'Charlotte’s a pretty name.' The woman smooths lotion over her belly. The stretch marks seem longer than they were last week.
'In English maybe. You know, to my family, it’d be Carlotta right?' The man pokes his head out of the washroom. Shaving cream is smeared along the bottom of his face.
She wrinkles her nose.
'Yeah, I thought so.' He laughs and disappears back into the washroom. The tap squeaks, and water runs.
'Something else, then.' She gently massages the lotion in, realising she needs more. There’s so much more to cover at five months. More than she ever would’ve thought. Not that she’d specifically thought about it. As she squeezes more lotion from the bottle she feels a light flutter inside. 'Like your massages, kid?' She smiles. 'Hold on a sec, I’m getting more.'
With her hands re-coated, she begins running her hands over the lower part of her abdomen, laughing when the kicks cease. The baby is happy. Quite an insistent one, isn’t it? What can one name an insistent baby? Only a name worthy of it. But what is a worthy name?
'I like Lucy,' she says. 'In Spanish that’d be Lucia, right? It’s pretty.'
'Absolutely not!' His voice is adamant as it rings from the bathroom. 'I knew a Lucia in school. She stole my markers and when I tried to take them back she cried and I got in trouble. I had detention for a week.'
'So Lucy is forever ruined for you because of that?'
'I don’t want to think of markers and detention every time I look at the baby.'
'But it’s so nice.'
'So is James, but you hate it.'
'I don’t hate it, but you know it’ll just cause drama if we name the baby after a relative.' She sighs. James is a nice name, but it would give her cousin James an ego boost and a reason to come around more often, which just won’t do. Really a pity, because she likes Diego and Santiago and all the Spanish variations of the name. Poor baby, whatever will its name be?
'Valeria?' The water in the bathroom stops running.
'Valerie just sounds so dated in English,' she frowns, 'and I don’t want it to be shortened to Val. It’ll happen. How about Parker? For a boy or a girl?'
The man steps out of the bathroom, patting his face with a towel. 'You want to name our child after the park? Like where they’ll go to play?'
'So it’ll just translate to “parque” then? You can’t say the “er” part?'
'I mean, maybe. But people will probably just say parque.'
'No that won’t work. Claire?'
'It’s okay. Sounds a bit weird. Claire. Claiiire.' He says it a few times more, trying to find the right stress in his accent. 'Doesn’t really feel right.'
'There has to be something.' She reaches for the name book she has on the nightstand as he comes over, giving her a peck on the forehead and a belly squeeze. The flutters start again, and he leaves his hand there as he takes a seat next to her. 'It knows we’re talking about it,' he laughs. 'What letter were we on?'
'N.' She flips to where the bookmark is. 'Read them rapid-fire and see if any stick?'
He nods and she begins rattling off all the names starting with N.
'Say that one again,' he says as she pauses for a breath. 'Not Nadia, but the ones near Nadia.'
She glances at the page. 'Nadda? No.' Looks again. 'Nadine?'
'That one.' He bites his lip as he thinks. 'That one is interesting.'
'Nadine.' She repeats it over and over in her head. Not one she would’ve thought of on her own. She’s heard the name before, but it isn’t very common. Though it isn’t rare either. That’s nice. And it sounds nice when you hear it. 'It’d be the same in Mexico?'
'Yes. I think so.' He says the name again. 'What does it mean?'
She glances at the book. 'It’s French. Means hope.'
He laughs. 'A French name for a baby whose parents speak Spanish and English and have no French whatsoever.'
'Maybe it’s the nice, neutral answer. Since both our families can say it without it changing for any of them.'
'I like it. And hope – that just sounds right, you know? I like the word “hope” in English, but I don’t like “esperanza" as a name in Spanish. Nadine is a good name.'
Yes. She agrees – it’s the perfect name. A worthy name. For everyone. 'I’ll add it to the list,' she says. His hand still on her belly, she rests her hand on top.