Baby

A very short story.

 “Honey, can we keep it?” Adam looks towards his fiancé pleadingly, resting his chin on the curly fur of the shaking puppy in his arms.

“Keep it? Are you crazy?” Unamused, she stares back.

“Well, why not? It’s cute, it’s little, and this is the only home it has.”

“Well then it can find a new home. We can’t take care of it like it needs; we can barely take care of ourselves.”

“So you would just send it back outside?” He gestures towards the door of his small apartment, smaller now that her things were taking up more and more room.

“That’s the only place to send it,” she says.

“You would send it back out there?”

“In a heartbeat,” she replies without a pause, hands lingering on her stomach.

“In this?” Opening the door he sent a chilled blast the apartment. Delila shivered under the few blankets she had taken for herself. Snow blew into the cramped apartment, almost invisible against the white walls, but didn’t last long inside the apartment.

“Adam, we just can’t keep it,” says Delilah, still staring at the tiny close captioning on the cramped television screen.

“We don’t even know anything about it yet. It might not ever get too big.”

“It’s a dog, Adam. They all get big. Everything grows up.”

Changing tactics, he tries, “I’ll work extra hours at work.”

“You’re never home as it is. It’ll be lonely.”

“I’m lonely, Del, just let me keep it. It’ll help keep us company.”

“It’s another mouth to feed. We’re not ready for anything like that yet.”

“I think we are. Last Christmas, when we went to my family’s place you loved holding Boots.”

“Boots is a cat, not a dog. They don’t even get that big.” After a moment of thought she adds, “And no, no cats either.”

“Well can we at least keep it tonight? It’s too cold to send it back outside. It’ll die.”

“It’ll find somewhere else to go then. But it’s not staying here.”

“This is still my apartment. You at least need to consider it.” He paused for a moment, holding the soft furry mass in his arms. The little dog gave a tiny shiver in Adam’s arms. He walked towards the worn couch Delilah was laying on, grabbed the topmost blanket off of her stack and wrapped it tightly around the shivering dog.

“Adam- I’m sorry. We can’t. You know that.”

He sighs and looks into his lap, the pup yawns, swaddled tight in a blue blanket. “Have you thought about the baby?”

“We can’t keep that either.”

He roared to life, “That? That? It's a baby, not a- a- piece of meat!”

“Technically, it's still a fetus.”

“Del, fine. Have you thought about the fetus?”

“I can’t keep the baby, I can’t keep the dog. What do I get to keep Delilah? When do I get to keep something? Anything?”

“You get to keep me.” She snuggles in towards him but his look stops her, cold as the snow outside. “One day, 

we'll have a dog, and a house, and a baby. But not today.”

“I’m lonely, Del.”

“-And you think I'm not? You didn't carry life with you just to have to give it away, to try and give it something better, you don't even know. You won't ever know what it's like, to never know your baby.”

Adam's head lowered, “Yes I will. It's our baby, Del. Neither one of us will get to know them.”

Delilah looks at him and nods at the little bundle in his arms. Sighing, he looks down at the little mass in his arms and smiles a little, “I’m going to call you Baby.”