The next day...

In the middle of the night Amber was woken up by one extremely powerful kick from the child nested in her womb which landed unfortunately on her rib cage.

"Ouch!" She groaned in pain from the sudden kick.

Michael woke up immediately hearing her groan and sitting up from his side of the bed to see Amber rubbing her stomach gently.

"Love what's wrong?" He asked worried.
"Your child kicked me like I was a football and my rib was the goal..this time wasn't a flutter no this one was a footballers kick" she replied feeling irritated.

"The little one is half of you as well besides the little one could be a dancer" he pointed out smartly.

"Well If the little bun is mine why don't you carry it for nine months!" She snarled to Michael.

"Alright please don't get worked up, I'm helping aren't I?" He answered gently as he sat upright to pull her into his lap and gave her a back massage which made her purr in bliss at his gentle touch.
Michael began to hum a quite melody as he continued to massage her shoulders eventually Amber fell asleep in his arms and he moved her slowly unto her back sleeping beside her.

He fell asleep soon after cradling her in his embrace.

The next morning Amber woke up to find her husband wasn't by her side. She took her time getting up from the bed to notice a small note on the bed.

She opened the note to see Michael's messy writing fortunately she's had years reading his writing to understand in the note that he had gone to the studio at Epic to spend another day of recording demos.

So Amber walking out of their bedroom on her way to the living room stopped when she saw the door was wide open to find Marlon adjusting his red shirt as he looked into the bathroom mirror.

"Looking quite smart Marlon where you heading off? To a date?" Amber asked him curiously.
Marlon snorted when he heard her question and turned around to face Amber smiling cheekily from the door. "To answer your question no I am not going on a date suga I'm off to work"

"You have a job!?" Amber gasped in surprise.

"I do have a job which you never asked about I don't spend all my days here suga" he said raising an eyebrow and went back to looking in the mirror to comb his growing Afro.

"I know it's just a surprise" she replied sheepishly.

"Well I'm working at a popular instrument shop one block away from here to answer your burning questions" he replied smirking smugly.

Dropping the comb onto the table Marlon looked down at his watch to panic slightly to see he was going to be late.
Amber stepping out of his way while she watched him grab his house keys and any other things he needed, rushed out the door shouting a quick goodbye to her.

The silence was quite welcoming to Amber who hadn't had much time to relax on her own, she went back to her room to lay down and take the time to sketch in one of her many unfinished sketchbooks.

Two hours when Amber was almost nodding off a sudden knock on the door awoke her, she grumbled under her breath while the knocking continued on.

She went to the door and to her surprise Junior and Andy were standing there.
"Oh! I didn't expect you both today" Amber exclaimed unexpected to them coming over today.

"Well let's come in and we will explain why we are here" Andy replied smiling calmly.

Amber turned around to walk to the living room and they followed. Once seated Amber asked if they were hungry but they declined.
"Sis as you know Mike called us two hours to come over to come check on you because he had a feeling Marlon would be out of the house today" junior explained cheerfully.

"I knew he would just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I'm fragile" Amber replied a trace of frustration laced in her tone.

"He doesn't mean that you are Amber he just wants to make sure you and the child is safe" Andy said reassuring.
"Thanks Andy" she replied giving him a small smile in return.

Since her birthday party Amber and Andy's relationship has slowly improved which has made the rest of the family (expect Grace) happy to see the bond growingng gradually between them.

So they continued to chat about various topics ranging from sports to the latest news.

The time inbetween Marlon was running down the block to the shop hopefully not too late he didn't want to lose this job.
He opened the door looking around in case his manager was around but to his great relief she wasn't.

He breathed in deeply but to his dismay a cool voice froze him in his place."Your late marlon"

"Well you see boss--" he tried to say charmingly but he was cut off by her clipped words "your lucky I haven't fired you Marlon but we do have the recruit the one I told you about two or three days ago"
"You can come out" she hollered to the back of the shop. Michaela walked out of the back office not expecting Marlon to be standing there in front of her once again.

"YOU!" They shouted simoustanly.
"Since you both know each other it will be much easier for you to learn the ropes around here" she stated dryly.

Marlon not in the mood to argue with her immediately showed her around the shop where everything was stored, the till and the time schedule.

So one of the many tasks in the shop was to clean the musical instruments every two days to get ride of any child imprints or marks left as well making the instruments shine attractively once more.
So they were in the downstairs basement sitting on separate chairs. Marlon cleaning an electric Ruby coloured guitar and Michaela was cleaning a pale cream flute in her hands.

"So are you stalking me? Because this is weird finding you here working together" Michaela said to break the ice in the room as she used her cloth to slowly clean the inside of the flute.

Marlon pausing his cleaning gazed up into her eyes replied smirking"I don't stalk women I don't like, you could be stalking me for all I know"

"In your dreams Romeo" she replied rolling her eyes.

After cleaning the flute Michaela placed carefully it back into its long box. She stood up to grab another box which contained a silver Harmonia.

She gently brought out the Harmonia viewing it from all angles before she started to clean it. She decided to test it. She placed it on her lips and a shrill but comforting sound arose from the Harmonia as Marlon stopped polishing to listen to her play.

After she finished playing Marlon clapped for her and she couldn't help but beam happily until he said smirking "that was good...for an amateur"

The smile dropped from her lips and swiftly replaced with a look of irritation and anger at his words. She dropped the Harmonia back into its case.

"Oh if your the greatest why not play the guitar on your hands big shot!" She snapped at him.

"Gladly" Marlon replied accepting the challenge, He stood up pulling the guitar strap over his shoulder. He experimented with the strings first before he began to play a rendition of let's groove by Earth, fire.& wind.

"You were saying?" He said smirking smugly and stood in front of her playing expertly.

"Alright you've made your point back up" she said rolling her eyes but inside she was a little jealous at his skill.
"You better not be playing on any of the instruments Marlon! You are here to work!" The manager hollered from upstairs.

Marlon ceased playing going back to cleaning while Michaela chuckled softly.
They spent the rest of the day working on various tasks until it was closing time but the manager had left Marlon in charge as temporary manager for one week while she traveled to Chicago to buy more instruments and equipment.

She trusted Marlon to some point because she was low on staff and he had been working with her for over six months even though he has the tendency to be late.

Marlon arrived home feeling dusty and tired from his day with Michaela. He entered into the house seeing his lil brother wasn't around but Amber wasn't alone from the voices he heard coming from the living room.

He strolled into the living room to see the animated conversation going on between Amber and Junior while Andy sat quietly listening.

"Amber mini me I see your here with Amber..Andy" he hollered to Junior and nodding at Andy.

"Hey Marshmallow!" He replied smiling angelically.
"That awful name bro" he groaned in response.

Amber snickered at the nickname but Junior only shrugged his shoulders unbothered "I did say I'd find a nickname for you"

"How was work?" Amber asked intrigued.
"You won't believe who came to work at the shop..it was the chick we meet at the fair!---" He said but was interrupted by Junior.

"Who? Details marshmallow" Junior said interested in the story.

Marlon pinched his nose taking a deep breath in before proceeding to explain the whole story to Junior and Andy then jumping into his day at work.

"You like this chick whoever she is marshmallow" Junior said as he was scratching his cheek.

"I do not like her she's annoying!" He denied shutting down any chance of liking Michaela out of the window.

"If Marlon doesn't like her then so be it" Amber concluded ending the discussion there.

A while later Andy and Junior left to return home leaving Marlon to jump into the shower while she made a late dinner hoping Michael would come home soon.

Amber was still awake when Michael walked into their bedroom waiting for him, she saw his haggard state of clothing and tired expression.

She was about to stand up but Michael beat her to it bending down to lay by her side after changing into a baggy grey top and his black boxers.

"How was the studio recording?" She asked him staring into his sleepily ebony eyes.

"It was fine love We recorded some of the songs to the final stage which I'm really how about" he said while yawning.
"How many songs are going on the album?" She pressed on intrigued about the whole process.

"At the moment it's tired between ten to fifteen songs but I won't know until all of the songs are recorded and chosen" he explained.

"Go to sleep boo we can talk tomorrow" she said noticing him dozing on and off.
She kissed his lips briefly and snugged into his side mindful of her growing bump. She closed her eyes falling asleep almost immediately.