25. Laila
25
LAILA
Kira bats playfully at her bump like it’s a tetherball. “Enough already! Come out!”
“Hey now.” I gently take her wrists. “He’ll come. Just give him a little more time.”
She whips her attention to me, and I immediately regret saying anything. “Time?! He’s had forty-two weeks of time, Laila! Forty - two!”
A month ago, Kira was lounging on the couch, saying she could stay pregnant a little longer, even. She wasn’t that uncomfortable.
Then baby boy decided to stay tucked away for two extra weeks, and her tune has changed dramatically.
“You’ve made a nice home for him in there,” Polina suggests, trying to be encouraging. That only earns her a withering glare.
“Have you tried anything to induce labor?” I wag a brow. “You could discuss that with Dominik. See if you can get things going.”
She jabs at the chicken pot pie she’s barely touched with a harrumph. “I could do that. Except, three months ago, we had a conversation about our birth plan. Apparently, I told him that I wanted a natural delivery without any outside interference and if I ever changed my mind about that, he was to remind me of what I really wanted.”
I wince. “Ah.”
“Every time I bring it up, he reminds me that he made me a vow. And as a ‘man of his word,’ he refuses to let me sway him.”
“At least you know you can trust him.” Kira turns her scowl on me, and I duck my head. Mostly because I’m afraid she might take a swipe at me.
Polina snorts politely into her cup of tea and tries to push the pie towards Kira. “Come on, honey, try to eat.”
“I can’t eat!” she declares loudly, rubbing her enormous belly. “I’m too full of baby to eat a thing. I get full after three bites. And then—” She looks down at her lap and throws her hands up. “Great! I have to pee. Again!”
I spring up to offer her a hand. She swats it away, instead rocking herself backward and forward like a boulder. “Everyone, look at the amazing pregnant lady. Come and see her, folks. She’s enormous, and this baby is never coming— oh !”
Water splashes on the tile floor, and I jump out of the way. “What was that?”
“Oh my God.” Kira’s eyes go wide with shock. “I don’t even have control over my bladder anymore. This is a new low.”
I stare at the little puddle between Kira’s legs and I’m hit with a wave of nostalgia. “Kira, I think the baby’s coming!”
She blinks at me. “No. No, he’s not. I already told you: he’s never coming out.” But even as she says it, she grips her stomach, her eyes wide as saucers. “Ow.”
Polina squeals and reaches for her phone, ready to make calls, and I take Kira’s hand. “You’re about to be the amazing pregnant woman no more. Girl, it’s go time.”
Kira pales. Her eyes bounce from me to Polina and back again. “Dominik…”
“Breathe.” Polina waves her phone. “I’m on it.”
I try to pull Kira towards the door, but she resists. She squeezes my fingers until I wince. “I’m not ready.”
“You were just screaming about how ready you were a few minutes ago.”
“That was a few minutes ago!” she says. “This is now, and I’m not ready. ” She punctuates each word with a quick clench of my hand.
“Stay calm. Breathe. Come on—breathe with me.”
I try to coach her through a few deep breaths, but she grabs my arm, nails digging into my skin. “I need my husband, Laila. I need Dominik with me. I… I can’t do this.”
“Hon, believe me, I understand the feeling. I was as terrified as you are. But trust me: you can do this.”
Polina hangs up the phone. “Okay, so Dominik is in the next state, but?—”
“He’s not even in the state?!” Kira shrieks. “What in the hell was he thinking? I’m about to pop. Actually, I’m popping. Right now! He can’t be out of the state!”
Polina holds up a hand. “He’s currently out of the state, but he’s coming, honey. He has plenty of time. You still have a long way to go.”
Kira actually sways on her feet, and I blanche. The last thing this situation needs is a fainting pregnant woman.
Since Polina is not helping, I step between them, forcing Kira to focus on me. “Just breathe, Kira. Everything is fine.”
“I can’t do this alone,” she gasps. “Dominik and I planned everything out. He’s supposed to hold my hand and rub my back. He promised to cut the cord. Who is going to cut the baby’s cord if Dom isn’t here?” Her chest is heaving as she doubles over with another contraction. “I can’t do this alone. I can’t. I can’t.”
Once it passes, I put my hands on her shoulders and look her dead in the eye. “You’re not alone, Kira. I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
She blows out a shaky breath. “You promise?”
“Cross my heart. Now, come on.” I push her towards the door. “Let’s get you to the hospital.”
It’s been five hours, and Dominik still isn’t here.
Evelyn’s holding down the fort with Nina back at home, and Polina is running around fetching ice chips and tubs of jello, trying to distract Kira from the very real possibility that her husband might not be there for their son’s birth.
I keep checking my phone, praying for an update, but there’s nothing. Dominik hasn’t called. There’s been no news.
When Kira asked, I smiled and told her Dom was “so close.”
That was two hours ago.
When my phone finally rings, I want to rejoice.
Until I see which husband is calling.
“Where in the hell is Dominik?” I bark into the phone. “He’s not answering his phone, and I’ve been calling for hours. When you talk to him, tell him goodbye. ‘Cause I’m gonna kill him.”
“You might not have to kill him,” Arsen says. “He’s driving like a maniac. Also, you’re on speaker.”
“You should be driving!” I cry out. “He’s an expectant father. He’s supposed to be freaking out.”
He’s also supposed to be here , so everything is backwards right now.
“No one is driving but me,” Dominik growls, the engine revving.
“So when we crash and die, you can tell Kira it’s because Dominik was trying to get to her,” Arsen adds. “It’ll be a very romantic way for him to go.”
“If you crash and die, Kira will go into labor alone,” I remind him.
“We’ll be there in forty minutes,” Dom interjects. There’s a beat of hesitation and the engine revs again. “An hour, tops! Just… stall her.”
“Stall her?” I gawk. “There’s no stalling a baby when it’s ready to come!”
“You can’t just, like, put a cork?—?”
“Dominik!” I screech.
“Fine,” he grits out. “No cork. But you’ll be with her?”
“Of course. I’m not gonna leave her side,” I assure him. “I can hold her hand every step of the way, but you are the one she wants. Take it from someone who knows: she needs you here.”
I hear tires screech. “I’m gonna be there.”
Then the line goes dead.
Back in the delivery room, Kira is walking laps around the perimeter, pacing like a caged tiger. As much as I relate to what she’s going through, I also have no idea.
Arsen was there when Nina was born.
He drove me to the hospital. He held my hand and massaged my back and fed me ice chips.
He was there for me.
Physically, at least.
It wasn’t until the nurse placed Nina in his arms that I realized something was wrong. He didn’t smile, didn’t look at me. There was no moment of bliss where our eyes met, when we looked at each other like, Look what we made.
His face was blank. His eyes were cold.
Then he left.
My mom was there with me. There in all the ways that mattered. My entire life, she was always there .
I run my thumb over the fresh tattoo on my wrist. Her name stares back at me, written in an intricate, slanting cursive that comes close to mimicking her own handwriting. I feel better every time I look at it.
Ironic that I blame the artist for all the time I lost with Mom.
Suddenly, Kira screams, and the thoughts in my head scatter.
A nurse nudges me out of the way to check Kira’s pulse. Then she moseys—calm as you please—down between her legs. “Well, well, looks like it’s time to take you down to the delivery room.”
“No!” Kira grabs for my hand like she’s expecting me to hold her here in this room. Maybe a cork isn’t such a bad idea, after all. “I’m not ready. My husband isn’t here yet.”
The look on the nurse’s face tells me she doesn’t get paid enough for this. So I kneel down next to Kira.
“Hon, it’s time to have this baby. Dominik will still get here in time, but we’ve got to get this show on the road.”
I think the baby is on my team, because she grinds her teeth together through another contraction. As it ebbs, she’s panting.
“Stay with me,” begs Kira.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
We’re moved in a hurry, an armada of fast-walking nurses and wheelchairs as we make our way to the delivery room. The nurses are a buzz of activity doing this and that, and Kira is muttering to herself as she is helped into the bed. “I can’t believe this. All that planning… all that preparation… And he’s not here…”
The doctor sweeps into the room, sleeves rolled up, game face on. “Alright, Kira, I’m told your son is ready to make his grand entrance.” His gaze passes casually over me, but he’s tactful enough not to mention Dominik’s notable absence.
Kira cranes to see the doctor over her giant belly. “Is the baby really coming right now, Doctor?”
The doctor plops down onto a stool between her raised legs.
“In my professional opinion?” He takes a peek. His eyes widen before he looks back up at her. “Definitely. Yes.”
God, help us all.
Kira looks like she’s about to heave, and I smooth her hair back. “You can do this. In a few minutes, the only thing that will matter is your baby boy will be here, safe and sound.”
That actually gets a smile out of her.
The doctor claps his latex-clad hands together. “Alright, Kira. Give me a big push on three. One, two?—”
“I’m here!” The doors fly open, and Dominik rushes into the room. He’s pale and sweaty, his arms flailing in the air like he’s trying to land a plane. He takes one look at Kira and relief floods across his face. “I didn’t miss it?”
I grab him by the collar and haul him over to the bed. “By the skin of your fucking teeth, friend. Now, go hold your wife’s hand.”
But even as Dominik hurries around to the other side of the bed, Kira doesn’t let go of me. “Laila, can you stay, too? Please?”
“But Dom’s here. You don’t need me anymore.”
“You’re the reason I’m not still in denial, giving birth on the kitchen countertop right now,” she insists. “Please, stay.”
Dominik kisses her sweat-slicked forehead and nods. “You should be here for this, Laila.”
He’s looking down at Kira like she’s the center of his whole world. Like there’s no place in the world he’d rather be.
I blink back tears and slap on a smile.
If anyone asks, they’re happy tears.