the box. “Middle of the road is usually a safe bet. Just ’cause something’s flashy doesn’t mean it’s the best.”
“True,” she murmured as the baby started to fuss. “We better hurry. She’s getting hungry and we’re about five minutes from complete devastation.”
Balancing the car seat box in the seat of the cart, I followed her to the front of the store and unloaded the supplies while she grabbed about ten reusable bags from the end of the aisle. Blankets, towels, wash cloths, tiny baby clothes, diapers, bottles, pacifiers, some sort of baby carrier that looked like it would take an hour to put on, nursing pads, the list went on and on. She helped me unload as the baby began to really fuss, and then her eyes widened.
“Shit,” she said, bouncing up and down. “I completely forgot—I’ll be right back.”
She took off without another word.
“New babies are hard,” the checker said sympathetically. “Especially ones as fresh as yours.”
I nodded.
“She can take her time,” the woman continued with a smile as I lifted the car seat so she could scan it. “There’s no line and I’ve got nowhere to be.”
“Thanks,” I said, glancing back toward the rest of the store. I wasn’t sure if I should follow Cecilia or wait while she got whatever she’d forgotten. Deciding to wait, since I wasn’t even sure where she’d gone, I shot an uncomfortable smile at the checker.
“First baby?” she asked knowingly.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Don’t worry, it doesn’t get easier,” she said, laughing. She leaned against her station. “Just kidding. I mean, it really doesn’t get easier, but it changes. Right now, it’s all about the lack of sleep and making sure they eat and poop enough. That goes away and you’ll wish they weren’t pooping so much!” She laughed again. “But eventually, you’ll only be worrying whether they’re safe and happy.”
“Your kids grown now?” I asked.
“Picked up on that, did you?” she said with a wistful smile. “It’s cliché and hard to understand when you’re in the thick of it, but trust me on this—soak up every second of this stage because before you know it, that baby will be a toddler and then heading off to school and then graduating, and it’ll feel like you blinked and missed it.”
“I’ll do my best,” I replied, uncomfortable with the entire conversation. I wasn’t about to correct her and embarrass her for assuming, but it also felt really fucking weird acting like I was any part of the baby’s life. She was going to be gone the next day and I really was going to miss it all.
Just as I finally decided that I was going to find Cecilia and was pulling my wallet out of my back pocket to pay, the sound of the baby girl’s cries became audible and they came around the corner.
“Sorry,” Cecilia apologized, out of breath. “I forgot to get a few things.”
She threw a package of underwear, a bra, a pair of sweats and matching sweatshirt, and a big package of pads on the conveyor belt. My lips twitched.
“Postpartum bleeding is no joke,” she huffed, her cheeks a little pink.
“You could’ve just used the diapers,” I joked. “They look about the same size.”
Cecilia scoffed, but she was trying not to smile.
“You push something the size of her out the end of your penis and then you can give me shit about the size of my pads, alright?” she said, grabbing her wallet out of the cart.
My hand instinctively went to my junk and she grinned.
“I was telling your man that babies grow so fast that if he blinks, he’ll miss it,” the checker told Cecilia while she paid.
“That’s what my mom always said,” Cecilia murmured, shooting her a smile.
“Sometimes, truth is universal,” the checker said knowingly. “Have a good night.”
“You, too.”
As we walked toward the front door, Cecilia pulled a baby blanket out of the cart and ripped off the tags so she could wrap the baby in it.
“I forgot a toothbrush,” she said just as we reached the truck. She glanced behind us. “I could run back in—”
“I’ve got an extra at the house you can use,” I said, setting the car seat box on the ground and using my pocket knife to open it. “She’s going to burst the blood vessels in her face if you don’t feed her soon.”
“Good point,” she said, doing the bouncing side step thing again.
“Climb in the front,” I said, opening the door for her. “Feed her while I get this shit inside and