“I saw it on the drive home and had to get it.”
“Damn right. Aww…thank you.” She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug. “I’m so happy that you got something.”
I squeezed her to me, my chin resting on her head. “Yeah, it was nice.”
“Then we should go shopping soon.” She pulled away. “Gotta get the baby’s room ready, buy diapers for days, all the clothes. And if it’s a girl, she’s gotta have an outfit for every occasion. Gotta make her debut, you know?”
When I watched her light up like this, I was so happy. Having kids so soon wasn’t on her mind in the least when we got pregnant, but she never seemed unhappy about it. She was excited, ready to be a mom, not the least bit regretful that her career might be slowed for the foreseeable future.
“Do you want a boy or a girl?”
I released a loud laugh because that was all I could do in that moment. “Man, I don’t care. I’m just happy…that this happened.”
She smiled. “Me too. We could find out at the doctor if you want.”
I shrugged. “Maybe next time we go, but I really don’t care what we have. Anyway, I have something to tell you.”
“I have something to tell you too.”
“Well, ladies first.”
She moved to the couch and took a seat before she patted the spot beside her.
I was instantly on edge because this felt like bad news.
“Everything’s fine,” she said quickly. “It’s good.”
I sat beside her, my hand moving to her thigh.
“I went to see a geneticist because I wanted to understand our situation. You know…just seeking answers.”
I immediately sucked in a breath, just the topic triggering years of trauma.
“And I think the reason why you and I are able to make this work is because…I have an extra allele in one of my chromosomes.”
My hand stilled on her thigh, and I stared at her face, not quite understanding.
“I have an extra chromosome…in the exact place where you’re missing one.”
Uncontrollably, my breaths started to rise. My body flushed with heat. I felt disoriented, shocked, afraid, moved, everything. “Jesus…”
Her eyes started to water.
Mine did too. “Baby…” My hand moved to hers, and I gripped it tightly, like she was my lifeline, my everything. “You’re the only woman I can have children with.”
“And you’re the only man I can have children with…”
We ended up in bed, ordering takeout, our bodies wrapped around each other as we made love on and off, the sheets rumpled at the end of the bed, the two of us losing track of time and life. Our phones were abandoned in the other room, so we were off the map from the rest of the world.
I didn’t believe in fate, meant-to-be, nothing like that.
But being with her seemed bigger than a coincidence.
I’d lost everything. But she gave it all back to me.
I’d assumed that this would be our only child, our miracle baby, and we’d just have to be thankful that we had one child to love. But now, we could have more, as many as we wanted. “How many should we have?”
She chuckled. “How about we just get through this one first?”
“You’ve never thought about how many you’d like to have?”
“Well, it was three. But maybe two.”
“I want four.”
“Four?” she asked incredulously. “Do you have any idea what that’s going to do to my body?”
“Baby, you’ll be beautiful. You know I’ll be all up on you, no matter what.”
She smirked. “Well, I’m sure that’s true…but that’s a lot of babies.”
“Nothing you can’t handle.”
“Do you actually want that many children, or do you just want to have as many as you possibly can?”
“I’ve never really thought about it because I assumed I would never have children. I didn’t even think I’d find someone who would want to adopt with me. But now that I think about it—right here, right now, with you beside me—four would be fine.”
“Yeah, let’s shoot for two and see how we feel then.”
I chuckled. “Alright.” My hand went to her stomach, feeling that sexy bump.
“So…you said you had something to tell me? We kinda got sidetracked.”
“Oh yeah.” It seemed unimportant now. Really unimportant. “Now that our patients have all reached remission, word is getting out. Your dad’s contacts from the Nobel Prize Committee reached out to him and basically said we’re unofficially considered as candidates for medicine.”
“Wow, that’s great. I just… I’m in disbelief right now. You must be feeling like a rock star.”
“I don’t know how I feel. I never thought I could be so happy.”
Her hand glided up my arm, affection in her eyes. “It’s crazy. You walked into my office, and we hated each other. Now we’re having a baby—”
“Four babies.”
“And getting married.”
“And winning Nobel Prizes.”
“You mean, you’re winning a Nobel Prize. But you’re right. Your victory is my victory.”