“Aww, Brix.” She gave me the pouty, sad face.
I fanned it off because I wasn’t trying to go there with her. “Yo, it was a period of time. I did the work. I ain’t saying I’m perfectly healed, but I’m definitely not unhealed. I can give and receive love.”
She leaned over and hugged me. I surprised myself by hugging her back. She sighed. “Honestly, right now, you’re mybest shot at making my dream of motherhood come true, Brix. I’m basically going to agree to whatever your stipulations are.”
My heart went out to her, because I knew she felt like her back was against the wall. “Honestly, Ry, there’s never going to be a point in life where I try to fuck you over. You’re family and this is your dream. Yeah, I want to be a father, but I don’t have a shot clock counting down the seconds on my fertility. You do. The longer you play around and bullshit, the harder it’s going to be to make your dreams happen. My only real contingencies are about joint custody, the fact that you have to live close enough for me to see my child every day, and you have to let me provide financially for my child across the board. I’m talking a child support agreement, insurance coverage, schooling, trust funds… anything involving my child. I don’t want you coming out of your pocket for their care. I want to cover the financials.”
“Are we actually going to do this?”
“I don’t see why we wouldn’t. Do you?”
“I definitely want to do this with you, Brix. You’re probably the only man on Earth that I would actually trust enough to do this.”
Her saying that made something weird happen in my chest. My heart thumped around for a minute and my stomach felt… queasy? Unstable? I couldn’t pinpoint the feeling, but I knew her words made me feel warm inside.
Once Brixtonand I came to the conclusion that we would collaborate on making a baby, it was all gas and no brakes. The first step was telling our families. When I wanted to tell them about the diagnosis, I chose to do it in person. Now, both Brixton and Christian were back in practice, and the pre-season was right around the corner. There was no time to fly to Virginia. There was barely time to set up the Zoom meeting we’d decided to arrange to get everybody together virtually, so we could tell them at the same time.
“We’ll get to answer all of the questions at one time,” he said, as the two of us sat on the meeting alone before I allowed the other guests into the room. “And deal with the majority of the shit talking.”
I snickered lightly. I couldn’t laugh for real, because the butterflies in my stomach had me feeling like I was on the verge of throwing up.
“Of course, knowing my grandpops, the shit talking is gonna continue for eternity.”
I actually did laugh for real that time. “Stop giving Mr. Bailey a hard time. He’s probably gonna be excited at the prospect of having more grandbabies to spoil.”
“Probably, if we were doing it the old fashion way. You know he calls Genesis’s kidstest tube babies.”
“Oh no.”
“Yeah. So, I already know he’s gonna have something to say about all of his grandchildren being conceived in a test tube.”
“Oh no,” I said again, as my computer chimed repeatedly. “They’re coming in.”
“You ready?”
I took a deep breath, knowing that I was nowhere near ready. “Yep.”
Slowly, our family members trickled into the meeting. Soon, everyone had arrived. My family—my parents, Ricky, Zyah, Christian, and Genesis (who could actually be counted on both sides). And his family, Mr. Bailey and his twin brother, Beaux.
Since I was the one who requested the meeting, I was sure they were surprised when Brixton started talking.
“Listen, I’m sure you’re all wondering why Ryann asked for this Zoom call.”
“Oh my God!” Genesis exclaimed, a huge smile blooming on her face. “I know what this is?—”
“This better not be what I think it is!” Zyah cut her off.
“Oh my Goodness.” My mother’s hand flew to her mouth and my father, who was sitting right next to her, stared at her in confusion.
Brixton chuckled lightly while shaking his head. “I’mma just say it, since it seems like it’s not a surprise or whatever. As some of you know, Ryann got some news about her fertility. Her doctor feels like if she plans to pursue motherhood, then she needs to do it sooner rather than later. The two of us talked about it?—”
“What the fuck?” Christian questioned and I honestly couldn’t tell if he was shocked or pissed.
“Brixton agreed that I could use his sperm to conceive. If everything goes to plan, we’re gonna have a baby together.” I spit out.
The meeting erupted into chaos. My anxiety shot through the roof. I wasn’t sure how I expected things to go, but not this way. Everybody was talking over one another. Some people looked shocked. Some people looked happy. Some people looked… unhappy.
After about a minute of everybody digesting the news noisily, Brixton spoke. “Yo! Yo! Yo!” His voice boomed. “Look, we got y’all together so everybody could have an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns, both negative and positive. But y’all can’t talk over each other. We know you have questions. We’ll let you ask them, but let us say what we need to say. Go ’head, Ry.”
