I watched him leave before making my way to Dede’s office. When she saw me, she came around her desk and into my arms.
“Lord! I’m glad it’s all finally out in the open,” she admitted. “It was exhausting trying to maintain that secret.”
I felt a sharp kick where Dede’s belly pressed against mine. It was a tangible reminder of what we’d created together, despite everything.
I stood in the kitchen, slicing green apples and applying peanut butter to them. They were Dede’s latest pregnancy craving that she’d woken me to fulfill. The combination struck me as anabomination, but she insisted only pregnancy could make one appreciate its supposed deliciousness.
Tia appeared in the entryway, hesitating when she spotted me. Her eyes darted to the teakettle next to me, clearly reluctant to approach while I occupied the space. I stepped aside.
She focused on making her tea, studiously avoiding me. I focused on the apples, arranging slices in a circle around the plate. The silence became tedious.
“Your mother, she told me you might need time, yes. I respect this, however, we should clear air between us.
“I don’t know what to say to you right now. You’re Chrys’s dad, but you’re also going to be my siblings’ father, and that’s just...” She shook her head. “It’s weird, okay? It’s really weird.”
“Yes, it is weird, this situation,” I said, setting the knife down. “But I want to be clear about one thing. I am serious about your mother. I am not going anywhere. As for you and me, we already have one relationship as in-laws, yes. This new development, it adds another layer to it. Complicated, yes, but not impossible to navigate if we are straightforward with each other.”
She was quiet again, gripping her mug. “I almost wish those babies were my father’s.”
What possible reasoning could make her prefer that man as the father of her siblings? Was I truly so objectionable?
She must have detected my confusion because she quickly explained, “Not because of you. But because of who you are to me. “What if things between you and Mom go bad? What if you guys start fighting? Like, how would that affect me and Chrys? Would we have to pick sides? And what if Chrys and I are fighting...?”
Her fears weren’t irrational. They were astute. The entanglement of our families was exactly what Dede and I had agonized over.
“I cannot promise our relationships, they will not influence each other, Tia. Chrysanthos, he is my son. You are his wife, yes. Your mother, she is... everything to me. And soon you and Chrysanthos, you will share siblings. However, I can promise that I would never interfere in your marriage. The covenant of marriage, it is inviolable to those within it.” I added pointedly, “And I would expect identical consideration from you both in return, yes.”
This was the only honest commitment I could offer. Not a false promise of separate lives, which was logistically impossible, but an assurance of mutual respect for boundaries.
She contemplated this for what seemed an unnecessarily long time before finally meeting my eyes directly. “You love my mom.”
“With my entire being,” I stated without hesitation. “With my entire being, yes. I will make her my wife as soon as she agrees to this.”
“You proposed, and she said no?”
Proposed? I had demanded, stated, insisted, outlined the logical case for marriage, presented it as the rational progression, but had any of that constituted an actual proposal?
The magnitude of this oversight struck me with sudden clarity. Was a formal proposal a significant cultural ritual that Dede valued? Had I been treating the woman I loved like a business acquisition?
She told me constantly that she wanted marriage to be a choice. Could this be what I was missing?
“Oh my God,” Tia said slowly, and I realized my entire internal crisis must have been written across my face. “You never actually proposed. You just... told her you should get married?”
“Something like that, yes,” I admitted, feeling distinctly like an idiot.
Despite everything, she almost smiled. “Mom is a romantic. When she saw Chrys and Is proposal, she cried and admitted she’d never been proposed to and was happy with how Chrys did it.”
“What’s taking so long, aggelé mou?” Chrysanthos appeared in the doorway, glancing between Tia and me.
She offered him a quick smile, retrieving her tea and moving toward him. “Nothing. Let’s go to bed.” They departed hand in hand, leaving me alone with this humbling realization.
Perhaps it was time to approach marriage differently.
I picked up the plate and headed upstairs, already composing a very different kind of conversation in my mind. One that started with a question, not a conclusion.
27
Ihurried down the stairs, moving quicker than I should’ve been with these two babies weighing me down, but I needed to talk to Tia. She’d been gone all day yesterday, and I wasn’t about to let another day go by before we cleared the air.
