We stayed at the hotel for the whole weekend. We almost didn’t go out of our room. We couldn’t get our hands off each other. I lost count of how many times we made love. Afterward, we were happy to cuddle in each other’s arms.
I had never seen Travis this open or this happy. He was laughing most of the time, and he couldn’t resist a chance to pull me into his arms and kiss me.
It was bliss. It was everything I could have ever dreamed of. It was like for the first time in many years, I belonged to a family again. And I couldn’t be any happier that I belonged to a family with Travis.
“Are you happy with the apartment, love?” he asked. “Or would you want to move into a house?”
“I’ve just settled into your apartment,” I reminded him.
“Yes. But we need to think long-term now. If you don’t want to settle in New York, that’s fine with me. I can set up an office wherever you want. Pretty soon, we’re going to think about having kids. And I’m not sure you want to raise them in Manhattan.”
Kids. I smiled at the thought. Travis really wanted to have kids with me. I really was married now!
“You’re thinking about kids now?” I asked, laughing.
“Of course,” he replied. “I was a lonely kid when I was growing up. If it’s not too much to ask, I would like at least three kids.”
“Your birthday’s long over,” I reminded him.
He laughed. “Fine. I’ll ask for a baby for my next three birthdays then.”
“Travis, I’m going to grow big if I get pregnant every year!”
“And I’ll adore you just the same,” he said, giving me a kiss on the lips.
“All right. Why don’t we settle here in Manhattan for now? And as soon as I’m pregnant, then we’ll think about relocating somewhere else.”
“Okay, deal.” He smiled. He stared at me for a long while and then he smiled. “You have no idea how happy I am.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. “I’m very happy too, Travis.”
When we came back to his apartment, Travis looked like he was a changed man. We were greeted at the door by the bellman.
“Good day to you, too, Godfrey.” He smiled.
I was surprised because the bellman was not wearing his nametag, and yet Travis surprised us both by greeting him by his name.
It went on when we entered the lobby. He greeted the guys at the concierge by their first names. When he wouldn’t have even looked at them before when they had greeted him, he now knew every one of them by first name. And even they seemed to be very surprised.
Karl was at his doorstep when we got to our floor.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Cross,” he greeted him. “Mrs. Cross.”
“It’s Sunday, Karl. What are you doing here?” Travis asked.
It took Karl a moment before he could respond. “Well…I just wanted to ask if you needed anything for today. I wanted to remind you about your meetings for tomorrow.”
“I have them on my phone, Karl. No need to come here personally to remind me. Go spend the rest of your free time however you please,” Travis said.
Karl smiled. “Right. Thank you, sir. Have a nice day.” He nodded at me, and then he left.
When we got inside the apartment, I couldn’t help giving Travis a hug. I buried my face in his chest and sighed.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I giggled. “Nothing, Travis. You’re perfect!”
Monday, Travis came home at five in the afternoon. He got me a bouquet of roses.
“What is this for?”
He shook his head. “Passed by a flower shop and thought of you.”
I got on tiptoes to give him a kiss on the lips. “I love them. Thank you.”
He deepened the kiss. And then his hands crept under my shirt. Electricity shot through me, along with a desire I thought I couldn’t handle.
“Travis…” I moaned.
We fell on the couch and Travis stripped off his jacket and his shirt.
“Travis, please…” I begged. I didn’t know desire could be this potent, erasing all sense of reason, replacing it with a sense of urgency.
In a minute, we were making love on the couch, whispering each other’s name, kissing each other as passionately as humanly possible.
When it was over, we lay there for a while, cuddling each other, while Travis told me what had happened during the day.
“Karl once told me you intended to liquidate your father’s company once you acquired it,” I said. “Do you still plan to do that now?”
He sighed and hugged me tighter. “Are you going to ask me to stop now, love? I once begged you not to.”
“There are other lives at stake, Travis,” I said. “Some innocent people whose lives depend on their jobs. One of your father’s employees could have a pregnant wife, and losing his job would mean losing their means to raise the baby. You can have your battles with your father…but you have to keep them clean. Make sure…there will be no casualties.”
He thought about it for a moment. He took a deep breath, and then he said, “You’re too good for me, Brianne. Sometimes, I don’t think I deserve you at all.”
“But I promised to save you, remember?”
“And you did,” he said. “Now, I couldn’t imagine life without you…” He took my hand and kissed my fingers. “Or without these fingers touching me, these hands holding me…” He kissed me on the lips. “Or these lips kissing me.”
I smiled at him. “I guess it will be like this forever.”
He smiled back. “Yes, love. Forever.”
Travis never came home late. When he did have a meeting, he let me know beforehand. Sometimes, he asked me to wait for him at a café in the hotel where he was having his meeting. He arranged for the limo to pick me up. After his meeting, we had dinner or coffee together. Travis was not afraid to show affection. He hugged me, kissed me in public. Sometimes, I was afraid we’d get charged with public indecency.
When I told him that, he just laughed. “I think I have enough money to pay that fine over and over again!”
Thursday night, we met Karl in the corridor.
“Coming to see me?” Travis asked.
“Yes,” he said. “I was just wondering if Monday would be a very busy day…because…if it is, I can come to the office, but if not, I was wondering…”
“Karl, you can take Monday off,” Travis said immediately.
“Really?” Karl’s face immediately brightened. “Are you sure? Because if it’s going to be busy, I’ll be okay. I’ll come to work.”
“If you want to go to the Bahamas, Karl, you can do so.”
Karl was surprised. And then he smiled. “I’ll bring a laptop just in case…”
“I’m not going to ask you to do some work on your weekend getaway. Now go, before I change my mind.” Travis said.
Karl beamed. “Thank you, Travis,” he said. He turned to me. “See you later, Brianne.”
We entered our apartment. “You told him he could call you Travis?”
Travis shrugged. “I figured Mr. Cross makes me feel old!”
I laughed and gave him a hug. “You’re wonderful, Travis. And no matter how old you are, I think you’re still the most attractive man I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
Travis pulled me into a hug and then asked me to sit down on the couch.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
He went into our room and then he came back with a folder. He looked at me wearily and then he handed it to me.
I started getting worried. “Travis, what’s going on?” I asked.
He sighed. “Everything I own, Brianne…is summarized in these papers here,” he replied. “Every bank statement, every piece of property that is under my name is in there. The original copies of the deeds are in my security deposit box, to which you will have access to.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why?”
“Because they are yours, too. I don’t want to hide anything from you. When we got married, everything that I was and everything that I owned became yours as well. So you should be aware of them.”
“But, Travis…I don’t want anything from you. I don’t need these.”
“You do, Brianne. You’re my wife. Before we got married, I had no beneficiaries at all. No one to give the fruits of my labor to,” he said. “Well…it has always been you. But that is specified in my will. That’s different. But now, you have to be aware of these things.”
“Travis, why? I don’t need to know.”
“Yes, you do,” he insisted. “Because if something happens to me…I want to make sure everything goes to you. Not anybody else whose only relation to me is a shared DNA.”
I raised my brow at him. “Specifically your father.”
He took a deep breath and gave me a slight nod. “I want you to be able to fight for your right. And you will be able to do that if you’re aware of everything. My father is very, very shrewd. And he’s getting desperate.”
Tears filled my eyes. “Travis…” I sighed. “Please. Don’t take this too far. I would rather be penniless any day, as long as I have you with me. I don’t need all these.” I said, pointing at the folder in front of me. “I only want my husband.”
He smiled at me and then sat beside me, taking me in his arms. “And you have me. But you know me, Brianne. I always plan ahead. Always one step ahead of the game. I have to do this.”
It was sad to think about a future without Travis, but he was right. The coin had two sides. And the reality was that he had the father he had. I nodded and gave him a tight hug. He hugged me back.
“And I have something else to ask you, Brianne,” he said.
I stared back at him.
“What?”
“Whenever you’re ready, I want you to learn the ropes at my company.”
Now, panic gripped me. “What? Travis…I’m in to arts!”
He laughed. “And you’re smart. I’m sure you’ll learn fast. And I’ll be your teacher.”
“And what would you do if I don’t learn or if I make a mistake?”
His eyes gleamed. “Well, I’ll be happy to teach you a lesson.” Then he scooped me up in his arms and carried me to the bedroom. “In fact, I should give you have a glimpse of that now.”
I laughed. “Travis!” I landed on the bed with a bounce, and soon, he landed on top of me.
The laughter died in my throat as he leaned forward and kissed me thoroughly.
***
Travis had a meeting with his father in LA the next weekend.
“You want to come with?” he asked. “Although, I prefer he doesn’t see you.”
“Why?”
“My father is the devil incarnate. The less he knows about you, the safer you will be from him.”
“And what about you?” I asked nervously.
“I’m his son, Brianne,” he replied. “And I can take care of myself.”
I nodded. “Okay. I think I’ll just go to Connecticut. I need to visit Sarah. Plus, I have an apartment there that I need to vacate. I’ve got stuff to sell.”
He smiled. “Do that. I’ll come to Connecticut from LA to pick you up.”
“Deal.”
He kissed me thoroughly. “Two nights are going to be so long without you.”
I smiled. “I know. It’s like…I don’t know how to go back anymore, Travis.”
“Good. Because you’re not allowed to go back, love,” he said. “I warned you before, remember. When you let me touch you again, we belonged exclusively to each other from then on. It was the plan before. It’s the plan now, especially now that you’ve made me feel all this! I think I’m going to die if I don’t get to feel your touch…if I don’t know you’re mine…only mine.”
My heart swelled at his words. “I’m yours, Travis,” I sighed. “I guess part of me has always been yours. And now…all of me is,” I whispered, and then I kissed him thoroughly.
When I met Sarah Saturday morning, I was pretty sure I was a picture of bliss.
“What have you not been telling me?” she asked. “You look wonderful! And you have a certain glow about you! Are you pregnant?”
I laughed. “Don’t be silly! This is not pregnancy glow. Let’s just say that I’m totally in love with my husband.”
She shrieked. “When did this happen?”
“I guess on our honeymoon, we were…doing a lot of kissing, and it took a lot for us not to sleep with each other. And then…on his birthday, I decided to stop thinking about the consequences and just go for the one man I’d always wanted. The marriage just turned real. And I’m happy, Sarah! I’ve never been this happy! I mean…we’ve only slept with each other for a week, but it has been wonderful. He is talking about kids and settling down in a different city. He’s everything I could ever, ever ask for and more.”
“I’m so jealous! How lucky can you be? I thought Travis Cross was a devil in angel’s skin. But it looks like he changed a lot for you. I guess this is love.”
I sighed. “We haven’t said ‘I love you’ to each other since we slept with each other.” I thought about it and I realized it was true. “It’s funny, because all these years, it was so easy to say ‘I love you,’ and we said it to each other all the time. Now…we haven’t said it in a week.”
Sarah smiled at me. “Probably because it means something different now. Before…those three words meant you loved each other as friends or as family. Now…that’s no longer the case.”
“I just wish he’d say it to me and I would have no doubt what he meant, you know,” I said wistfully. “Before we got married, he said he was sort of in love with another woman. But he chose to marry me nevertheless…and now, he keeps telling me that there is no one else for him. Only me. I guess that is more than enough. Maybe he didn’t love that woman strongly enough. And she’s out of the picture now.”
“So you did get what you were looking for after all. Your safety guy didn’t only save you from the ‘curse,’ but he also turned out to be the man you were looking for all your life.”
I nodded. “And I’m so happy! I’ve always loved Travis…as a dear friend. But he made me fall in love with him. He is a wonderful husband!”
While having coffee and dessert, Sarah told me about the performance schedules. I wanted to join, but somehow I knew this honeymoon phase with Travis wasn’t nearly over yet, and I didn’t want to spoil that by putting some distance between us. I wanted him to fall in love with me, too. The way I was so in love with him. And besides, my priorities had changed now. Our family came first.
“It took you that long to go to bed?” Sarah asked.
I laughed. “I was too careful! And Travis is too much of a gentleman! He is a master of keeping his emotions under control. We slipped sometimes, but we stopped just in time.”
“Wow! I can’t imagine how much self-control that took!” she laughed.
Suddenly, I felt queasy, as if something in the cake I ate had made me sick.
“Excuse me…” I said to her.
I immediately ran to the ladies’ room. I threw up everything I’d eaten since the morning. I washed my face with water while Sarah looked at me wearily.
“Sweetheart, are you…”
I laughed. “I can’t be, Sarah!” I said to her. “Unless pregnancy manifests itself this early. I mean…I only slept with Travis a week ago. It’s too early.”
Sarah shrugged. “When was the last time you had your period?”
Damn! I realized I hadn’t had my period in a long time. “I don’t know. A week or so before my bachelorette party. I might be delayed, but I can’t be pregnant.”
Then I realized pregnancy was not the only thing that could delay a woman’s period. There could be conditions worse than that. I knew because a couple of my aunts had suffered from female cancers over the years.
“Oh my God, Sarah. I think…I need to go see a doctor. What if I’m sick? What if I have a medical condition that actually prevents me from getting pregnant? A cousin of mine had her ovaries removed when she was just in her twenties. It runs in our family. I can’t take chances.” Tears welled up in my eyes. “I need to give Travis a child, Sarah.”
“Hey, calm down!” she said to me. “I know a good doctor. Let’s go there now.”
Thirty minutes later, I was sitting in the waiting room at the clinic Sarah went to. She was a blonde woman in her forties. She smiled at me.
“Married?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Good.” She narrowed her eyes. “Sexually active?”
If I hadn’t been under stress, I would have laughed at that question. “Yes,” I replied.
“Alrighty. When was your last period?”
I shook my head. “Unfortunately, I cannot remember,” I said. “But I don’t remember having it last month or this month.”
“Feeling anything weird?”
“I threw up this morning.”
“First time you threw up?”
“Well, last week, too. Once. But that could be just because of something I ate.”
“Okay. Lie down on the table, and we’ll have a check.”
She applied ultrasound gel on my tummy while I prayed so hard that I didn’t have cancer or any cysts that would prevent me from conceiving. Travis deserved to have a baby. He deserved to have a family. I didn’t want to rob him of the family he had dreamed of just because I was unable to give him children. The only way he could forgive his parents was…if he got a chance to be a better father to his children. That was my plan. And I also didn’t want to miss out on becoming a mother.
“I can’t see it properly. I’m going under,” she said. And she shifted to do a vaginal ultrasound instead.
“Well, congratulations,” the doctor said after a few minutes. “It looks like you’re pregnant.”
It took me a whole minute to process that. “What?” I wanted to be happy. Could they really detect it this early?
“Seven weeks.”
“Seven weeks?” I echoed. “Are you sure? It’s not just three or four weeks?”
She increased the volume of her ultrasound. I heard a walloping sound, and then it became rhythmic. I realized it was my baby’s heartbeat. Tears slipped from my eyes. I felt warmth envelop me, and I couldn’t define how happy I suddenly felt.
I’m going to be a mom!
“Heartbeat is strong,” she said. “You can’t hear that if you’re only a week pregnant. And the ultrasound says it was conceived around October 25th, plus or minus a week.”
Everything else that she said was a blur. She said something about seeing a doctor in Manhattan immediately. I thought there was alarm on her face when she checked me again, but she said the baby was fine, so I didn’t care about anything else.
I remember taking a note from her. I remember paying her assistant.
“Hello!” Sarah had to snap her fingers in front of me to bring me back to reality.
I stared back at her.
“Are you okay? What did she say?”
“Sarah…she said I’m pregnant.”
“Then Travis is going to be ecstatic!”
“Sarah…I’m seven weeks pregnant!”
It took Sarah a moment to recover, too. And then she breathed, “Oh my God!”