The perfect match

“Why are you here?” Oscar asked when Daniel opened the door of Nicole’s house.
“Good morning, Oscar. Your mother asked for help with some stuff in the garden. As a thank you, I’m getting breakfast. She makes awesome waffles, you should try them!”
“She’s my mum! I know her waffles!” Oscar said, walking by Daniel and into the house. “Where is she anyway?”
“In the bathroom upstairs, Chloe asked for help. Do you want a waffle?” Daniel asked, closing the door.
“Are you seriously offering me waffles in my mum’s house now?”
“Okay, understood, do it yourself.” Daniel said, lifting up his hands in surrender and sitting down in front of his plate, holding a half-eaten waffle with fruit.
“Come on Chloe, breakfast is more than ready. Get it going or Daniel will have eaten all of it.” Nicole warned her daughter while walking into the kitchen, Chloe trailing behind her, hair all over the place, still in her jammies, holding a stuffed meerkat and rubbing her eyes.
“It’s so early.” The little girl complained.
“It’s 9am, Julia is already at school, it is not the middle of the night. Good morning, Oscar, what are you doing here?” she greeted her son who still stood in the middle of the kitchen.
“Good morning, I wanted to bring you the papers you asked for, but I didn’t expect to find Daniel here.” Oscar said a little agitated, dropping the papers on the table.
“Oh, yes, I met him at the store yesterday and he offered to help me put up the shed in the garden.”
“A shed?”
“Yes, you know, for gardening stuff and things. Oh, by the way, I got good news! Chloe sleepyhead over there can start kindergarten next week and I found a job at an online designer store, I can work from home in their phone support for English speaking customers, it’s part-time for now! Do you want a waffle?” Nicole said excitedly, filling dough in the waffle maker.
“No, thank you.” Oscar said, looking at Daniel critically, who just helped Chloe putting chocolate sauce on her waffle. “I have stuff to do, I’ll go home, you have enough help after all.” He said a little bit pissed and hurried out of the house.
“See you later Oscar, thank you!” Nicole yelled after him.
“Is he okay? Should I leave?” Daniel asked when Nicole sat down.
“Yes and no. Oscar is fine, he’s just very cautious with us at the moment and no, I still need you for the shed. More coffee?”
“No, thanks, my head would blow off.”
“Boom!” Chloe exclaimed, piercing some waffle on her fork.
“Boom!” agreed Daniel.

“You’re back already?” Lando yelled out of the home gym when he saw Oscar rush towards him.
“Did you know Daniel is there?!” Oscar almost yelled.
“What?” Lando asked, still lifting the weights.
“Did you know Daniel is at my mums?!”
“No, why?”
“Apparently, he’s ‘helping building the shed’ for her.” Oscar mocked.
“Oh, come on, Osc. It’s not like Daniel is the hot handyman kind of guy, is it?” Lando asked with a laugh, earning a huff from Oscar, who just turned around and walked back out. “Daniel is a good guy!” he yelled after him.

“What do you think?” Daniel asked.
“It’s ugly.” Chloe exclaimed from the lawn chair, wrapped in a blanket due to the weather still being a little chilly. She had been ‘helping’ as she called it, by commenting on Daniel’s every single move.
“What do you mean, it’s ugly?”
“It’s not pink!”
“It is ugly because it’s not pink?”
“Yes. All pretty things are pink.” Chloe said condescendingly.
“I don’t know if your mum would be okay if I paint it pink.”
“Then ask her.”
“You’re really bossy, you know that?”
“Yes. Now will you make it pink?”
“I will have to ask your mum.” Daniel said, crossing his arms.
“Then go.” Chloe said, leaning back her head and putting on her pink sunglasses. Daniel looked at her for a moment, then went inside.

He found Nicole in a little nook in the living room, putting a table in place.
“What do you think? Should fit for a computer and stuff to work, right?” she asked.
“I think it looks really great. Especially with the window, light is important.” Daniel said.
“Okay, good. How is the shed going?” she asked him with a smile.
“It’s ugly.”
“What?”
“That’s Chloe’s opinion. It’s not pink, so it’s ugly. She told me to go ask her mum if I can paint it pink, because only pink things are pretty.” Daniel said with a smile.
“Yeah, she’s got a real phase going.” Nicole laughed “You will not get my permission to paint anything in this house pink, that’s final.”
“Okay, should I tell her or will you?”
“I will, let’s go.” Nicole smiled, passing Daniel and went outside. “Hello little princess.”
“Hey mum, the shed should be pink!” Chloe exclaimed.
“The shed will not be painted pink. We can plant some pink flowers in front if you want.” Nicole said to her, sitting down on the bench next to Chloe’s lawn chair, pointing Daniel to sit next to her.
“But mum! It’s not pink at all! Everybody will think it’s ugly!” Chloe argued.
“That’s why we will put the pink flowers, people won’t realize the shed isn’t pink if you have the pink flowers.” Nicole told her.
“Are you sure? What if people notice anyway?” Chloe worried.
“I’m sure they won’t. And if they do, we can still paint it pink later.” Nicole said with a smile, stroking her daughter’s hair.
“Do you promise?” Chloe asked excited.
“I promise.” Nicole said.
“Okay, I’ll go play dolls now!” Chloe said, jumping up and running into the house.
“Wait, that’s it?” Daniel asked confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I already prepared myself for a total girl meltdown, why didn’t it happen?” he asked confused, letting Nicole laugh.
“That’s what you learn with children. It’s all negotiation and a little bit of stalling weird requests.”
“Really?” Daniel asked.
“Pretty much.” Nicole nodded, looking at the shed. “Thank you for doing all that.”
“Of course, we are friends.” Daniel said smiling and Nicole looked at him for a while.
“You don’t want to be my friend.” She then stated.
“True” Daniel agreed and swallowed. “Do you want to be my friend?”
“I can’t be more than friends.” She said lowly.
“Why not?” he asked.
“I just … I have been with a man the last twenty years who … decided everything. This is the first time in my life I can make decisions for myself. I don’t want to think about a new relationship right now. I want to get settled here, get the girls settled, make sure they are happy … it’s not a no, it’s a not now.” Nicole said.
“Alright, I can work with that.” Daniel said to her.
“Really?” Nicole asked surprised.
“Yes. Your whole life just changed, still is changing. You don’t want to start a new relationship now, you are not ready for that. That is okay. It is good that you know you are not ready for that. I’d rather have you tell me you are not ready than trying it without feeling comfortable.” Daniel said. “Just a couple months ago I thought I’d never be ready for someone else.”

Pierre and Kika sat in the doctor’s office again on Friday, Pierre jumping his heel nervously, Kika taking his hand, trying to calm him.
“Good morning, thank you for waiting.” The doctor said after coming in and sitting down behind his desk. “Well, Mr. Gasly, if we look at all of the data we got from your sperm – “
“Just say it.” Pierre said.
“Well, it is quite unlikely for you to get your wife pregnant in the next months.” The doctor said and Pierre pushed away Kika’s hand. “You should grab it back, pregnant women need support.” The doctor said with a smile.
“What?” Kika asked after a moment of silence.
“What I wanted to say, before your husband interrupted me, is that there is nothing wrong with either one of you. Sometimes it just takes a while, some are lucky and it takes a single heat, others need a couple times. You also told me that you don’t get your heats regularly, that might also have an influence. It’s always a mixture of intent, luck and timing. You are about 6 weeks along, your bloodwork looks good, we would just set you up with some vitamins to keep you levelled.” The doctor said, pushing a box of tissues towards them when he saw tears in Kika’s eyes. “If you have a little more time, I would like to do an ultra-sound, but please take a moment for yourself first.” He added and left the office. They had the ultra-sound a couple minutes later, leaving the office with some pictures and vitamins.
“So … no China for you, no Miami … if you want to you could visit Italy, we could drive or go by train, just in case.” Pierre said, pacing through their appartement.
“Pierre” Kika tried to interrupt him.
“Maybe we are lucky for once and it’s coming between Brazil and Vegas, do you want to have it in France? But they have really good hospitals here as well –“
“PIERRE!” she was finally able to interrupt, smiling at him from the couch and stretching her arms for him. “Come here.” Pierre hurried over to her, cuddling them together. “I would like to wait a little bit until we tell people.”
“Whatever you want.” He mumbled against her neck, kissing her scent gland.
“You know I’m going to eat anything I want now.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be growing like crazy.”
“Growing our pup.” Pierre said with a smile.
“Growing our pup.” Kika agreed, smiling widely.