Tegan
BABY MAKES THREE – TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER
“Go, Harlem! Go!”
I jumped up and down, excited about the game. As soon as Harlem made it to home base, the crowd went wild.
He broke the tie and won the game. This was the first time that his team had defeated the Eagles in three years. As much as I loved the outdoors, I had never suspected that I would become a superfan of softball, but I had.
There wasn’t a single game of his that I missed. My husband had been involved in the softball league prior to us meeting, and he was dedicated to the sport with everything else that he had going on. I thought the least that I could do was support him the way he supported our family.
“Damn, that man is fine as hell,” I muttered, biting my bottom lip.
“Eww.”
I looked at my sister-in-law. “You do know I feel the same way about you and EJ, doncha, Court?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “My man is fine.”
“Eww. I don’t want to hear about my brother like that.”
She laughed. “Same, sis, same.”
We did a victory dance as the announcer proclaimed what we already knew: Our team, the Warriors, had won. There was going to be a big celebration after this.
“Is EJ going to join us?” I asked as we made our way from the stands after the crowd had thinned out.
We always took our time leaving because there would be a major rush to the parking lot for everyone to get out before the traffic grew out of control. Courtney and I usually sat in the stands chatting afterward as the guys talked and put their equipment away, while everyone else left the park.
I rubbed my stomach, and a knot of worry formed in my belly.
“Oh, shit,” I mumbled, rushing down the last couple of rows of the bleachers.
I didn’t bother to wait for Courtney or flag Harlem down. I knew that my time was limited, and as much as I hated using a public restroom, I had no choice.
I ran into the restroom and passed a mother and her young child. I ignored the concerned look on her face as I barely made it to the toilet in time.
The hotdogs, popcorn, and chili cheese fries all came up, along with the red cream soda. My stomach burned, my throat felt raw, and my mouth was nasty. Just when I thought I was done vomiting, another round hit, and I vomited more. It didn’t stop until everything had been expelled from my stomach.
When I was certain that I had finished, I stood on shaky legs with my hands splayed against either side of the restroom wall. I felt yucky, and all I wanted was a shower.
It was bad enough that it was hot outside, and I already felt sticky from the humidity, but being in this public restroom really made me feel nasty.
I groaned as I pressed my forearm against my forehead. I wanted to go home and shower and take a nap. When I pushed the stall door open, the mother and her child were gone, and in their place was my sister-in-law.
“When are you going to tell him?” Courtney asked, confronting me the moment that she saw my face.
I walked to the sink and turned it on to scrub my hands.
I met her curious gaze and smirk in the mirror. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do. I’ve been watching you, and sis, you’re pregnant.”
“Impossible.”
“Why? Have you been ruled infertile?”
“No.”
“You’re on birth control?” she asked, then grabbed paper towels from the dispenser and handed them to me to dry my hands with.
“No.”
“He uses a condom?”
I laughed. “Damn, sis, get out my vajayjay.”
“Has he?”
“Hell no,” I replied, tossing the towels in the trash as we exited the restroom.
“Then why do you think you can’t be?”
“Because I know my body, and I would know if I were pregnant.”
“When was the last time that you had your cycle, Baby?”
I paused on the way to our car where I saw Harlem standing and talking with one of his teammates.
I thought about that and started calculating back. How had I missed it? I had been so busy at both bakeries and with the community baking classes that I hadn’t paid my body attention.
I pulled out my phone and muttered, “I don’t know. Let me check.”
I scrolled to the app on my phone, and my eyes widened.
Courtney smirked, sucked her teeth, and then laughed. “Now what was that you were saying about it being impossible again?”
“Damn, Court. It’s been a little over seven weeks.”
“You need to get checked, but until then, take this,” Courtney advised, digging into her purse before pulling out an oblong box that she discreetly passed to me.
I glared at it in my hand before looking back up at my sister-in-law.
“Do you always walk around with pregnancy tests in your purse, sis?”
“Hell yeah. A girl gotta know. Can’t be caught slipping. I keep these and Plan B on me at all times. Don’t leave home without them.”
Despite my situation, I laughed with her before I stared at her and smiled weakly.
“We didn’t plan to have a baby for another year.”
“Sounds to me like your plans were as reliable as a rubber with holes in it, since you didn’t use protection, and you didn’t plan not to have a baby.”
I groaned. “As much as I hate to admit it, Court, you’re right.”
“Sis, just take the damn test. You need to know, and it’s not going away if you are.
The sooner you know, the sooner you and my bigheaded brother can prepare for my niece or nephew.
We can run back in there and do it now. That way you don’t have to do it alone,” she suggested, bobbing her head toward the restrooms.
“No. I would rather do it at home with Harlem, and definitely in cleaner facilities. After being in there, all I want right now is a shower and a nap.”
Bobbing her head, Courtney replied, “I can respect that. Make sure that you keep me in the loop. I promise I can keep a secret.”
I laughed and pulled her into a hug. “I know you can.”
We had celebrated with his teammates at a bar, but when I had passed on drinking, I said that I didn’t feel well enough to consume alcohol after being in the sun for so long.
Harlem hadn’t made a fuss of it, but he had cut our participation in the celebration short so that I could get home and rest.
I had come home and showered before taking a nap.
When I awakened, Harlem and I sat down to watch a movie in our home theater.
He was eating chili dogs, chili cheese fries, and cream soda, and I had declined the food, saying that I didn’t have an appetite.
It was the smell of the onions that set me off this time.
Harlem had made it a quarter through his meal when the overwhelming urge to vomit struck me again.
I ran down the short flight of steps from the terrace level to our suite, and I made it into the bathroom just in time.
I spent almost three minutes being sick before it stopped. The chicken salad I ate at the bar returned this time. As I brushed my teeth, I couldn’t help but think about Courtney’s warning and the pregnancy test in my purse. I had been putting off the inevitable.
Harlem and I had created a plan at the beginning of our relationship of how we wanted to move in our lives. We both knew we wanted a family, but we wanted to make sure that I had accomplished as much as I wanted to before starting one.
I had expressed my desire to stay home with my kids for the first few years of their lives, and he was onboard with that. I also stated that I wanted to have our kids almost back-to-back so that they would have close relationships like we both did with our siblings, and to get it out of the way.
This wasn’t a part of the plan. Not that having a baby now was a bad thing, but it did speed up the process of me stopping work sooner than we planned for. We could financially afford for me to quit, but I wasn’t mentally prepared for it.
When I finished brushing my teeth, I stepped out of the bathroom, and Harlem was sitting on the bed wearing a worried look. I grabbed my purse off the chair and walked to the bed.
“Baby, what’s going on? I’ve been noticing that you have been sick the last couple of weeks. You got something you wanna tell daddy?” he asked, wrapping his arm around my shoulder when I plopped down on the bed beside him.
Harlem rubbed my arm and kissed the top of my head when I rested it on his shoulder.
“I don’t know, Harlem. I’ve been so busy lately that I wasn’t paying attention to my body. When I got sick at the game today—”
“Is that why you two disappeared after the game?”
“Yeah.”
“I went looking for you and couldn’t find you.”
“I rushed to the restroom. Courtney suggested that I might be pregnant.” I sat up and pulled out the pregnancy test box and showed it to him.
“Did you take it?”
“No. I wanted to do it with you.”
The grin on his face and the excitement glowing in his eyes made me realize that all my fears had been foolish. I could tell that my husband was happy at the possibility of me being pregnant.
“Sweetness, go ahead and take it. What are you waiting for?” he asked anxiously.
I inhaled and slowly exhaled. “You’re right,” I replied, pushing off the bed.
He grabbed my hand at the last minute and gave a light tug. I turned back to face him. “What’s up?”
“Let me look at you for a sec.”
I looked at him as he smiled at me and slowly let his gaze slide over me. He stood, wrapped me in his arms, and slowly kissed me.
“What was that for?”
“Kissing you one final time before our life changes. Kissing my wife who is simply my wife at this moment.”
“Regrets?”
“Fuck nah. Everything that you are and everything that you will be is perfect to me.”
I smiled and walked nervously toward the bathroom.
He followed me and leaned against the wall as I peed.
It wasn’t awkward at all, but it spoke to the closeness of our lives, our unity, and how we shared everything now.
We had removed all barriers a long time ago, and this was just one more indication of how comfortable we were in our skins with one another.
“What kind of parents will we be, Harlem?”
“The best. We’ll incorporate love, peace, and giving back to others into their lives. We’ll teach them about the importance of acceptance, not judging others, education, and following their dreams, no matter what they will be.”
“It’s hard to believe that I could be someone’s mother,” I replied, wiping myself with the tissue after setting the test aside.
“I can believe it. I watch you with the community kids whenever you have your baking classes, and you’re wonderful with them. You spoil the hell out of Dylan,” he stated, referring to Hollis’s son who was now four.
Dylan considered Harlem and me his aunt and uncle, and he adored us equally.
Hollis and Kena had finished school. She had become a nurse, and he had just opened his sports shop a few months ago.
They were doing so good and had come so far with community support and love.
His little brother had finished high school and was going on to college on a fully funded scholarship, and their dad, who had opened a janitorial service a couple of years ago, had just purchased his first home.
“I’m so nervous.”
He leaned forward and grabbed my hands. “You remember what we talked about?”
“About me staying home?”
He nodded, and I sighed. “You don’t want to?”
“Yes, I do. I just don’t want everything to be on you.”
Harlem pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me. “This is the beginning of the best of us, Baby. Nothing is all on you or me. We are a team. You still have income coming from your bakeries, but I won’t expect anything from you.”
Harlem paid all the bills and took care of living expenses. My income sat in the bank, growing. He even funded my shopping excursions, telling me that I never had to spend a dime if I didn’t want to, but I did often.
I bought gifts for him, our families, and friends, and then he would make another deposit into my account. I had come a long way from Carl, who thought I was his penny bank and degraded me when I could no longer afford it.
“I know, I just want to make sure that I’m doing my part.”
He laughed. “If our kid is anything like us, you’re going to be doing your part.
You’ll be so busy with this kid, you won’t have time to miss shit else.
If you change your mind, we’ll handle that too.
Baby, you can have whatever you like. I just want you to get off your feet, entrust your bakeries to your assistant managers while you relax, and live your soft, pampered life. ”
“Has it been long enough?”
He looked at his phone. “It’s been almost ten minutes.”
I grabbed the test and stared at it. Tears fell from my eyes, and Harlem turned my hand around so that he could see it too.
My baby was over the moon. He lifted me, spun me around, and kissed me.
“I love you so damn much, girl! I’m so excited that I’m about to be somebody’s daddy and you’re about to be somebody’s mama. Don’t worry about anything. I promise, we’re going to rock this parenting shit.”
I laughed. “Now only if I can make it through the pregnancy.”
“You’ve got this, and I’ve got you. Guess what? God has us both. He always has and always will.”
“Are we really doing this?” I asked, still stunned.
“We’re really doing this. I’ve got something for you,” he stated, tugging me out of the bathroom.
He sat me down on the bed, and he walked to his closet. When he returned, he held out an oblong jewelry box.
“What’s this?” I asked, opening it.
“This was something I picked up for you because I love you, and I’m always looking for something special for you. But now, let’s consider it your welcome to motherhood gift,” he stated as I marveled at the yellow and white-gold bangle with half pavé diamonds.
Tears dripped from my eyes. “You’re so sweet, Harlem. Thank you, babe. If you’re giving me this for being pregnant, damn, I don’t think my heart can take the push gift.”
He laughed. “Oh, trust, sweetness, ya nigga is gonna do it big.”
I laughed, and we held each other for a while before I stared into his eyes. “I’m not ready to tell the world just yet, although your sister knows. Can we sit in this space for a while?”
“For as long as you need to, sweetheart.” He cupped my cheek and caressed it.
“At least for the week. Next weekend when our families come over for dinner, we can tell them, and everyone else after the first trimester.”
“That works for me. Thank you for bringing life back into my life, and for continuing the legacy of life, love, and hope. Thank you for being my baby,” he
He wiped my tears and kissed my eyes.
“Thank you for taking care of my heart, Harlem.”
I meant that with my entire soul. He had taken care of every part of me, but he cherished my heart so thoroughly that it felt as if it had never been broken to begin with. The road that had been paved with shame and heartache now glittered with peace, passion, and eternal love.
The End