Epilogue-Whitney
“I’m really nervous about this, Whitney,” Chad said, pacing back and forth in the kitchen. “I don’t want to do this right now.”
“Ted’s not freaking out,” I said, pointing to Ted, who was busy seasoning raw steaks.
“Ted isn’t having his parents over for dinner,” Chad said. “Aren’t you nervous to see them?”
I shrugged. In fact, I was extremely nervous, but I didn’t want to freak him out any more. He was already at his most frazzled. I couldn’t stand to see him get any more upset.
“Listen to me,” I said, cupping his face in my hands. “The sooner we get this over with, the better. We’ll have one dinner, and then we can figure out how to proceed from there. Can you stick with me?”
He nodded slowly and took a few deep breaths.
“Good,” I said. “Why don’t you set the table? They’ll be here soon.”
I went into my bathroom to get ready. In all of the stress, I hadn’t even brushed my hair or washed my face yet. Those boys were stressing me out with all of their nervous energy.
For the first time in over a year, my mom and her husband were having dinner with Ted, Chad, and me. I still kept in contact with my mom and occasionally visited her, but Chad wanted nothing to do with his dad. Chad was stubborn and said that if he promised his dad that he didn’t need him, he was going to stick to that. I tried to remind him that there was a difference between needing someone and having them over for dinner, but he wasn’t very receptive to anything I had to say on the subject.
I hadn’t gotten into the specifics of the ins and outs of our relationship, but my mom knew that I was seeing both Ted and Chad. She was pretty confused and upset the first time I told her, but I think she’s coming around to it.
The thing I wanted to emphasize most with her was that it wasn’t just some crazy sex thing we were having. While I could admit to myself that the sex was fantastic, there was more to our relationship than that. I was living with my two best friends who also loved me more than anything. When it came down to it, we were three people who managed to put jealousy and social norms aside to work out an agreement that was beneficial to all parties.
It took quite a bit of talking for her to realize that my relationship with Chad wasn’t as icky as she’d previously thought it was. Once she understood that we got our start before we knew about her relationship with Paul, she became more reasonable. We didn’t grow up together, nor did we spend any time as stepsiblings before we got together, so it hardly seemed wrong. She even admitted that it wasn’t our fault that our parents happened to get married in the early days of our complicated relationship.
Even though Chad didn’t talk to Paul, I knew that my mom did. My mom always got her way, so even if Paul didn’t like what we were doing, at least my mom made an effort to get him to understand. He didn’t like our agreement, but he wasn’t completely in the dark about it.
“They’re here,” Ted said, looking out the window. I saw their black BMW in the driveway and swallowed hard. I was nervous.
Ted and I exchanged knowing looks. It was one of our rules to never keep secrets between just two of us, but this time, it was different.
Chad entered the room looking pale and sweaty. For someone so easygoing, he was really panicking. I hoped everything went smoothly for no other reason than for Chad to keep his sanity.
“Hi, Mom,” I said, giving her a hug as she entered the house.
“Hello, everyone,” she said softly. “Did you get new furniture? It looks nice.”
I nodded. “It arrived last week.”
Paul wandered inside behind my mom, clutching a bottle of wine in his hand.
“This looks nice,” I said kindly, taking it from his grip. “I’ll put it in the fridge so we can have it with dinner.”
We sat down around the table as Ted brought in piping hot food from the grill. It looked delicious, but I didn’t have much of an appetite. When I looked over at Chad, sitting next to his father, he was gripping his silverware until his knuckles turned white without even eating anything. Ted was a bit of a nervous eater and practically swallowed his steak whole.
As we ate, or tried to eat, we made small talk about the usual subjects like our work and the weather. Paul had just retired, and he and my mother were planning some big sailing trip. Luckily, their plans brought us to the end of the dinner. Chad survived that much without having to say more than a few words.
When we were finished, Ted cleared the table and I poured everyone another glass of wine. It was time to say the things that had been weighing on my mind for what seemed like an eternity.
“Mom, Paul,” I started, my voice shaking. “I have something I need to tell you.”
They both winced slightly, knowing that whatever was about to come out of my mouth would be shocking to them. I wanted to spare them as many details as possible, but it wasn’t the time to mince words.
“As I think you might have figured out, Chad, Ted, and I are in a relationship together. They love me and I love them, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.”
My mom nodded in understanding, and I took a sigh of relief. At least the first part of my announcement was over. Now it was time for the hard part.
“Chad,” I said, taking his hand, “I’ve been waiting to tell you this, but I just found out that I’m pregnant, and the baby is yours, of course.”
Chad’s eyes widened. I couldn’t tell if it was in surprise or horror. Finally, a tiny grin spread into a wide smile.
“Why didn’t you tell me immediately?” he hollered, picking me up from my chair and twirling me around.
“I wanted it to be a surprise. Are you okay with this?”
?
??Of course I am! I’m so happy.”
We embraced, not caring how our parents felt about seeing this firsthand. Once we settled down, we sat back in our chairs, our fingers still interlaced.
I looked toward our parents. My mom looked shocked but still pleased. Paul looked shaken.
“The reason I brought you here is because I wanted you to see how happy these two make me. I’ve already talked to Ted about it, and even though the baby isn’t his, he still wants to help raise it.”
Ted and Chad beamed at each other. Ted clapped him on the back. “Congrats, Dad.”
“Congrats to you, too,” Chad replied.
“Since you two are this baby’s grandparents, I wanted to ask you if you would accept our relationship and be in our lives again. I understand if you don’t like it or it doesn’t make sense to you, but your support would really mean a lot to our little family.”
They were silent for a moment, trying to process this information, before my mom reached over and gave me a big hug.
“I’m so happy for you, Whitney. I only ever wanted you to get whatever you wanted in life. You know I just wanted whatever was best for you.”
“I know,” I said, my eyes welling up with tears.
“Paul?” my mom asked her husband. “Is there anything you’d like to say to the kids?”
He gulped and nodded. “I’m sorry I’ve been so hard on you, Chad. I realize now that I don’t always know what’s best for you. If you’d let me, I’d like to have a chance at being a more supportive father and a grandfather to your little one.”
Chad blinked rapidly before nodding his head in response. “I’d like that.”
By now, the tears were freely flowing. I hugged everyone in the room about twenty times before I regained my composure.
Things finally felt complete. I had a great job that fulfilled my professional needs, my parents were supportive of me again, and I had two amazing men in my life who gave me more love than I thought was possible. The only thing that could make the moment sweeter was the tiny life, created by love, developing in my belly.