She juts her chin out at me. “Get my coat. We’re leaving.”
“Darling, I don’t think we’re supposed to leave yet.” I suddenly feel lightheaded and find myself breathing too quickly.
“Well,” she says with a frustrated chuckle, “We’re certainly not staying here with that crazy woman who doesn’t know how to do her job.”
The door opens again, and in walks Tonya, carrying a paper bag. She thrusts it at me, and I take it, a wave of gratitude coming over me as I cover my mouth and nose and begin to breathe into it.
“I figured you’d be the type to hyperventilate.”
Tessa turns to her. “Yeah, we’re going to go now and get a second opinion since...” she gestures to the machine with both hands making wild circles, “...your equipment is obviously faulty. Like maybe a double exposure thing on a camera. I’m a photographer, so I’m familiar with such things.”
Tessa turns to me and snaps her fingers. “Arthur! Let’s go.”
Tonya shakes her head. “People tend to panic when they find out they’re having multiples. But look at it this way, it could have been triplets, so...”
Tessa holds up her finger. “I’m not having two babies, do you understand? There is no way I’m going to fit two human beings at the same time in here. No way!”
Tonya’s icy exterior seems to crack a bit under our panicking. Her expression softens. “Lay down. I’ll turn the screen so you can have a look at the babies.”
Tessa does as she’s told with a look of pure shock on her face.
Tonya turns the screen and puts more goop on Tessa’s belly, then we watch as the picture of two little tiny alien-like creatures appear before our eyes. Something about seeing them there affects me in a way I never could have anticipated. I find myself tearing up in spite of their incredibly creepy little faces. I drop the bag to my side and reach for Tessa’s hand, giving it a squeeze. Tessa squeezes back and looks up at me, her eyes glistening.
I smile down at her. “This is really happening.”
“I guess so.”
We watch the two babies move around, snuggling into each other in the empty black space. When I finally find my voice, I say, “So, they’re both all right?”
“I’m not supposed to say, but everything looks like it’s on track for both babies,” Tanya says. “The due date based on their size is January seventh. Having multiples puts you into a high-risk pregnancy category, so you’ll need to take some precautions, but if you follow your doctor’s orders, there’s no reason things shouldn’t go smoothly enough.”
Smoothly enough? That’s not exactly comforting.
“I’ll give you a few minutes to pull yourselves together, but we’ll need the room soon.” With that, she gets up and leaves.
***
TO CALL THE RIDE HOMEsilent would be a gross understatement. No one says a word the entire time. Not Ben, not Ollie, not Xavier, and certainly not my wife. When we got out of the office, Xavier opened his mouth to speak but then quickly closed it when he saw the looks on our faces. Ben and Ollie had the exact same reaction when we got to the limo. I don’t exactly know what my face is doing because quite frankly, it’s numb, but Tessa’s face has an ashen, catatonic look.
When we’re just beginning to cross the bridge to the palace, Tessa bursts into tears, her shoulders shaking. I wrap one arm over her and pull her in for a hug.
“I can’t do this, Arthur! Do you know how enormous Nina got when she had Josh and Geoffrey? Like, huge!Terrifyingly huge.”
“Two babies?” asks Xavier, who’s sitting at the far end of the limo, pretending to read some magazine about smoothies. He puts it down and speaks into the cuff of his jacket. “It’s all right, guys, it’s not a birth defect. It’s twins.”
I watch through the glass as Ben and Ollie, who were clearly very worried, high-five each other. What a strange life we’ve got. And it’s about to get much stranger. The word huge comes floating back to my mind as I listen to Tessa sob. Fuck me. I fight the urge to ask ‘exactly how huge?’ and opt for supportive rather than terrified husband.
“It’ll be okay, Tessa. I don’t care how big you get, I promise I’ll still find you attractive.”
“Oh, thanks!” she spits out, shrugging away from me.
“What? What did I say?”
“You’re supposed to say I won’t get huge, not that you’ll love me anyway.” She folds her arms and makes atsking sound.
“Well, how am I supposed to know how big you’ll get? I’ve never been through this before.”
“That’s not the point.”
