The Better Half(94)
TWENTY-NINE
Ding.
I’m trying to heave my body up into the front seat of Courtney’s Range Rover and get the door closed before another contraction kicks in and the serene neighborhood surrounding Royal-Hawkins is assaulted with guttural moans I can no longer control.
Leo 7:48 PM
I’m at the airport a bit early to pick up Xandra. Didn’t want to take a chance being late with traffic. Should I bring her straight home?
What should I tell him? I wonder, stretching my thumbs prepping to write Leo the text that says his life is about to change forever. Tonight’s events are the polar opposite of the birth plan I had for myself. This week and next I was supposed to be tying up my year at school and having a last hurrah with Xandra, just the two of us. Then with Xandra tucked back in boarding school, I had planned to get my box braids freshened up, purchase a few pairs of postbaby jeans, and make things right with Leo. Oh, and a facial to be picture ready when Leo and I stroll into the maternity ward, calm, prepared, and back together, on my due date.
Nina 7:49 PM
Check with Xandra where she would rather go—home or to the hospital. That’s my casual attempt at telling you we’re having a baby, tonight. Did it work?
Leo 7:49 PM
NO, NOT AT ALL! Okay, okay, meet you there in an hour. The baby won’t come within the hour will it? Tell it not to come. Wait how are you getting there? And why are we texting?
Ring.
“Don’t have this baby without me, Nina. Please don’t!” Leo pleads over the phone.
Ohhh he sounds so desperate. I squeeze my legs together tight with his request. I feel badly I sent him to go get Xandra, but I didn’t have any other option.
“Really don’t. Xandra and I can’t miss it.”
My heart melts at his anticipation and his inclusion of Xandra in our growing family. My heart should have been melting six months ago, but here we are and it’s time for me to make my move before the next contraction comes and I can’t eek out anything other than profanity.
“Leo, I want my ring back,” I say, covering my mouth over the phone, hoping Courtney can’t hear me. I was going to text it to Leo that now that I’m in labor the prospect of being an unwed mother is much less appealing. I thought I had weeks to create the ultimate venue to profess my idiocy and my love. Instead, right now will have to do.
“What’d you say? Arrrggghhhh I can’t hear you, too many people are honking at me to move, but I’m staying here until I see Xandra. They can honk all they want.”
“I want the ring back,” I say louder, relinquishing my privacy in an effort to fight the sounds of airport traffic for my future. Courtney’s been pretending to mind her own business and drive, but I can see the mention of a ring in front of a slighted wife hits hard. Her knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.
“Yes, when I have your daughter, I’ll ring you back. Damn, gotta go, airport security is making me move.”
Click.
I don’t have time to process the miscommunication with Leo before animal instinct takes over and I grab Courtney’s forearm and bear down. “AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.” Without flinching Courtney drives on, her hands steady at ten and two.
“There should be a bottle of water under your seat. You don’t want to get dehydrated before the main event starts.” Courtney smiles at me as I grunt and sweat in her front seat. “This is an exciting end to my very shitty night.” In my moment of agony, I had forgotten that the pixie of a woman chauffeuring my ass to the ER just exposed the hottest Royal-Hawkins gossip in well over a decade. Even at the center of it, she had let it rip. I have about four minutes to get to the bottom of the Winn-Geoff affair before I reenter my pain cave.
“About that check,” Courtney throws out, turning left. Aha, I should have known. There really is no such thing as a free ride. So, what, Courtney wants to swing by Wells Fargo before this baby crowns? “I need to explain something, especially given my outburst at the board meeting. I swear that wasn’t planned, but it’s been a difficult couple of months coming to grips with Geoff’s affair.”
“How long have you known? And, so you know, I often feel like I want to punch Winn Hawkins in the face too,” I offer, establishing a common connection.
“HA! Thanks for that, Nina.” Admitting my feelings about Winn to another board member is probably the least professional thing I’ve ever done, but I like that I was able to make another woman laugh in the midst of her personal hell. “Well, Gemma and I have been friends since she and Winn moved back from Australia. I confided in her late last spring that I suspected Geoff was having an affair. She’s a great friend and a smart woman, and she suggested I plan an extended family trip over the summer to put some distance between Geoff and his lover.”
I choke a little. Everyone has a word or two that gives them the heebie-jeebies. Mine’s lover.
“That’s why we went to Costa Rica for July and August under the guise of Daisy being a budding conservationist. Please, that child spent the whole trip whining for takeout and begging to drive an ATV.” I’m about to jump in and tell Courtney there’s still hope for Daisy to save the Amazon rainforest, but she looks at me wistfully, tears pooling. “We had a great time as a family. Geoff was totally present. I started to believe that maybe I had been making the whole affair up in my head, reading too much into Geoff’s previous elusive behavior.”