Page 66 of Just Like in the Movies
“Do you want to know?”
He nodded. “But I don’t need to.”
“The doctor could tell you and you could not tell me.”
He laughed and his fingers tightened on mine again. “Like I’m any good at keeping secrets from you.”
The doctor came back at the moment, backing in through the door with a huge beige cart trailing behind him. He took a moment getting everything into place, then had Lew open the front of his hospital robe so we could see his belly again. “This will be cold,” the doctor warned as he shook a little bottle, then squirted some clear, bluish gel on the rising curve of Lew’s belly.
I felt Lew twitch, but in the next moment we were both transfixed as the screen on the cart came to life in shades of black and gray.
It didn’t make much sense to me at all, just blobs of non-color on the screen moving in and out of focus, until the doctor suddenly stilled. “There’s your baby,” the doctor announced proudly. He hit a button on the machine, moved the wand on Lew’s belly a fraction and hit the button again, over and over while Lew and I watched with fascination. At one point, I could see it, clear as day, the shape of a head with a little nose and a huge bulging forehead. Lew’s hand tightened on mine and we shared a grin of excitement.
“Okay, that’s enough pictures for me,” the doctor said. “Would you two like a couple?”
“Please!” Lew burst out without waiting. His smile was blinding and I lifted his hand to my mouth to kiss the back of it.
“Pictures coming up,” the doctor said and angled the wand around until the image on the screen showed the baby in perfect profile. “Do you want to know the sex?”
“Yes,” I said, before Lew could get in there. I knew he’d say no, because I hadn’t said yes, and that was an argument we’d had the other day in, of all places, a toy store. Over a teddy bear.
“Mike, I thought—”
Right on time.“You want to know. I don’t really care one way or the other, I’m just glad they’re healthy. The babyishealthy, right doc?”
“I can’t give you a definite yes or no at the moment, but so far it’s very promising. And you’re both young, with no history of risky exposures to chemicals, so the likelihood is that this will be a perfectly normal pregnancy and you’ll have a very healthy and happy baby—” He paused to glance over at us and at my nod turned back to the screen. “—boy to bring home at the end of it. Congratulations on your son.” He pointed at the screen, where with a bit of squinting I could see the shape of two small testicles and the tiniest penis I’d ever seen, floating between the baby’s legs.
“Oh.” Lew’s voice was soft and full of wonder. “That’s… Wow.”
I laughed and then I laughed some more, until Lew started laughing with me. The doctor watched us with a satisfied look on his face, then put the machine away and started wiping up some of the gel on Lew’s stomach. “We’re done here. Unless anything comes up, I’ll see you again in a month, Lew.” He dropped Lew’s folder on top of the machine and nodded to me. “From now on, Dad, your job is to make sure he gets plenty of rest and exercise, eats healthy, and then get out of the way when he starts nesting. Good luck, you two, and I’ll see you next month.” He pushed the cart out into the hall and then he was gone and it was just me and Lew, and three beautiful pictures of our son.
“Go get dressed,” I told Lew as I stared at the images. “Then it’s doctor’s orders that I have to take you someplace healthy for lunch.”
“I won’t say no to that. I’m starving,” Lew said with feeling as he swung his legs off the table. “Mexican good?”
“Again?” I asked without thinking, then winced. He’d been on a Mexican kick for almost two weeks now—I was starting to turn into guacamole. “No, Mexican sounds great. Can I have deep fried ice cream?”
“Thought you needed to stay in shape for the movie?” he asked as he jumped off the table, but the way his hand grazed over my arm was loving.
“That’s where you come in,” I said casually. “You can help me burn it off after.”
He poked his head around the edge of the screen. “What were you thinking of? Because I’d really like to rearrange the living room to make room for the Pack n Play.” Then he disappeared and I heard the distinct sound of a chuckle over the rustling of clothing.
“We could do that,” I agreed. “But then I might be too tired for anything else.”
“Cleaning out the fridge?” he said brightly as he popped back out again with his shoes in his hands. “Hold on, I have to hold my breath to bend over and tie these. Little fellow kinda moves up into my lung space when I bend over already.”
“Let me do that.” I handed him my copy of the my script, the three ultrasound pictures tucked carefully inside, then bent down to help him into his shoes like he was Cinderella. Only, thankfully, without the wicked stepsiblings. “There, ready to go?”
“Yes.” He stood up and wrapped a hand around the back of my neck. “Yes, I will help you work off the ice cream later. And maybe in the middle of the night too.” He kissed me quickly and started to leave.
I raised my eyebrows at him and waited.
He grinned, and just for a moment, I thought he should have been playing Puck from A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, he looked so mischievous. “I’ve been trying to let you sleep. But it’s really hard. And generally, so am I.” He stopped me and kissed me again. “But if you need exercise, I’m happy to volunteer.”
“The doctor did say you should be getting exercise,” I murmured.
“See? Just following the doctor’s orders.” He traced a finger over my lips, then ran his hand down my arm and reached behind me to smack me on the ass. “Come on, I need calories to fuel this exercise.” And we headed out.
