"Would you believe me if I said I'm in love? Baby, I want you to want me." Amari slowly bobbed his head to Power Trip by J Cole and Miguel, rubbing Trinity's inner thigh as he drove.

He glanced over at her while unintentionally licking over his lips, seeing her asleep with her head leaned against the cold window. She was the first person he thought of when the beat of the song started a minute ago. He really couldn't believe that someone like him was in love.

Love was never something he went and searched for like most people did. He'd always felt like he was better off by himself because he knew how much baggage he came with and thought he was the only one that could deal with it all. He also couldn't stand to be around people for long because he would find himself feeling jealous of how normal they were.

He'd never had to compare himself to Trinity. She made him feel so normal all of the time, even the times where he wasn't on medication. She treated him like a regular human being and didn't make him self-conscious of his own abnormalities. She didn't even understand what that meant to him.

To go from feeling completely unworthy of love to not knowing if you'd ever be able to survive another day without it was a blessing and a curse. Trinity's love swallowed him whole to the point where it was actually dangerous; there was no limits to what he'd do if she ever tried to take it away from him. He needed it to live.

She made his world go round and didn't even realize it, and that was one of the main reasons why he bought her so many things. He felt like he wouldn't ever be able to reciprocate the way she made him feel mentally and emotionally, so he tried to do it with his money. It always made him feel good to see her so excited over her gifts.

Slowly, though, she was teaching him how to be emotionally available just like her. He wanted to be the shoulder she cried on, the stool she used to push herself up when she didn't feel strong enough, the one to lift the weight off of her shoulders when it felt like the world was falling apart around her—just like she did for him. He wanted to be just like her.

This was really his dream girl; his dream life. And now, they were expecting a child. He still hadn't processed that even though they were currently on their way to the women and children's center that was on the same lot as the hospital Trinity worked at. He was about to be a dad!

It was so coincidental how they literally found out that she was pregnant just days after bringing up the conversation about children for the first time in their relationship, and they'd been with each other for six months now. It was crazy how God worked in secret like that.

Amari couldn't lie like he wasn't afraid, though; afraid of failing his child and failing Trinity again. He was trying not to let his anxiety take reign and cause him to think about all of the bad things that could happen, wanting to focus more on all of the good that could come from becoming a parent. It was working so far. Trinity taught him that, too.

He hoped he brought his child peace and love instead of terror and fear the way that his parents did to him his entire life. He wanted to be nothing like them. That was his only option, honestly. He'd end his own life before he ever made a move to ruin his child's.

Thinking about it brought tears to his eyes while he went to bed last night. He prayed for hours, begging God to give him the guidance he needed to be a good dad, and hopefully, a good future husband to Trinity. She was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

"Wake up mama. We here." Amari leaned over the center console to kiss her face, turning her head in his direction.

"You would probably break a record if we kept track of how many times you kiss me a day." Her eyes fluttered open with a smile, only for him to kiss her again.

"Spectacular. Give me fourteen of 'em right now." He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth, and she pushed his head away with a laugh at the TikTok he referenced.

"You so annoying." She smiled, grabbing his hand to let him help her out of the car.

"Shut up. I got you something but I want a kiss for it." He smirked down at her, and she laughed again before standing on the tip of her toes to plant a big kiss right on his mouth.

"Ouuu. You love me so bad." She excitedly took the bag that held a foot long subway sandwich from him, and he wrapped his arm over her shoulders and carried her drink as they headed towards the building.

She skipped dinner last night because she had a stomachache, surprisingly passing up a plate of her favorite tacos. He decided to stop and get her a late lunch on the way here because it had been almost 24 hours since she last ate and he wasn't about to play this game with her now that she was pregnant.

After they checked in at the front desk and filled out the necessary paperwork, Trinity unwrapped one half of the sandwich and immediately bit into it, groaning in satisfaction. She loved that her man knew her order for every single restaurant that existed.

"And you got me chips? Oh my god. Is this love?" She asked while chewing her food, opening the bag of Miss Vickie's spicy dill pickle chips.

"Yes." He watched her as she ate, seeing that she was clearly enjoying her meal. He loved her.

"I'm gonna be so sad when I'm like four or five months and the cravings change to shit I don't like. Like that Panda Express that literally tore my stomach up the other day. Imagine not being able to eat Subway anymore. I'd die." She sighed as she thought about it, taking another bite from her sandwich.

"Oh well. You gon' have to eat whatever my shorty wanna eat. It ain't up to you no more."

"Please shut up before you piss me off." She held her finger up to him, and he laughed, shrugging his shoulders.

Trinity stacked a few chips between the sandwich and then bit into it, licking the sauce that dripped from her finger. She took one more bite and was done with the first half, and she used a napkin to clean her hands before grabbing her drink from Amari.

"I'm so obsessed with you man. Ain't no way I just sat here and watched you eat." He shook his head at himself, and she turned her head with a laugh, seeing that he was still staring.

"Yup. You love yo' babymama so bad." She reached for the other half of her sandwich just as her name was called out, making her smack her lips.

"You thought." He chuckled, taking the bag and the drink from her while she mushed his head to the side.

In the back, Trinity got her measurements took and had to give a urine sample before they were placed in a small room with just a bed and two chairs. Amari read all of the posters on the wall, just familiarizing himself with the space they'd be visiting for the next eight months or so.

"You so cute. Lookin' like a dad and stuff." She smiled at him reading a poster with the different symptoms of sicknesses within children.

"I'm excited ma. I ain't even scared no more.. I feel like we got this." He nodded as if he was assuring himself.

"We do baby. That's right." She leaned over with her hand in the air, and he smiled as he gave her a high five.

"Hello, hello, hellooo!" A warm voice entered through the door that was opened, greeting Trinity first.

"Hiii. I'm Trinity." She was surprised but more than happy to give her a hug instead of a handshake; she loved hugs.

"I'm Amelia! It's nice to meet another fellow coworker." She chuckled, and Trinity did the same as they let one another ago. "And are you dad?"

"Yeah. Amari. Nice to meet you." He stood up from the seat to shake her hand before sitting down again.

"Likewise! First things first, congratulations to you two on the little baby! You are definitely expecting." She carried a clipboard over to the ultrasound machine, pressing a few buttons on the computer.

"Thank you so much. You just as happy as me, girl." Trinity smiled, making Amelia laugh as she nodded in agreement. That was the exact reason she had this job; she loved the concept of pregnancy.

"As I should be! This is so exciting. Now, this is going to be a little cold. Let me know if it's at all uncomfortable." She applied a small amount of gel on Trinity's stomach that was exposed in her cropped shirt, beginning to move it around with the transducer.

Amari stood up from his seat as soon as a heartbeat began to slowly pump throughout the room, and an image popped up on the screen. He couldn't really make out anything but just the sound of the heartbeat brought tears to his eyes, confirming that the pregnancy was real.

"Oh, that's not right." Amelia held the transducer still, causing both of their faces to immediately frown up with concern.

"What?" Amari spoke first, standing at the side of the bed near Trinity.

"Um.. just—give me a second." She hesitated for a moment, typing onto the computer that was near the ultrasound machine. The next few moments felt like years.

"Ok, Trinity..on the intake paperwork, you wrote that you were possibly a few weeks along, yes?" She asked, and Trinity nodded her head.

"It could be less, I wouldn't know." Trinity told her.

"Sweetheart, it's much more. You are almost five months along." Amelia said to them both, and Trinity's eyes went so big that they almost popped out of her head.

"What? Nah. That ain't possible, she on depot. Check again." Clearly in denial, Amari gestured to the computers.

"I did. You are four months and 17 days pregnant with an estimated due date of October 11th, 2024." Amelia announced, the current day being May 23rd, 2024. That was around the corner!

"No I—we c—I can't be that far. I just threw up for the first time two days ago. Look at my stomach. I'm not four months of anything." Trinity gestured to her naturally semi-flat stomach. There was no way a four month old fetus was in there.

"You are having what's called a cryptic pregnancy, where the baby can go undetected for quite some time with no symptoms. Some women with cryptic pregnancies don't find out that they're carrying until they're already in labor. It's not common, but not very rare either. This is only my sixth time seeing it, though." She explained, pausing for a moment.

"A cryptic pregnancy puts you at a higher risk than most. We have missed three months of prenatal care which raises concern about the baby receiving the nutrition it needs, and that can result in premature birth or just a low birth weight. It is good that you trusted your gut and took a test, otherwise you might've found out while in labor."

"No, Amelia I—I've been drinking more than once, and I've smoked. I need a blood test and a quad test—as soon as I can get them." Worry filled Trinity's heart at the thought of birth defects, and Amari rested his arms on his head, clearly stressed.

"Ok, no worries. I'll put in a request right now. From what I can see though, the baby is growing fine. Just an ounce under the recommended gestational weight, so my worries are low as far as not getting enough nutrients. You are just carrying small. It's only cryptic because you didn't have any symptoms and found out late." She further explained, pointing the screen to show the fetus in a yolk sac.

"So the baby okay?" Amari asked.

"As far as I know, it's as healthy as can be. A quad blood test will see if there will be any defects or genetic disorders that we need to worry about, though. I can get that done for you before you leave today since you are eighteen weeks along."

"Would you like to know the gender?" Amelia looked at Trinity who was staring at her baby on the ultrasound screen with tears in her eyes.

"Yeah. That's fine." She sniffed, wiping her face with the sleeve of her shirt.

"It's a girl! As you can see there," Amelia pointed at the screen, moving the transducer lower on Trinity's belly to get a view of the genitalia.

"Oh shit. Amaria." Amari covered his mouth in shock, and Trinity's pout was replaced by a smile when he leaned over to hug her.

"Just know that Mommy loves you so much and we're so excited for y'all, Trin! I'm gonna pray so hard tonight. Stop all of that worrying baby." Faith spoke over the phone to Trinity, who was still trying to stop crying even though her two hour appointment ended an hour ago.

"Thank you mama. I love you so much."

"I love you more sweet girl. Call me tomorrow, ok?" They exchanged a few more words before the call ended, and Trinity tossed her phone on the nightstand, climbing underneath her covers without any clothes on.

Fresh out of the bathtub, Trinity hoped she could just sleep the rest of the day away even though it was barely four o'clock in the afternoon. Her feelings were so hurt about what could possibly happen to her baby because of the alcoholic beverages she had over the last few months. She was trying not to blame herself since she genuinely didn't know that she was pregnant, but it was hard.

She just hoped the baby was alright.

"You sleepy baby?" Amari climbed in the bed beside her, wrapping his arm around her torso since she laid on her stomach.

"No. I just don't wanna be awake right now." She mumbled with her eyes closed.

"We gon' be aight ma. You don't gotta be sad. Whether or not somethin' wrong, we gone love her either way. You can't be mad at yourself for somethin' you ain't even know about."

"Yeah. You right. I should be mad at you for always nutting in me, you asshole." Her slick and random remark made him laugh, and the sound of it caused a smile to replace her sad expression.

"You love that shit. Shut up." He flicked her bottom lip, and she chuckled, turning over to cuddle up to his side.

"I hate seeing you cry. Everything gon' be fine baby. She good, regardless." He lowered his head to kiss her cheek, making her smile grow.

"Such a good father already. She's going to love you."

"I hope so. I'm more scared than I was before—not 'cause of the test results but 'cause the due date damn near around the corner. Ion got as much time to prepare like I thought I did." He told her, pausing for a moment.

"We gotta get a bassinet, clothes and shoes, car seats, diapers and shit. I need a bigger car 'cause a car seat can't fit comfortably in my GT." He shook his head, referring to his two door 2022 Ford Mustang.

"Boy we can literally go out and do all of that tomorrow." She smacked her lips, making him laugh again.

"Nah man. We gotta build a whole nursery and shit. That's gon' take a couple weeks. And I gotta find somethin' to do—lay back on selling. I'll probably go ahead and finally invest in somethin' like you been saying." He said, causing her face to light up.

"Really? So my baby got that sacrifice out of you and I couldn't? Man, whatever." She waved him off, laughing when he kissed her face for forgiveness.

"I love my shorty already. I need to be at home 24/7 and I can't do that if I'm posted on the block." He chuckled.

"Well, Airbnb is always a good investment. I'll never stop preaching that. You get a loan and buy a house or just rent out a condo and you can profit thousands of dollars a month. Like, in the tens, twenties. That's good money. I would've been did it if I had the time."

"You got it now 'cause you ain't finna be working for a while. You going on leave soon as you start having contractions and stuff. And you ain't going back 'til my daughter graduate high school 'cause she need her mommy." He told her, speaking as if he wasn't giving her a choice.

"Boy please. You don't run nothing but that mouth." She laughed again.

"Yeah aight. Don't say I ain't tell you what was gon' happen. You gone be looking for your keys to go to work and I be done swallowed 'em." How serious he was made her laugh yet again, throwing her head back.

"Shut up! You are so annoying bro who says shit like that." She wiped her tears that fell from laughing so hard, and all he did was smile. He was happy to see that she wasn't crying anymore.

"I'm foreal though ma. I got you. You can leave whenever you want, I got the means to comfortably take care of you. You know that. So don't be overworking yourself man. Everybody know how you get wit' them 10 and 12 hours. Ain't no more of that, aight?" He rubbed her face before kissing her forehead, and Trinity rolled her eyes with a nod.

"I can finally be the sugar daddy I was born to be." He sighed in relief as he laid on his back, and Trinity burst out laughing once again.

Y'all really b clocking my tea like who do y'all b feeling like?????? 😒😒