Page 45 of Tyriq & Teaira
“What’s wrong? You’re still graduating, right?” she asks nervously.
She has always made it clear, Draft or not, I have to earn my degree. Education is so important to her and she wants both of her kids to be college graduates.
“Yes. I have one more final and even if I make a sixty on it, I’ll pass with a C. I’m graduating, Ma. I’m going to frame it and give it to you for your wall,” I say and she smiles.
“Good,” she sighs, relieved. “Then, what’s wrong? The draft?”
“No. Nothing is wrong. It’s actually good news,” I assure her.
I reach my hand into my pocket and pull out her copy of the ultrasound picture. I place it on the table in front of her. After staring down at it for what feels like hours, she looks up at me smiling with more tears in her eyes, happy ones this time.
“Is this real?” she asks and I nod. Her hand covers her mouth. “My God! I’m going to be a grandmother.”
“When? When is the due date?”
“November twenty-fifth.”
She lifts the picture and stares at it intently. “Is this mine to keep?” she asks.
“Yeah. That’s yours.”
“I just…can’t…believe this. A baby. We need this. Are you happy about this?”
“Very happy.”
“Well, I have to ask. Who’s the mother? Do I know her? Did you meet her in school? Does she go to CFU?” she fires off.
“Her name is Teaira. Nah, you don’t know her. She went to CFU but she graduated and is a nurse at Highland.”
“Can I meet her?” she asks.
“Yeah. She really wants to meet you and Quay. We’ll figure something out. I’ll be staying with her when I move out of Arena House.”
The server returns again, and when I start to wave her off, my mom stops me. She picks her menu back up then motions for me to do the same. Even though I know what I want to eat, I pick it up to please her.
“I think I need a drink,” she says with a laugh. “We’re celebrating. I’ll have a frozen lemon drop and the spicy shrimp pasta,” she says, then looks at me.
She’s trying and I appreciate it but I don’t want her to have to go home and cook for him either. So after I order my grilled steak and lobster pasta, I hand the server both menus, then say, “And to -o, we’ll have the trio with lasagna and two servings of chicken fettuccine Alfredo with extra breadsticks. Don’t bring it out until we get the check, please.” The alfredo and breadsticks are for Quay.
At my words, my mom grabs my hand again then utters, “Thank you, baby.”
“Are you sure I shouldn’t be expecting any packages?” my mom asks for the umpteenth time.
“I’m positive and stop asking that.”
“Well, Mother’s Day is in two days and the mail doesn’t deliver on Sundays. I’m just asking,” she says and I can’t stop laughing.
We are at Morningside having brunch. She drove over today to check on me after we talked this morning. Tyriq moved in last Tuesday and I’ve gotten so used to him being with me already. When I wake up to head to work, he gets up too and makes me a smoothie, my new obsession, and when I come home at night, he rubs my feet and massages my back before putting me to sleep with his beautiful dick. I’ve been living in heaven, and now, he’s leaving on Sunday to go to the NBA Combine for a whole damn week.
She heard the sadness in my voice and hit the highway. She surprised me an hour and half after our call. I was so happy to see her that when she insisted I put on red and black like her, I didn’t protest. Happily, I grabbed my black stretch jeans, red distressed shirt, and red slides from my closet and got dressed. We came straight to the mall, spent two hours in retail therapy, picking up little gender-neutral stuff for the baby, then stopped by here.
“Stop asking. Not all gifts are mailed,” I assure her.
“Mmhm,” she says with raised eyebrows. “I’ll stop asking and just trust you.”
“Please do,” I say, then look up at her. “Thank you for today, Momma.”
“You welcome, baby. But you know I had to come check on you. I did not like how you were sounding. Besides, I need face time to try and convince you about this gender reveal.”
