Chapter 17

Julia

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know anyone in my family that had twins. It wasn’t even on my radar during the initial appointments. I had only taken a couple doses of the hormones my other doctor had prescribed and he said it wasn’t a strong one at all. He said the hormones would just ensure a viable egg was released each month.

Being a single mom sounded so exciting when it was just one baby. I had wrapped my brain around all of that responsibility. I hadn’t considered the possibility that there would be more than one baby.

I had gotten myself into this situation and I had no way of getting out of it. Somehow I had to find the courage to figure this out and it was overwhelming me. The problem was that I could hardly breathe. The whole thing was going to be an absolute disaster and instead of having a wonderful time being a young mother I was going to hate it, I just knew it. I wasn’t going to sleep at all because I’d be up all night feeding them. How was I ever going to keep my career on track with twins at home? Somewhere down the line I would start gaining a ton of weight because I wasn’t taking good care of myself.

I sobbed quietly in Mike’s office until he finished his work and came in to sit with me. I couldn’t stop crying when he got there and when he sat next to me and rubbed my leg, it just made me cry more.

“Why are you crying? This is exciting. You’re going to have two beautiful babies,” he said delicately.

“I know I should be happy. I know, but how am I going to take care of two babies? I was already going to be pretty bad at taking care of one of them,” I said through my tears.

“It’s just the same as one baby, you just do everything twice.” Mike tried to be upbeat, but that just made me even more overwhelmed.

“It’s not my plan,” I managed to get out.

“Was it your plan to meet me?” Mike asked as he leaned down and put his face in front of me. “Sometimes plans don’t go the way you want them but they still turn out pretty damn good. I mean, I think it turned out good. And those babies of yours are going to be so adorable since they have my genes,” he continued on until he finally got me to crack a smile.

“It’s not funny, Mike. How am I going to take care of two babies?”

“You will figure it out. You’re one of the smartest women I know. I don’t think having two babies is going to bring you down. You’ll rise to the occasion. You’ll make the absolutely best out of it. And I have a feeling once you meet those two bundles, that you’ll be perfectly happy with having twins.”

“Thanks,” I said and started to wipe my tears as I sat up on the couch. “It’s just hard to see past all the stress right now.” It was nearly impossible to see past the stress, actually. But having Mike there trying to cheer me up was really helpful. He stayed there with me and we ate more of the snacks and talked for hours about my stress and worries over bringing two babies into this world.

Some of the things I was worried about were logical. Like the logistics of paying for a nanny or getting two cribs into the small den of my new condo. Then there were other things that were less logical, like how big my boobs were going to get if I wanted to breast feed. Or what combination of foods I’d always have to keep in the house when they were teenagers and didn’t like the same things. My mind was all over the place with the idea of having two babies, which would turn into two kids and two teenagers and then two adults.

“How about we concentrate on the here and now before we start worrying about the feeding habits of teenagers,” Mike said with a small smile. “One day at a time here. For right now, you should concentrate on relaxing. All this stress isn’t good for the babies or for you.”

“Relaxing, I don’t even know what that is anymore. I just got over to the new condo and I can’t find anything in my boxes. I don’t even have my bed set up. I slept on the mattress on the floor last night,” I laughed.

“Well, that’s something I can help you with. How about I stop by the fifteenth floor and help you get set up a little bit so you can get a good night sleep?”

It was the sweetest thing Mike could have offered to do. I didn’t want to lift all the heavy wood pieces to my bed and hadn’t gotten around to having Kendra and Sarah over to help me yet.

“Perfect. And let’s get some food on the way home, I’m starving,” I said as I looked at the pile of snacks we had just devoured.

“Of course,” Mike agreed without making mention of the plethora of food I’d already devoured. “I’m starving too.”

I didn’t think he was telling the truth about still being hungry, but it was really sweet that he was trying to make me not feel bad about it. Mike arranged a car for us and we swung past my favorite Indian joint to grab some take out before heading back to our condo building.

The building didn’t feel like home to me yet, but it was so inviting to arrive in the front doors and have the smiling doorman greeting us. I was going to like it there; I knew it the moment I’d decided to buy my condo.

The elevator had glass mirrors throughout the inside and as Mike and I got in I noticed my stomach was showing more than I thought it was. I turned and admired the growing bump in the mirror and Mike stood behind me and did the same.

“You’ll start getting big faster now. Those two little ones are going to be growing a lot the next few weeks.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t realize I was having twins. Should I be bigger than this by now? Am I not eating enough?”

“It’s your first pregnancy so a lot of times women don’t start showing until around now. I think you are right on track.”

I lifted my shirt a little and looked at how round my stomach was from that angle. It was amazing how I was growing two human beings inside of me at that moment. I suddenly felt more at peace about everything. Of course, I was still really overwhelmed about how I would manage with two children. But nature was a powerful thing and I knew that I would be more excited after I got to meet my two little ones.

“Did they say what the gender was?” I asked as I realized I hadn’t been fully paying attention during the ultra sound after I found out it was twins.

“She wrote it down and I had her put it in this sealed envelope. Did you want to open it and see?”

“Oh wow,” I grabbed the envelope from him and just held onto it. Now I really wanted to know what gender the babies were. “There’s going to be twice as much planning and decorating as before. Maybe I should look so I can get started on everything.”

“Maybe,” he said going along with what I wanted.

“But wouldn’t it be exciting to find out when they are born? I mean you are right, that would be the best surprise ever. I do like that idea as well.”

“You’ve got plenty of time to think about it. How about we put it in one of your kitchen drawers for now and you can decide another time. Tonight we should eat, get your bed up, and get you some relaxing sleep.”

“Or other things to relax me,” I said playfully as we got off the elevator.

Mike just smiled back at my flirting with him. The idea of having his hands on me did seem really relaxing though. I wasn’t going to say no if things heated up between us. In fact, I was hoping there would be a little heat when we got to working on my bed.

Having all these hormones running through my body just had me wanting to have sex all the time. It didn’t seem like a logical thing for a woman’s body to still want to have so much sex after she was already pregnant, but maybe nature meant it that way since couples wouldn’t have to worry about contraception if the woman was already pregnant. But then again, contraception was more of a modern thing and nature just wanted women to have babies, so I had no idea.

“Let’s eat,” I nearly growled as we entered my condo and went up to the counter where I had a couple cushioned chairs.

“No table?” Mike asked as he looked around the mess I had there.

“I don’t think I have room. Where would I put one?”

“By the windows, of course,” he stood over by the window and looked out at my view. “I think you’d like waking up and eating your breakfast over here. But you also don’t have a couch or a television either. What is in all these boxes?”

“I don’t have much of my own furniture. Kendra owned the living room set. I just have my bedroom stuff. All these boxes are the rest of random stuff I had around the apartment and in the kitchen. I should have tossed some of it away, but I didn’t know how much I wanted to worry about purchasing new things just yet.”

The truth was that I hated most of the stuff I had but I thought my feelings might change once I got my stuff over to the new condo. I wasn’t a very sentimental type of person, but I didn’t want to throw items away that I might wish that I’d kept later down the road and I thought I should wait and go through my boxes slowly and plan out the condo better.

I was hoping to buy some modern furniture for the living room and a trendy baby bed for the den. But now I’d be buying two baby beds and that was going to change everything. Surely I was going to have to save my money for baby stuff now and wasn’t going to want to spend it on furniture for the living room.

“Your place looks really big for a one bedroom. I think you made a great choice,” Mike said as we sat at the counter eating our dinner.

“I know. I was a steal,” I said between shoveling food into my mouth.

Knowing that I was having twins, made my constant need to eat feel much more reasonable. I had been worrying that I was eating way too much over the last few weeks. The problem was that I was always hungry. I was constantly wanting food and sex. And now I had my food, next I wanted Mike in my bed.

As much as I liked thinking about having Mike in my bed, I wasn’t going to push that plan too much. Things were really good between the two of us and there was too much room for error if I started pushing a relationship with him. I was going to take a back seat and just see how things turned out.

Mike got a text message on his phone that seemed to distract him a lot. I just sat there waiting for him to tell me what was going on but he was so engrossed in a back and forth texting session that I didn’t want to interrupt him.

Something was wrong. Whomever had texted him didn’t have anything good to tell him at all. I continued eating my dinner while he finished his conversation.

“Sorry, just some work stuff. Some legal issues came up with the new expansion. That thing has been so stressful. And one of the people we interviewed ended up turning something into the medical board like a tattletale. Our lawyer has it handled because everything we do is legal; it’s just got me a little worried now.”

“What did they turn in?”

“Oh, Bruce made a crack about being a sperm donor on the side for cash. And the uppity guy we were interviewing didn’t think it was legal or ethical or something. I didn’t really think anything of it but our attorney just texted to tell me the board is doing an official review of both Bruce and I.”

“It wasn’t legal what we did?”

“It was legal. I’m one hundred percent sure of that. I think the questionable part is having a doctor from a fertility and obstetric clinic, donating to their patient. Bruce is probably in more trouble than I am ethically. He’s remained the doctor after donating. But you stayed with Bruce for your doctor so I don’t think I would be in trouble.”

“But this could affect your whole practice, couldn’t it?” I said, a little worried for Mike and the new expansion he was planning.

“I’m not sure the extent of the consequences just yet and I don’t think talking about it will help you relax at all. I’ll let you know if I hear of any news as this whole thing develops.”

I was stressed out for Mike just thinking about having some sort of investigation like that going on. He looked like he had already forgotten about it though as he slipped his phone back into his pocket and finished eating his meal.

Oh, how nice it would be to have the type of personality that could just let things roll off your back like that. One minute he looked extremely anxious and the very next he had totally forgotten about it and was enjoying his meal.

We moved into the bedroom when he finished. I had boxes all over the room but I did have the bed pieces set up in the general area where it was supposed to be put together. I was also organized enough to have all the bolts and screws in a bag sitting next to the bed and the tools I needed to get it all put together.

“This shouldn’t take long. I might need you to hold the headboard steady while I put the pieces on.”

“I can handle that,” I said as I found a spot by the headboard and held onto it for him.

Mike used a box to balance the long side boards for the bed and made quick work of putting the frame together. He had the slats for the bottom of the bed attached quickly after that and was loading up my mattress all within thirty minutes.

I was positive that the girls and I would have spent hours trying to get that thing put together. Even though it was relatively easy, the three of us managed to make a mess of things rather quickly when we were all together.

“Do you have sheets? I can help you put them on,” he offered.

“Yep,” I grabbed my set of nice hotel quality sheets and threw one side of them over toward Mike. “I love these. They are so soft. Like staying at a hotel.”

“Are these hotel sheets? Did you steal these Miss Rivas?” He asked with a stern look on his face.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it stealing. I mentioned that I really liked the sheets that our hotel used and a set of them turned up in my office one morning. I didn’t question it,” I laughed. “Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.”

“They are really soft,” he rubbed his hands on them after we finished making the bed. “I bet you’ll sleep great tonight.”

I walked around the bed and stood next to Mike. We were close to each other. Closer than we should have been if we were planning to keep our relationship platonic.

“How are you feeling?” I asked him.

He laughed. “I think I’m supposed to ask you that.”

“Oh, I feel fantastic.”

“Yeah?” he asked as he pulled me in closer. “You sure you’re feeling okay?”

“Yep.”

His eyes gazed into mine as we stood there with our bodies pressed against one another. Being with Mike was calming to me. It was like home to me. Just having him there in my apartment made me more comfortable about all the unknown things coming ahead for me.

His hands rubbed up and down my arms and then we leaned in and kissed softly. He moved slowly and sensually as we kissed and touched each other, both of us climbing onto the bed and lying down as we continued to make out for a little bit.

Mike’s hands were soft and gently as he rubbed one of them on my stomach while we kissed. It was exciting having him there and I wanted all of him. I needed to have him.

He pulled my shirt up and over my head and then started kissing every inch of my stomach. He was gentle, yet firm with his kisses and even stopped to rest his ear on me and see if he could hear anything going on inside.

“Any grumbling in there?” I laughed.

“Nope, all quiet.”

Mike rolled me over and unhooked my bra before diving full face into my booming breasts. They had to be twice the size they had been before. I was so swollen and big that it made me more sensitive than I’d been before too, so as Mike pulled my nipple into his mouth I moaned out in pure pleasure at the sensation.

“Mmmm yes,” I said and arched my back to press my body into him even more.

“You’re so sexy,” he groaned and then took in the other breast.

Mike played with and sucked on my breasts for a while before finally turning his attention to licking me. And I was swollen down there too. My whole body had extra blood flow and I felt the pleasure right away when his tongue hit my naked center.

Quickly I felt the pleasure building like I’d never felt it before. Within minutes of his tongue touching me I was screaming and moaning and trying to catch my breath as a huge orgasm was building up.

“Come here,” I said as I pulled on his hair.

“Now?” he asked pausing for just a minute. “Right now? Where’s the condoms.”

“Yes, I want you inside me right now, fuck the condoms,” I urged and literally started pulling his head up toward me.

Mike hurried and pulled his pants off and then held himself over me. His body pressed slowly into mine and I closed my eyes and let the full feeling engulf me with excitement. Soon I found myself thrusting hard against his body wanting more and more from him. I couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t get the feeling that I was searching for and then Mike shifted his hips a little.

“There, how about that?” he asked as he moved slowly and rubbed his body against mine as he thrust inside of me.

“Yes,” I groaned.

It was perfection. His body was hitting my clit as he moved and I vibrated from inside with utter excitement. My hands held onto Mike and I used my legs to help me move against him as we made glorious love. We kissed sweet and softly as I finally released an intense orgasm which was followed shortly after by Mike having his own release.

Our night was perfection and I was more relaxed than I’d been in months as I cuddled up in his arms. He pulled the blankets up over us and kissed my forehead before the two of us drifted off to sleep.

***

For the next several weeks Mike and I were pretty inseparable. We both stayed at each other’s apartments from time to time but sometimes we did stay on our own. We went shopping together and texted all the time.

He was crazy busy with work and so was I but we both made an effort to see each other throughout the week. It certainly didn’t hurt that we lived in the same building. Sometimes Mike wouldn’t get done with work until nearly midnight, but he’d send a text and see if I needed him to do anything before he went to bed.

We hadn’t officially defined our relationship, but it was going good, whatever it was. For two and a half months we basically had a normal dating life, except most of our conversations were around my growing stomach and the babies that would soon be joining us.

Us. That was a word we had been using a lot lately. Not in the sense that Mike would be responsible for the babies at all. I was always careful not to expect anything like that. But he did talk about us all going on walks and exploring the city from their point of view. He wanted to be more involved than I had expected, but I knew we still had to have a real conversation about how things were going to look once the babies were here.

The last thing I wanted was more miscommunication between the two of us. But talking about the situation was really anxiety provoking and not something I wanted to bring up when things between the two of us were going so well.

The other thing that was happening a lot was our sex life. We were exploring all sorts of fun positions and having a blast in the bedroom. I was more sexually free with my large stomach than I’d ever felt with flat abs.

Mostly it was because of the way Mike looked at me. He lusted after me just like he did when we first met. My growing size only enhanced his desire for me and that was a huge turn on. He was instantly hard any time the suggestion of us making love came up. It didn’t take but the smallest of hints and he was all over me. I’d never had so many orgasms in my life. We were good together. The chemistry between us was off the charts and the more time I spent with Mike the more time I wanted to spend with him.

He was making this whole pregnancy less stressful for me. He made me feel excited about having twins and about the future that was ahead for me. Mike was careful not to suggest that he’d be the father to the babies though. Of course, he was the genetic father, but he was careful not to make statements about taking care of them or being there every day.

By the time March hit I was as big as a house, or at least I thought I was. We were making plans to meet up with his friends Nathan and Mary, the couple who had triplets. I was getting so excited to meet the babies someday soon. Fourteen more weeks would bring me to the ideal of 40-weeks pregnant, but Doctor Simon said if I made it to 36-weeks that would be fantastic. Many times women with twins just weren’t able to keep them in there for the whole 40-weeks.

I was utterly determined to take the best care of my unborn babies as possible. If that meant resting more, I was resting more. If that meant eating more green food, I was doing that. I was doing everything I could to make sure this pregnancy progressed as long as possible and my two sweet little ones came to me healthy.