Chapter 55

**Blue**


Artemis and I soak in the bath for a good half hour before it gets cold and we have no choice but to get out. By then someone is knocking on the door to deliver our food. Two men roll in filled carts of food and make sure Artemis gives them a good tip for it.

“Did you order everything on the menu?” I ask him as I look over all the plates.

“No. I ordered everything off the desert menu.” He says taking off one of the silver lids and revealing my burger.

My mouth starts to water at the sight of it but I have to stop myself from lunging for it like I haven’t eaten a day in my life.

“Why?” I ask him while keeping my eyes fixed on the amazing looking burger.

“Most girls like deserts the most, and I wanted you to figure out which ones you would like to order again while we’re here.” He says revealing another plate that looks like grilled fish and rice.

He takes the plate and walks outside. I watch him sit down on one of the pool chairs and set his food on the table between them.

“Are we eating outside?” I ask. “There’s a table in here.”

He turns to and walks over to grab my plate.

“Hey!” Doesn’t he know not to get between a woman and her food?

Crazy bastard.

I watch him set the plate on the table next to his and comes back to grab the two glasses on the cart filled with some sort of bubbly liquid. Champagne I’m guessing.

“Come sit down Blue.” He calls as he sets the glasses down.

“Okay.” I walk over and take a seat on the other side of the table from his.

He sits as well and holds his glass up. “To our new life together.”

I pick my glass up as well and clink it against his. When I bring the drink to my lips, I’m confused by the smell but drink it anyway. I nearly choke on it because it isn’t what I thought it was.

“What is this?” I ask trying to clear my throat.

“It’s mineral water with fruit juice.” He says setting his drink down.

“Okay, why are we drinking this?” I ask him.

He looks me dead in the eye and says, “Because if we are going to have a baby you can’t drink alcohol.”

My mouth drops open. It seems to happen a lot around him.

“Artemis you can’t do that! I’m not pregnant yet!” I yell at him.

Honestly, I’m not a fan of alcohol anyway but come on.

“It can affect your ability to get pregnant as well.” He points out as he takes the first bite of his food.

“I’m not sure that’s true. How many women get pregnant from sleeping with someone after a night out? Probably thousands! So, I don’t think your information is sound.”
He stops eating and gives me his full attention. “Blue. I want you and our baby to be safe, and alcohol can be dangerous to both of you. Also, coffee is not good for a baby, so we will have to cut that out as well.”

“What?” I screech. “No. Come on, that’s not fair. Can’t I quit once we know I’m pregnant?”

He shakes his head. “You will go through withdrawals for several days and will make you uncomfortable. Do you want to deal with that while in the early stages of pregnancy?”

I guess that makes sense…but…but…coffee.

“When did you learn all this?” I ask, giving into my hunger and focusing my energy on eating then yelling at him.

“When you were sleeping. I’m taking this very seriously. Pregnancy can be a very difficult time for both mother and child, and I must say the statistics are not good. We may want to consider moving to another country to have the baby. The mother mortality rate in our country is too high for my liking.”

“What do you mean?” I take another huge bite from my burger and moan. “Oh my god I can now actually say this…this is better than sex.”

“I guess I’ll have to change your mind about hat later.” He says, nearly making me choke again. “What I was saying about mother mortality rate is that the medical system is focused on the baby’s health so much that the mother’s is almost nonexistent. Too many women die after childbirth for this simple reason. I won’t have doctors taking care of my wife who do not think the mother’s health and well being is not just as important.”

“Wow. So which countries are best in this area?” I hadn’t thought about any of this, so I’m definitely interested.

“Finland or Poland would be good options.” He says before pulling out his phone and sliding it over to me.

I see the open tabs all covering statistics for the best countries to give birth and the reasons all listed out. He’s right and it makes me wonder about how many kids in foster care could have had a mother die due to pregnancy and birth complications.

“Okay, well I’m convinced, but wouldn’t our child need US citizenship if born in another country?” I ask.

“No, a child who has two parents who are both citizens automatically have citizenship when they come into the states.” He explains.

Well, that’s good.

“Won’t there be issues with my own legal status?”

“No. I had a new birth certificate made for you along with your ID and passport.” He says with a shrug. “There shouldn’t be any problems.”

I’m not sure that gives me much confidence but if he says it’s handled then I guess it is. I can’t see him doing something like this and not taking everything into account.

“Okay I guess we’ll be jetting off to Europe when baby Rhodes comes along.” I say taking another bite of my amazing burger.

“We will not give our child the same name as our last name.” He says and I freeze mid bite to look at him and make sure he’s not joking.

He isn’t.

“I know that! I just meant…you know what never mind. Sow hat will be naming our baby since you have everything else planned.”

He takes back his phone and hands it back to me a second later. On the screen is a list of names for both a boy and a girl.
“You picked names for a baby we don’t even have yet?” I ask, genuinely shock by this.

Isn’t that usually what girls do? Why is cold and jerkish Artemis Rhodes making baby name lists? I mean it’s really cute but also extremely weird.

“I listed the names I liked, but you will make the final decision based on this list.”

I decide to humor him and look over the names, and as soon as I do my eyes zero in on a girl’s name on the list.

Emily Rhodes

My stomach does a weird flip at the sound of the name in my head.

“Emily. I like that one.” I say.

Artemis looks up at me and I see a small smile. “I liked that one as well. How about for a boy?”

I laugh in disbelief. “I can’t believe we’re picking out baby names right now. We’ve known each other for a week and got married yesterday. This is crazy.”

“Maybe, but we both knew we would be getting married, living together and eventually having a child. Most couples go into a relationship figuring one day they will do those things, but we’re not like them. We both knew what this relationship was since the beginning, so it’s not crazy at all.”

He has a point there. The fact that we knew what were getting into sort of relieved some of the pressure. There were no questions about whether we would do any of those things. We both agreed that they would happen, and they did. It seems so simple. This could all blow up in our faces though, so we’ll have to wait and see how long this crazy way of living can last. I decide to humor him and look over the list of boy names. Several of them sound nice but then I look up at Artemis and wonder what he thinks of his own name.

“Why don’t we name our son after you?” I ask.

He stops eating and gives me a confused look. “After me? Why?”

I shrug. “I like your name. It’s unique and has a certain power to it. Plus, if he’s anything like you, then I think you would be proud for him to carry your name.”

He looks like he is thinking it over, so I finish the last bit of my burger while I wait.

“It’s the name my mother gave me and for no other reason than the fact that it would look good on a movie poster or headline.” He sounds almost disgusted by that and I don’t blame him.

“Maybe but you made it your own. You made a name for yourself that has nothing to do with your family. So, it means something else now.” I tell him. “It would be very special for our son to be named after you.”