My Parents

The days went by, and soon it was time to go visit my parents. I did not sleep well at all the night before. John was as supportive as he could be, and kind words from Marie and Silvia helped calm my nerves. If it all went to hell at least I had their support.

The drive was over all too soon, and with my heart racing, we knocked on the door. The did not go well. There was a lot of disbelief. Dad kept insisting this must be some kind of sick joke. Once the reality set in that we were in fact not joking it changed from annoyed frustration to straight old anger. Dad accused John of tricking or forcing me and was about to physically **** him. Mom restrained him and soon he stormed off telling us to be gone when he came back, and that we should never return. Mom just cried. “You’ll better go,” she said. We hadn’t even gotten our coats off, and soon John was helping his sobbing girlfriend into the car. Mom came running out as he was about to close the door. “Chris!” “IT’S CARMEN!” I screamed, channeling all my tears and sadness into anger. “I’m sorry,” she said tears running down her chin. I could not muster the strength to stay mad at my mom. Especially when she was crying, and my short burst of rage shifted back to sadness. “I’ll talk with him. You’re my only child, and I of course want you in my life regardless of who you are.” I nodded, trying to smile. “Why don’t you and I meet in town? We can talk more.” “I’d like that,” I said. “I’ll text you,” she said. And with that, we drove off.

I wasn’t good company the rest of the day, and despite my insistence that John should just go be with his family, he stayed in bed with me. He spoiled me rotten every chance he got and being here with him did help quite a lot. He always made me feel safe and protected.

Mom did text later that evening. We agreed to meet tomorrow at a cafe in town. She wanted it to be just the two of us, but I wasn’t comfortable not having John with me. We meet as scheduled, and John offered to take a table in the corner to give us time to chat. When he was well out of ear shoot mom leaned in “He’s not forcing you to do this is he?” she whispered. “NO!” I said rather indignantly. “It was my dham choice!” “I had to ask?” she replied timidly. The waiter came by and took our orders. Mom got a coffee while I got a decaf latte, and we both got a big chocolate cookie. By the time the waiter left, I had calmed down a little. “Yes, I guess you had to ask. But no. I wanted this myself. I even paid for it with my own money.” “You're cutting down on the caffeine?” she asked. Clearly a reference to my order. I had always been a big coffee drinker. “Well for a while at least. Too much caffeine isn’t good for the baby.” I rubbed my tummy. Mom broke down in tears. In all the chaos of yesterday, she had not even noticed the bump. Instinctively I found myself shushing and hugging her to calm her down. “I’m not upset… I’m not upset” she hulked trying to calm herself down. “I’m going to be a grandmother?” “Yes… you are” I smiled at her. “I understand it’s a lot to take in all at once.” She nodded and took a moment to compose herself. “I’m not sure how to react honey. As you say, it is quite a lot, but what matters most is that you are happy.” “I am. I’m very happy.” I smiled at her. “Well tell me… how are things?”.

We talked for a good while. I told her the story of how it happened, making sure to leave out all the naughty stuff, and the weekend I spent being fake pregnant. In fact, it was a rather dolled-up version, of what happened than the reality. It started out the same with the basic and the drunken first time, but then I put a lot more of my feelings in along the way, and how I spent more and more time as Carmen, and then how I eventually confessed my love to John, and he felt the same. “So since there really wasn’t any reason to wait, we decided that we might as well start our family now.” Mom looked a lot more reassured, and at ease now than she had done initially. “It sounds wonderful honey,” she said with a smile. “It is… I looked over at John in the corner patiently waiting for me and I smiled. “He really is just perfect. And he has made me the happiest woman in the world.” Mom smiled at me. “I’ll sort things out with dad. He will probably need some time to adjust, but he will come around.” “You sure about that? He sounded pretty angry.” “It will pass. Besides he doesn’t have a choice. There is no way I am letting him get in the way of me seeing my grandbabies” She smiled.