“What are you talking about?” I said, my voice rising about four octaves. “We can’t have children!”
“Why not?” he said challengingly. “You said you wanted to have kids, so let’s do it. We’ll find a way.”
My head was about to explode with the impossibility of what he was saying. We had nowhere to live, no jobs, no money, he’d only just got his high school diploma and was thinking about going back to study at college and he was still only 17! And then, that sneaky little voice in the back of my head said, Why not? What are you waiting for? He’s got all the time in the world but you haven’t. You want to wait till you’re middle-aged to be pregnant?
His body had tensed up and I could tell he was waiting for my reaction. I tried to make light of the situation.
“Fine. But let’s talk about it when you’ve got your degree. I’m not going to rob you of a chance to go to school. We can wait three years: we’re not in that much of a hurry. Besides, we want to see Italy first, don’t we?”
I felt his body relax again and he kissed my shoulder.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to miss that. Okay, when I’m 21. That would be cool. Hey, do you like the name ‘Orlando’? I went to school with a kid who was named that – he said it was after some character in a play.”
I smiled.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are. The name ‘Orlando’ is the Italian form of Roland. It’s also used in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ – but I always think of the book by Virginia Woolf.”
“What’s that about?”
“A time-traveling man who becomes a woman.”
Sebastian was speechless for exactly three seconds: then he started laughing.
“You’re kidding me! Seriously?”
Small waves started washing over the side of the tub as laughter rippled through him.
“Sebastian! You’re causing a flood!”
But he couldn’t stop laughing. I twisted around to look at him, adding to the water spilling over the edge.
Tears were squeezing themselves from the corner of his eyes and there didn’t seem to be much chance that he’d gain control of himself anytime soon. I shook my head, a smile pinned to my face. Hopeless!
I climbed out of the tub awkwardly. Sebastian made a half-hearted grab for me but was too weak from laughter and I slipped out of his grasp.
I picked up one of the towels he’d laid aside and started drying myself while he lay helpless in the now tepid water.
“Are you quite finished?” I said, raising one eyebrow, as his laughter turned to wheezing.
He grinned up at me then slid completely under the water and sat up quickly, rivers of bathwater pouring off his face.
He leapt out of the tub and tried to grab me again.
“Oh no! You’re all wet, mister, and I only just got dry!”
I threw a towel at him which he caught before it hit his chest.
He made a few quick passes then tossed it on the floor where it started to soak up the spilled water.
The look on his face had me backing up into the bedroom.
“Sebastian! It’s nearly 2 AM. We have to be up in less than six hours.”
“Plenty of time,” he said, his voice a growl.
Unbelievable!
When I finally woke up Sebastian’s heavy arm was pinning me to the bed and daylight was pouring into the room. I screwed up my eyes to see the time by my wristwatch. It was already 10 AM: check-out time.
“Damn it!”
I pushed his arm off and sat up in alarm.
“Caro! What’s wrong?”
He was awake immediately.
I threw myself back on the bed helplessly, angry with myself and frustrated at the lateness of the hour. No, I was angry with him. If he hadn’t kept me up half the night – if he hadn’t been up half the night – I wouldn’t have slept in: not today.
“Caro!”
“I wanted to get home early,” I grumbled.
He pulled me over to face him.
“Why? What’s the big rush?”
“I just wanted to catch… David… before he went to work. Assuming he went home last night. Now I’ll have to put off telling him again… unless I go to the hospital. I guess I could do that.”