Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jruelle.
A few months later…
“We can take my car.” I said when we got outside of my house.
I’d finally grabbed my own car, and I was obsessed with it.
Adonis got it for me, and although he wanted me to get something luxurious, I wanted something cute and simple, so I got a wolf gray Kia K5.
I loved everything about it and thought that it was perfect for me.
I wanted to drive it anytime we left the house.
We were going to drop Apollo off at Bre’s house, then shopping, and to have a late lunch before going to my doctor’s appointment.
It wasn’t one of my usual appointments. Adonis and I had agreed we could start looking at fertility options.
He really pushed for us to wait because we weren’t married yet, but we were getting older and I didn’t want to wait until it was too late for me to conceive, nor did I want to complicate things further than what they would potentially be already.
“Naw, baby. Me and AP tired of being cramped in your shit.” Adonis said while locking my door.
“Y’all are never cramped in here.” I unlocked the doors. “You’re basically always in the back with him because you have the seat back so far, and Apollo has plenty of space behind me. Right?” I looked toward the younger version of my man.
“I be cool, sis.” He chuckled.
“See.” I smiled at Adonis as he came over to open my door.
“This the last time we ridin’ in this shit for a while.” He smacked me on the ass before I got inside causing me to giggle. I got settled in my seat while he rounded the front of the car to get in himself. “I need some tints,” I pointed out, looking around at my windows.
“Facts.” Adonis agreed. “I’m gon’ have the niggas down at Vado’s shop do the shit. I hate ridin’ in this fish bowl.”
“It’s not a fish bowl!” I squealed and grinned. “The back is tinted.”
“We don’t ride in the back, love. How a nigga supposed to get topped off while I’m driving with this shit?” he pointed to the driver’s window.
“Shut up, Adonis.” I playfully hit his chest. “We have little ears in the car.”
“Girl, please,” he scoffed. “AP don’ been topped off before.”
“Chill, bruh.” Apollo laughed but I gasped.
“Apollo,” I turned to look at him. “You’re having sex?”
“Sis, chill out.”
“Yeah, bae, what the fuck?” Adonis glanced my way briefly. “You can’t ask him no shit like that.”
“Why not? We can talk about stuff like that. I can give you advice from a woman’s prospective.”
“I’m cool on that, sis. I promise.” Apollo laughed and so did I.
We talked about different things until we made it to Bre’s house.
Her dad was already outside raking their yard when we pulled up, so Adonis got out to walk Apollo to the door then had a brief conversation with Bre’s dad before coming back to the car.
I was sure he told AP not to leave the house a million times because he always reinforced it to him, and I was sure he told the dad the same thing.
“I hope you warned him about there being no funny business,” I said to Adonis when he got back in the car.
“Jruelle,” he laughed. “He straight.”
“He doesn’t need to be having sex.”
“Hopefully he’s not,” he replied. “But in case he is or tries to, he’s prepared.”
“Raising kids is ghetto.” I palmed my face. “Especially teenaged boys.”
“Facts, and you’re talking about having another one.”
“Maybe we’ll have a girl if we’re lucky.” I intertwined my hand with his. “Then we can make sure she’s prepared when she’s about to be sixteen.”
“You crazy as fuck,” he frowned at me. “She wouldn’t ever leave the house without me.”
“She’ll have school and stuff.”
“Yo’ ass can homeschool her,” he fired back and I laughed because I knew he was serious.
“No sir, the playing fields will be even.”
“I ain’t even entertaining this with you, baby,” He said before he turned the radio up.
We made it to the Atrium thirty minutes later.
There wasn’t anything that we needed specifically, so we just got random things.
Apollo’s sixteenth birthday was coming up so we got him new clothes and shoes.
He was still asking for a car, but after everything he’d done a few months ago, he was a lot further from that happening than he realized.
After we shopped for clothes, we all got new jewelry. I didn’t need anything else, but Adonis insisted on a new tennis bracelet and necklace while he and his brother got new chains. He was really simple and modest when it came to his attire, but he didn’t play when it came to his jewelry.
Once we left the mall, we headed to my doctor’s appointment, and that’s when my nerves set in. We’d had several talks about fertility options amongst each other, and I’d even mentioned it to Dr. Parker, but actually going to the appointment with Adonis made it real.
When we got inside, I only had to wait for about ten minutes before they called me to the back. I went through the normal process of them getting my vitals before they situated me in a room and asked some routine questions. The nurse left us to wait for the doctor after documenting everything.
“You good?” Adonis asked. He was sitting next to me, his hand covering mine, his thumb tracing circles on my skin.
I nodded and gave him a small smile. “I’m fine. Just trying not to overthink it.”
“Shit gon’ be aight, love.” He returned the smile, but his was much bigger and a lot more reassuring. “Just relax.”
Before I could tell him that relaxing was a lot easier said than done, Dr. Parker was knocking then entering the room with a wide smile of her own on her face.
“My favorite couple,” she beamed then whispered, “don’t tell anyone I said that.”
“Your secret’s safe with us, Doc,” Adonis replied.
“Great. So, I understand that we’re here to discuss some fertility options today?”
I sucked in a deep breath before nodding. “Yeah. I think I’m ready to see what’s possible.”
Adonis, looked my way as he locked our fingers, giving my hand a tight squeeze. Dr. Parker took a seat on her stool then slid closer, positioning herself across from us.
“Alright Jru, so we’ve discussed before that with your endometriosis, it can make conceiving difficult, but not impossible, and that’s our silver lining.
We have several routes that we can explore—from tracking ovulation more closely to more assisted reproduction options like IUI or IVF, depending on your comfort level. ”
I nodded slowly as I processed her words. “I just—I don’t want to get my hopes up, you know? I know the odds,” I added somberly.
“Naw, we ain’t doin’ that, love,” he made me look up at him. “We ain’t worrying about the odds. We’re just worried about trying, aight?” He gave me a look. “One step at a time, right?”
I nodded and touched his hand. “Right”
“That’s the best mindset to have,” Dr, Parker smiled gently. “If you’re both mentally prepared, we can start some preliminary testing today. Some hormone levels, ultrasounds, and semen analysis for Adonis.”
“You mean I finally get some homework?” Adonis chuckled.
I elbowed him softly and laughed. He must’ve known I needed that to ease my racing mind and heart.
The doctor went on to explain timelines, more treatment options, and next steps.
I knew that’s where my sole focus needed to be, but my thoughts, as well as my eyes, kept drifting to Adonis.
The way he listened intently, hanging onto the doctors every word, while never messing up the pattern of the circles he was still tracing in my hand.
He was so sweet and attentive. I still couldn’t believe that I’d lucked up and gotten another chance with him.
My parents loved him without a doubt, but they were a little concerned when I confessed that I wanted to look into possibly having a child with him.
I knew the concern was there because we weren’t married yet, but we both had agreed that was the plan for our future.
Even if it didn’t happen though, I didn’t care.
I wouldn’t have wanted to go through this process with anyone else nor could I imagine sharing a child with anyone else.
I witnessed firsthand how he was with his brother and knew our child would be lucky to have him as a father.
If I could give him a child.
I was just about to start overthinking, and possibly talk myself out of this that quickly, but Dr. Parker had gotten up to leave the room after telling us she’d be back.
“You straight, baby?”
I nodded. “I am. Are you?”
“Perfect,” he smiled.
“And you’re one hundred percent sure about this?” I asked. “Like you have no doubts at all?”
“About building my future with you? Not one,” he answered. “I been sure about you and whatever future we’d have since you walked in my math class all them years ago. If this is what you want, then it’s what we want, love. Aight?”
“Okay,” I simpered, my lips trembling into a smile. “Let’s do it.”
“Let’s do it.” He repeated my words, leaning over to press a kiss into my forehead, then added, “together.”
I didn’t know what God had in store for us, but I knew as long as I had Adonis as my partner, everything was going to be fine.