The Good Life

Chapter 27

They sat at Marla’s kitchen table staring at the pregnancy tests that evening. Three days earlier they had planned to go out the same as they always had. She was his perfect accessory. And everyone knew it. Tonight, though, he told them all he just wanted to take it easy – sleep. He needed it. She had been telling him he needed to sleep even before this. He hadn’t had more than 3 days just to be Bruno since February – maybe not even since they had started dating. Marla preached stress relief and relaxation. It was part of the reason she ran so often and why she did yoga and pilates. Marla might have asked him to stay at home with her even without this news – because he needed it – but now she needed it too. He picked each one up and studied them.

“How do these work? Like if I peed on one? What would happen?” he inquired.

“Well, I don’t think it would turn pink, or there would a plus sign, or have two lines, or be orange, or green….” she looked at each one of them and then remembered her serious side. “It’s a chemical reaction.”

“Oh….” More silence.

“What…are we going to do?” she finally asked him.

“We still don’t know if these are right….” he said.

“You’re right, I guess. It was only two weeks ago and the only way to be 100% sure is a blood test. I can’t get that done until Monday at the earliest.” He always seemed to reassure her in some amazing way. It could be a meeting, a presentation and now a potential life altering circumstance, he always had the right words. He moved over to the chair next to her. She turned to face him and sighed heavily. “What do you want for dinner?” she got up to walk to the kitchen. He watched her every move, noticing that moved a little differently. Maybe a little slower. “I have stuff for cheese enchiladas and tortilla crusted tilapia with the rice stuff on the bottom.”

“I want….” he paused to figure out what she wanted. He couldn’t tell. She was blank. He knew this news was still too much for her. He was going to have to do something to make it better, and fast. “I want to cook for you….sit down. Watch Chef Brrrunnnno.” He rolled his Rs in most awkward of ways. She laughed at his attempt.

“What do you mean you’re going to cook?” she asked him. “You never cook. You’re taking me with you to cook.”

“Sit down, Marla. I’m cooking.”

“Don’t burn down my house, Bruno.” she shook her head walking toward her bar stool to watch him make them dinner.

She was incredibly impressed with his ability to make her cheese enchiladas. He rolled the tortillas, mixed the sauce and even made a different special type of rice for them. It may have taken longer for him to make it, and she might have had to help him, but he did all the dirty work. He pulled out her hand me down Fiesta ware dishes and set them down on the table. He poured them glasses of water with crushed ice. “No drinking.” he said as he poured the water. “Just to be safe.”

“Okay.” she agreed.

They ate their dinner trying to find something non-baby related to talk about. She asked him how New York was and his quick trip to Canada. He said it was really good – and that he was looking forward to going to Paris. He was even trying to learn a little bit more French. She commented on Spanish and French’s similarities and word roots. She went on and on about conjugation and poetry and how beautiful all languages are in general. She said that one day she wanted to learn French and Italian. Oh and Portuguese. But German was too ugly of a language. And anything that didn’t use a Cyrillic alphabet was too over her head. She wasn’t going to learn a new alphabet - just new ways to arrange the letters. He laughed at the way she thought. I would never have thought of this. Never in a million years. She thinks of the most off the wall things. But, maybe they aren’t off the wall. Maybe they are normal things and I’m not normal.

“Marla? When do you think of these things?” he asked her.

“I have a lot of time on my hands because my boyfriend is flying around the world giving 13 year olds their first orgasms. School hasn’t started yet. When school starts I won’t have time to think about those types of things. ”

“You need to think of those things. They drive me crazy.”