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Lucy smiles as Tim walks around the front of the living room couch and hands her the tea he’d just made for her. It’s just citrus tea, as she’s already had a cup of coffee today and she’s been trying to limit her caffeine intake lately. Tim plops down on the couch next to her and she cuddles into his side, signing in contentment as the first sip of hot, steaming liquid runs down her throat, warming her instantly.
Lucy feels Tim’s hand—the arm that’s not around her shoulder—come to rest over her soft stomach. Butterflies swirl through her, and she can’t believe this is her life.
Her and Tim finally got married a few months ago, and she’s just found out that she’s ten weeks pregnant with their first child. She’s not showing yet, and they haven’t told anyone, but they’re already in love with their little strawberry (that’s how big the baby is, according to Lucy’s fruit calendar).
“I can’t wait for our little girl to get here.” Tim mutters, pressing a kiss into her hair.
Lucy rolls her eyes. “We don’t know if it’s a girl yet, Tim.” She smiles as Tim’s thumb runs circles over her nonexistent bump.
“I do. Call it daddy’s intuition.” He argues playfully.
Lucy turns her face to his, furrowing her brow. “What happens if it’s a boy?”
“Then I’ll love him just as much.” He replies, giving her a quick kiss. “But it won’t be.”
Lucy shakes her head at her husband’s stubbornness. It’s a quality she shares, and between the two of them it will almost certainly be passed along to their daughter—child. Damn it, Tim’s corrupting me.
“Okay fine, I’ll play along,” she says. setting her mug down on the coffee table and turning to face Tim fully, legs folded underneath her. “If you’re so confident in this magical intuition of yours, what are we calling her? Because I’ve been keeping a list, and knowing us it’ll take us seven months to decide so I’m ready to negotiate.”
Tim’s grin widens, hand brushing over her stomach again. “Alright, let’s hear it. Lay it on me.”
Lucy reaches for her phone on the side table and navigates to her notes app, scrolling for a moment. “Aha! Okay, first up. What do you think of Eloise?”
Tim pauses for a moment, expression twisting thoughtfully. “Eloise… yeah, actually, I like it.”
Lucy blinks, slightly surprised. “Really? You don’t think it’s a little too… whimsical?”
“I guess it is,” Tim chuckles, rubbing her calf with his thumb. “But I still like it. What’s next?”
“Umm… how about Millicent?”
Tim’s nose immediately crinkles. “No, definitely not. It’s snotty.”
“It is not snotty! It’s traditional.” Lucy argues, mouth pulling into a frown.
“It sounds like a toothpaste brand, Lucy.”
“What?!” Lucy’s jaw drops in exasperation.
“Tell me it doesn’t,” Tim challenges. “Active ingredient: Millicent.”
Lucy stares at him for a moment, trying to come up with an argument, before her shoulders slump. “…Okay, well now you’ve officially ruined it for me.”
“Good,” Tim says, looking pleased with himself.
“Well, how about Milly?” Lucy offers. “It’s what I would want to call her anyway.”
Tim softens, running the name over his tongue. “Milly… okay, I don’t mind that.”
Lucy perks up. “Perfect. On the list it goes,” she says, tapping her screen to edit the note. “What about Mei? It’s a traditional Chinese name, and my grandma’s.”
“It’s nice.” Tim agrees.
“I like it, but I feel like it’s too short,” Lucy muses, tilting her head. “Maybe as a middle name?”
“We can keep it on there in reserve. What else you got?”
“Okay, Juliet.”
Tim winces slightly. “I do like the name, but… it was also my high school girlfriend’s name.”
Lucy doesn’t even hesitate, her thumb already deleting the line. “Got it. Moving on…” She scrolls down to the bottom of the list, then turns back up. “Alright, your turn. I know you’ve been thinking about this.”
Tim clears his throat, settling further into the cushions. “Okay. Emma.”
Lucy smiles softly. “Emma Bradford. Yeah, I like it. It’s simple, but it’s really pretty.”
“And Maya,” Tim adds.
“Aww, that’s cute,” Lucy coos, leaning into him. “I’ll put a star next to that one.” She adds the names to the list, then looks back up at him. “Anything else?”
“How about Charlotte?”
Lucy hesitates, tapping her chin. “…Yes, it's sweet. The only thing is—I really don’t like the nickname Charlie. So we couldn’t call her that. It just makes me think of Charlie Brown, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory… it just doesn’t suit this baby. I can tell.”
Tim chuckles at her passionate disapproval of the name. “But Charlotte is a yes?”
“It’s a maybe,” Lucy compromises, adding ‘Charlotte?’ to the list.
“Okay.” Tim smiles. “I have one more…Zoe.”
Lucy goes quiet, fingers freezing over the phone screen, searching her memory. “Zoe…”
“As in Captain Anderson.” Tim says softly, voice dropping.
A wave of emotion hits Lucy all at once—the hormonal surge making her eyes well up with warm tears. “Oh!”
Tim’s expression turns tender as he wipes away a tear that escaped down her cheek. “She helped me through a lot with Isabel,” He explains shyly. “She practically saved my reputation and my job when she knew I needed to work, and… I just thought… what do you think?”
Lucy smiles through her tears, leaning her forehead into his. “I like it,” she says sincerely.
Tim’s eyes brighten. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” He murmurs, gently kissing her forehead. Add it to the list, then.”
—
They’re laying in an bed hour later, slowly drifting off to sleep when Lucy breaks the silence.
“You know, we should discuss boy names, too,” She mumbles into his chest. “Just in case.”
Tim chuckles. “Okay, Luce.”
Lucy hums in response, poking his side. “I’m serious, if ‘daddy’s intuition’ turns out to be a fluke, we can’t have him be nameless for a week because we were too stubborn.”
“You know we’ll know the gender in a few weeks, Luce. We have plenty of time to discuss names between then and the birth.”
“Oh. Right,” she muses, then lifts her head to stare at him with concern.
“Tiiiiiim,” she whines. “My pregnancy brain is already kicking in! This is gonna be a disaster.” She buries her face in his neck and groans.
Tim belly laughs. “Luckily, I’m here to remind you where your keys are, and to put the orange juice back in the fridge.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re no better than me, Tim.”
He smiles, nuzzling her hair. “Well, then we’ll just have to buy new orange juice, then.”
—