Seeds of Tomorrow

24

The topic of vasectomy reversal wasn't brought up the following day or even the following week. They'd been far too busy with the party cleanup along with helping Audrey get ready for a week-long cheer camp in Corvallis. Atira felt that if Krist was interested in pursuing the reversal, he'd bring it up and since he didn't, she left it alone.

She wasn't even sure if she wanted another baby or was seeing a baby as a way for her to keep one last strand of youth in her life. The kids were growing up, she and Krist were forty.

"Where the fuck did time go?" Krist wondered aloud as the couple sat side by side on their new porch swing on a Sunday evening, "We got three teenagers now."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Atira grimaced.

"Aye, I forgot to tell you, your dad wants to buy Rocco a car for his birthday. I don't care if you don't care," Krist said.

Atira shrugged, "I don't care."

"Good, because I told him we didn't. I just said don't get him nothing nicer than our cars," Krist laughed, "Or if he does, let us have the nice car and he can take one of ours."

She laughed, "You did, didn't you?"

"Naw, I just said as long as it's reliable and not something he gonna want to drive dumb in, it's all good."

Atira pursed her lips, "He's your son so I don't think the vehicle will make a difference in how he drives."

Krist stifled a laugh, grabbing her in a playful headlock, "Bruh..shut the fuck up."

She reached under his long arms, tickling his ribcage until he let her go, "Rocco gets off work soon doesn't he?"

Looking at his Apple watch, he nodded, "Yeah, in like half an hour."

Atira rose to her feet, "I can pick him up, Audrey needs to go to Target anyway."

"Get me a sandwich, yeah?" Krist asked, giving her a grin and a firm slap on the ass.

Rocco was working at the local Panera and had been going on eight months. With the summer in full swing, he was working his ass off, getting close to forty hours and saving what he could for college. Krist was proud to see him have such a work ethic because it sure the fuck wasn't something he'd been able to commit to in his younger years.

He had gotten his first legal job at the age of twenty over the Amazon warehouse and his stupid ass managed to get fired for being too high. Nobody got fired from Amazon for being high but somehow, Krist's geeked-out ass had been so high they made him take a piss test mid-shift and fired him. Not even two months into the job. That was how every job he had until the strip club door job went. Had he not had Rocco, he probably would have shown up spun the fuck out, and been fired too. Goddamn, he'd been a lame.

Krist watched Atira and Audrey pull away in the Acura before deciding to go bother Jeordie over at his house. His friend must have seen him crossing the lawn and met him out on the front porch with a blunt.

"Suppers," he said, groaning as he lowered himself into one of the wooden rockers that Cami had refurbished.

"Just chillin'," Krist replied sitting in the free chair, "Bro, tell me why Atira brought up having another baby?"

Jeordie sparked the blunt, taking a long inhale and blowing the smoke out before responding, "She wants another one?"

"She brought it up at Audrey's party," he replied, taking the blunt from his longtime friend.

"And what do you think about it?"

Krist exhaled with a phlegmy cough, "Bro, just..like...no. Hell no, the kids are damn near grown and if we had another we gonna be sixty by the time it's grownup."

As though she had been listening, Cami stepped out on the porch, "So you got to pressure her into having the other kids right away but now that she's talking about wanting one, you are just going to shut it down?"

He groaned, "Do you ever just...mind your business?"

Cami leaned against the porch railing with a smirk, "Windows are wide open and you know how loud you talk."

He rolled his eyes, "So I'm shitty for not wanting another kid? Bruh...I got a vasectomy, it ain't happening."

She crossed her ankles, "You know they can be reversed or you could just do a retrieval," she said smugly, "All I am saying is that when it comes to the whole reproductive shit," Cami waved her hand, "you seem to think you are the one with the most say."

Krist opened his mouth to protest but she was on a roll.

"You talked her into getting off her birth control for Gabe, got her pregnant, and sulked when she was on the fence if she was ready for another baby immediately. I know she doesn't regret having Audrey in any way but it just seems, to me anyway, that you have more say in her decisions than she does.

"Maybe she doesn't even really want a baby but I think it's bullshit for you to just shut it down without even discussing it."

He shook his head, "We agreed that we were done," Krist told her.

"And now she's not sure if that's the case," Cami told him, "You are being an asshole."

"For not wanting another baby? Naw. We aren't even at a point in life it makes sense. She's got her career, I got mine. We don't do daycare so who's gonna take four or five years off work until this kid starts school? We ain't got money to be doing that now. I wanted these kids close together so we could be done," Krist said, "Atira and I ain't even have no time together as a couple without kids. I don't want to wait another eighteen, nineteen, twenty years for that to happen."

"Now, I'm not saying just run and undo your lil snippety-snip but I think you need to at least hear her out," she told him, trying to make her tone slightly less abrasive.

****

As if things could not have felt more strained between Victor and Raquel somehow it managed to get worse. She was acting shady, and distant, cringed when he tried to hold her, and even began to change in the locked bathroom. All of that pointed to one thing and he was determined to catch her.

He had tried to look through her phone only to discover she'd changed the lock code and when he flat-out asked her if there was somebody else, she simply shut down.

Devastated that he felt like a stranger in his relationship, he took Sergio over to see his pops. He didn't want Raquel to see him moping over her nor did he want his son to spend the day at home in a house full of tension.

When that Ring notification went off on his phone, Victor was quick to watch the camera. He could see a car pull into the driveway, close enough to notify him that motion had been detected...but he saw nobody approach the door. Silently, he sat on the porch with Pops waiting for this car to pull off or for someone to come to the door but nothing.

Fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes. He could see the hood of the black Chrysler parked in his driveway, not close enough to see the whole car but close enough he knew something was up.

"I'm about to catch that bitch," Victor told Fernando, "Keep an eye on Sergio."

Fernando's jaw tightened, "Aye, don't be doing nothing stupid. Just see what's up and if she got a dude there, bounce. Don't be throwing your life away over some hoe."