When I was a firefighter Chapter 7 part 6 of 6

When I was a firefighter
Chapter 7 part 6 of 6

She said, “Not to freak you out or anything, but I think you knocked me up.”

I laughed and teased, “Are you sure it’s mine? I mean, maybe…”

She joked back, “I am almost certain it is yours. Sure: it could be the stock boy’s from the cereal aisle, but that was just the one time.”

I was laughing out loud now and asked, “What about the mailman?”

Cherry said, “Oh. I did not know you knew about him…”

Giving her the last punch line, I said, “Come on; let’s go back to bed.”

We crawled back into bed and she snuggled up to me as always. Before falling asleep we told each other how much we loved one another and how happy we were. I fell asleep literally with a smile on my face.

The next morning, Cherry was sick again—I guessed that is why it is called ‘morning sickness’. She was trying to be quiet, but I heard her anyway and got up to try and comfort her again.

She puked, spit, and said, “Yep: I am SO knocked up!”

Continuing the joke from before, I said, “What are we going to tell our parents?”

Cherry threw up again and said, “I don’t care what they say: I’m keeping it.”

I said, “And you will have my support, too.”

Finished joking around, Cherry said she wanted to wait until she was at least a month-long before telling anyone. I understood and agreed. It was difficult to keep the news secret; it was just so exciting. But I kept my word. When Olivia said she would be in town before Cherry reached her one-month point, I thought she’d cave for sure. To my surprise, she didn’t.

I came home from work one night and I could tell from her car in the parking lot, Cherry was already home. I walked through the door and saw Cherry was in the kitchen; Olivia was sitting at the table. I told her it was nice to see her again and she stood to give me a friendly hug. I made a little bit of small talk by asking how the drive was; if she remembered how to find the apartment, etc.…

Olivia said, “The drive wasn’t bad since we shared the driving; had no trouble finding your place again.”

I said, “Oh, you both came? Where…?”

She cut me off by answering simply, “Bathroom…”

I said, “Oh; right. We were surprised to hear you got married Congratulations!”

Olivia smiled and said, “Thanks! Yeah, we met in college, hit it off right away and next thing you know, we were married!”

I said, “Well, that is awesome; I’m happy for you.”

I could hear someone coming down the hall and couldn’t wait to meet the guy that not only managed to convert a lesbian straight but also married her. As I was turning around to meet him, Olivia made the introduction.

Olivia said, “David, this is the Love of my life: my wife, Amanda.”

For the briefest of moments, I was dumbfounded and speechless. I should have known better, and yet I was still surprised. I was so used to the concept of marriage being just between a man and a woman that, as soon as the word ‘married’ was used, I assumed Olivia had married a man.
I’d soon learn that they quickly took advantage of the state’s new laws allowing same-sex marriage. And that was part of the reason why they didn’t tell anyone beforehand; they didn’t want to wait and possibly miss their chance if the law was suddenly turned over. But before I learned about all of that, I quickly recovered from my moment of stupor.

I said, “Hello, Amanda. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Amanda said, “It’s nice to meet you, too. Olivia told me about you helping her. I cannot thank you enough!”

I said, “No, it wasn’t that big of a deal—she did the hard part; I was just a muse at best.”

We all sat around the kitchen table and talked for hours. Olivia and Amanda shared their story about how they met and fell in love. It was plain to see that they truly were in love: it was all over their faces. And, it was really nice to see Olivia so happy. What’s more, Amanda was not hard on the eyes! She was a blonde hair, blue-eyed girl with a nice body. She was about two inches taller than Olivia and her breasts were larger as well (still not as nice as my Cherry’s, though).

We continued talking and the question came up about the economy and job market where they lived. They said it had been terrible and they were getting ready to move back to our area. Cherry and I remarked how nice that would be—we could get to spend more time together.
Amanda asked if we were planning on having any children and Cherry handled it masterfully by saying we were making plans…eventually.
Amanda said that they wanted to have a baby, too, and that surprised me at least—Cherry seemed less than surprised, strangely.

Olivia said, “Obviously we’ll need some help in that department when the time comes. We are trying to figure out…some details.”

I said, “Yeah, I guess that could be a bit complicated. I guess you are looking at going to a ‘bank’?”

Amanda’s face cringed slightly and she said, “Well, we haven’t really figured that part out yet either.”

I said, “I hate to break it to you, but your options are a bit limited, I think.”

Cherry asked, “So you have one obvious hurdle there, but who is going to carry the baby?”

Olivia admitted, “Yeah, we haven’t figured that one out yet, either.”

I offered, “Well, you’ll either have to flip a coin or have two!”

They laughed and Amanda said, “The thing is: we both want to have the baby and we both want the other to be happy and have that same experience. And we don’t know if we’ll be able to handle two. So, it’s a bit of a dilemma.”

I said, “Wow. That is really complicated.” Turning to Cherry I said, “Babe, no offense but, you’re going to carry any children we have!”

A few laughs preceded Cherry’s follow-up joke, “Fine: but you’ll have to drive me to the sperm bank first.”

Olivia and Amanda laughed like it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard.

I responded to Cherry’s stinger with faux pain, “OOOOO…. But what happened with the mailman?”

Cherry quipped, “We broke up.”

Olivia and Amanda were on the verge of tears, they laughed so hard.

Changing the subject once the laughter died down a bit, I said, “There is something I’ve been a little curious about and I was wondering if you would mind telling me?”

Olivia said, “If you ask ‘which of us is the man’, I swear I’m going to punch you!”

I said, “No-no-no! That is not it! I promise. Clearly, you are both the woman—that’s just how it works. My question is: when you got married, did either of you change your last name? If so, how do you decide whose name gets changed?”

Amanda answered, “Yes. Olivia took my name…for a few reasons. For one, her last name was Huggins. ‘Amanda Huggins’? It is too close to
‘Huggins’s.’ And for two, I proposed to her.”

Olivia added, “Besides: I like the sound of Olivia Hart. And with the way my parents were acting, there was no way I was going to ask my wife to take their last name.”

I said, “That all makes perfect sense.”

Cherry asked, “Are they accepting you any better now?”

Amanda chimed in, “OH, yes. They have come a long way since we got married. You can tell they still aren’t completely thrilled—like they’d prefer it if Olivia was straight. But they at least treat her and me with respect and they don’t push their beliefs on us.”

Olivia said, “They know better now; they know I’m not going to put up with it.”

Cherry offered, “I’ll bet they’ll completely forget about it when you have a baby! Babies have that power over grandparents!”

The conversation turned back to the prospect of children and it seemed like they were simultaneously trying to work out details and beating around the bush about something, too. A few minutes later, Cherry said something that suggested I was ‘on the outside’ of some shared knowledge.

Cherry said, “Are you two going to ask him or what?”

Olivia and Amanda were unable to talk as they looked back and forth between each other, Cherry, and me. An awkward silence ensued for a few seconds before Olivia spoke.

Talking to Cherry she said, “UHHH… We thought maybe you should ask—later…”

Cherry said, “I am not asking! It is your question!”

Curious about what I was missing out on, I said, “Ask who—me? Ask what?”

Olivia stammered a bit before saying to Cherry, “Thanks, Cherry! There is really no good way to…Oh, god I’m so embarrassed! Honey, can you ask? I must…use the bathroom.”

Olivia excused herself before Amanda could answer her and I sat there wide-eyed; wondering what was going on. I looked at Amanda and she seemed pretty uncomfortable, too. Cherry looked like she was biting her tongue to keep from laughing while sitting on the edge of her seat to see what would happen next.

Amanda drew a deep breath and let it out before speaking. “Ok, it’s like this: We want to have a baby—you already know that. And we’ve looked into banks and that process; we aren’t very comfortable with it, frankly. They say they have high standards of screening but then you hear the cases of mixed-up deposits. Then you hear the really bad, horror stories of deposits replaced by a lab worker’s own samples—it’s creepy, to say the least. So, we would prefer to actually know the donor.”

Amanda’s forehead wrinkled slightly with worry while Cherry was looking at me with her eyes wide open in anticipation of when the light in my head would turn on. The pieces clicked into place.

“Are you saying you want me to be the donor?”

Almost afraid to answer, Amanda just nodded her head slightly.

I said, “Wow. I am not sure what to say.” Looking at my wife, I said, “You knew about this?”

Cherry just nodded her head.

Still stunned, I asked her, “What are your thoughts?”

Cherry responded, “If I had objected, the subject would not have been brought up. I told them it was up to you.”

Looking back to Amanda I asked, “Are you sure you want me for the donor? I mean, WHY me?”

Amanda said, “Olivia said you are a good guy. You aren’t our type of course, but as far as guys go, you are a good-looking guy; you are in good shape; You have a lot of good ‘manly’ qualities—you have good genes! And, you are her best friend’s husband, so we know we can trust you.”

I thought for a second and said, “This is something I’m going to have to think about. It is a big commitment and…”

To be continued