Christian
ONE YEAR LATER
“Merry Christmas, Tinker Belle.” Angel grabbed our baby girl in her arms and kissed her face.
Belle pushed back against her mama as she squirmed and wiggled in Angel’s arms.
“How are you gonna let that baby open all these gifts and now stop her from playing with them?” my mother-in-law, Angelina, asked.
We were married two weeks earlier. This was our first Christmas in our new home, which we purchased two months earlier. We were having dinner with both of our families here today, but her mother and grandmother had spent the night because they wanted to be with Belle when she opened her gifts.
My parents would be over later for brunch and remain the rest of the day with all of us, and my brothers would join us too.
“Mommy, I’m just trying to love on my baby. I don’t know why she’s acting like such a big girl now.”
“That’s because shuga mama is a big girl. She’s eighteen months,” Grandma Helen cooed, walking over to Belle and Angel. She reached for Belle, and Angel reluctantly released her to her grandmother.
I chuckled when Grandma Helen lifted Belle into her arms and then put her back down so she could toddle off and play.
“Grandma, you just played me,” Angel complained.
“No, I didn’t. I just helped my baby out,” Grandma Helen declared and walked away.
“Baby, did you see that?” Angel asked.
“Come here, girl.” I patted my lap, and Angel walked over and sat on it. I kissed her lips and her neck. “I can give you all the sugar you want if Belle doesn’t want to,” I whispered.
Angel giggled and kissed me back.
“Mm-hmm. Keep it up, and you two will have another little one running around here,” Grandma Helen stated.
“Well, I don’t know about you, Mama, but since Tinker Belle is growing up so fast and pushing us aside, I could use another little one to baby and coddle.”
“Not you giving up on my baby already,” Angel declared, giving her mother a stank face.
“Well, I’m just saying . . . It wouldn’t be such a bad idea to have another little one.”
The doorbell rang, and Mama Angelina went to open it. Belle played in the middle of a stack of Christmas paper that she happily tossed in the air.
“Baby, we need to clean this stuff up. She’s gonna rip that paper up and make an even bigger mess than we have right now.”
“It’s all good, Angel. You sit here and relax. I’ll clean it up.”
“You’re gonna spoil that girl, Chris,” Grandma Helen declared as I got up and picked up the paper.
“It’s okay, Grandma. You ladies worked hard to cook a big meal. The least I can do is spoil y’all today.”
“Well, in that case, I’ll just kick my feet up,” Grandma Helen proclaimed and sat on the couch and grabbed the remote.
I chuckled as I stuffed paper into the trash bag. Belle cried when I took some of the wrapping paper out of her chubby hands and placed it in the trash bag.
“Look who’s here,” Mama Angelina sang out.
I turned around to see Sawyer and Sampson walking into the living room with gift boxes in their hands. “Look what we brought for Baby Belle,” Sawyer sang out.
“What about her mama?” Angel asked.
“I don’t have to spoil you. That’s your man’s job,” Sawyer stated.
Angel pouted and jumped up off the couch to hug Sawyer and Sampson. “And he does a great job of it too,” she declared.
“Never too much for my ladies. They can have the world.”
“So, how’s married life?” Sawyer asked, sitting down beside Grandma Helen and kissing her cheek. “Is it all it’s cracked up to be?”
Angel looked at me and smiled. “And even more. I feel like life is exactly where it should be, and I couldn’t be more grateful. I mean, I know that it won’t be perfect, and we’ll have our share of challenges, but I’m with the person I’m supposed to experience all that with.”
“Y’all two are sickeningly sweet sometimes, you know that?” Mama Angelina stated.
“Lina, don’t be a hater all your life,” Grandma Helen declared, causing the rest of us to laugh. Mama Angelina pretended to scowl at her mother, but she broke out in laughter too.
“What’s been up, man? Family life treating you well?” Sampson asked, dapping me up.
“Better than I expected, man. I can’t complain. This is exactly the life that I wanted. I’ve got a beautiful wife, who gives me—Angel, what’s wrong?”
Angel was running out of the living room, and I was right on her tail. I heard commotion behind me as the rest of the family tried to figure out what was going on, but I wasn’t worried about them. I needed to check on Angel.
She rushed into our bathroom, and I guided her to the toilet and helped her kneel. I pulled her hair away from her face and rubbed her back as she vomited into the toilet. I thought over the last year and how our lives had come full circle.
Everything that we ever wanted had finally been placed in our laps, and there was more to come.
I was here for it all. Over the last year, our old friends had begun to come around again.
Angel was surprised to learn how much they embraced us and the idea of us as a couple.
I had explained to her that even if they didn’t, we didn’t have to have them in our lives.
Jeremiah was no longer with the woman he left Angel for, and he wasn’t in Hawaii. He moved to Chicago for a better opportunity with some other woman he met, who was the CEO of a beverage company.
Erica had recently found herself single again, and she seemed to be bitter toward men. The last I heard, she was dating a girl that she worked with. Ashanti had finally divorced her husband after giving him an ultimatum that he refused to accept.
There were three other friends in our friend group: Yadira, Isaac, and Elian. The three of them, Sawyer, Samson, Angel, and I were all solid. There was no envy or judgment, just true support and cheering each other on. It felt good.
“I’m sorry,” Angel apologized when she lifted her head.
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry for, baby. Everything’s going to be all right,” I whispered, pulling her into my arms.
We sat on the floor, with Angel on my lap, and I rocked her. She cried softly and rested her head on my shoulder. After a few minutes, I patted her hip. “Hop up, baby.”
She did as I asked, and I grabbed a washcloth and rinsed it out in cool water before patting her face. I sat on the edge of the tub as she walked to the sink and brushed her teeth. When she finished, I led her into the bedroom, and she sat on the bed. I grabbed her hairbrush from inside her vanity.
“Thank you.”
“You want me to do it?”
“Would you?”
“Sure.”
I brushed, taking my time to pull the brush through her long hair. I finally pulled it up and secured it in a bun. “You got something you wanna tell me?”
She started crying again, and I sat on the bed beside her. Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled Angel close. “Everything’s gon’ be all right, pretty mama.”
“Do you know what I’m talking about?” she asked, sniffling and pulling back to look into my face.
“I do.”
“Don’t you think it’s too soon? We just got married, and Belle’s only a year and a half.”
“Baby, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. I’m excited about being a father again. This time, I actually get to go through the entire process with you and be there when this one is born. Then the memories of how our little one was made are even more exciting.”
“How did you know?”
I chuckled. “Aside from my medical training and the deductions I made, well, . . . I’ve been watching you for the last few weeks.”
“What do you mean?”
“Baby, there have been so many signs. The constant vomiting of bile, not liking smells, complaining your clothes are too tight, and you haven’t had much of an appetite because everything spoils it.”
“I took the test last night. I wasn’t sure how to tell you.”
“I know. I saw the box in the garbage can, but I wanted you to come to me. You never have to be afraid to tell me anything.”
Angel looked at me with worried eyes.
“This baby is the best Christmas gift you could ever give me. This is the greatest news ever, besides learning that Belle was my biological daughter last Christmas. Baby, you keep blessing me every Christmas. I don’t think it gets any better than this.”
“You’re so good to me, Chris.”
“And you’re so good for me, Angel. But the question is, are you happy about this?”
“I am. I just didn’t want to make you feel that so much was thrown on your lap at once. You’ve become a father and a husband, and we’ve bought a new home, all within a year, and now you’re about to become a father again. I didn’t want to overwhelm you or scare you away.”
“You could never scare me away, Angel. This is what I signed up for. This is what I have wanted for years. I’ve shared with you how Erica aborted my baby, and I wanted nothing more than to start a family.
Well, you’re giving me everything that I ever wanted and hoped for, baby.
It’s never too much and never too soon.”
“I’m happy.”
“Good. That’s all I want, Angel, is for you and that little girl to be happy.”
“Merry Christmas, Chris.”
I pulled her onto my lap and kissed her sweetly. “Merry Christmas, baby.”
The End