Before I knew it, my belly had really grown close to full term.
Honestly, it felt like it wouldn’t stop growing at all.
Thanks to that, it was awkward to go look for the Commander like before, so I was just taking it easy at home.
Moving around was honestly quite uncomfortable, so there was nothing I could do about it.
Sitting still was now truly the most comfortable option.
“How was work today?”
“Just the usual.”
“Did the Boss make you do more work or anything?”
“Nope. Someone already took care of it, right?”
“That’s true.”
I welcomed the Commander back after he had a relaxing day at work.
I would have liked to meet him normally, but there was no need to be dragging my tired body around for no reason.
Besides, it was clear that the Commander was worried about me when I visited.
In fact, it wasn’t just the Commander; everyone seemed to be concerned.
Sometimes I wondered if they were worrying too much, though.
“Anyway, it’s nice to see you after a while.”
“Um… It’s only been about 12 hours, hasn’t it?”
“If I say it’s a long time, then it is.”
We were talking while I embraced the Commander, since it had indeed been a while.
The last time I saw him was before going to sleep, and in the morning I slept in and missed him.
So, it had to feel like a long time.
“You could have at least called.”
“It felt a bit rude to interrupt you while you were working…”
“Lindera, I would have answered your call without a second thought.”
Regardless, I welcomed the Commander back home after a long time apart.
Giving him an extra hug to celebrate.
After about five minutes of hugging, I finally let go and invited the Commander inside.
“Lindera, how’s your condition?”
“I’m fine. It’s just that sometimes the baby kicks a bit… hard.”
My body was definitely doing well.
It was only that unique tiredness from being pregnant that was still strong, nothing else much.
But the problem was that sometimes the baby inside kicked a bit too hard…
Sometimes it even hurt, to be honest.
Leaving out the part about those strong kicks…
“It looks like it’s growing well.”
“Looks that way.”
I honestly preferred it this way rather than it being too quiet.
Really, feeling pain didn’t dampen my mood.
“Commander, what do you want for dinner?”
“Hmm… what should we do?”
While the Commander was taking off his tie and clothes, we continued our conversation.
It would be easier for him if I helped with his tie and unbuttoned his shirt rather than him doing it all alone.
Having this little moment was kind of fascinating.
“Should we go out for dinner?”
“Should we?”
“There are restaurants around here, after all.”
“Then how about we go out to eat together?”
“Sounds good.”
So, we decided to go out for a meal together.
And naturally, the Commander wouldn’t be in his formal attire.
“What do you want to eat today? Last time we went out for pork cutlet.”
“Hmm… what should we have?”
“I’m good with anything.”
“When we went out on a date before, you said that and then had a ton of conditions.”
“Haha…”
That was true back then, but I hadn’t been like that lately.
In fact, I usually adjusted the meal menu based on what the Commander wanted.
*
“What kind of pizza should we get?”
“I don’t want any with pineapple.”
“Of course. That’s not pizza, is it?”
The Commander and I were definitely on the same wavelength.
There’s no way pineapple belongs on pizza.
By the way, we came to a pizzeria because we wanted to have pizza for dinner.
We could have gotten it to go, but we planned to eat there.
“How about half pepperoni and half shrimp?”
“Sounds good.”
“Hmm… let’s add extra cheese on top… and cheese crust on the edge…”
“How about we also order some chicken wings with it?”
“Oh…”
So we ended up placing the order.
Since neither of us was particularly picky eaters, and we hadn’t had pizza in a while, we just ordered without too much thought.
The Commander liked seafood while I preferred meat, so it balanced out nicely.
I mean, who doesn’t like dough?
“But is it okay to eat pizza while pregnant or something?”
“…I highly doubt it. Come on.”
“That’s true, right?”
“Yep.”
We sat across from each other, waiting for our pizza to arrive.
We weren’t doing much else, just comfortably sitting and chatting.
“My mom has been calling a lot these days.”
“That’s true. She’s been contacting me a lot about you, Lindera.”
“She’s probably just worried.”
The Commander’s mom had been frequently reaching out to me.
It felt like she contacted me more than the Boss did… no, she really did.
Of course, the Boss was busy working, so he couldn’t message me as often, but still…
It really was a lot.
While I understood the worry, it was so intense that I almost felt guilty about it.
“…Do I look unwell?”
“Not at all.”
“No, it’s just… she seems really worried, so I can’t help but…”
Sometimes I caught myself thinking that way.
She really worried so much about me that I couldn’t help but feel it too.
But honestly, there wasn’t a reason to send me five messages a day full of worry…
“Hmm… well, you’re about to give birth soon, so it makes sense.”
“There are still two months left…”
“But you’re practically full term, right? It makes sense to worry. Honestly, I want to reach out too.”
“…Is that so?”
“Of course.”
Well, I guess that makes sense.
If the Commander, who normally doesn’t reach out first, was saying this…
Yeah, I could see it.
“Did you really want to reach out to me that much?”
“Uh?”
“But why didn’t you contact me more?”
The Commander had never been the type to text often.
But if he wanted to reach out, he absolutely could.
“If you want to contact me, just do it.”
“Lindera, you don’t wake up in the morning, do you?”
“…That’s true.”
Of course, I had been sleeping a lot more lately, so I barely woke up.
In fact, I could only drag myself out of bed hours after the Commander left for work.
Even if he called in the morning, I wouldn’t have caught it… but still, he could have reached out at a later time.
“…Hmph.”
“So should I contact you more from now on?”
“…That would be nice.”
“Got it. I thought you didn’t want to reach out since you didn’t text me first, and I assumed you were resting.”
“…Even if I’m resting, I can take a call from the Commander.”
Of course, when I was sleeping, that wouldn’t work.
Anyway, we kept chatting.
Laughing and passing the time.
We agreed to reach out to each other more.
Talking about how the pillow wasn’t quite right at night while sharing a bed—you know, those silly conversations.
“It feels like it’s been a while since I had pizza. Lately, if I eat at home, it’s just frozen food.”
While we waited, our order finally arrived.
As expected, it looked incredibly delicious.
It had really been a long time since I had a proper pizza.
“That’s true. There’s nothing quite as good as frozen food when you’re snacking at home, I guess. I’ve been eating so much of that lately.”
“If I weren’t so tired, I’d definitely want to try cooking, but…”
“We’ll just have to deal with it.”
Yeah, it couldn’t be helped.
Since my belly… it was a bit hard to cook right now.
To be honest, I’d never really learned to cook all that well even if I wanted to.
But still, I wanted to give cooking a shot.
Because, you know, there’s something nice about it.
The image of a newlywed wife cooking for her husband coming home from work.
Um.
It was a bit of an embarrassing thought.
I didn’t mention it to the Commander.
“I think it’d be nice to eat dinner that Lindera makes someday.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yeah. I can’t cook at all.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Once, I burned pasta while trying to make it at home.”
“…That’s a bit much.”
Even though I had no actual cooking skills, I didn’t think I could get that bad.
At least I wouldn’t burn everything to a crisp.
One thing was for sure: it wouldn’t be right to let the Commander cook.
Ever since the Commander got back from work lately, we had just been ordering takeout or using the side dishes his mom prepared for dinner.
…And I had a feeling that after the baby was born, that would continue for a while?
Since I was still at the stage where I barely knew how to cook anything.
There were a lot of worries, but it seemed like the Commander was also looking forward to it.
“Lindera, try the wings—they’re incredibly tasty. Hurry up.”
“Got it.”
The Commander had a knack for gravitating toward food that probably wasn’t good for the body.
Things like pizza and chicken that would definitely contribute to weight gain.
Yet, he hadn’t really put on much weight at all and had started exercising more, so he was actually quite muscular.
“Hmm…”
“Why?”
“Nothing at all.”
At least if I ever did start cooking, I definitely wouldn’t serve pizza every day.
If I ever cooked, I wouldn’t just be feeding the two of us.
The baby would be eating too… there was absolutely no way I could let that happen every day with all that unhealthy food.
Yep.
Maybe I should look into cooking classes to learn a bit…
“Oh.”
“What now?”
“Nothing! Just… had a good thought.”
“…?”
The Commander looked at me with curiosity, but I didn’t spill the beans.
It wasn’t like I needed cooking classes to find somewhere to learn.
There was already a good place that offered a variety of cooking lessons.
I was sure I could whip up dishes that would be good for the Commander as well.
“Hehe…”
“…?”
I couldn’t help but think about how the Commander would react later.
It would be fun.
I was looking forward to not only the Commander’s reaction, but also how I would cook.
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