Dishing Up Love

The next hour and a half is a whirlwind. Dr. McNealy runs another pregnancy test and the next thing I know, I’m pulling into Curtis’s driveway with a white paper bag of prescriptions.

Dean drags Emmy into their own room after we make plans to go to dinner in half an hour. This gives us all time to freshen up before we’re seen in public.

Curtis and I are in his bathroom. I don’t exactly know what to say, and for the first time ever, our silence is awkward. I grab my toiletries bag and set it up by the vanity, pulling out my makeup to put on. I hadn’t bothered before we went to get my best friend and her hubby at the airport, because I figured I’d cry it all off with happy tears anyway. Little did I know I would be crying it all off while having morning sickness in the middle of the day.

Morning sickness.

I’m pregnant.

With a baby.

A real, living, so-far healthy little bean that’s been growing inside me for almost five weeks now.

I’d never had morning sickness before. I hadn’t even known I was pregnant the first time, until I lost it.

I don’t realize I’ve frozen in place with my thoughts, my mascara halfway to my lashes, until Curtis’s arms wrap around my waist and his front presses against my back. My eyes focus on him in the mirror, and I replace the mascara wand into its tube. He has the most serene look on his face, as if he’s the happiest man alive, and I spin in his arms to look up at him, all awkwardness disappearing.

“I hope you’re okay with my decision about the doc—”

“I’ve been begging you to move in with me for almost as long as we’ve been together, sugar,” he interrupts.

I raise my brows. “I mean, there’ve been a ton of different ideas that come along with that, honey. You’ve asked me to move here with you. You’ve asked to get a place together in NOLA. You’ve even suggested us selling off everything and getting an RV to live on the road, wherever the events may take us.” I can’t help but giggle.

“I’d be happy doing any of those things. Because all of them put you and me together. That’s all that matters to me. I’d give up everything for you, baby,” he tells me, squeezing me a little tighter with that last part, but I’m already shaking my head.

“I don’t want you to give up anything. I never want that. And I don’t want to have to give up anything either. I love my job,” I reply, and the light dims in his eyes just a bit, so I continue on, getting to the good part. “But as soon as that doctor told me it’s possible for us to have a full-term healthy pregnancy, it all clicked into place.”

His nostrils flare, and I see hope in his every feature. “What did?”

“There is nothing in the entire world I’ve ever wanted more than to be a mom. Nothing. I threw myself into my work, making it my world, allowing it to take over my entire life until I wasn’t even taking care of my own self in order to care for other people, nurturing them as if they were my babies. But now—” My hands move to my stomach and I close my eyes, imagining our little miracle there. “—I know I wouldn’t be giving up anything. My dream is actually coming true.”

“So what are you saying, sugar?” he prompts, his voice a soft whisper as if he’s almost afraid to ask.

“That my answer is finally yes. I will move in with you. Here in California. I love New Orleans and will be sad to leave, but my parents live there, so I’ll still get to visit as often as I want. But I want this to be our home,” I tell him, and I swear to God I think I see tears fill his eyes before they close and he slams his mouth down on mine, cutting off any more talking.

He devours me as if his life depends on it, and I let him, my nose tingling with tears this moment is so beautiful. I’ve never made a person so happy before. I feel his joy rolling off of him as if it’s a tangible thing, and it crashes into me in waves, filling me up until I feel like I’m going to burst with glee.

He picks me up, setting my ass on the vanity, and the loud clattering of all my makeup falling into the sink pulls us out of our haze before the party even gets started. “Fuck, I’d do anything to make love to you right here and now,” he breathes against my lips and then rests his forehead against mine.