8.9: Countless Conflicts and Second Babies

   Maya and I were standing in the houseboat's kitchen discussing my now over life guard career and potential desk job, as well as our future family home, as Phoebe napped in her crib.
   "Did you quit your job yet?" Maya asked for the tenth time that night.

   "I pulled some strings and begin my office job Monday, I have two more days to keep the beach safe." I technically hadn't quit, I had been moved to a different department run by the city of Isla Paradiso.
   "Okay, good. Wait, two days!?"
   "It isn't that long. The pay period is monthly, so I'm going to work a full month before stopping."
   "Harbor." She said, rolling her eyes. "I told you three months ago what we wanted, that means two months ago you should have stopped lifeguarding."
   "The summer is the busiest, they needed the help. I got a bonus."
   "But, that office job offers a fifteen cent raise every six months, biweekly pay that is hourly, not based off of how many lives you save, with a New Year's and Fourth of July bonus."

   "I know and six months from now, you'll be in labor and I'll get a raise." I quietly said, trying to refrain from sounding rude. Ever since she found out she was pregnant three months ago, she had been much more pushy, to the point where I wanted to scream. Not that I would ever do that to my pregnant wife; it didn't matter what was going on, when fighting with a lady who was expecting, you were always the bad guy.
   "Harbor, honey." She shook her head and softened her tone, acting as if I was clueless. "We're going to have a house payment soon. Two months will make a big difference, if only you had listened four months from now you'd have gotten a bonus and I would be attending top notch birthing class because I'd be seven months along."
   "I'm just saying that in the grand scheme of things-"
   "Harbor, I just want you to be safe. Phoebe and the baby need their daddy."
   "Stop saying my name like that, please." I said through clenched teeth.

   "Like what?" She innocently asked.
   "Patronizingly."
   "Why would I talk like that? I'm just saying..." She looked down at her feet. Here it comes. "Th-th-that I love you so much and care so much!" She blubbered on about caring and how my foolish, risky behavior showed how selfish I was and how she married a kind man and I should act like him, not this ridiculous person who refused to acknowledge that change was good. "A-and after all of that, I mean, how could you not agree? See you and Phoe are my only family. How could you do that to us?"
   "I care, Maya. Honestly I do. I love you and Phoebe and the baby so much that words cannot describe it, I just don't understand why two days or two months is such a large deal."
   "So you're sorry and admit that you're wrong?"
   "I didn't say-"
   "Oh good!" She leaned forwards, hugging me. "By the way, I found a house that we're getting. Three bedrooms, two bath, it is just pure lovely."
   "Okay. Yes." For the second time I agreed to a major life change, reluctantly, as my wife blindly ignored my nonverbal clues. It was so much easier to make her happy then to try and fight for what I wanted.

Six months later...

 

   My job was filing papers. Filing papers. I took sloppily filled out forms, typed all the data into the computer, then printed the typed form and stuck it in a filing cabinet. I didn't think that desk jobs would be as exciting as life guarding, I just thought it wouldn't be a glorified secretary position. I couldn't complain, though. Pay was decent, benefits alright, and Maya was happy that it was safer than my old job and constantly reminded me of this fact.

   "How are my two girls?" I asked, as I walked into the front lobby slash living room of our new home. Maya had informed me that she liked this house, it had enough bedrooms and bathrooms, and was only a little bit out of our price range. Little, used in that sentence, meant ten thousand six hundred dollars.

   "I'm good, daddy." Phoebe said, as she sat in my wife's lap, looking up from the story Maya was reading her about creativity. 

   "That's good. Did you have fun today with mommy?"

   "Yeah. We read books and I drew with crayons!"

   "What did you draw?"

   "Our house."

   "Wow, bet it is really pretty. You're a good artist."

   "Thank you, daddy." Phoebe said, her tiny cheeks turning crimson.

   "Harbor, please don't flatter her. We want modest children, not children who are praised for every tiny thing they do, okay? Vanity isn't appealing."

   "Sorry, hon. I don't think one compliment about her crayon picture is going to go to her head, though."

   "You don't know that. Are you going to applaud the child when it emerges from my womb? Congratulations, you did something the majority of the population did in order to be alive."

   "It will be okay." I said through gritted teeth. Maya's hormones left her temperamental more often then not... or at least I hoped it was pregnancy hormones. if this was the new her, what would I do? "Take my hand." I said, bending down a bit.

   "Why? I'm reading to Phoe."

   "Because..." I sighed. "I would like to do something."

   "Look, I-" I took a hold of her hand as Phoebe wobbled off to the side, taking ahold of the handmade doll my sister Basil had sent. She'd apparently bought it while traveling through some foreign country, pursing the art of landscape photography. 

    "I wanted to do that." I said, after I planted a kiss firmly on her lips. "Because I love you and I thought it served as a decent hello."
   "Harbor..." She said, staring into my eyes. "You're such a good kisser. Did I ever tell you that?"
   "Nope, but you did now."
   "I love you... you know I'm just trying to do what is best, right?"
   "Yeah, I know. You're a great mother, just keep in mind just because you agree with something doesn't mean that it is what is best."
   "Haha, yeah. Funny." She chuckled.
   "I wasn't kidding."
   "You know I know best. You were, weren't you, though?" She kept laughing, assuming that my statement was simply there for comic relief.
    "I..." Once again, I didn't bother trying to correct her. Was it my fault she was this way? I didn't correct her because I didn't want a full blown fight; our small skirmishes were bad enough. "How was your day?" Was what I asked, instead of stating my opinion.
   "Oh, fine." She said. "Hey, stop that!" She pushed my head away from her neck hat I ad just begun kissing. "We don't want to do too much in front of Phoebe, she'll grow up slutty."
   "It was just a couple pecks. I'm sure she won't remember, but if she does she'll know her parents loved each other and won't be prudish about kissing."
   "Are you being funny again? I swear, you marry a man with a sense of a humor and he never stops cracking jokes. Speaking of jokes, Phoebe thought of a name for the baby if she is a she."
   "What is it?"
   "Oh, I don't know... It was silly and I'm fairly certain it is going to be named Levi, cause he'll be a guy."

   "Okay, still doesn't hurt to have suggestions." I helped Maya get get back onto her feet properly, then walked over to Phoebe and picked her up. "What did ya want to name the baby if it's a girl?"
   "Marlo!"
   "Marlo?" I asked. Marlo wasn't a bad name; at least it was a real name and not something like Princess Sparkles. "I like it." I said, smiling.
   "No, no. Hon, ask her how she'd spell it." Maya insisted.
   "Em, ah, R, el, oh." Phoebe said. "Marlo! My sissy's name."
   "M-A-R-L-O? That's how I would spell it. What's wrong with it?"
   "Um, no W at the end."
   "Spelling doesn't matter much, does it? I mean, if it does't change the pronunciation."

   "But I like it with a W."
   "I know,  either way the name is pretty."
   "Well. Still, honey you don't understand."
   "Alright." I sighed. "Don't you think it is a boy, anyways?"
   "Yeah, but with a W is the right way."
   "Okay, momma." Phoebe said. "You told me I getta meet sissy or brother next week, so it okay. ou getta talk about Marlo, my sissy more."
   "She's right we can chat about it. Let's not stress we have a week."
   "But, Harbor! W. That's final. Aren't you listening to me? Dammit-"
   "Careful, Phoebe's listening."
   "Earlier I thought you said it was okay for you to kiss my neck because she wouldn't remember. Please explain."
   "I'm... nevermind. Sorry."
   "Thank you." She said, as I began walking towards the kitchen. "Where are you going?"
   "I figured since it was nice out I'd go to the patio with Phoebe."
   "But I was reading to her."
   "I know, I just-"
   "Look, you keep assuming stuff and I'm tired of it."
   "Sorry, I know that there's a bit of conflict between us right now, with all the changes, just... we need to keep a stable head."
   "Stable head." She calmly said. "Okay... sorry, I..."
   "Mama... you're wet." Phoebe pointed to Maya's jeans.

   "FUDGE. Honey, get the car. I'm having a baby." I began panicking, holding Phoebe and running to get her hospital bag in order. After a few moments I managed to get Phoebe buckled into her car seat, help Maya into the vehicle, and begin driving towards the hospital. After a short, and very drugged up, labor Maya and I had momentarily forgotten our petty argument because we had another child. A daughter, names Marlo. M-A-R-L-O. I hadn't been able to keep my dream job, our houseboat, got no say in which family home we owned or the car we drove, but I managed to have my daughter who I instantly fell in love with named what my first little girl wanted. That was enough for now.