“I’m fine,” I laugh. “But point taken. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“See you, Maya.”
I head for the door, and sure enough, there is Anton, leaning against his car and waiting for me. I can’t stem the little flutter in my chest at the sight of him, as ridiculous as I know it is. I have known this man for the better part of a year now, and he still sends this electric current coursing through me, as though everything in me is being pulled in his direction.
“Well, good evening,” he greets me, and I hurry over to him and wrap my arms around him to give him a kiss.
“And good evening to you to, fine sir,” I joke back. “Good day?”
“Mhm.”
I know better than to ask for the details. He protects me from them, as much as I try to insist to him that I do not need it. I getit, I do—he wants to keep me from any more stress, since this pregnancy has been laced with so much of it, but the baby is just fine. The doctor—a real one, this time, not one who works for this underworld—has assured us that they are in perfect health, and now, it’s just a matter of bringing them into the world.
“Well, I’m starving, I could use some pizza,” I reply, as I pull back to get into the car. “You think we could stop for takeout on the way home or…”
Suddenly, something twinges low in my belly, and I grasp my stomach, wincing.
“Maya?” he demands, his voice written with concern, as he leans down to check on me. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just Braxton-Hicks,” I reply through gritted teeth, as I try to breathe my way through the pain. But, just as it is beginning to ease, I feel another sensation, something entirely new.
And I look down to see that my shoes are soaked, the hem of my dress slick with fluid.
“Oh, my God,” I gasp. “I think...”
“I think your waters just broke,” he fills in for me. The two of us just stand there for a moment, the enormity of the situation hitting us like a ton of bricks—and then, of course, he springs into action.
“Okay, we need to get you to the hospital,” he announces, as he moves me into the front seat, pulling a pillow from behind to tuck under the small of my back. “Where’s the nearest one? Shit, let me pull it up...”
“Oh,” I groan, hands on my belly, as another shock of pain courses through me. I can hardly believe this is really happening, but there’s no getting away from it.
I’m going to have this baby.
Our baby.
He slips into the driver’s seat once he has the map pulled up, and grabs my hand, pulling it to his lips and pressing a kiss against it.
“Just hang on a little longer, Maya,” he murmurs to me, as he takes the wheel, letting me hold on to his other hand to squeeze on as another wave of pain courses through me. But I stop him just before he pulls out from in front of the building, and he looks over at me.
“You okay-?”
“I will be,” I reply, and I bite my lip, beaming at him. “I just... I can’t believe that we’re going to be parents...”
And with that, he finally grins, like it is just sinking in what we are doing here.
“Holy shit,” he mutters. “We’re going to be parents...”
He pulls me close again, head against mine, and for a second—perhaps the last second we’ll get like this in a while—it’s just the two of us, against the world, like it was when we first met.
“I love you so much, Maya,” he murmurs to me.
“I love you too,” I whisper back – and then, another shock of pain consumes me, and I groan and wriggle in the seat. “Okay, come on, let’s get out of here – I don’t want to have this baby in a car...”
And he puts his foot down, not taking his hand off mine for a moment. And, even as we cut into the dark night beyond, towards the hospital where I’m going to have my baby, I know this is where I want to be. No matter how hard this gets, no matter what comes next, I know I want to be doing it all at his side.
And nothing will sway me from that.
Because I love him, and he loves me, and this child is going to be raised with all the love in the world.
The End.
