Into the Light

Kate looked at me confused “Err what’s that?”

“That I get custody of Eric,” she blurted out.

We all laughed; yes, even me. Eric had entertained me with his sick humor on more than one occasion and if it made Charlotte happy, then I was happy.

“But I get him on the holidays,” Kate argued.

“Deal.” They shook on it and I couldn’t be happier that soon we would start a new life in LA.

Planning to move to LA was a huge task. I found myself flying back and forth with the paranoia that Charlotte was going to give birth at any moment. She was only in her thirty-second week but I couldn’t shake the worry, so I had my Mom stay with her every time I had to fly out. Charlotte didn’t complain; they could talk babies all day and as much as I loved my baby, an hour-long conversation discussing diaper genies was tedious.

Charlotte was busy scouting houses on the internet and after a whirlwind trip to LA, we found a house nestled in Hollywood Hills which we both instantly fell in love with. It was a Spanish-style home, full of character and plenty of space. Our neighbors were big shot celebrities but Miss Charming won them over, discussing once again – diaper genies. Again, it was my cue to leave. I busily inspected the home and put in an offer. It would be home as soon as the baby was born.

Charlotte found herself busy with Nikki, planning out the new LA practice. Eric, as predicted, was eager to move out to LA, his constant texts to begging me to use my connections and locate where Matthew McConaughey lived. I kept reminding him that I wouldn’t be the one to bail him out of jail should he violate the restraining order that I had no doubt would be placed against him. Mason & Romano already had a client base; mainly their clients from New York that had moved to the west coast. Between that and being heavily pregnant, I warned Charlotte to slow down.

“If I slow down now then it’ll be all downhill from here,” she complained.

“Charlotte, having a baby is not going downhill,” I said, trying to ease her fear.

“Well of course you would say that, you don’t have a giant head coming out of your vagina!”

And the best part of the third trimester was the mood swings. One minute she was counting down the days to finally holding the baby and the next she was talking about going downhill. I know, I know, I shouldn’t complain. I should be sympathetic for I wasn’t the one that had to physically go through this. Okay, just one more rant; the sex was also becoming difficult. Charlotte had never looked more beautiful and my desire for her only intensified but much like a box of assorted candy, I didn’t know what I was getting. I would make a move and she would be riding me faster than a bucking bull, but then I could make another move and she would recoil and complain that my cock was too big and full of sperm and it was what got her in this “fat” state to begin with. Hormones, Lex… blame the hormones. The sex had become challenging as her belly grew, and doggystyle had fast became a favorite.

Late one Friday night, Charlotte, Eric, Kate and I were in our apartment packing up boxes. The three of them decided to rent Magic Mike, much to my disapproval. At what point they actually thought I needed or even wanted to watch men strip on stage was beyond me.

“Okay, listen, I’m heading out to Rocky’s. I need to hang out with testosterone because, Eric, you’ve really let the team down,” I mocked.

“Lex, I’m not on Team Pussy. I’m Team Wang, look I’m even wearing my Team Wang shirt!” He unzipped his jacket and there it was, in bold for the whole world to see.

I kissed Charlotte goodbye and headed out to Rocky’s. Nikki and Will were in Jersey visiting Nikki’s mom so I wasn’t surprised one bit when I arrived and Rocky was watching porn. The moans and groans could be heard down the hallway; the idiot even had it on surround sound.

“You better not be hard,” I warned him.

“Nah, I jerked off already. This is just the after show.” He grinned.

And so we sat there watching porn till Elijah arrived. He didn’t look himself and Rocky suggested he watch some girl on girl action to liven up his mood. I’m not sure if it worked, but he managed to piss Rocky off by talking throughout the whole thing. According to Rocky, porn must be watched in silence.

/> Halfway through the movie Whores’R’Us, I received a text from Charlotte.

So you need to come home RIGHT now. I love you baby but seriously magic mike has flooded the channels if you know what I mean.

I had to laugh, the old Lex would have been a jealous prick reading that, but somehow I had loosened up over the past few months. Probably because she was my wife and carrying my baby! I didn’t need any more reassurance than that. I texted her back saying that I would be home soon to take care of that problem and Rocky was more than happy to see us leave. He had changed movies and was now watching Ass-ablanca, he warned us that his dick was out of control and unless we wanted to watch him jerk off, we needed to leave immediately.

Elijah and I were out of there so fast and you could hear Rocky’s zipper. Elijah was still quiet and I knew something was off. He asked me to join him for coffee and as much as I needed horny Charlotte, something told me Elijah needed me more. I sent her a text saying I was going to be a little bit late and not to fall asleep. She didn’t respond which I assumed meant she probably already had.

As we ordered our coffees, Elijah nervously played with the sugar sachets until he found the courage to speak.

“The cancer is back.”

I placed my steaming hot coffee down with a slight tremble, trying to figure out if I heard him right. His deadly silence indicated I had. “How? And where?”

He paused, “Testicular. I was told it was contained and the chemo worked but my test last week showed abnormal cells, and well, it’s back.”

“Does Adriana know?”

“No. I haven’t told her yet. She’s been doing IVF treatment, she’s under a lot of stress.”

“Elijah, I don’t think trying for a baby is best right now. What if…” Shit! I wanted to retract the words, I didn’t mean for it to come out so morbid.