Four months later Zac was enjoying the fruits of a pregnant wife. She was growing out of all of clothes and getting very discouraged about it, and he had to constantly reassure her of how good she looked. Her mood swings were out of control (Kris even told him she didn't remember her being this emotional) and Zac was getting slightly tired of it all.
"Zac! Where the FUCK are my marshmallows?" Ginger yelled from the kitchen. Zac groaned and got up, walking over to the kitchen.
"Yes, honey?"
"Have you seen the marshmallows?" she asked again, slightly impatiently. Zac looked around.
"They're over there." Ginger looked over at the kitchen table, where a bag of half-eaten marshmallows lay.
"Oh. Thank you!" She kissed him then walked over to the table, grabbed the marshmallows, and left with a little bounce in her step. He rolled his eyes. This was starting to get out of hand. He followed her into the living room. In about a half an hour they'd have to leave for the ob-gyn. Today Ginger was getting an ultrasound and she definitely wanted Zac to be there, so he took the day off work to be with her. "Oh, Zac, babe, Kris and Taylor wanted us all over for dinner tonight."
"Okay," Zac said. "Why?"
"I don't know. I'm sure if we find out the sex of the baby they'll want to know right away, so that could be a reason."
"Can we find out the sex today?"
"This was about the time I found out about Jenny," Ginger said. "Actually, it's three weeks later. It all depends on the way the baby's facing. We might be able to." Zac nodded. "What do you want?"
"A boy."
"Really? Me too," Ginger said.
"Yeah, 'cause we already have a girl�it'd be nice for variety," Zac said. "And if not, we can try for a boy next time."
"Next time?" Ginger asked, looking over at him. "How many kids do you think we're going to have? I'm not going to be like your mother and spit out twenty-seven children."
"There are only seven of us, thank you very much," he said, giving her a look. "And I'd thought we'd settled on four."
"Four? When did we settle this?"
"On our first date," Zac said, plainly. "We somehow got on the subject. You said you wanted two, I said that wasn't enough, so we settled on four." Ginger sat back and thought about it, stuffing another oversized marshmallow in her mouth. "Do you not remember?"
"Not really," she said, her mouth full of fluff.
"We were sitting in a Village Inn two days after we met, you were having chocolate chip pancakes and a cup of tea, and I was just having coffee. You kept telling me breakfast is the most important meal of the day�"
"You still don't eat breakfast," she said, smiling.
"I guess I should have listened to you."
"I can't believe you remember that," Ginger said. "I don't remember that at all."
"Well that's the difference between you and me. I remember things."
"I remember the first night we spent together," Ginger said.
"Well who could forget that?" Zac asked. Ginger smiled, thinking back on it. She could hardly remember how they began. It seemed like ages ago, although it was only coming up on five years. Zac seemed to remember it like it was five minutes ago and Ginger wondered how he could do that. Maybe it was because she had a lot more to remember than he did. "�Do you want to go?" he asked.
"Yeah," Ginger said. "I'll get Jenny." She walked out of the room and went to the stairs. "Jennifer! We're leaving!"
"Mom!"
"We're leaving now! You're just going down the block to Auntie Kristina's!" Ginger yelled up the stairs. A minute later Jenny came running down. Jenny was nearly four years old now and she was definitely looking it. Her hair was getting very long but neither Ginger nor Zac wanted to cut it, and her little legs were finally big enough to go up and down the stairs without problem. She was riding a bike with training wheels now and Zac wanted to get her out on it without them, but Ginger was still skeptical ("Zo� learned when she was five," Zac had told her).
"Do I have to go? I want to go with you and Daddy," Jenny said. Ginger shook her head.
"No, Jenny, I know you. You want to go now but once you get there and there's nothing for you to do, you'll whine until we go home. This is important to Daddy and me, even if you're not excited about the new baby. Today we find out if it's a boy or a girl." Jenny pouted. "I don't want to see it. You're going to your Auntie's house and that's it. Now come on, if you want to bring anything, get it now."
"I don't want to bring anything," she said.
"All right. I'll take you down there. Zac, I'll be right back."
"Okay!" Zac said from the living room. Ginger took Jenny's hand and went out the front door. Her and Jenny cut across the front lawn to the sidewalk.
"Aren't you the least bit excited about having a new brother or sister?" Ginger asked Jenny. She shook her head. "Oh come on, it'll be fun. If it's a girl you get to hang out with her and talk and stuff�and if it's a boy you can push him around because you're older."
"I like it when it's just you, me, and Daddy," Jenny said.
"Honey, as you get older you're going to realize that things aren't always going to turn out the way you want them to. You're not even giving this a chance. You may really like having someone to play with. God forbid you make any friends with the kids around the neighborhood�"
"There are no kids," Jenny said.
"Well, that is true," Ginger said. "There aren't any kids your age. But once you get to school you'll make a lot of friends. I'm not too worried about you. I was just like you when I was your age." Jenny looked, wide-eyed, up at her mother.
"You were my age?"
"I know it's hard to believe, honey, but I was a little kid like you once. I used to play with dolls and ride my bike and everything," Ginger said. "I'm not old, am I?"
"Yes!" Jenny said, giggling. Ginger's mouth dropped.
"Jenny! How dare you!" Jenny giggled again and Ginger gave her a playful look, tugging on her hand as they crossed the street and walked up to Kris and Taylor's front door. As usual, she didn't knock before she entered. "Hello? Sis? Taylor?"
"In here!" Kris shouted from the living room. Ginger went further inside while Jenny ran up the stairs immediately. Kris and Taylor's house was a lot like Zac and Ginger's but it seemed that everything faced the other way. Ginger went into the living room where Kris and Taylor were sitting on the recliner together.
It wasn't long after Ginger got pregnant that Kris and Taylor finally announced that they had indeed been 'living together' in every literal and metaphorical use of the phrase. Ginger and Zac both knew that it was going to happen; it was just when they were going to admit it that was up for debate. Nobody had a problem with it, and they both seemed very happy just living together.
"Hey," Ginger said. "Jenny just ran upstairs. Me and Zac will be back later, and we'll come right over here for dinner."
"Okay," Kris said. "Are you going to find out the sex today?"
"Ooh, sex," Taylor said. Kris rolled her eyes but he grabbed her around the waist and began kissing her neck. Ginger raised an eyebrow. Kris and Taylor had gotten so used to each other Ginger was beginning to wonder if they still did this sort of thing.
"Hey," Ginger said, wagging a finger in disapproval, "not around my kid."
"Sorry, Rose," Kris said, trying to get up but Taylor pulled her back down. She laughed and kissed him a moment before looking back at her sister. "I'll see you when you get back! Tell me right when you get in the door!"
"All right," Ginger said, smiling. She left and as soon as she was outside she spoke again. "Well, at least they haven't lost their spark."
After the ultrasound Zac and Ginger returned in a very cheerful mood. Ginger couldn't stop looking at the picture she got from the doctor, and Zac was ecstatic with the news that they were indeed going to have a boy. Ginger had already told Zac about the name Christopher Joshua, and he loved it, so that was the name of their child.
"I love you," Zac whispered into Ginger's neck. They'd been standing up against Kris's door for the past fifteen minutes, making out like they were kids again. Ginger was in the stage of pregnancy where she was so horny she was dying and Zac didn't seem to have a problem taking advantage of that.
"Do we have to go in there?" Ginger asked. "We can just go back home, leave Jenny here, and do our own thing for a while�"
"You know they'll just get worried," Zac said. "We should probably go in."
"Not even a quickie?" Ginger asked. "I'm sure they won't mind."
"We called them when we left the doctor and said we'd be here in ten minutes. That was nearly a half an hour ago," Zac said.
"Oh, screw you," Ginger said. She turned around and opened the door. "Hello?"
"Where have you been?" Kris asked, immediately walking into the hallway. "You said ten minutes! That was twenty minutes ago!"
"I'm sorry," Ginger said, and didn't explain. "Geez."
"Oh�I see," Kris said. "You two were doing it."
"No, we weren't," Ginger said. "We were making out against your front door." Zac rolled his eyes and walked into the house. He still couldn't believe how much Kris and Ginger spoke about these types of things. "So technically we were here."
"Whatever, come on in. Sit down and tell me the sex of your second child." Ginger didn't say anything until she was sitting in the living room with Zac. Kris and Taylor were nearby on the recliner that they had been on when Ginger dropped Jenny off. "Well?" Kris asked.
"Well what?" Ginger asked.
"Tell me!"
"All right, all right," Ginger said. "It's a boy!"
"Oh my God! Yay!" Kris said. "That's what you wanted, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Ginger said. "And we already decided we're going to name him Christopher Joshua."
"What about Christopher Taylor?" Taylor suggested.
"What about no?" Zac replied.
"Why not? You named Jenny after Kristina!" Taylor said, looking at Zac.
"No," Zac said, "Ginger named her. Anyway, Taylor's a girl's name."
"No it's not!" Taylor said, sitting up. "Taylor is a perfectly good name."
"Yeah," Ginger said. "For a girl." Taylor gave her a look. "Honestly, how many boys do you know with the name Taylor? All the Taylor's I know are girls."
"Are you saying my fianc�'s name is girly?" Kris asked.
"Yeah, I�wait. What?" Ginger asked, eyeing her sister, who held up her left hand, a large diamond ring on her finger. Ginger screamed and hugged her sister. "Oh my God!! When did this happen?"
"Last night," Kris said. Ginger took her hand and looked at it.
"Oh my God," Ginger said. "Zac, look at this!"
"I know," Zac said. Ginger turned immediately around.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"Um�I'm psychic." She gave him a look. "I helped Taylor pick out the ring."
"You knew!" Ginger asked. "You knew he was going to propose and you didn't tell me? You bastard!" Ginger began to hit him.
"Ow! Ow! Ginger, stop!"
"When did you know?" she asked.
"I'm not answering that!" he said. "Stop hitting me! Kristina!"
"I'm going to allow this," Kris said. Ginger hit Zac for a little while longer, and then stopped when her hand got tired.
"Anyway," Zac said, rubbing his sore arm, "If I would have told you, you would have told Kris."
"I wouldn't have said anything!" Ginger said.
"My ass. You tell her everything, even the things I tell you not to say." Ginger rolled her eyes. "So, what about dinner?"
"Um�pizza?" Kris suggested.
"I thought we came here to have dinner," Zac said.
"I never said I was going to make dinner."
"I'll make dinner," Taylor said, getting up. "Kris can't cook anyway. You can tell her and Ginger are sisters."
"We're not really sisters," Kris said. "We just say we are."
"Close enough," Taylor said. "It's a common trait between the two of you that you cannot cook." Zac went to join Taylor in the kitchen and Kris and Ginger began to chat excitedly about their news.
"So have you talked anything about when you're going to get married yet?" Ginger asked. Kris had joined her on the couch.
"No, not yet. But we're actually going to have a ceremony," Kris said pointedly. "We're not going to run off and get eloped like you, you loser!"
"Whatever," Ginger said, sitting back. She put her hands on her stomach and felt the baby kick. "Hey Zac! Your baby is kicking the hell out of me!"
"Oh! I want to feel!" Zac said. He ran over, pushed Kris onto the floor, and put his hand on Ginger's stomach, who was laughing hysterically at Kris on the floor. "Stop laughing!"
"I'm sorry," she said, calming down. "Thanks for pushing my sister on the floor."
"Yeah, Zac," Kris said, sitting up. "Thanks for pushing me on the floor." She stood up. "I can see where I'm not wanted. Taylor, you want me, don't you?"
"I guess I have to have you," he said, "Since we're going to get married and all." Kris smiled.
"We are getting married, aren't we?" Kris said. She put her arms around him and kissed him, Ginger and Zac looking on with a smile.