find your love

41.

"here, put them in the bags," airie answered as she passed the onesies with 'hey auntie' printed on the front to amari to put into the goodie bags she'd come up with to give to bria and valerie. she hummed as amari straightened the tissue paper in them, tucking the onesies inside of them, along with some bracelets that said 'favorite aunt'. airie had already had hers on but tucked it under the sweatshirt she was wearing so the two of them wouldn't be their usual nosy selves and try to figure out what it was before they got their bags.

"are you ready?" airie asked as she looked over at amari, her head nodding and her hands clasping in front of her. "i have no choice," she laughed afterwards and looked down at her belly -- which was already poking just a little bit, but not enough to draw attention to her being pregnant -- and sighed afterwards. "but i'm sure they'll be excited. deelo was over the roof, so we're looking at places to stay together, looking at baby stuff..." she trailed off with a smile; airie couldn't feel anything but warmth in her heart, moreso to see her best friend happy. for once in the last few weeks, it felt like life was slowing down to where it was supposed to be, everyone was happy where they were, and there was peace amongst everyone. there was a light aura that surrounded everyone, and it made her feel all the more...happy, for once. life was comfortable again.

a knock at the door made amari snap out of it, the nerves evident all over her face. "girl, it's gonna be okay. don't look like that," airie laughed and sprung up to go answer the door, answering it to valerie and bria and their hugs. they entered amari's apartment and hugged her, all of them soon getting comfortable on the couch.

"so what's the girl's meeting about?" bria asked as she pushed a few locs over her shoulder, peering over at amari. airie adjusted her sweater over her bracelet so they wouldn't see as she pulled the blanket on the back of the couch over her legs, looking over at amari also. "well, i have something to give to y'all. it's a little gift, airie already got hers." she smiled at the two of them before picking the bags up off of the table and passing them over, bria and valerie looking suspiciously at the two sitting across from them.

"girl, what is going on," valerie sucked her teeth as she took her bag, her and bria opening the bags at the same time and pulling out the bracelets first. they read the bracelets, and bria, confused as all day, squinted. "favorite aunt...did you get another dog or something?"

"no, fool, keep digging," amari laughed as she peered over at airie who made a face in her direction, once valerie and bria got to the bottom where the onesies were. it took valerie flicking it out for her to start screaming, her eyes immediately welling up with tears. "bitch, you're pregnant!? you're fucking pregnant!"

"amari!" bria yelled and airie and amari immediately began laughing, rolling over on the couch, amari nodding her head and speaking in between laughter, "yes! i'm pregnant!"

bria and valerie let out unintelligable gibberish before they leaned to scoop both airie and amari into a group hugs, valerie speaking loudly, "the first baby, the first baby, the first baby! we got the first damn baby!"

"how far along are you? what do we know? what are we waiting for?" bria asked as she looked down at amari, "i'm a month and two weeks, we don't know much, but the baby is really healthy so far. so everything's good for y'all's niece of nephew in there-"

"oh my god, i have to start shopping," valerie blinked and stilled, the other three immediately laughing at her.

"hold on- you? you gone be somebodies dad?" aubrey blinked as he looked at deelo, deelo nodding his head and laughing, aubrey eventually getting up to dap him up and pull him into a hug. deelo nodded his head as he hugged aubrey back with a laugh, adjusting his cap afterwards. aubrey felt all giddy inside, moreso just seeing his best friend just as giddy. it was well known between the two of them that deelo truly, honestly, wanted to be a dad -- he wanted to be with someone who made him feel comfortable being a dad. hell, aubrey was convinced he would be a dad before him -- he had always planned on it.

"how far along is she? i mean, damn man," aubrey laughed as he sat back down and ran his hands over his legs, deelo running a hand over his durag and smiling, "a month and some change. we went to get her checked out and all that, and that's what they told us, so now we looking at apartments, baby clothes, shit like that."

"look at that booooy," aubrey laughed and reached over to nudge his best friend's arm. he thought it would be fun to see his best friend being a dad; but at the same time, it made him think of his and airie's situation. they were in a comfortable spot in their relationship, they were having fun with one another, they were taking things day by day, but he always thought of the what if. what if her birth control didn't work? what if they were in that 1%? what if they slipped up one day, what if she had gotten it taken out? hell, he thought she might have been pregnant now, with all this baby talk.

there was no reason for him to even suspect her of being pregnant in the first place, she wasn't acting any different, she didn't all of a sudden start craving new things, she didn't look any different -- there genuinely was no reason for him to suspect her of being pregnant. but, his nerves were bad with all the babies going around their friend group, that he wanted to bring it up.

"can you take a pregnancy test?" aubrey asked as he walked into airie's place, airie blinking and knitting her eyebrows as she looked up at him from the bowl of ramen in front of her. "what?" she asked quickly and pushed her chopsticks into the bowl, leaning her hand against the counter so she could look at him, much like he had three heads. "i think you should take a pregnancy test," he spoke as he headed into the kitchen, sliding his keys onto the counter and his hands into his pockets.

"now why the hell would i do that? i'm still on my birth control, there's no way in hell i'm pregnant. are you okay? feverish?" she asked and walked over to him to pat her hands along his cheeks and over his forehead, aubrey sucking his teeth and gently swatting at her hands and giving her a slight annoyed look. "i'm fine, airie henderson," he started and leaned his hand against the counter before speaking, "with everyone talking about babies and families and all that, i just felt like you should take one so we could be one-hundred percent sure."

"well, aubrey graham, i'm telling you as someone who's one-hundred percent sure, i'm not pregnant," she answered and went back over to her bowl to stir it, aubrey pursing his lips. "but how can you be so sure? you said that your birth control had like...a one-percent?"

"yea, but i'm not in that. if i were pregnant, we'd know by now. we've been fucking each other raw since we decided to even be kind-of exclusive, and that was months ago. we'd know by now, aubrey. you need to relax."

"airie," he let out an exasperated sigh and she held up a hand with her chopsticks in hand before speaking, "i'm not taking a pregnancy test because there's no reason for me to think i am other than you being paranoid. i'm not arguing with you about it."

she made her way into the living room, leaving him in the kitchen to sulk in his own moment. he wasn't wrong -- there had been a lot of talk about babies between them and within their own friend groups, and she couldn't fault him because she had even been thinking about taking some kind of test just to see. she thought of how they'd not been using any physical form of protection so she understood where his worry was coming from, but she also noted that there was no way for her to be with child. and, she probably could have been nicer about it.

so, when he finally came into the living room and plopped down next to her, she leaned over to kiss his cheek and smiled afterwards, reaching to gently pat his thigh. "look, i'll take one if you really want me to. i'm telling you now, it'll be negative, but i'll take one if you really think i should."

he peered down at her and sighed, nodding his head and turning to kiss the top of her head. "i would really appreciate it."