Love Don't Cost a Thing (12 page)

“Mm, mm. Goddamn, babe. Oh yes, go faster, hit it harder! Ooh, ooh, yes!” Monica began to shake and rock against Colin’s shaft.

“Moe, you’re making me come. I love hearing you moan like that. Keep shaking your ass against my cock.”

“Ah, ah sh… shit yeah!”

He held onto her hips tight until she couldn’t move while jolted hard with each release he emitted into her channel.

They both slid down to the floor and laid there feeling paralyzed from pleasure. Colin faced Monica.

“I want to marry you now and I want a family.”

“Babe…”

He held his finger up to her mouth. “Sh… don’t say a word yet. I just want you to think about it. I don’t want to wait any longer. You’re my match. Tell me what I need to do to get you to say yes right now.”

“I’ve been trying to tell you for a while, Colin.” Monica held his cheeks as she gazed into his eyes. “I want the same thing, but it seems as if you don’t hear me.”

He held onto her hands while she continued to hold his face. “OK, tell me again. I’m listening now.”

Before she could answer him the bell rung. They both jumped up and ran to the bathroom. Monica’s curls had fallen and were out of place. Their sweating had caused her makeup to run. She stopped and stood in the middle of the bathroom with nothing on.

“Colin, sweetie, we’re not going to make it to the restaurant. Just cancel the reservation.”

“No, we can, I can get us there.”

“Babe, we still have to get dress and look at my hair.”

“We can celebrate here then. Besides, Neil and Bernice are late too. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had the same idea we had. I’m so glad they are working things out.”

Monica’s countenance picked up. “OK, that’ll be fun, the four of us here. So you think they’re going to be OK?”

“She has done something to him. He has changed a lot. I look at him sometimes and wonder what’s going on with him.”

“Really? Wow!”

“Then he turns to me and tells me how she did this or she did that. But I guess when you love someone you will do whatever it takes to keep them and to change for the better.”

“Yes! That’s what I mean. So I guess you do get it.”

“Yeah, I see it in Neil.”

Monica looked a little puzzled at his last comment. “Huh?”

“Look, you get cleaned up and put something not to dressy on since we’re staying in, and I’ll throw my robe on, and run down to tell Neil and Bernice of the change of plans.”

“Hurry, I hope they won’t be upset about it.”

****

Everyone moved to the living room with wine glasses in their hands, except for Monica. She had a glass of Sparkling Apple and White Grape cider. Colin turned on the gas fireplace.

“Aw, nice, Colin. I love fireplaces. I think they add a sense of elegance to any room.”

Monica agreed. “Yeah, I think so too. There’s even one in the Master bedroom.”

“Wow, that’s really awesome, especially for romantic nights. Is that why your hair is messed up, Moe?” Bernice added laughingly.

“Alright, Bernie, mind your business. We know that’s why you and Neil were late getting here in the first place. Ha, girl don’t go there.”

Neil cut in. “Bernice, don’t lie. We’re all grown in here.”

Bernice burst into a laugh, “I wasn’t going to lie, babe. Yes, he was tearing down walls and I said the hell with Colin and Moe. Hm, I’m sure they understand.”

Colin sat his drink down and started flexing his muscle. “Neil, bud, oh yeah. We understand very well.”

Monica couldn’t stop laughing at Colin. “Shut up, babe. You all are a bunch of nasty bastards. You all should be a shamed of yourselves.”

Bernice put her glass down and started clapping her hands. “Time for the gifts, gifts, gifts. Open ours first to the both of you.”

Neil retrieved the gift from behind the sofa. “Here you go, Moe. You can do the honors for you and Colin.”

“Aw, you guys, we didn’t know you had a gift for us.”

Neil replied, “Well, when you two took a long time coming to the door, we knew what was up. So I took the liberty, with your permission, Colin, to let ourselves in and that’s when we hid the gift.”

“Babe, don’t we have such good friends?”

“Alright, Moe, you don’t have to kiss up anymore. You already have the gift in your hand.”

“Bern, you know what? You’re pretty special.”

Bernice and Monica kept on teasing each other.

“Moe, I’m not going to keep having you chop my name up. It’s Bernice. I was named after the famous writer, Bernice Morgan. So respect the name, Moe.”

Monica almost dropped the gift from laughing so hard. “Who the hell is that,
Bernice
? Do you even know?”

“Shut the hell up, Moe. No, I don’t know who that is, but that’s what my mother used to tell me. I guess she wanted me to feel special when I was a little girl. Come on, shit, open the present.”

Colin took the present to open it so Monica could get herself together. Colin pulled out a large, multicolored vase of pinks, purples, and blues, made in India.

“No, all jokes aside, I’m sorry, Bernice.” Monica turned and noticed the vase. “Ooh, look, beautiful! I love it. I have plans for it. It will become very useful. You’ll see.”

“Now, for the gift of the year. Here, sweetie, here’s my gift to you. I hope you love it.”

“I’m sure I will.”

Everyone watched as he opened his gift. It didn’t take long because it was a small, flat eight by eight box.

“I wonder what it is?” Colin mumbled.

As he looked inside the box, his eyes widened and was accompanied by a huge smile on his face. He started running and jumping through the house with the box in his hand.

“Ah shit, damn, yes! Yes! Yes!” Colin yelled at the top of his lungs and grabbed hold of his manhood. “Yes, I’m the man!”

Neil and Bernice stood up and tried to calm Colin down. “Come on, Colin, bud, what is it? Share it with us.”

“OK, OK, let me recollect myself for a minute.” Colin leaned backward with his face to the ceiling, covered by his forearm. He took a small sterling silver frame out of the box. It was an announcement with a doctors’ signature and hospital stamp on it. It had a sterling silver ring with a black onyx crown with diamonds that spelled out
DAD
attached to it with a black satin ribbon.

“Let me read it to you. It says,
Here Ye, Here Ye! This is a said statement to announce that Colin Bradford is the Father To Be of Baby Bradford, who will be making his arrival in about thirty-six weeks. Congratulations, Stephanie M. Sutton, Ph.D., M.D. & Denver Health.”

Colin put the ring on. It was a perfect fit. He formed his hand into a fist to display it to everyone. “How does it look, Neil?”

Neil walked over and extended his fist to tap Colin’s to congratulate him.

“You look like a king, my good man!”

“Congratulations you two! I’m so happy for you. And Miss Lady, all that talking we did, you didn’t even give me a clue. But then again you were a little whinny and that’s not you. I should’ve known.”

Monica could barely contain herself. Her face was full of smiles and redness. Colin walked over to her. “Aw, babe, this is the most wonderful gift you could ever give me.”

“Well, we shouldn’t be too surprised because you’ve been very frisky, sir.”

“And to think I was just mentioning to you about us having a family, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.”

“Yes, you were! I thought you must have found out before I could tell you.”

“No, I didn’t have a clue, that’s the funny part.”

She chuckle while holding her hands out and closing her eyes. “I’m almost afraid to ask, babe, but where’s my gift?”

Monica heard whispering, “What’s going on? Is this part of my surprise?”

Bernice interrupted. “Colin, you sure you want to give Moe her gift now? Maybe you can give it to her later.”

Monica opened her eyes. “No, why do I have to wait until later, Colin?”

“You don’t, babe. I just have to go out into the garage to get it. You can go with me if you want.”

Colin reached for Monica’s hand, but she noticed Bernice making strange faces toward Neil. Neil jumped to his feet and headed in Monica’s direction. Monica pulled back for a second. Neil and Bernice looked nervous.

“Colin Bradford, did you do what you promised you wouldn’t do? Did you buy something totally absurd, over-the-top expensive for me?”

“Babe, wait, it’s something you’re going to need though. Just come look.”

Monica swiftly walked past Colin and Neil as she flicked the garage light on. She stood there quiet and still. She could hear everyone in the background.

“I told you she would love it.”

“Colin, dude, she’s not saying anything.”

“Both of you are idiots, neither one of you have an inkling of what’s going on. She’s pissed. She doesn’t like it and she’s quiet because of her condition. But, Colin, call me if you need to talk. Come on, Neil, it’s time to go.”

She spun around on her heel. “Wait, Bernice, please don’t leave yet. I need to talk to Colin for a minute. Can you wait for me?”

“Sure, Moe. I’ll be in the sitting room.”

Monica tried to clear her throat to prevent it from cracking. She was determined not to cry so she blinked her lids to stop the flow. “Thanks. Colin, can you please meet me in the bedroom upstairs.”

“Moe, you don’t like the gift? I can return it. You don’t have to keep it.”

She didn’t say a word, just walked upstairs. They entered the bedroom and closed the door behind them.

Colin’s voice got a little stern. “I’m not a child, Monica London! I’m a man and we need to talk this out like grown adults. You don’t have to keep ignoring me. I was trying to do something nice for you, celebrating our anniversary. Like I said, if you don’t like it I can return it.”

She took a deep breath to try to stay calm. Her hormones felt like a roller coaster, and she noticed that they got more intense when she allowed herself to get upset.

“How did I treat you like a child, Colin?”

“By ignoring me when I was asking you questions.”

“Colin, I was giving you the utmost respect because if I had opened my mouth with my body feeling more out of whack by the second, there wouldn’t have been any respect.”

“You don’t like the gift?”

“What happened to the promises? You said no more overly expensive gifts. You just don’t get it. I keep saying you can’t buy me, my love, or our relationship.”

“Why do you keep saying that? That I buy things to express my love?”

“No Colin, those things are just empty materials. If you didn’t have those things how would you express your love then? I don’t need those things, I need you to love me.”

“It’s something you’ll need anyway.”

Monica grabbed her bag and started shoving her things into it. Colin took her bag from her and dumped everything out of it.

“Don’t even try it. You bought it before you knew about the baby. So don’t try to fix this with the baby. And lately all you’ve been doing is returning gifts. When is the light bulb going to go off?”

“I’m not letting you leave like this. It’s just a gift, Moe!”

“No, you can’t stop me! And it’s an overpriced, excessive Porsche, Colin. Why do I need that? Did I ask for that? At what time did you hear me say, ‘oh I sure would like to have a four door covetable Porsche.’?”

His jaw line tightened again. He constricted his fist in frustration at his side.

“I’m asking you! Don’t do this, Moe, don’t leave and take my baby. You just gave me the best news of my life. Stay so we can work this out.”

Colin tried to pull her toward him, but instead of complying she resisted.

“No, I have to go. I can’t take it anymore.”

“Moe, I love you, please, just stay until tomorrow. This can’t be good for the baby.”

“No! And I’m beginning to believe you don’t know me either, Colin. You don’t listen at all to me.”

He begin to get aggravated and hit the wall with his fist.

“Stop saying no!” he yelled through gritted teeth.

Monica flinched. “Is this something else I need to worry about?”

Colin grabbed and hugged her, holding on tight. “No, no, never. I’d never hurt you or my baby. Moe, you know me. I’ll do whatever you say. I’m listening now. Come on let’s talk now!”

Moe looked up at Colin.

“I know you would never hurt me or the baby, but I can’t be with you until we can figure out what this is.”

“Moe…” He touched her chin to direct her to look into his eyes, while guiding her hand to caress the side of his face. “We can do whatever you want.”

“Not now, Colin. And why exactly do you feel you have to keep buying me things? Why can’t you understand what I’m saying to you? Love don’t cost a thing, Colin. You don’t have to always spend money to express yourself or your love, but you don’t get that.”

Monica looked at her engagement ring and went to remove it, but Colin stopped her by locking his hand around hers.

“Don’t…” He took a deep breath before finishing. “Bernice told me you wouldn’t like the Porsche. We can take some time apart, but don’t take my ring off.”

“No, I think I should until we’re ready to make this commitment work. I don’t want a long, drawn out engagement. Do what you need to make us a family, if you really love me and want us to be one.”

“I’m already losing out on the baby, watching it grow inside of you, and being there to share the experience of your pregnancy. I hope I can be there for the birth. I don’t want to lose you too.”

She pulled away, took off her ring to place it on the dresser, and walked toward the door. “I think we need time to figure out what’s going on with us.”

Colin went silent. A straight line formed across his mouth and his eyes narrowed as he watched her turn the knob. She noticed that he never once put down the present with the announcement frame. He was still holding onto it. His jaw drawn tight. Monica could see the pain in his eyes, but her frustrations were even stronger.

“I will talk to you later, Colin. I will ask Neil or Bernice to pick my car up in the morning.”

Colin didn’t say a word and Monica walked out the house with Bernice and Neil.

Monica put in for some volunteer service time on some of the special projects to get away from the possibility of running into Colin. She was so furious with their relationship, the last thing she wanted was to interact with him. Being pregnant with out-of-control hormones didn’t help matters either. Her vulnerability made her long for and miss Colin when she least expected. Monica knew she had to stay busy.