“You’ve got that wrong, Liz.” I knew she was paranoid Mia would be like her and quickly grow tired of the musician way of life. “The reason you’ve got that wrong is because you assume Mia is like you.” Liz was one of the most pragmatic people I knew. She was a lawyer and she handled everything in life the way she handled her cases, and although Mia had a trait like that, Mia was much more spontaneous and artistic and adventurous than Liz. Plus Mia was a musician herself. “She’s like her dad too.”
She stared blankly at me for several moments until I finally saw the sparkle in her eye. It was a realization. She cupped my face and nodded. “You might be right, Will. I just want her to be happy.”
“We jammed for thirty minutes in the studio before we came here and it was the happiest I’ve ever seen her.”
“Okay, I’ll have to trust you.”
“Trust her too. Trust her judgment. She put me through a year of torturous hell, and she trampled on my heart at least fourteen times just to make sure we were right for each other.”
She laughed and I smiled—I knew that got to her. She was proud of her little girl for doing her homework. When I turned back to look at Mia, she was hugging Tyler. I had taken care of the angry mother of the bride and she was taking care of the piss-drunk and peeved best man. What a team. Mia’s mom kissed both of us and tried not to cry while Mia’s step-dad patted me a little too hard on the back, saying “Congratulations!” over and over again.
I found Jenny and Tyler talking quietly to each other in the corner, so I dragged Mia over to them.
“You guys okay?”
“I thought I was gonna give the speech?” Tyler slurred while sloppily hanging on Jenny’s shoulder.
“I told you Tyler, you can give us your speech now. It will be more personal that way,” Mia said, hoping to keep the drunk guy away from the microphone.
“I was just gonna say I love you guys.”
“We love you too,” Mia and I both replied
“We have some news,” Jenny said quietly.
No one said a word for several moments. I glanced at the champagne glass Jenny was holding.
“I’m drinking apple cider too,” she said.
“Oh my God, you’re pregnant?” Mia shouted.
“Yes,” she cried.
They were both blubbering messes.
“I know this one will stick, Jenny, I just know it.”
For everyone’s sake, I hoped Mia was right.
We left our wedding before most of the guests. We took a cab to the Ritz, where I insisted on carrying Mia through the main door into the lobby and then again into our suite. We spent the whole night naked and tangled up in each other. Sometime before sunrise, when the delicate blue light became visible through the window, Mia whispered to me, “Why do you think people do it?”
Based on what she and I had spent the last hours doing, my answer was easy. “Because it feels good.” I didn’t realize she was talking about something else.
“Why do you think people get married and have children is what I mean?”
“Because it feels good.” I pulled her naked little body toward me under the covers and threw my leg over her. “Doesn’t this feel good?”
“Yes, but we don’t have to be married to do this.”
“We’re married now, Mia, so I have no idea where this conversation is going, but to answer your question seriously, I think people get married because they want to share their lives with someone, because they want someone to experience life with.”
“What does that mean?”
I kissed her nose and tucked her into my chest. “It means the beauty and wonder that I see in you every day colors each page of my life and makes it more vibrant. You make my experiences more meaningful.”
She nuzzled her face into my neck and murmured, “You’re such a cheese ball, Will, but you’re going to be the best husband and dad.”
And then she sank down under the covers and delivered on her promise.
TRACK 9: Cigarettes and Baby Bottles
The next few months flew by, each week dictated by a new chapter in the pregnancy encyclopedia. The holidays were a blur of chaos in the studio and at the café. We took a few days off in December and traveled to Detroit and Ann Arbor to visit family. I learned very painfully that my fear of flying hadn’t improved. Naturally, I was even more of a maniac on the plane than usual. It wasn’t enough that I had to worry about myself plummeting to earth in a fiery ball of wreckage, now I had to worry about my wife and unborn child doing the same. Mia had little patience for my antics, I think because I refused to get help for it.
Mia and Jenny had become obsessed with all things baby. Jenny’s pregnancy did stick and they found out they were having a girl right at the sixteen-week mark. We chose not to find out even though everyone we knew, Jenny being the worst of them all, berated us about it. She complained that our little boy or girl would only ever be dressed in green and yellow and people wouldn’t know what to buy us. That was the one and only thing Mia wasn’t being a total control freak about, so we stuck to our plan to not find out.
Martha would come over every week and check on Mia and work with her on relaxation and breathing exercises to prepare for the natural labor. Jenny was on board with the natural thing too, so of course she and Mia dragged Tyler and me to the Bradley Birthing Method classes.
It was hysterical; we had to get in all kinds of weird poses with the girls while they mimicked being in labor. We would massage their backs while they were perched on all fours, moaning. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done is contain my laughter during those classes. Mia was the freakin’ teacher’s pet because she was taking it so seriously.