“I’m sure it’s just the stress,” Parthenia commented, knowing the reason behind her sister’s significant weight loss because she too had a difficult relationship with food.
“Stress about what? Y’alls bougie ass momma and daddy! Don’t let them uppity ass people stress my grandbaby out! Eat!” Pam pointed to the food in front of her.
Sabine blew her breath, picking up the fork, annoyed that everyone seemed to comment on her weight a lot lately.
“I’m fine.”
“Mhm…” Pam pursed her lips. “We’ll see about that.”
Adair and Tate came through the door making a bunch of noise. They’d obviously just come back from the basketball court as they were sweaty and without shirts.
“Hey!” Narri jumped up greeting Tate who’d she become much cozier with since Adair and Sabine’s wedding. They hooked up a few times while she was in school but nothing serious until recently.
“Sup baby?” Tate vulgarly kissed and groped her.
“Tate, stop!” Narri squealed and he pulled her down onto his lap. “You missed me?”
“Mhm…” he licked his lips while feeling her up.
“What happened?” Adair asked, already feeling a weird energy from his wife who held a melancholy expression. “What’s wrong baby?”
“Gone and tell him girl!” Pam asserted.
“What is it?” Adair pulled Sabine to her feet and into his arms. “Talk to me.”
Sabine nervously shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m…I’m…”
“Oh shit,” Tate grinned. He didn’t even need to hear the rest to know what would come after the “I’m.” There was the general way of saying “I’m”, then the way a woman translates it before dropping the bomb that she was carrying.
“I’m pregnant.”
“For real?” Adair smiled but he could read his wife like a book. “Come here…”
They traveled through the house before he locked them inside of his bedroom. He was well aware that his mother could be smothering sometimes and a little pushy, but it came from a good place. Pam considered Sabine her daughter and meant well.
“Talk to me, baby, what’s wrong? What you thinkin’?”
“I…” Sabine shrugged. “I don’t know…everything is moving so fast.”
Adair sighed, “what can I do to relieve your stress? I don’t…wait, you don’t wanna have the baby?”
“Of course, I do,” Sabine insisted. “I’m just trying to process it all with everything else going on around me. We’re moving soon, I have to transfer schools, my parents don’t even care if I’m dead or alive…”
Adair got up closing the blackout blinds making the room dark. He kicked off his sneakers and laid on the bed bring her into him. “I stink?” he asked, making her laugh.
“No, not really just a lil musty but I don’t want you to shower yet,” Sabine said, holding onto him tight. “Just lay with me.”
Somehow, it all went quiet, outside and downstairs commotion no longer registered. Their world had sealed around them and all she could hear was his heartbeat that had always been louder than the noise.
JULY 23, 2011
“You sure you want all of it?” Tate asked Adair just to be certain. “While I’m at it, you sure you don’t want to at least be plugged in New York?”
“Yes and no.”
Tate blew out a heavy breath while shaking his head. Adair had been saving this money since they were teenagers. It was block bills, but he worked hard for that shit.
Adair sacrificed living the way he could’ve at his very young age which he deserved, to make sure his mother didn’t have a care. He didn’t even touch it while being a college student, instead getting a job.