Meeting Mario's Family

Christmas had come and gone. Monday, I had to get back to work. There I was sitting in my office remembering all the moments I had shared with Mario. I sighed and took a deep breath,

That part of our relationship was done. It was on to finding ways to co-parent. He was raised catholic. I didn’t particularly have a religion. I was more of a spiritual person. I knew he’d want the baby raised in that faith. It didn’t bother me. I was raised Baptist from my father’s side. I figured the baby would eventually grow up and find his or her way.

I was about to make a phone call when my door creaked open. I saw Mario standing at the entrance wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts, “Hey, I hope you don’t mind me stopping by.”

“Oh, it’s fine, come in.”

His eyes covered me as they used to and then he smiled, “Um, you look nice. You make pregnancy look good.”

“Well thanks, I try.” I saw that he left the door open, “You can close the door.”

“I brought some of my people to meet you. I told my mom about our situation and she insisted on meeting you.”

“Oh, okay. That’s good. I hope.”

“Yeah. She’s excited. She loves being an abuela.” He stepped outside and returned with his family. An older woman that was still very pretty and shapely, two younger women that looked a lot like her, and a man.

“This is my mother, Fabiola.”

I stood up to greet her with a handshake, but she hugged me, “Nice to meet you.”

“Yes, nice to meet you. I’m Lelani.”

“Mario says you’re Hawaiian.”

“Yes. I was born there. My mom is Hawaiian dad is African American.”

“She’s so pretty Mario.”

Mario blushed. He knew I was fucking pretty. That’s what caught his attention that day on the interstate. Or was it my stroking my cunt while I was stuck in traffic? Anyway, he introduced his brother, “This is Alonso my older brother.”

He shook my hand.

“These are my sisters Paula and Margo.”

They each hugged me. Then we all sort of stood awkwardly before his mother asked him in Spanish, “How many months is she?”

I replied, “almost four months.”

“You speak Spanish.”

“Yes. I do.”

“You’ll teach the baby to speak Spanish.”

“Yes. The baby will speak multiple languages. My mother will most likely teach it to speak Ōlelo Hawaii.”

“Do you speak it?”

“I do. I do.”

“We just wanted you to know we are here for you and the baby no matter what.”

“Mahalo. That’s thank you in Hawaiian.”

“You’re welcome. We have to go, but we hope to see you again before the new year. Maybe you can come by for dinner.”

“Oh, sure,” I said. But I didn’t know how Richard would feel and I didn’t know if he told them that I was already seeing someone. Plus…his other baby mama might not want me anywhere near him.

They left and he lingered. “So, your other baby mama?” I asked.

He laughed, “I miss your sense of humor.”

I smiled.

“I told her about you. She’s not happy of course, but it is what it is.”

I nodded, “yes. It most certainly is.”

He looked at my hand, “Wow, I didn’t realize—”

“Oh yeah,” I said touching my ring, “Richard proposed to me last week in Mexico.”

I could see the disappointment in his eyes. “When’s the wedding?”

“End of January.”

He sighed, “Wow, wow,” he blew out a few times.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I better let you get back to work. I’ll be in touch.”

I watched him leave. I didn’t expect him to react that way. I suppose I thought he was happy with his current situation.

Wednesday, I was left to consider going to Mario’s place to have dinner alone on Thursday evening. Richard had gone to Boston ahead of me to take care of business. I’d see him in a few days to meet with his family.

I didn’t want to go alone and just as I was calling him to cancel, he called me, “Hey, I was just checking to see if you and your, you know the guy—were coming to dinner tomorrow?”

“Richard can’t make it. I was thinking—”

“You should still come. My mom is excited. My great-grandmother and my father would love to meet you. They couldn’t come the other day.”

I looked around my room as I lay in bed touching my belly and feeling the life growing inside of me, “I don’t know. Is it too soon?”

“Yasmin is due at the end of February. We all need to talk. I know it’s—”

“Awkward as fuck?”

He chuckled, “Yeah, but—”

“It is what it is.”

“It is. Come.”

“I guess I’ll come for a little while. I’ll bring my friend Bethany.”

“Sure. How’ve you been?”

“Good. Good.”

“I saw pictures of your fiancé on IG since you finally unblocked me.”

I laughed, “Yeah, well, I told you my cut-off game was strong.”

“No doubt. I didn’t realize—”

“What? That he’s older or he’s white?”

“Both.”

“He’s good to me and for me. He was ready to assume fatherhood of my child before I told you.”

“He sounds like he could be halfway decent.”

We laughed.

“I miss talking to you. We can still talk?”

“Sure, but just respect my husband.”

“Fiancé.”

“Yeah, my man.”

“I will.”

We spoke for almost thirty minutes about music, movies, and football. Then he asked me what names I had in mind. I hadn’t thought of any. I didn’t want to know the sex of the baby. I wanted it to be a surprise. But he wanted to know.

I did remember the woman that told me I was having a boy. I told him the story and he was happy about that. Yasmin was having a little girl that they were going to name Eliana.

He asked if I would consider naming our son after him. I said, Perhaps, jokingly. That night it seemed as if he didn’t want to get off the phone, but Richard had called to say good night. So, I attended to my future husband.

After feeling weird in my stomach all day, I finally got ready to head over to Mario’s place. He had bought a house not far from where his old place was.

I wore a long-sleeved pink surplice neck dress that tied right under my breasts. The dress flowed down to my ankles but had a split up on the right side. I had it in my mind I would be the most fly pregnant woman ever.

Bethany arrived and we were ready to go. She drove. We talked about the wedding on the way over and she started talking about a baby shower. I sighed, “Girl let me get this wedding out of the way first.”

We finally arrived at his new house. It was a nice home. Much like the new style of homes developers like DR Horton and Lennar were building throughout the bay area.

We rang the doorbell and waited. Mario opened the door and hugged me, “Welcome.”

“Nice, this is my friend Bethany.”

He shook her hand, “Hi, nice to meet you.”

We saw his family. My eyes connected with Yasmin. She didn’t look happy to see me. She was big pregnant and looked ready to have that kid out of her. She barely waved at me when I said hello.

I saw his grandma when he introduced me, her skin was so golden and pretty. He had this long wavy hair pulled back in a ponytail, “this is my abuela, Dona Linda.”

I leaned over to hug her as she sat in the chair. She spoke in Spanish and greeted us. She placed her hand on my belly and smiled, “so tiny,” she said.

I was small. My belly was hardly showing. But I knew what I felt. I felt like I had a bowling ball on my bladder.

He introduced me to his father, “This is my dad, Lorenzo.”

His dad hugged me. He was just as handsome as Mario and his brother. After the introductions, we sat and ate. We had arroz con gandules which is rice with these little beans intermingled with pernil (roasted pork) and plantano. The food was amazing.

They were asking me lots of questions. Of course, they were trying to get to know me. Suddenly, Yasmin blurted out with disgust, “She’s not the only one having a baby you know.” She stood up and left the table.

It was quiet for a moment before Mario stood up and went after her. I cleared my throat and looked at Bethany, “Maybe we should—”

His sister Margo shook her head, “Don’t worry about her. She’s been super bitchy.”

Her father scolded, “Hija.”

“It’s true papa.”

He nodded as if to confirm but he wanted her to be nice and not say those things. “The pregnancy has been rough on Yasmin. It’s like she’s just stressed,” said his mother, Fabiola.

I nodded thinking to myself, stressed about what? She didn’t work and from what Mario told me getting her to do anything around the house was like asking a watermelon to squeeze through a keyhole.

Yet, I remained silent. However, I kept getting little pinches from Bethany. I gave her a look like girl what is the problem? She whispered, “Nada, I’ll tell you later.”

After that fiasco, Mario returned to the den where we were talking. I was braiding his abuelas hair into two French braids. He sat watching me. I could sense he was upset.

After I finished braiding abuela’s hair, she hugged me and told me she couldn’t wait to meet her new great-grandson. I smiled.

Bethany and I said our goodbyes, but Mario stopped me before we left, “Lelani can I speak to you before you go?”

I nodded and followed him to the garage. “What’s up?” I asked.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box and handed it to me, “I got this for you.”

“What is it?”

“Open it and see.”

“Mario—”

“Just open it. Please.”

I opened it and found a pretty heart-shaped locket, “This is beautiful,” I said as I opened the heart. It was empty.

“You can put our baby’s picture in it after he’s born.”

“He?”

“I have a feeling you are having a boy,” he said as he moved closer to me, “May I?”

“Sure.”

He placed his hand on my belly and immediately the baby thumped, “Wow, he’s strong. A little soccer player.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty active.” Our eyes met and I felt like I did before. I backed away, “I should go, Bethany’s waiting.”

He nodded with a smile, “Right. If you need anything, I’m here.”

“Okay, goodnight.”

As Bethany drove, I couldn’t help but think about how Mario nearly kissed me. Or was I mistaken? Did I long for his kiss and only felt it because I desired it? There was no way I was still in love with him after how he had hurt me.

Bethany spoke, “So what did Mario want?”

“He gave me a present.”

“A present.”

I showed her the locket. “That’s nice. What do you think Rich will say?”

“He’ll probably be okay. I think. It’s not a romantic gift. It’s more of an appreciation-type gift.”

“Yeah okay,” she chuckled. “But what the hell was going on with chica? she was mad salty.”

“Dead Sea salty.”

We laughed.

“Like obviously they were only being extra nice to me because they wanted to know more about me. They see her every day.”

“Um, not just that. Mario’s sister was right, she was a total bitch. Her energy was super stank. I’m glad I was wearing my obsidian to block her shit.”

“Me too. I mean I know this is not ideal, but I was dating Mario. We were in love. She was some fling that he fucked occasionally. And my question is…if her ass is due in February, that means she had to have found out she was pregnant in like June or July…why the fuck she waited until October to say something.”

“I told you chick is sus. Plus, I don’t know why, but I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before…her voice.”

“You said you saw them at the Caribbean spot.”

“No, I mean before that,” she commented shaking her head. She pulled up to my house and made sure I got inside before pulling off.