White is for Virgins

by Necks, S. Eva

  “You’re too smart, honey,” she chuckled, wincing slightly and getting off the bed. “You found me anyway.”

  “Nina, should you be getting up?” I asked worriedly, walking over to help her.

  “They encourage it,” she nodded, rummaging through her purse. “Plus, I can’t miss a photo-op,” she joked. She held the camera up and I stepped back with my hands on my hips, humoring her. A nurse conveniently walked in and took a picture of us together, posing like we were both going to the prom, before asking Nina to return to the bed.

  “We have to check your dilation,” she said excitedly, as if being inspected if a fun event.

  “Looks like you’re almost there,” she stated a few moments later, standing back up and writing a few notes down on her clipboard. “9 centimeters – shouldn’t be more than another hour or so at this rate. He’ll be out in no time.” She smiled before walking away.

  “Emery,” Nina said suddenly, holding my hand, “you really shouldn’t be here. You should be with your friends, and your boyfriend–”

  “He’s not my boyfriend,” I corrected.

  She gave me a look. I don’t know if it was just because she was hormonal and very pregnant and very dilated, but she really scared me with that glare. “He looks at you like he adores you. He kisses you like he adores you. He asked you to prom, because he adores you. He’s your boyfriend, Gem.”

  I blushed as she continued, “But anyway, as I was saying before I was interrupted – you shouldn’t be here. You should be dancing the night away. I can handle all this, honey; I’ve made it this far on my own… this is the easiest part, huh? He comes out and I lose 10 pounds right there! I’ll be good as new.” She chuckled, fidgeting in her bed as another contraction rolled through.

  “Nina, did you even ask for an epidural?” From the looks of it, I judged the answer was no.

  She shook her head. I was right.

  “Nina! Are you really trying to make this whole ordeal as painful and miserable as possible?”

  “No,” she breathed, groaning and clutching her stomach. She grew red in the face, and I noticed beads of sweat collecting at her hairline. “I don’t want to drug my baby,” she said painfully, holding back what looked like a scream as she clenched her fists and arched up a bit.

  “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…”

  The desperation in her voice let me know I’d be doing her a huge favor in agreeing. The thought of sharing a room with Fox, all by myself, sent shivers up my spine.

  “That’s fine, Lily,” I told her. She grinned, hugging me.

  “Goodnight,” she whispered, grabbing Nick’s hand and pulling him in the direction of our room.

  I headed for Fox’s suite. He didn’t say anything at first.

  “I take it Nick’s not coming back,” he guessed once we were in the room. I shook my head, at which point he locked up the room – our room, I could say.

  I sat down on the side of the first bed and fiddled with my fingers while Fox unbuttoned his vest and loosened his tie.

  “What a day,” he sighed, slipping the vest off and hanging it, along with the tie, on a random hanger in the closet.

  “M-hm.” I nodded trying not to stare as he un-tucked his dress shirt and began unbuttoning it. There was nothing underneath but bare skin.

  “Um,” I said, standing up abruptly and brushing past him. “Do you mind if I take my dress off?”

  I winced as I analyzed what I’d just said.

  Fox smirked. “Honey, you know I have no objections to that.”

  I resisted a blush. “What I meant was: do you have something I can wear instead of my dress? To bed?”

  “Sure,” he said, slipping his dress shirt off and handing it to me.

  I took the shirt, gaping at his lean, hard stomach and distinct V-muscles. “Uh,” I said, snapping back up to his (now amused) eyes, “is that all?”

  “Would you like my boxers, too?” he asked, moving to unbutton his dress pants.

  “No thanks,” I murmured, forcing my body into the bathroom and locking the door as I slipped the dress off and tried his dress shirt on.

  Oh God, we haven’t even done it and I’m wearing his clothes…

  I didn’t look half bad, I decided, twisting in the mirror. My curls were still almost perfectly intact. I quickly buttoned the shirt and stepped back to see how much it covered. Besides the fact that my pink bra was visible through the thin white material, it looked like I was naked. My pink panties were concealed pretty well. I shrugged, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt and then moving to confiscate the spider-clips from my head. I almost moaned as I gently released my hair from its stiff confines and let it fall at the sides of my face.

  I turned the water on, dipping my face to wash the makeup off. It took quite some time, seeing as I was lacking the proper remover.

  Finally, I stepped back to inspect myself one last time.

  Okay Emery. He’s waiting.

  I pulled the door open and briskly walked out, finding Fox lounging on one of the beds. I was relieved that he was still in his dress pants.

  “I don’t know what’s better,” Fox mused, sitting up and watching me as I took a seat next to him, “you in that dress, or you in my shirt…”