Pulling the ring out of his pocket, “Ms. Cole, will you marry me?”
“You know I’ll marry you, Jah.”
He slipped the big ass rock on my finger, scooped me up and walked me up the stairs. Jah made love to me like he was trying to make a damn baby. I hadn’t told him that I hadn't had my period in over two months. I put it on stress, but I wanted to be sure I got the divorce over with before I took a test. I didn’t want to find out I was, and then the stress of the divorce made me miscarry. That was only going to strain my relationship with Jah.
A few hours later, I was waiting for Jah to walk through the door with the test. I sat in the den biting my nails. I had been infertile for as long as I could remember, then, when I did get pregnant, I laid my ass on that table and got rid of it. If I wasn’t pregnant, I don’t know if I would be able to take the disappointment. He rushed back in the house and emptied a bag full of pregnancy tests.
“Jah, why did you buy so many tests?”
“I’ve got to be sure. Don’t worry about how many I bought, go piss in the cup and dip that stick in there.”
I grabbed one of the tests and went to the bathroom that was connected to the kitchen. Jah was right behind me.
“Really?” I looked at him.
“Tatiyonna, I’ve seen everything you got. If it were up to me, I would live in your skin. Piss in that plastic cup and hush.”
I peed, dipped the test, and washed my hands.
“What do we do now?” Jah asked nervously.
“Let’s just walk away and come back in five minutes.”
“Five minutes! That’s too damn long.”
“Boy, come on.” I pushed him out of the bathroom.
Jah paced the floor and kept looking at his phone. It was cute, but he was making me nervous. As soon as the timer on his phone went off, we both rushed to the bathroom.
“Wait, Jah! What if it’s negative?”
“Tatiyonna, please don’t be negative right now. Everything we’ve been through, we’ll just try again.”
“What if there is never again?”
“Man, I’ll look.” He walked in the bathroom and picked up the stick.
There was silence. No celebration from him or anything. I picked my head in to see him staring in the mirror with tears in his eyes. I didn’t know if it was because it was positive or negative.
“What does it say?” I asked.
“We’re having a baby!”
“For real?”
I snatched the test and fell to the floor. This was my second chance that I knew I didn’t deserve. I was not about to mess it up.
TWENTY-FOUR
JAHMIR
Since I found out that Tatiyonna was pregnant, I didn’t want her to do anything. We put the opening of her studio on hold until after the baby was born. We agreed that it would be a good snapback moment for her. She was only doing online therapy sessions because I was afraid of her getting overwhelmed. With me making her load light, that didn’t stop her ass from picking the twins up at least once a week. It did my heart good to see them get along so well.
Today was their birthday, and she had planned a small gathering just with Lonni and us. Since birthdays were important to her, I let her go all out for the twins. She had two cakes made and had my house decorated. She even had a bounce house for them to play in out in the backyard. As the kids opened up their gifts, Tatiyonna sat on my lap. Her face lit up every time one of the twins brought her a gift to look at, as if she didn’t buy it.
“I don’t know why you bought Reign makeup. She is not about to have all that mess on my furniture,” Lonni fussed.
“She won’t. We’ve already had that conversation,” Tatiyonna replied.
