Moses
Yael was already at my apartment when I got back. I hadn’t called her. She’d let herself in like she had a tendency to do. I’d texted Murray to meet me at my place, and he showed up a few minutes later.
Collapsing on what Yael had once called the ugliest armchair ever made, I exhaled for what felt like a few hours. Murray took a seat on the opposite end of the couch where Yael was lounging with her legs slung over the arm.
“I need to talk to you about something kind of big,” I said, addressing them both.
“Oh shit.” Yael popped up. “Do I need a beer for this?”
I sighed, shoving my hand through my hair. “Honestly, a beer might be required for all of us.”
Yael brought three bottles back from the kitchen and handed them out. She sat on the coffee table directly in front of me, looking at me with narrowed eyes while I took a long pull of my drink.
“You okay, man?” Murray crossed his ankle over his knee, holding his bottle loose between two fingers.
“I’m having a baby.” There, Band-Aid off.
Yael’s face transformed into a smile, and she swatted my stomach. “Awww, just because you’re getting soft doesn’t mean you look pregnant. A couple crunches and you’ll be back in fighting shape.”
“First, that’s harsh.” I rubbed a hand over my stomach, making sure it was still gym-hard. “Second, untrue.”
“Wait—shit, are you saying you got a girl pregnant?” Murray asked.
Yael let out a laugh. “What? No.” She looked at me. “Alex isn’t right, is he?”
“He just said he’s having a baby. I’m not sure how that can be misinterpreted,” Murray replied.
“The answer is yes, I got a girl pregnant. Michaela. Do you remember her? She managed our Asia tour a couple years ago.” I took out my phone to show them a picture of her from Instagram, but got distracted when I saw I had a text from her.
“Yeah, of course I remember her. Didn’t know you were together,” Murray said.
“It’s sorta complicated,” I said absently, opening the text.
“You’re not kidding, right? Why is my face so hot?” Yael rolled her bottle across her forehead.
Michaela:I thought you might like to see this. Turn the sound on. This was 12 weeks, so the baby’s bigger now. The size of a lemon, if you can believe it. Anyway, my sister-in-law took this video at my appointment. The flicker in the middle is the heart. Make sure to turn your sound on. The doctor laughed at me because I expressed shock that our fetus already had arms and legs. Okay, I’ll leave you alone now.
“She sent me a video of the ultrasound,” I said, more to myself.
“Can I see?” Murray crossed the room and knelt down beside my chair to look over my shoulder, while Yael moved to my other side, practically sticking her head in front of my face. I palmed her forehead, shoving her back, the same way I’d done since we were little kids. Fuck, I felt like a kid, and here I was, having one.
I pressed play, turning the volume all the way up.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
“Is that a heartbeat?” Yael’s voice sounded far away.
Something came over me, like a primal instinct leftover from when our ancestors’ knuckles dragged the ground. Whatever it was, an alarm started sounding in my skull, telling me this was my baby, and it was my duty to provide anything—everything. To protect this little life with my own.
Murray pointed at the screen. “Holy shit, are those legs?”
“Of course they are,” Yael admonished.
Two arms, two legs, a beating heart. This was my kid.
The video panned from the screen to Michaela lying on a doctor’s bed. It zoomed in on her face as she watched the screen, her lips parted in awe. Then, she looked directly at the camera, and the smile that spread across her face cracked my chest in two.
“Awww, there’s your baby mama,” Murray said. “Impending motherhood is doing Michaela good. She’s got the glowy thing happening.”