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“Keep pushing. You’re almost there,” the doctor instructs.
Jay and I hold Mae’s legs as she gives it all she’s got.
“Motherfucking bullshit in a candy wrapper.”
I look at Jay, who just shrugs their shoulders.
Mae’s head rolls from side to side. “I wanna go home.” She jerks me down again. “Take me home.”
“Uh—”
“Now, Manny. Fucking now.”
Panic sets in my chest because I know I can’t give her what she wants. Indisposed or not, I would not put it past Mae to rip my balls off. Adjusting myself, my feet shift and I glimpse at the doctor. “Help.” My plea is weak.
“You can’t go home, Mae. One more big push,” Doctor Haily says, unaffected by the monster possessing my wife’s body. “Come on, you got this.”
“Baby, we gotta push,” I soothe, rubbing her leg where I hold on for dear life.
This was the wrong thing to say.
“We aren’t doing anything! I am!” she wails. “All you had to do was come. I have to rip through my vagina opening.”
She has a point.
“Mija, just one more push and you can have alcohol.” The doctor raises her eyebrow at Jay. “After you’re done breastfeeding,” they amend.
Queeny bears down and gives it all she’s got. “Graaaaaah. Gah!”
The only sounds in the room are Mae’s labored breaths, monitor beeping, and nurses scrambling. My lungs seize up until … a baby’s cry, sweet and sharp, falls over the space like a million resplendent stars. Ethereal and majestic.
Mae’s sobs turn into overjoyed laughs.
“You did so good, baby. So good.” Tears fall fat and furious out of my eyes. I don’t know that I’ve felt this much love. I shift on my feet, anxiously waiting for the medical team to check the baby’s—my baby’s—vitals.
It feels like an eternity before the doctor approaches with a broad smile. “Congratulations, it’s a boy.” Doctor Haily hands the tiny bundle in my arms.
The moment I lay eyes on him, something happens in my chest that I can’t quite describe. The love I have in my heart grows too immense. It’s overwhelming and awe-inspiring. Like I’m seeing the glory of the divine for the first time. I don’t remember my life before this minute. I only know how much I feel. I’m going to love and protect this child for the rest of my life.
I place the baby on Mae’s chest and wrap my arms around them both.
Mae is bawling, checking over every inch of our son. Once she’s satisfied that he’s got all his fingers and toes, she smooths her hand over his tiny head. “He is staring at you, Daddy.”
He is. I can’t take my eyes off of him either.
Jay takes our picture, and Mae gives her best friend a look that would kill a ghost.
“What? You’re going to want this picture, and I want to commemorate the day you shit the bed.”
Now that the intense pain is over, Queeny finds her laugh.
“Do you have a name?” Doctor Haily asks.
Mae and I look at each other because it’s something we couldn’t agree on. She wanted Remington, but I told her how I got wedgies until I was a sophomore in high school. I wanted Lukas, after my grandfather. But ultimately, she did the work, so it’s up to her.
My wife looks at me with a beaming grin. God, she’s beautiful. “Lukas Remington Keller.”
“Woo hoo, Lukey!” Jayden hoots.
