Page 19 of Feared

Her mother, nodded, watching Mary. “Maria, mangia.”

“I got it, Ma,” Mary tried not to sound testy, picking up her fork. It seemed so Olive Garden that her mother actually saidmangia, but some stereotypes rang true for a reason. She looked at her full plate, and her stomach rumbled. She knew she should eat, but the tomato sauce and Opium weren’t mixing with the progesterone.

Feet frowned. “Mare, when are you gonna quit work?”

“When the doctor tells me to.” Mary didn’t want to have the discussion right now. She had been ducking this subject because it touched on a sore spot for her and Anthony. The subject made him feel terrible, since he didn’t have a job. She wanted to keep working, and given their finances, she really didn’t have a choice.

Feet persisted, “And then how much time you going to take off? Like a year, two years?”

“I don’t think that long,” Mary answered, keeping it vague, but she noticed her mother eyeing her, chewing slowly, and her father blinking behind his glasses. Both of them had to be wondering what Mary and Anthony had planned, but she didn’t want to make any announcement right now, especially not with The Tonys here.

El Virus brightened. “Mary can go back to work right away. I’ll babysit every day. It’s no problem. I can’t even wait! I already bought a playpen.”

Mary’s mother pursed her lips. “Elvira, I tol’ you, I can take care a the baby. Every day, we’ll come and sit.”

“RIGHT! WE GOT YOU COVERED, MARE. ME AND YOUR MOTHER. I WONDER IF IT WILL BE A GIRL OR A BOY!”

Elvira glanced at Mary’s mother, sideways. “Vita, don’t hog the baby. We’ll have a schedule. I’ll sit on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and you guys sit on Tuesday and Thursday.”

Mary’s mother’s eyes flared in indignation, so Mary stepped in. “Ladies, let’s not worry about it now, we still have two months to go.”

Feet interjected, “Mary, how are you going to swing this at work? You’re going to stay home with the baby, right?”

Mary was about to answer, but Anthony stiffened, cutting her off. “No,” he said coolly, “that’s not what we’re planning. Mary’s going back to work as soon as she feels ready, probably in a few weeks, and I’m going to stay home with the baby.”

Mary’s mouth went dry. She wouldn’t have gone there, but Anthony was on a roll, turning to his mother.

“Mom, I appreciate your offer, but we won’t need a babysitter at all. I’m going to take care of the baby full-time.” Anthony then faced Mary’s mother, with a smile. “Vita, thank you so much for your offer to babysit, but I don’t think we’ll be needing you or Matty on a daily basis, either.”

“What?” El Virus’s mouth dropped open.

“Che?” Mary’s mother asked, frowning.

“DID HE SAY HE’S GONNA BE THE BABYSITTER?”

The Tonys looked uniformly aghast. Feet set down his fork. “Ant, you’re thedad.”

Tony-From-Down-The-Block shook his head. “Ant, you mean you’re going to be, like, the mom?”

Pigeon Tony spoke rapid Italian, and again, Mary got the gist, which was,Women are supposed to stay home with babies and men are supposed to go out and make money, the way God intended. Also they can have mistresses, but this might not be the time to bring that up.

Mary didn’t intend to argue with any of them. There was no point in trying to convince this very traditional group of men of anything remotely modern, like the fact that women should have the vote. Meanwhile, she could see her father getting with the program, his gaze softening. He slumped in his white T-shirt, and his eyebrows sloped down behind his glasses. He’d been a tilesetter his working life, but his blocky build had changed as he aged, his broad shoulders worn by time, like rocks. Even though he was uneducated, he was no dummy, and despite appearances, he was the more intuitive of her parents. Mary was a Daddy’s girl, from way back.

Her father’s soft gaze shifted to the Tonys. “GUYS, YOU’RE TOO OLD-FASHION. MEN CAN BE MOMS, TOO, NOWADAYS. IT’S THE NEW THING. IT’S OKAY. IT HAPPENS.”

Feet nodded. “I know, I’ve heard of that. Hell, I got those guys across the street, they’re gay and the one dad stays home with the baby and the other dad goes to work. If you got two dads, you gotta have a dad staying home. You got no choice.”

Tony-From-Down-The-Block shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat.”

El Virus turned to Anthony in bewilderment. “But honey, when doweget the baby?”

Mary’s mother nodded, equally confused. “Si, quando? Maria?”

Mary had to derail this before the moms lost their minds. “Ma, Elvira, listen. Of course you’ll get to see the baby. You’ll come over our house, and we’ll come over your house. You’ll get to see the baby plenty. You just don’t have to babysit every day.”

Anthony added, “Exactly, it goes without saying that you’ll see the baby. We want you to see the baby and we want you in the baby’s life. But my staying home makes the most sense for Mary and me, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“Mmph.” El Virus sucked her teeth. “I don’t like the sound of this.”

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