes and then a tub of Ben and Jerry's.

She was still asleep when I got there, so the housekeeper took the ice-cream and put it in the freezer while I just left the cupcakes on her bedside table and waited for her to wake up. She moved and the duvet slid down her stomach and I reached out to push it back up when I caught sight of the skin of her stomach.

I had gone for most of the checkups with her, so I knew how her stomach looked. I had seen every stretch mark there was to see which were not as much as she imagined. I had felt the babies kick more often than not but I had never actually touched Maya's stomach, not for lack of wanting but because I didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

So without even thinking twice about it, I reached out and pressed my right palm against her stomach. It was firm beneath my fingers. I was suddenly swarmed with a feeling of protectiveness towards them even though they were yet to be born. When I realized how bitter Maya had become because of me, I had honestly considered letting her go. If she had told me to leave the babies because seeing me would hurt her more, I would have done it. But at that moment, I realized I couldn't. It wouldn't make me any different from my father that had up and disappeared from my life under the guise of death because it meant I wouldn't be there for my kids and I couldn't do it. The thought of my children hating me because I left them behind scared me because I didn't want that. I didn't want to be that man. Reaching down,i pressed a kiss on her stomach, just above her navel and pushed the shirt down and covered her properly. My eyes went up to her face and found her watching me with those brown eyes of hers.

"You're awake." I said simply and she nodded before struggling to sit up.

"How are you?"

"Tired. Yesterday was a bit busy for me. You?" she asked and I gave her a small smile.

"I'm good. What did you do? I thought they said bed rest."

"I had to move around. It's been two weeks since then. Besides I had to repack the labour bag and iron my nightwear. I had to pick out my favorite toothbrush and make sure the scrapbook is ready. Charged the tab, put in fresh batteries for the camera and so many other things. I set up the car seats too. I don't want to forget anything." she said and I nodded. It made sense.

"Sorry I didn't bring your cake and ice-cream when you asked for it. Let me go and get the ice-cream but here are the cakes." and as soon as she started eating, I went to get the main thing she had asked for. When I got back to her room, she was exiting the bathroom. Apparently she had to pee. She sat down on the chair instead of the bed and started consuming the much needed ice cream.

"Let's watch a movie. I'll share my stuff with you." she said out of the blues and I nodded and asked what she wanted to watch and she replied The Godfather. Typical. Maya loves that movie as much as she loves Pirates of the Caribbeans. The surprising thing about the whole thing was the fact that she was acting like the old Maya. Not the bristle bitter being she had almost become because of me but the sweet person she used to be before I threw everything to the curb. I took it as her way of ensuring that our relationship wouldn't be awkward in future since our babies were almost there.

Thirty minutes into the movie, she excused herself and went into the bathroom again and spent close to twenty minutes in there. I knocked on the door.

"Maya are you okay in there?"

"I dunno. My belly hurts and I just purged out of no where but it still hurts."

"Should I come in?"

"Eww. No. I'll be out in a minute."

"Okay." I replied and waited for her. A minute later, I heard the toilet flush and looked up when she opened the door with a worried look on her face.

"Are you okay?"

"I don't know. I think they're coming. There was this thing that looks like mucus and blood. And my belly still hurts. They did tell me what to look out for, so I really really think they're coming. Again."

"Oh fuck"