By Micki L. Bailey

She stared into the bathroom mirror which was not her own and wanted to scream. "So what in the hell do I do now? Is this good news or bad news? And what, oh lord, will Roger say when I tell him?"

She envisioned him involuntarily curling his nose and lip in that charming twitch that so much resembled a tiny snarl and then looking quickly away to prevent her from seeing the disappointment (or maybe anger?) in his very expressive eyes.

"Is that right?" she imagined him saying quietly while he turned the situation over in his mind. Then, in her vision, he would look back up at her without a smile and say rather coolly, "So what are our options here?"

Hearing him voice those words in her head was painful enough to make her squint her eyes shut in that mirror. He couldn’t react that way. No, she reassured herself, he wasn’t that icy. Not to her.

Only five minutes before, she’d been beside him in the old wood-frame bed in the guest room of Diane’s stylish Manhattan apartment. It was a smaller bed than their own, and the sheets were soft cotton.

As he still slept, she had watched the thin rays of morning sun that had slipped in between the closed blinds dance on his bare skin, skin that she adored every inch of. Then she’d snuggled as close as she could get to him and breathed in his familiar scent, something else she adored. And he had been warm. Comfortingly warm. Not icy at all.

She opened her eyes and grimaced in the mirror. Why must this mess happen now? Their much anticipated four-day retreat to New York City had been planned for weeks. Couldn’t this have come around some other time?

"I’ll wait," she whispered, "‘til the trip’s over. I’ll tell him Tuesday. I can hold it inside until then." But another more stern voice whispered in her head: If it’s this heavy on your mind it’ll be heavy in your face too. He’ll know. She smiled at herself. Well, we’ll just see.

So she gargled some mouthwash, brushed her shoulder-length golden hair, and straightened her night gown. She would go to the kitchen and start some coffee since she hadn’t heard anyone else stirring around in the huge apartment. Then she would return to the cozy heated bed where the love of her entire universe lay in a beautiful, peaceful slumber.

When she quietly opened the bathroom door and tried to step out into the hallway, what she actually stepped right into was Roger himself. In the flesh. It visibly startled her, so he put his arms around her to steady her.

"What are you doing in there, baby?" he asked with a low, easy laugh. "I’m laying in bed waiting and waiting, but you never came back." He wore only faded jeans, no shirt or shoes.

She had her moist palm against his bare, hairy chest and felt his heart beating. "You were sound asleep when I left you………..and I was just brushing my hair, making myself presentable."

Roger smiled a groggy smile. He still had his hands on her upper arms. "I’m never sound asleep. You know that……….and ya look good enough to me." He bent down and kissed her neck, his slight stubble growth tickling her.

"Stop it now. We’ll wake up Vinnie and Diane."

Raising back up to her face level, he wiped a sleepy eye. "They’re gone. I checked. But they left a note and some bagels."

"What did the note say" she asked.

"To meet ‘em at the old woman’s house around five." Roger wrinkled his nose.

"Roger, cut it out. That old woman is Vinnie’s revered mother."

"Yeah, yeah……..who ain’t too crazy ‘bout me." He was stretching now, small bones creaking. She watched him lovingly.

"Even though you’ve saved her son’s life roughly a thousand times, hmm?"

"You exaggerate like hell, baby………..What’s on your mind this morning?" He peered at her, and she knew she was busted.

But she didn’t give in yet. "Nothing. Why do you ask?"

"You’re tense or something. Did ya sleep much?"

"I’m fine, honey." But she knew she may not be, and she also knew that he’d get it out of her eventually.

"Then c’mon. Let’s get some coffee."

As he turned to go, she stopped him with a light hand on his arm. "I need to tell you something, Roger."

He pivoted back around to her and gave her his attention. His eyes bore into hers. "I’m listening, sweets. Lay it on me."

"Well, ya know last month when Dr. Mackenzie changed my birth control pills to another brand to see if that was my problem?"

"Yeah." He had squinted his eyes slightly now.

She felt apprehensive and unsure of herself. "And do ya remember how we were supposed to use backup protection until the new pills got into my system?"

"Yeah." He was calm, and she knew that he was well aware of where she was going with this conversation. But he gave no clue of it. So she nervously blurted out her next few words.

"Only we didn’t do that, the backup protection part, and now I may be pregnant."

She looked down then, afraid of the reaction. So she didn’t see the sly smile dawn across his features. She knew only that he wasn’t speaking or moving in response. She was unconsciously holding her breath.

"Really?" His voice was soft and quiet, kind of feathery.

Raising her face, she saw the smile, and it illuminated her insides. "Yeah. It’s a strong possibility. I’m two weeks late……..But then that could mean anything with all the trouble I’ve had lately."

She had recently undergone several tests and procedures to rule out causes for severe abdominal pain and unexplained bleeding. A diagnosis was still pending.

Roger was next to her then, hugging her close to him. "Is that what you had going on in the bathroom? A piss test?" He chuckled into her hair.

Feeling unmeasurable relief, she relaxed against his body. His chest smelled and felt wonderful to her. "No, I haven’t taken that step yet."

"So………there could be a little piece of me………hooking up with a little piece of you…….growing inside here?" Roger rubbed a hand on her stomach.

"That’s the general gist of the situation, honey."

Then he lifted her face up to look at him. "Kinda cool………Don’t you think?"

"I just expected you to be pissed or something……..…since we never really discussed the subject matter and all."

Brushing a strand of hair off her cheek, he said, "Nah, I like the idea. Lots of people certainly don’t want another me walking ‘round, but screw ‘em………Besides, maybe it’ll be a girl."

She rolled her eyes. "Fabulous. I’ll give birth to La Femme Nikita."

Over coffee and bagels back in the soft, cozy guest bed, she reminded him that the news was officially yet to be confirmed. Roger bit into a halved bagel smeared with "pumpkin cheesecake" spread.

"Yeah, I know. We don’t havta tell anybody else yet………It can be a little secret………Shit. This stuff does taste better than it looks," he said, inspecting the disc.

"And if it turns out to be true……..you’re really fine with it?" She just wanted/needed a little more reassurance from him. This was a major league plunge.

He peered over at her. "Whadaya think I’m gonna do? Just throw ya out with the trash like you’re no good now or something?"

"Just asking, Roger. I wanna be sure."

"Sweetheart, let’s not worry ‘bout it today. Okay? Look………I thought we’d go check out Central Park since we got the day to ourselves. You up for that, or you got morning sickness or something?" He smiled.

She laughed. "No, no a.m. puking yet……….Central Park sounds great. Diane said it’s beautiful in Fall."

"Spectacular………..if you’re into that sorta thing."

While he cleared away the breakfast debris and took it all to the kitchen, she wondered idly if Diane and Roger had experienced a "beautiful" and "spectacular" Central Park Fall together. Probably. Only occasionally now did it eat at her that they were lovers ten years ago.

She had banished it from her mind, though, by the time he returned to the bedroom. He was still shirtless, and she gazed lustfully at his body as he sauntered around the bed and sat down facing her. Wearing old, faded jeans well had to be one of his top assets.

"How kind of them to leave us such good food," she said.

"How kind of them to just leave."

She shook her head at him and said nothing.

"What?" he asked melodramatically. "Has this been a peaceful, easy Sunday morning or not?"

"Yes, honey. It’s been sublime."

"Exactly. I rest my case……..So you got any plans, miss?"

"I thought we were tooling through the park, Roger." She gave this a slight question inflection.

He almost smiled and quickly raised both eyebrows." More immediate plans, I mean."

Now she had caught on. "Well……I’d thought ‘bout a long, hot shower."

As he slid across the bed towards her, he whispered, "Even more immediate than that, baby."

Laying her down backwards and covering her body easily with his own, he kissed her nose and chin. She looked up at him and sighed. "There’s nothing more immediate for me than you, Roger."

"Well, I’m right here, sweets."

And he was right there, right on her. Something had ignited the fires inside him. Maybe the baby news; maybe the cool Autumn in New York City; maybe the strange apartment they found themselves alone in. But something had stoked his furnace, and he certainly was not icy now.

She moaned and sighed out loud as he slithered down her naked, trembling flesh – using his gentle hands and hungry mouth to create a fire in her to match his own. He kissed her inner thighs and stroked her wet, delicate fusion spot teasingly until she writhed on the bed and pleaded with him to put her out of her misery.

So when he obliged and lowered his warm lips onto her swollen, throbbing center, she cried out his name and exploded against his mouth almost immediately as his probing tongue darted in and out of her tender folds and crevices. A second orgasm rocked her when he finally arrived at the number one pressure point and firmly lapped back and forth over it as he held her down on the bed.

As she lay gasping and pulsating, he moved back up to her head, wiping her juices off his face. She smiled at him breathlessly.

"You almost drowned me, baby," he said with a small, quiet laugh.

"Yeah?………Well, now………I wanna taste you," she panted.

He glanced over at her. "I don’t think there’s time for that, if ya know what I mean."

"Don’t gimme that shit, Roger. Not after how you just tortured me……..Now get your ass up here."

Without further protests, Roger sat up and gently straddled her, moving up her chest to give her access to the part of his body she’d asked for. She quickly and greedily wrapped her hands around the hardness and guided him into her warm, wet, gripping mouth.

She knew very well what he liked, and she knew his tolerance levels. So she moved her moist lips on him slowly at first, licking up and down the rigid shaft and around his testicles, bearing down on sensitive spots, sucking the head and tip lovingly, then taking all of him deeply into her throat.

As his groaning increased, she sped up her back and forth pumping and tightened her slippery suction around his turgid flesh. Involuntarily, he thrust in and out of her waiting mouth, and when she gently squeezed his scrotum again, he threw his head back and released the lava inside him down her warm throat. And she had been prepared for the eruption. She held him in her mouth, swallowing and lightly sucking until his passion was spent.

He lay back down on his side of the bed in an exhausted heap and breathed heavily. She rolled over and put her face against his sweaty chest. "That’s what you get, Mr. Smartypants."

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You’re kinda good at that. I knew there was some reason why I married you."

Pretending to be offended, she raised up off him. "You asshole……..I’m going to the shower."

She had turned to leave the bed, but he caught her arm and pulled her back down on him. She put up little resistance. "Just joking, sweetheart……..’bout the why I married you part." He lifted his head enough to kiss her mouth lightly.

"Whatever…….You’re still an asshole……..and I’m still going to the shower. It’s almost noon, and you promised to take me to the park."

He laughed almost silently. "I’ll take you anywhere you wanna go, baby, after that."

She broke free of his grip and stood up beside the bed. "A world-class asshole……..Do you mind making up the bed so Vinnie and Diane won’t think we stayed in it having sex all damn day?"

"Yeah, yeah……….Go take your shower."

* * *

Central Park in October really was as lovely as she’d heard it was. The enormity of it overwhelmed her – no public park in Atlanta where she grew up could even begin to compare to this. And there were so many strange and magnificent sights to take in – the natural ones such as the changing trees AND the unnatural ones such as the wide variety of diverse people.

"This would all be worth the price of admission, if there was an admission," she told Roger as they strolled from Diane’s prestigiously located apartment over to and through this immense garden of wonders.

They had stopped, at Roger’s insistence, in a gourmet delicatessen, chosen a suitable wicker picnic basket, and filled it with everything they might possibly need for a delicious park picnic. She had watched Roger browsing through the food selections and wondered if he realized just how utterly romantic this all was – an impromptu Sunday afternoon picnic in Central Park after a fierce romp in the sack. Probably not, she concluded.

Romance was almost always accidental and unintentional with Roger – making it, for her, that much more charming and lovable. In his own mind, he was merely shopping for lunch, a bare necessity. The cute basket and the blanket to spread on the ground were also only required items for him, not amorous, idealistic little touches that added to this beautiful day.

But all of that was fine with her. She loved him obsessively for the way he was. She’d take the total package, as is.

And the picnic, the necessity of eating lunch, had gone over gorgeously, just like breakfast in bed had gone. They had managed to locate a quiet, relatively secluded spot and sat down to eat and watch the very "colorful" scenery. Roger never even complained about having none of his usual Sunday newspapers to read.

The topic of the potential baby never actually entered their conversation, but it permeated the air and created a positiveness around them – a kind of it’s-okay-whatever-happens atmosphere. Regardless of what took place after this day, they would remain with each other. And they both seemed to silently acknowledge this between them.

After eating, she reclined on her elbows and watched the clouds stream by overhead. She was remembering the odd encounter the four of them had had the day before with the eccentric old lady.

They were hoofing it down crowded Fifth Avenue after having a ("mediocre" in Roger’s opinion) lunch at the now infamous "Soup Nazi" place. Diane had been in her window-shopping mode, and Roger had joined her at every one of those "gadgets" stores for the technologically advanced. That had left Vinnie and Roger’s other half to mill around on the sidewalk and bide their time.

It was at one of those windows that they had all paused the day before. Diane and Roger were laughing out loud at something as they approached her and Vinnie who stood waiting for them. Then they were all silenced by the unearthly-sounding voice of the mysterious old woman suddenly in front of them.

"Ahhhhh…….all the gods who will listen, look down upon these two enchantingly astral couples……..I’ve never seen the likes of such beauty before."

She spoke softly, but her words were projected clearly over the street noise. She wore many layers of long, loose clothes, dark sunglasses, and a scarf tied tightly around her head. Roger’s first impression, which remained unspoken, involved the words "voodoo priestess" and "gypsy."

Vinnie chuckled, realizing at least one mistake that had been made. "Wait. Ya think I’m with her and Roger and Diane heah are togetha?"

The odd old woman smiled, revealing straight, white teeth. "Oh, absolutely, child. I seek out magic like this. You are the two most handsome couples I’ve seen in decades. You should be photographed, preserved forever."

Roger glanced at his wife and smiled. She returned it and waited for whatever might happen next. Vinnie still laughed quietly. "So this is your sales pitch? Ya wanna take our pickcha?" he asked.

"No, no, my son. I’m here simply to point out what others are too blind to see."

Diane stepped quickly to the front, flashing her fiery brown eyes. "You got it upside down and backwards, sister. This one’s mine……..and she goes with the prick back there."

She affectionately latched onto Vinnie’s arm, and Roger put his arm loosely around his wife, who had joined him. Now the two slender, arresting, fair-complexion blondes stood side by side while the two dark, smoldering Italian beauties embraced.

"How does this scenario work out for ya?" Diane raised her eyebrows quickly and dramatically. Her tone held small traces of threat and sarcasm that were normal for her.

The old woman peered at the rearranged pairs from behind her opaque shades and gasped. "Lord in heaven above, this is the real thing………and my, isn’t it a splendid thing to behold and feel!"

Roger instinctively pulled what was his closer to him. But he said nothing in the background. Vinnie, still highly amused, spoke up again. "Ya see some special light ‘round us or feel some waves or something, huh?"

"Ah, child……..Both of your auras are amazingly brilliant. You’re lucky to be matched and so happy………and you must strive to keep it that way."

"Yeah, okay…….Thanks……..We gotta be moving on." Now Vinnie was beginning to lose interest. They all started to pass the woman.

"May you always be as blessed as you are right now," she called out to them.

A little further down the street, Vinnie laughed again. "Yeah, and may the force be wid you too." Roger and Diane chuckled.

But she didn’t. "You guys are too skeptical. I wanted to hear what else she had to say."

Vinnie peaked around at her over his shoulder. "Fine, darlin’. Here’s five bucks so she can read your palm."

She squinted her eyes and glared at him with mock viciousness. "Fuck you, Vinnie."

"Oh, don’t bother with that bullshit. The old hag’s probably disappeared in a poof of gray smoke by now anyway," Diane said. And three of them laughed again.

But what had that lady seen in their "auras"? She didn’t know them from the 12 million other people in that vast city, but she had picked them out of such a crowd. What could she have revealed about their particular future?

"Hey, baby…….I’m still here too…….Don’t forget." Roger broke into her cloud-watching and contemplation.

She sat up and faced him, crossing her legs Indian-style. "Sorry……..I was thinking ‘bout that old lady yesterday."

He rolled his eyes as he put things back into the picnic basket. "Ahh……The Haitian Queen of Second Sight……..yeah." His sarcasm was far more pronounced than Diane’s would ever be.

"Don’t be so cynical, honey. We were getting a good review."

He raised his eyes from his task up to her face. "Sweets, it’s four o’clock. The review from Mama Terranova is our main concern right now."

"Omigod, Roger. We’re gonna be late." She started scrambling to help him clean up.

"Whatever………C’mon. I got it all."

* * *

They were, in fact, late. Almost an hour late because they had to go back to Diane’s apartment to change clothes. But no bells and alarms sounded when they finally arrived at Vinnie’s mother’s warm and pleasant abode.

Her husband, Rudy Aiuppo, was in Italy attending a funeral. And she was more than gracious and hospitable in welcoming her guests. She even happily greeted Roger and was so glad to see that he’d finally "found an anchor in life’s cruel sea."

After Mrs. Aiuppo and Diane had returned to the kitchen, Vinnie brought the other two some iced tea and sat down across from them in the living room. He looked at each of them and smiled cunningly.

"So what’s up with you two, and where the hell ya been all day?"

They exchanged a glance with each other and then looked back at him incredulously.

"We’ve been in the park," she answered innocently. "No large deal."

Vinnie sat back in his chair, but his shrewd expression didn’t change much. "Naw…….Something’s going on…….I can tell."

"If there’s anything you should know, Vince, we’ll be sure to tell ya……..Trust me." Roger had his hand on her knee and now slipped it down onto her inner thigh.

"Right, Roga," Vinnie said. And he sipped his tea. He’d given up for now.

Later that night, in the same guest bed, they made love again, enjoining their bodies this time and reaching blinding, passionate pinnacles nearly together. After he’d emptied himself inside her, he lowered his body down onto hers and kissed her mouth.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Roger." Quiet whispers in the dark.

"And if we’re gonna have a little one to join us, then great."

"What if we’re not, honey?" She felt him up in her still, a close and lovely sensation.

"Then that’s great too." He settled down beside her and rested his sweaty head in the curve of her neck. Their perspiration mingled as their other secretions had already done. She ran her fingers through his damp hair.

"Is there anything that might not be great?" she asked softly.

Against her throat, he said, "You not being ‘round………That I’d havta complain about."

She hugged him to her and repeated words to him that he’d said to her many times before: "Ahh, baby, I ain’t going anywhere………You got me."

* * *

They returned from their trip Monday night, exhausted and actually glad to be home. On Tuesday, she rose as usual to get ready for work. After her shower, she slipped back into bed beside the snoozing Roger and kissed his face and neck until he woke.

"What?" he groaned with his eyes still closed.

"Mystery solved………We will remain a two-person household………for now at least."

He rolled over then and opened his eyes. "Oh, yeah? You took one of those tests?"

"I didn’t have to, Roger. Don’t be obtuse."

"Oh………Okay then…….I guess we could give it another shot."

She kissed his check, and he groaned groggily. "Yeah, maybe after they figure out what exactly’s wrong with me."

"Ain’t nothing wrong with you, baby."

Now she kissed his mouth. "Yeah, yeah…….Just thought you’d like to know the latest……….Now go back to sleep."

"Whatever you say……..You’re the boss." He was sleeping soundly again by the time she left the loft.