I was headed back upstairs, so that I could go back in the room with Dionne, and the baby. I’d only gone downstairs so that I could have another slice of pound cake that was in the kitchen. All day, we had a house filled with women, so with that,you know that it was going to be some good cooking going on. Today caused for a celebration. My baby took birthing our son like a champ, so with that, the women had thrown down tonight.
Oven baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, honey glazed ham, collard greens, rice and gravy, homemade crown bread, you name it. They even baked a few cakes. Pound cake, and red velvet. Hearing the menu, I know it sounded like a lot of work, but between my mama, who was a whole chef, Dionne’s mama, and both her grandmother’s, they were able to get in the kitchen, and they tackled that dinner and dessert together.
No lie, seeing them in the kitchen cooking for Dionne, I fully understood now why Dionne preferred to have this water birth. Just to think that if she’d given birth in the hospital, we would still be in the hospital room right now, and we wouldn’t have had none of what had gone on earlier. Dionne was able to keep our boy in the same room as her the entire time. He never left our sight. Family never left our sight. We didn’t have to worry about nurses telling us that it was too many people in the room and making them sit out in the lobby. I loved everything about this water birth experience, and when that time came around again for us to have our second child, (which I wasn’t going to rush), I didn’t mind doing it again.
I walked into our bedroom, and the sight before me was so beautiful. Dionne was lying down in the king-sized bed, and she had our baby boy resting peacefully on her chest. She wasn’t under the covers just yet, and because she wasn’t, I was able to see the black, cotton material, long-sleeved two-piece pajama set that she had on. Jr. was in a black convertible gown from Ralph Lauren and seeing them matching did something to me. Granted, I’d seen them matching already before I walked out of the room, but they hadn’t been laying down, cuddling like this yet.
Dionne was so deep in the gaze that she had on him, that she didn’t hear me when I came into the room. She didn’t look up until I walked over. When she saw me, that’s when she took her eyes off him, so that she could smile at me.
“We starting off wrong already. Tamera said to try to let him sleep in the bassinet tonight,” I told her, standing right on the side of the bed.
I was saying this, but I knew that our first night with our baby boy, we were going to want him to sleep in the bed with us.
“I’m going to put him in there. I just wanted to hold onto him for a little while longer. I can’t stop staring at him. I told you when I hit six months, I kept having dreams about what our baby would look like. He looks just like the baby that I kept seeing in my dreams. This moment just doesn’t feel real. I can’t believe that I’m a mommy, Tank,” she voiced, taking her hand off Jr.’s back, so that she could reach it out, and put it on my stomach.
I was walking around the house in nothing but a pair of sweatpants, with the Versace house shoes on my feet, that she got me months ago for my birthday.
“Believe it, mommy. You’re already doing such a good job at it too,” I let her know, walking closer to her, and I kissed her on her forehead.
I didn’t bother taking him away from her and putting him inside the bassinet that was on her side of the bed because I knew it’s not what she wanted me to do just yet. She wanted to continue soaking up every moment with him that she possibly could before putting him inside.
I kicked the house shoes off, and I went over to my side of the bed. I scooted over, getting in the middle, so that I was close to the two of them.
“You going to miss me being pregnant?” she asked, as I picked up the remote, and flipped through the channels, trying to see what I wanted to watch.
I really wasn’t tired. Dionne was though. I could see it in her eyes. I already told her that she could get her rest, and if Jr. woke up during the night, that I would handle him.
“Hell yeah. Your baby bump was so beautiful. No lie, watching you from beginning to end, carrying my son the way that you did, that made me cherish you in a way that I feel like I didn’t cherish you at first. Like, I got a whole new level of respect, and love for you. The love that I have for you is deeper. This shit goes far beyond your looks, how good your pussy is, how you make me feel, all that. I watched the changes your body made over the nine months. The way your stomach grew. The way I just sat there and watched you push a whole human being out for me. Not to sound like no pick me ass nigga, but I don’t see how men cheat on their girlfriends, or wives, especially when she risked her life to give him children. The shit I saw you do today, I swear to God you don’t ever have to worry about me committing adultery. Fuck no,” I shared with her, and with her eyes on me, she was smiling, eating up everything that I was saying to her.
“I love you, baby, and I’m so grateful for you. I promise that I wouldn’t do any of these things for no other man in the world, outside of you. Before you, becoming a mom wasn’t something that even took up too much space in my mind. The way you came into my life, and you loved me, it made me want to be a wife to you, and a mother to your children. I will never forget the way you treated me during my pregnancy. You were attentive towards every little thing. Those times when I felt like you were being mean, trying to boss me around because I was trying to lift stuff, I know now that you were just doing it because you cared. I’ll always remember how you were there with me earlier today during labor. You encouraged me, talked me through those contractions, and just all around gave me the push that I needed. I love you, boy. Don’t you ever forget that,” she got alittle emotional as she was saying these things to me. A couple of times throughout her speech, her voice cracked.
“I love you more, beautiful. Don’t ever forget that. Ain’t you happy that you lost that bet at the poetry night that we went to? Look what you would have missed out on. Look at that rock on your finger. Look at that perfect little boy that you got lying on you. Look at this handsome ass nigga that you got lying next to you,” I told her, and she laughed.
“Iwasn’t supposed to be yours. We made it happen though baby, and I’m glad we did,” she announced.
“Nah. You were always supposed to be mine. Our shit was destined,” I let her know, sealing it with a kiss on her lips.
When I saw that she started dozing off with lil Tank, I took him from resting on her chest, and as bad as I wanted to have him sleep in the bed with us, I did the right thing, and I put him in his bassinet.
I laid him on his back, and I thought that he was going to wake up, but he didn’t. I assisted Dionne with getting out of bed for a second, so that she could get under the covers. She was still a little sore, so she was moving around slowly. Once she was in bed, I pulled the comforter over her body, and her head instantly hit the pillow. I cut the lamp off that she had on, and I got back in bed, turning the volume down, so that the two of them could sleep. I knew she was tired, but on some thirsty shit, I wanted to stay up, and geek out over our son, talk about him, and shit, but she knocked out. She had her head resting in the palm of her hand, as she softly slept.
I reached over, so that I could kiss her forehead, and then I leaned back against the headboard, just lost in my thoughts for a little bit.
Dionne had officially moved in with me. This was no longer just my house. This was our crib together. Funny because I remember when I purchased this home, and my mom wouldmanifest that one day I would have a wife living in here with me, and our children. I used to think that it wasn’t going to happen, but it did. I was able to break Dionne out of her lease, and most of the things in her condo, she was able to sell it.
Married life was treating us good. I know I’ve heard shit about the first year being the hardest, but I wasn’t sure who they were getting those statistics from because this shit was easy. This sounds so crazy, but our marriage worked because I actually liked my wife. Niggas have girlfriends, and wives, but they don’t really like their partners. I like Dionne. I still crush on her. On some simp shit, I still show all 32 when she walks into a room that I’m in.
There was no doubt in my mind that our shit was going to work. I didn’t put all this work in to get her, just to let it flop. I promise that me, and Dionne were in this shit for the long run.
Chapter 23
Dionne Briggs
Walking Into Forever
Two months later
Iheard a sniffle coming from my daddy, so I lifted my head, so that I could look over at him. My head had been down because I was having a talk in my head with God, expressing to him my nerves, asking Him to ease that away from me. I was literally wrapping it up, but when I heard the sniffling, I turned my head to look at my dead, and just as my head had been down, his was down as well, and I could only see his side profile, but it was enough for me to make out that he had been crying.
