Fulfillment Golland, M. (best classic literature TXT) 📖

with mybody preparing for when I would be required to be awake forfeeding, and the times I would then be recouping those lost hoursof sleep. It was either that, or I was just simply excited that ina few hours I would be seeing Nate and Charli again.

I decided thatas I was awake before Bryce—and that it was, in fact, a rarity—Iwould make him breakfast for once. The problem with that idea wasthat I prayed to God I’d be able to keep the contents of my stomachexactly where they should be—in my stomach. Having a heightenedsense of smell was definitely not one of my favourite perks ofpregnancy. Touch...yes. Smell...no.

I swear I haddeveloped superhuman smelling abilities, and unfortunately, most ofthe scents I picked up on sent my tummy into a state of nausea. Aclient had come into the foyer the other day, and straight away Icould smell onions. I must have resembled a Customs Sniffer-dog,sticking my nose in the air as he walked in and practically givingthe poor man an interrogation as to where the onion smell wascoming from. Mr. Onions had quickly revealed that he’d eaten asalad roll containing them for lunch, and I’m guessing he’d hopedthat his confession was enough for me to drop the questioning. Itwas. But, as soon as he entered Bryce’s office, I’d had no choicebut to run to the bathroom, only to be greeted with myhalf-digested morning tea. Oh, hello banana and hot whitechocolate, nice to see you again. Urgh!

My plans forbreakfast were to cook Bryce some bacon and eggs with a fruit saladas a side. Cooking this particular meal could prove to be a riskymove as eggs were definitely a vomit-express trigger, but I knew heloved his eggs for breakfast, so I was willing to take thatgamble.

I decided Iwould have a little work out on the gym set before breakfast. Ihadn’t exercised in such a long time, and quite frankly I felt veryblah, tight, and sore. Working out during pregnancy was perfectlysafe, and I knew from my past experience that moderate exerciseearly on in your pregnancy could be extremely beneficial, not onlyfor weight control but also for mobility and the prevention achesand pain.

I started witha five-minute, warm-up walk on the treadmill. Ah, this isn’t sobad. I felt good, so I eagerly moved across to the exercisebike for a twenty-minute, fat-burning cycle on a low setting,again, easing myself back into it.

After mysubtle fat-burning cycle, I figured I would try some light weights.I was pretty sure my muscle mass had packed its bags and pissed offelsewhere, due to having basically neglected to use my muscles foranything of late, including sex, thanks to Bryce. So the loss of myflexed biceps saddened me. I gave them a little jiggle. I’mpretty sure they are not supposed to just wobble and flap likethat. I gave them another jiggle. I’m pretty sure I looklike an idiot.

I dropped myarms self-consciously, glad that City Towers was one of the tallerbuildings in the vicinity and that no-one else could see mestanding on the roof top with my arms out, wobbling my arm fat andresembling some nutcase practising a new weird-arsed dancemove.

Disgusted andembarrassed by my arm-flabbiness, I was now keen to getreacquainted with the weight machine in front of me. I executedsome lateral pull-downs, chest presses and bicep curls thenswitched to my lower body and carried out a couple of legextensions, abductor crunches and leg presses. Bryce also had across trainer, so I opted to finish off on that, running at a lowlevel for 10 minutes. That was when he came out with a horrifiedlook on his face.

I smiled athim, but his look didn’t change, so I slowed down my strides to askhim what was wrong. “Is everything alright?”

“I don’t thinkyou should be exercising on your own. Why didn’t you wake me?” Heleaned up against the weight machine and crossed his arms over hisabdomen.

“Because youwere sleeping soundly, and I thought that since I need to get usedto waking at different hours, I’d get up, do a work out, then cookyou breakfast.” I slowed to a stop, took a long swig of my waterand stepped off the machine.

As I took thatfinal step down, my legs nearly gave way and I stumbled slightlyinto Bryce’s waiting arms. “What the fuck, Alexis? Are you tryingto kill yourself and our child?” he yelled angrily.

“Of coursenot. Don’t be silly,” I said a little shocked. “My legs just need asecond to remember how to work again, that’s all.”

“Exactly, youhaven’t worked out in a while. You need to take it easy. Should youeven be working out at all?” he asked with an accusatory tone. Atone I did not like.

“Yes, it’sfine. I just need to do a little, a little more often.”

“Well from nowon, you are not doing it without me, got it?”

“Bryce you’rebeing ridiculous.” And annoyingly bossy.

“No, I’m not.”He opened my water bottle and not so subtly requested I drink somemore. I snatched the bottle from his hands and released myself fromhis grip.

“I told you,exercising is fine. It’s perfectly safe, and I’m going to continueto do it with or without you. I will not allow myself to undo allthe hard work I’ve put in over the past few years.” I walked pasthim and headed to the kitchen.

“Alexis, I’mjust trying to keep you both safe.”

He followedbehind me, stopping at the other side of the bench. I’d pre-madethe fruit salad, so moved it toward him without saying a word. Icracked a few eggs into a frying pan and toasted some bread whilethe eggs cooked. Thankfully, the fact I was now pissed offeffectively distracted me from the possibility of vomiting.

“Alexis.”

“What?” Istill refused to look at him as I continued cooking breakfast.

I had placedsome bacon under the griller on low before I started my work out,and it was now perfectly crisp. I pulled it out and arranged it onthe plate then scooped the eggs from the pan and placed them ontothe slices off buttered toast.

“Hunny, pleaselook at me.” His voice had softened so I looked up. “Maybe youshould stop exercising until we speak to Dr. Rainer?”

“So, this