by Cheryl Faye
Stefàn attended all of Charisse’s appointments with her. He, much like Jared, sometimes annoyed her with his constant coddling and fawning. Upon complaining to her mother about their new habit, Barbara told her, “Once that baby gets here and starts taking up all of your time and attention, you’re going to beg for some of that coddling from your husband, so enjoy it while you can.”
The Tuesday after Mother’s Day, Charisse was scheduled for her monthly check-up and was slated to have her first sonogram. She and Stefàn still hadn’t made up their minds about whether they wanted to know the sex of the baby beforehand. They had been discussing names since the day she’d taken the home pregnancy test. Jonathan Michael—after their fathers—or Stefàni Marie were the front-runners.
She had taken the day off from work, but after breakfast, while she was getting dressed to take Jared to school, she told Stefàn, “You know, I think it’s time we sold the Corvette.”
He looked stricken. A little over a year ago, he had reluctantly sold his motorcycle. “Why?”
She chuckled when she replied, “Honey, don’t be upset. It’s not that serious.”
“But why do we have to get rid of the ’Vette?”
“Well, for one, it doesn’t really suit our lifestyle anymore. We can’t fit Jared and the baby in it.”
“Yeah, but that could still be our play car. You know, for when we go out—just the two of us,” he reasoned.
She laughed. “You’re ambitious ’cause I can’t see that happening once the baby gets here for quite some time afterward.”
Moving nearer to her at her dresser, Stefàn wrapped Charisse in a soft embrace. “Just because you’re having a baby doesn’t mean we won’t have any more alone time. I still plan to date you like I’ve been doing all along.” Every two weeks, they made time for dinner out, a movie or some other such shared time sans Jared.
“Yeah, but we won’t really be able to do that until the baby’s a few months old. Besides, I’m not sure I’ll even want to be apart from him or her until a few months after the birth.”
Stefàn reminded her with a laugh, “Honey, we’ll probably have to fight our mothers just to spend some time with our baby.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right about that.”
“But seriously, I don’t think you need to sell the ’Vette. At least not yet.”
“We need another car. The Beemer is fine, but we should probably get an SUV or a minivan.”
“Okay, so we’ll go look at cars this weekend. Does that work for you?”
“All right.”
Kissing her lightly on the side of her head, he released her and continued preparing himself for work. “Your appointment is at eleven-thirty?”
“Yes. Will you be able to get away?” she asked.
“Absolutely. You’re getting the sonogram today, right?”
“Supposed to be.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t miss that for anything. What do you think it is?” he smiled and asked.
Charisse shrugged. “I don’t know. Sometimes I’m certain it’s a boy, but other times, I feel like it’s a girl.”
“Maybe it’s one of each.”
She cut her eyes at him. “Don’t even joke like that.”
STEFÀN MET CHARISSE IN THE PARKING LOT of the medical complex that housed Dr. Talbot’s offices later that morning. It was an unseasonably warm day with the temperature already in the upper eighties.
“Hi, baby.” He greeted her with a kiss on her mouth and a quick embrace. “It think it’s going to be a scorcher today. What do you think?”
With her arm around his waist, she replied as they entered the building, “Yeah, this sun is no joke. What’s this summer going to be like if it’s this hot already? I’m certainly not looking forward to carrying around all this baby weight in ninety-degree heat.”
“You feeling okay?”
“Just hot.”
Dr. Talbot was ready for them fifteen minutes after they arrived. Her nurse ran Charisse through all of the preliminary procedures— getting her changed, taking her blood pressure, pulse, and weight—then left her and Stefàn to wait for the doctor.
As they waited, Stefàn said, “Baby, you look like all of a sudden you’ve put on a bit of weight. Just in the last couple of days.”
“I’ve gained five pounds from last month. That’s too much. I have to watch what I eat. I’m not trying to blow up like Shelly did.”
Julian’s wife, who had given birth to a daughter in late March, had gained nearly forty pounds during her pregnancy. Little Nia Juliana Walker had weighed in at nine pounds and four ounces.
“Yeah, Shelly did put on quite a bit of weight, but Nia was quite a big baby. Hopefully, you won’t have to push out a nine pounder,” he said with a chuckle.
“You hope? You and Jared have to stop giving in to my cravings and start telling me ‘no!’”
He laughed outright. “One thing I can’t see myself ever doing is refusing a pregnant woman her food cravings. But don’t worry, Risi. If you do put on a lot of weight, I’ll have you in the gym every day working it off. When I’m done with you, you’ll be as fly as you were the first time I laid eyes on you.”
“Are you implying I’m not that fly now?” she teased.
“Oh no. You’re still fly,” he flirtatiously stated. “It’s just a different size plane.”
Charisse playfully swatted him after that remark, but she was laughing right along with him when Dr. Talbot entered the room.
“Well, I’m glad to see you both in such high spirits. I take it you’re feeling pretty good, Charisse,” she commented.
“Hi, Dr. Talbot. Yes, everything is fine. Stefàn was teasing me about my weight.”
“How are you, Stefàn?” the doctor asked.
“I’m good, Doc. How are you?”
“Well, thanks. Charisse, you’ve put on five pounds since last month.”
“I’m not happy about that.”
“Well, we’re going to do a sonogram today, so we should be able to determine if that’s baby weight or if we should put you on a diet. Sometimes, during the middle trimester, the baby can grow pretty quickly in spurts. That might be the case here.”
“I hope so.”
Pulling the extending leaf from under the exam table, Dr. Talbot said, “Why don’t you stretch out and we’ll get started.”
Following the doctor’s instructions, Charisse lay back and watched as Dr. Talbot went about preparing the sonogram machine. Stefàn held Charisse’s hand and followed the doctor’s every move as well.
“This gel will be a bit cool on your stomach,” Dr. Talbot warned.
When the gel was squeezed onto her abdomen and the wand used to spread it around, Charisse couldn’t help but react to the coldness. “Woo, ‘cool’ is an understatement.”
Dr. Talbot turned on the machine and immediately an image appeared on the screen. At first, neither Charisse nor Stefàn were able to make out the form they were seeing. Then suddenly, Stefàn said, “That looks like two babies.”
Dr. Talbot’s response was, “It is.”
“Two?” Charisse murmured.
“Yes. It looks like you’re having fraternal twins, Charisse.” Pointing at the monitor, Dr. Talbot explained, “Can you see? This is where the sacs are separated. You’re having twins.”
“Oh my God,” Stefàn sighed.
Charisse was speechless at first. She turned to Stefàn, but his eyes were fixed on the image in front of them. Tears were streaming from his eyes. Charisse reached out and wiped at one of the streams.
“Look at God,” she finally said. “Look at God!”
She reached for him and he moved closer and laid his head on her breast and wept. To Dr. Talbot, she said, “Fraternal means two eggs and two sperm, right?”
“That’s right.”
Charisse just shook her head and again intoned, “Look at God.”
UPON LEAVING DR. TALBOT’S OFFICE, Charisse followed Stefàn to his office. Second order of
business, tell their parents. The first order of business was to thank God.
When Dr. Talbot left them after the examination, Stefàn and Charisse immediately offered up a prayer of thanksgiving to God. Sitting face to face with their hands clasped, Stefàn led with the words, “Father God, how excellent is Your name in all the earth. O Father, please forgive me. How could I have ever doubted Your miracle-working power? But thank You, God, for showing me in the most amazing and gracious manner how truly awesome You are. Lord, You haven’t failed to bless us continually in so many ways we can’t even begin to recall, but to give us not one baby, but two…O Lord, O Lord, how excellent is Your name!!”
Charisse picked up there. “Most gracious God, we thank You for Your perfect love. We thank You for entrusting the care of Your son, Jared, to us. God, we thank You for blessing us with the ability to conceive two children in love. Oh, Father, thank You for Your grace and Your mercy, God. If we had ten thousand tongues, God, we could never thank You enough. We promise God to never take these gifts You’ve given us…these lives You’ve put in our care…for granted. We promise to always look to You for guidance in raising Your children, Lord. Oh, God, how we love You. How we praise Your Holy Name, Father. Thank You, thank You, thank You. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen!!
Tears streamed from their eyes as they stood together. Stefàn gazed lovingly into her beautiful brown orbs and softly spoke. “You are a gift from God, Risi. My life has only gotten better and better since you walked into it. Now you’re about to be the mother of not just one of my children, but two. They said it most likely wouldn’t happen, but look what God has given us. You never doubted. I love that about you.”
Holding her in a passionate embrace, he tenderly kissed her. Stefàn, at that moment, was soaring through the clouds. Feeling as if there was nothing in the world he couldn’t accomplish with God at the center and Charisse by his side, he was more certain than ever that from here on out, whatever came their way—be it good or bad—they would be okay; they would make it through. What more proof did he need that his God was God?
Arriving at his office, Charisse greeted his assistant Carrie with a bright smile. She was itching to tell someone—anyone—their big news but before she could utter a word, Stefàn said, “Carrie, I’m not taking any calls for the next hour.”
“Okay.”
When he closed the door behind them, he turned to Charisse and said, “You were about to tell her, weren’t you?”
“I’m about to bust, Stefàn. I have to tell somebody.”
“We’ll call your folks, then conference in mine and tell them all at the same time, right now. How about that?”
“Okay. Do you want me to dial?”
“I’ve got it, baby. You sit down and relax. You look like you’re about to hit the ceiling.”
Needless to say, their parents were ecstatic. When they ended their twenty minute conference call with them, Stefàn dialed Julian to tell him the news, then Charisse called Myra, who was due to deliver her baby in two months.
“What do you think Jared’s going to say when we tell him?” Charisse asked.
“I have a feeling he’ll be pretty psyched about it.”
“We have to come up with two more names, just in case it’s two boys or two girls. We can still go with Jonathan Michael and Stefàni Marie if it’s a boy and a girl, but otherwise….”
“We’ll figure something out, baby. We’ve got time.”
Charisse sat across from him and shook her head. “Can you believe it? We’re actually having twins. How am I going to do this? I don’t know the first thing about raising one baby and now we’re going to have two?”
Rising from his seat, Stefàn same around the desk and knelt in front of her, “Don’t get yourself all worked up, Risi. My mom and yours will both be there to help us out. We’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, but—”
“There are no buts, honey. God would never give us more than we could bear. I know you believe that. We’ll be fine.”
CHAPTER 27
A MATTER OF LIFE AND….
Charisse and Myra’s cousins, Connie and Carmen, had planned a surprise baby shower for Myra in the middle of June to be held at a catering hall in Englewood. Connie and Carmen over-saw the food preparation while Charisse and Star, along with her daughters, took care of the decorations. The guest list numbered in the low seventies.
As had been their habit for several years, Charisse and Myra were getting together for their monthly shopping outing. Knowing that Myra would be none the wiser, the shower was scheduled for that Saturday. That being the case, Charisse used the pretense of taking a gift to the birthday party of one of Jared’s friends as the means for getting Myra there.
Since Charisse was only six months pregnant, although seemingly getting larger by the day, she still drove so she picked Myra up from Barretto’s apartment late that morning.
“I’ve told you this before, but you really look cute pregnant, Myra,” she told her as she struggled to climb into the new SUV Charisse and Stefàn had purchased.
Grumbling, Myra responded, “Girl, I’ll be so happy to have this baby. I can’t take it anymore. I feel like a house.”
Charisse laughed. “Can you imagine what I’ll look like in another month or so, with double the cargo?”
“God bless you, Risi, ’cause I’d lose my mind if I found out I was having twins.”
Nodding her understanding, Charisse admitted, “To be perfectly honest with you, I’m still a little nervous about it. I can’t imagine having two babies crying at the same time, both wanting to be changed, fed, held… I’m almost dreading the first time I’ll be home alone with them.”
“I guess the doctors don’t know everything, huh?” Myra said, referring to their diagnosis that Stefàn would most likely never father a child.
“I always told Stefàn that God had the final say in these matters. But the fact that in light of their premature conclusion, two of my honey’s little swimmers hit the mark… Unh! To God be the glory!” Charisse exclaimed joyfully.
“Amen to that.”
“It would be great if one was a boy and the other a girl.”
“Yeah, that would be cool.”
“Do you think you and Barry will have more kids after you get married?”
Unconsciously rubbing her stomach, Myra replied, “Well, I would love to have a daughter and even though Barretto’s ecstatic that this is a boy, he wants a girl, too.”
Several hours later, after they’d completed their shopping and before heading to what Myra thought would be dinner, Charisse told her, “I’m going to swing by and drop off this gift before we go eat, okay?”
“That’s fine.”
Upon arrival, Charisse asked, “You want to come in with me to get something to drink, or use the bathroom?”
“Ooh, yeah. Bathroom.”
Upon entering the catering hall, they headed straight to the ladies’ room. As they were washing their hands, Myra asked, “Now, whose birthday party is this?”
“One of Jared’s friends. He went to the office with Stefàn this morning, but they walked out without the boy’s gift. So instead of them having to go all the way back home, I told him I’d bring it by since I’d be out anyway.”
Myra smiled. “That was nice of you.”
“Well, you know, I can’t help myself,” she replied in a teasing manner. Picking up the shopping bag which held the gift, Charisse said, “This shouldn’t take too long, then we can go eat.”
“Bueno. Yo y mi bebé tienen hambre.”
“Okay, cool it with the Español.”
“We’re hungry! I naturally slip into my native tongue in times of stress,” Myra cracked.
Holding the door as Myra exited the restroom, Charisse laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get fed, even if I have to snatch something from right here.”
At that moment, Charisse’s cell phone rang. Unbeknownst to Myra, the call was right on schedule. “Hi, honey
.” Whispering to Myra, “It’s Stefàn.”
“I gathered,” Myra whispered back.
“Yeah, we’re here. We stopped in the ladies’ room first. Are you still here?”
Listening to his response, she then answered, “Okay. I’ll be in in a minute.”
“Stefàn’s here?” Myra asked when Charisse ended the call.
“Yeah. The boy is one of his students. I hope they’re not expecting me to stay, too.” Moving down the corridor, she added, “I think they’re back here.”
Music could be heard coming from one of the rooms they passed, prompting Myra to comment, “Sounds like there’s a couple of parties going on in here.”
“Probably. I think they have rooms upstairs as well.”
Reaching for the door at the end of the hallway, Charisse said, “I think they’re in here.”
She eased it open and stuck her head in. “Yup. In here.”
Holding the door open, she let Myra enter first.
“SURPRISE!!!”
BY SEPTEMBER FIRST, CHARISSE WAS READY for her babies to be born. Although, her expected due date was the twentieth, she had already put on twenty-seven pounds and was quite uncomfortable most of the time. She stopped working at the beginning of August, taking her maternity leave a few weeks earlier than originally planned, but it was doubtful that she would return to the accounting firm. She intended to take the opportunity of being at home—albeit with the babies—to try and get her own accounting business off the ground.
On July fourteenth, Angelo Miguel Martinez, a beautiful baby boy who weighed in at six pounds and four ounces, was welcomed into the world by beaming parents, Myra and Barretto. Charisse was overjoyed for her friend and thanked God for blessing Myra with a joy and peace she had been lacking in her life for so many of the years they had known one another.