White is for Virgins (60 page)

“You’re such a great mother already,” I told her, offering her my hand so she could squeeze the crap out of it. She needed someone.

“Emery, I want you to leave,” Nina told me, looking up at me as the nurse returned and checked the dilation once more. This time she did it wordlessly, and when she got up she mentioned she was sending for the doctor. “You’re not going to spend your prom night in a hairnet and face mask, watching a baby come out of your friend. I love you, you know that, and I know you’d stay for me and be here for me, but I’m asking you to leave.”

“But Nina,” I protested.

“No ‘but Nina’s!” She meant to say it, but she ending up yelling it as the doctor came and spread her legs even further apart. I was in complete shock of all that was going on, and all that was about to happen.

“Are you a relative?” the doctor asked, adjusting her gloves and pulling her seat forward.

Nina answered for me. “No.”

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave, ma’am,” she told me before looking back to Nina. “Bet you have a lot of nice things to say to the daddy, huh?” she joked.

I clenched my jaw, flinching away as a nurse dared to touch me in her effort to get me to leave.

“If he was here I’d KILL THAT BASTARD!” Nina screamed as the doctor coached her through her first push.

As I walked toward the door by the force of the pushy nurse, I stopped before who I saw standing in the doorway.

Speak of the devil.

“Nina?” Carlos asked in complete disbelief, eyes bulging as he took in the scene before him.

I saw Fox standing in the doorway giving me an anxious glance. All hell was going down –
but we did it!

“Oh! Daddy made it after all,” the doctor commented happily, gesturing for the father of the baby to come to the bed. “You’re just in time.”

Nina was told to push again; she looked completely confused, amongst other things. Angry would also suffice.

“Is that… is – am I …the father?” came his stuttered, dumbfounded question.

“
Ai dios mio!
If I wasn’t giving birth right now, I’d smack you upside your face, Carlos,” she groaned, getting ready for her next push. “And I’d cut your
cojones
off so you wouldn’t be able to do this to me again.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked in shock, hesitantly stepping forward as a nurse dressed him in proper sterile attire.

“Can we continue this LATER?” she screamed, grabbing the sides of the bed as she was pushed upward by the force of her son entering the world.

Before I was pushed out of the room by the bitch in a hairnet, I saw Carlos grab Nina’s hand and hesitantly kiss her forehead. What warmed my heart was the fact that she squeezed his hand back.

“Did she throw shit at him?” Fox smirked, leaning against the wall across the door. I went over and joined him.

“Surprisingly, no,” I shrugged. “She did threaten to backhand him and cut off his balls, though. I think it’s the fact that she’s a little preoccupied that she didn’t cause physical damage.”

We chuckled. Hearing her scream once more made us stop pretty quickly.

“You found him, huh?” I asked, looking up at Fox.

“Finally,” he nodded. “I just tried his old number – turns out he moved back here.”

“How’d you get him to come here so fast?”

“I told him Nina was asking for him at the hospital,” he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head, “gave him the room number and said he had a good ten minutes before she went into surgery.”

I smacked his arm, looking at him in disbelief. “You didn’t.”

“Hey! Technically, I didn’t lie. And it worked, didn’t it?”

I shook my head, reaching up to peck him on the cheek. “Clever.”

“I know,” he nodded smugly. 

He reached down to kiss me. We settled for a peck before pulling apart at the sound of the door opening.

Carlos had tears in his eyes as he invited us in.

I rushed into the room, beaming at the sight of Nina holding a little bundle covered in a baby-blue blanket. He had gorgeous, big black eyes and a mass of midnight-colored hair on top of his little head.

“This is
Andre Nikolas Menendez
,” Nina purred, smiling down at her son before looking up at me. “Would his aunt like to hold him?” she asked.

I was on the verge of tears; bending down to let Nina put him in my arms.

“He’s precious.”

Carlos came up behind me and Fox stood on my right.

“You two have some explaining to do,” Nina murmured, staying quiet and pleasant around baby Andre.

“If there’s anyone who’s got explaining to do, it’s Carlos,” I said softly, eyeing the proud father next to me. “He disappeared, when he said he’d come visit you.”

“You told him?” Nina gasped.

“No,” Fox assured her. “We never told him. We just suggested that he go see you, and try a little harder for you. You both felt like…
crap
after whatever it was that you guys had ended. And Em and I noticed. So we tried to persuade Carlos to come back, considering you would never pick up the phone and call him first. Then he disappeared.”

“You guys were stalking me?” Carlos questioned, hands on hips and eyebrow raised.

“That’s not important,” I said, gently handing Andre to Fox with Nina’s approval.

“He’s
gonna be a heartbreaker,” Fox commented, cradling the baby and shaking his head knowingly. “I can already tell.”

I returned to Carlos. “Where’d you go? ‘Cause this dummy,” I paused giving Nina an apologetic glance, “was set on having a baby on her own. When two friends come to see you and suggest something, you should probably listen to them. Got that,
papi
?”

Nina and Fox chuckled at my use of Spanish.

“I was moving back to Hartford,” Carlos confessed, staring at Nina the entire time he did so, “I was going to come see you, but I wanted to be settled first. I wanted to have a house; I wanted to get my… stuff together before I came back and tried to win you over.”

“It wasn’t about where you lived,” Nina said with a shaky voice, “or what you did for a living. I knew you wanted better, though, and so I wanted better for you, too. When they called with a proposition for you, I researched the company and I told you to take the job because I knew it’d be good for you. I found out about Andre a little later on, I promise.”

He lowered, looking Nina straight in her eyes. “Anywhere that’s more than ten steps away from you is the exact
opposite
of ‘good for me’,” he told her earnestly. My heart ached at the honesty in his voice – I could only imagine the emotions her own vital organ was feeling.

“Yes,” I heard her whisper.

“Que?” Carlos asked, brows knit with confusion.

A smile bloomed on Nina’s face as Fox returned Andre to his mother. “
Si,
” she repeated, as if Spanish would enable him to understand. “I’ll marry you.”

The nurses, Fox and I all clapped as Carlos placed a lingering kiss on Nina’s lips before kissing Andre’s forehead and huddling with his family.

I snapped a picture with Nina’s camera before the moment was over. The flash caught Nina by surprise.

“Emery, it really is time you go, honey,” she said. “I’m not trying to kick you out of here, but I want you to enjoy at least some of your night.”

I nodded, hugging everyone goodbye.

“Thank you for
everything
,” she whispered, kissing me on the cheek before I pulled away.

“Love you, Nina. I’m glad you’re happy.”

***

“
Aww, how romantic!” Lily exclaimed as I finished telling our friends what had happened at our table in a dim corner of the ballroom. Suddenly the loud music died down.

“Alright everyone, grab someone special,” the DJ said huskily into the microphone, “This’ll be the last dance of the evening. Enjoy it.”

Fox and Nick both stood, extending their hands. I bit my lip, trusting that my knees wouldn’t give out as I accepted his silent request and followed him to the dance floor.

We found a nice spot on the floor and I clasped my hands behind his neck while his palms rested gently on my hips. We began swaying, and I stepped closer to him, pressing my face against his warm broad chest. He’d left his jacket in his car, so there was only a vest and thin dress shirt separating my cheek from his skin. I could hear the rhythm of his heartbeat, astounded to find that it was going almost as fast as mine. I found myself running my fingers against his neck, brushing my nails lightly up and down the soft skin and into his hair a bit. I let the other hand’s fingers dance around the skin behind his ear, tracing patterns down his neck and back. I could’ve sworn he shivered when I did that.

Fox pulled me closer, which I hadn’t imagined was possible. With my body pressed flush against his, I realized that we were barely moving anymore. The music was going, the couples were swaying but us – we stopped. All I could focus on was his intoxicating scent and the feel of his soft skin. I felt his hands slide to my back. One rested on my lower back while the other ventured upwards to rest on my bare skin. His fingers, like my own, seemed tempted to dance on skin as I felt them move across the surface of my back. I relished the sensation, closing my eyes.

The song ended all too soon.

“Goodnight, class of 2011,” the DJ announced as the lights slowly began to turn around and couples broke apart.

Lily, Nick, Fox and I all made it to the elevator. I took my shoes off, carrying them in hand as my aching feet rejuvenated on the cold marble floor of the lobby.

Lily whispered in my air as we got into the car and ascended to the fifth floor. “I invited Nick back to our room… would you mind going to Fox’s? They’ve got two beds, so you don’t even have to come close to doing anything with him…”