Page 21 of Only a Gemini Will Do

“I mean, I don’t know. It’s not like we really know each other, but I can’t lie and say I don’t feel things for him.”

“Is it him or the D? And if you say the D, I’ma smack you. Hopefully it’ll snap you out of your dickmatized state,” Neesh said, drawing back her hand.

“Ugh. I swear I never wanna be that dick dizzy over a nigga ever again. I’ve got PTSD just looking at you. I’ll take the mediocre dick over the Grand Slam any day of the week. Mediocre dick keeps you humble. Grand Slam dick will have you waiting in a nigga’s bushes outside his house at three in the morning in the rain,” Bri mumbled, seemingly getting swallowed up by her own thoughts for a second.

Neesh cocked her head to the side. “That was oddly specific.”

Brit shrugged. “I speak from experience.”

“Shit, at this point, I’m about to sign you up forLove After Lockup,” Neesh suggested.

Brit smacked her lips. “How you gon’ do that when he on the run, dummy? He obviously doesn’t wanna go back there, hence the reason he’s probably becoming one with the animals in the Amazon Rainforest now.”

Neesh tossed up her hands. “Not you turning Sawyer’s baby daddy into Tarzan. But hey, I never claimed to be the smartest one in the group. That was supposed to be her,” she explained while aiming her pointer finger straight at me.

Brit twisted her neck toward me. “She’s right. Youweresupposed to be the smart one out of the trio.”

I sighed. I knew they’d have questions and strong feelings about my secret, but their reactions were the main reason I kept it to myself from the beginning. “Ugh. I know. Again, it’s not like we meant for any of this to happen, but I at least thought y’all would be supportive.”

“Just because we think you’re stupid as hell doesn’t mean we don’t support you. We would’ve stood ten toes down with you even if you said your baby daddy was a one-eyed ogre named Samuel,” Neesh explained.

“For real. You’re our girl, Sawyer. Ain’t nothing ever gonna change about that,” Brit added. “We’re excited about your pregnancy, and we want to celebrate it, but also . . . we wouldn’t be your true girls if we didn’t ask you what the fuck you’re gonna do.”

Neesh nodded in agreement. “Seriously, friend. Because adulthood is coming at you quick, bitch, and I need to know if we’re going on the run with my little niece or nephew or if we’re flying to Brazil for the baby’s first birthday. What’s the plan, girl? We know you’ve thought about it.”

I sighed. “I have, but I’ve been coming up short ever since I came back from Brazil. I don’t know what I expected him to say, but it wasn’t him asking me to give up everything I know and move out there. He threw me for a loop with that shit.”

“I bet it did,” Neesh agreed.

“I wanted him to know about the baby. He deserved to know, right?”

Brit spoke up. “Of course, he did. You did the right thing by telling him.”

I nodded, grateful for Brit’s reassurance. “Thanks. I wish I’d left on better terms. That way, it would feel more like a period at the end of a sentence instead of a question mark, y’ know?”

“If things were different, meaning he wasn’t a felon and wasn’t on the run, would you want to be with him? Could you see yourself raising a child with him?” Brit inquired.

“Oooh, that’s a good question,” Neesh added with a nod of approval.

My insides twisted at the thought of it. It wasn’t like the idea of us being a real family hadn’t crossed my mind. I didn’t want to be the only one up to my knees in shitty diapers and sleepless nights. I wanted a partner in parenthood. I wanted a companion, a copilot, something. I just didn’t know how to get it, given the cards we’d been dealt.

My lips parted to speak. “I would consider it.”

“Aht, aht! Try again. I don’t want your guarded answer. I want the real one,” Brit replied, folding her arms across her busty chest.

“Fine. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. I can’t live in the world of what ifs and if this then that. It is what it is between me and Kareem. All that matters is the baby girl we created,” I stated, revealing the gender.

Both of my friends immediately started to squeal at the news that they were going to be aunties to a little girl.

“Hot damn! Auntie Neesh is about to start looking up baby names that start with the letter K right the fuck now,” Neesh commented before pulling out her phone to Google baby names.

“You said this happened around the Fourth of July, right?So, that means baby girl will arrive around . . . springtime?” Brit estimated.

I confirmed with a nod. “Yeah, my OB says anywhere between March twenty-seventh to early April.”

“That’s right around spring break time. This means I need to be prepared to take off work for at least a week,” Kaneesha proposed.

Brit agreed. “Me too. Maybe we can alternate weeks so that she has coverage for longer.”