Erika couldn’t wait until the little bundle of joy that she was carrying came into the world. She was pregnant with her first child and while she still had almost seven months to go, she hoped that everything went according to plan. She was already getting the ideas for the baby’s nursery and the way that she felt, her instincts told her that she was having a boy. Everything couldn’t be better. She was married to a wonderful man, Daniel Walker of six years and the excitement of their first child was hardly something she could contain. Her mother and sister, Kyra were fussing over her and she had to admit, she enjoyed the attention. She just wished she got the same attention from Daniel.

Daniel was a bouncer at a club downtown. He would leave home around seven in the evening and then come home at all times of the night. It was fine when they first dated. That’s where she met him. She was a regular at the Star Lounge and it didn’t take long before they were flirting and she was getting in without paying the cover. They would sit and talk while they stood at the door and listened to the DJ. Six months after their meeting he asked her out. The rest was history for them. A year or so later, they were engaged and married. Since then, she quit her job and spent most of her time at home while he continued his job.

It wasn’t until recently then that she started to resent the long hours that he put in at the club. He was almost never home and when he was he was stretched out on the couch. Now that she was pregnant, she wanted him to be at home and he didn’t want to bend on skipping work to stay in for a night or two. He always said he needed the money. He always said that he wanted to be there but there were more important things to take care of. She knew they had bills, but it was nothing that they couldn’t handle before she got pregnant and the option of her going back to work was out of the question.

She bustled around the kitchen to make breakfast that she was sure that he wouldn’t eat until later. He came in around four thirty last night. She didn’t hear him come in but she did see him as she came down the hallway of their apartment. He was stretched out on the couch in the all black tall tee and jeans that he had on; shoes still on and arms folded like he was still guarding the a door. She smiled. As much as she wanted to be angry she knew that he was doing what he needed for their family.

She took out the eggs and scrambled them with a side of bacon and made a plate for him, wrapped it with aluminum foil, and left it on the counter for him to get when he woke up. She took her plate and headed for their bedroom, ready to spend her day doing the only thing that she could. Watching soaps and Netflix. Around two, Daniel entered their room, eyes glossed over from the sleep he had just abandoned.

“Hey, baby,” she smiled as he crawled into bed and lay next to her.

“Hey,” he closed his eyes again.

“Did you get your breakfast?” She rubbed his head and watched as he seemed to doze off again.

“Yeah, I saw it. I’ll eat it later. All I want to do is stretch out next to you,” Daniel’s head hit her shoulder and between a few blinks he seemed to doze off again.

Erika shrugged and went back to the soap operas that had her attention. A baby was needed to join a family and everyone in the family was doing everything in their power to either solidify power or keep that from happening.

“What are you watchin’?” She heard from her right.

Daniel had his eyes closed but she was sure that he had heard everything that was going on the screen.

“See, Laura, she’s pregnant. But she doesn’t exactly know by who. She slept with two brothers and now if she’s pregnant by Jeremy her and the baby inherit a multi-billion dollar fashion agency. If she’s pregnant by Avery then she ends up back in the dead end job that she started out with,” she looked over at Daniel and saw that he had dozed off again.

Erika laughed and covered him up again and went back to her show. A few hours passed before she got up and headed for the kitchen. She came back with a bowl of fruit and saw that Daniel was up again, back against the headboard while he flipped through the channels. It was almost four thirty and he would be getting ready to go back to the club in a couple of hours.