A Christmas Baby

(There are many ways of getting a fencepost out of a guy's butt when it comes to finally making him propose marriage. A desperate girlfriend with two years invested in some happy bachelor, asks her sister for advice. Her sister says there could be more to a Christmas than just Santa coming down the chimney)

The majestic hills of Clarendon sloped gently over the well-watered plain, its flowering heather petals rolling against the soft, sensual breeze.

Candice sat perplexed under the large twisted oak tree, the same tree where Adam had first kissed her exactly two years earlier.

"You're thinking of him, I imagine," Barbara, her sister whispered.

"I think about him all the time," Candice said, her face etched with the strain of too many thoughts in too short a space of time. "In fact, sometimes I feel like he's all I damn well think about."

"It's only natural when you are so deeply in love. Did he remember that today was-"

"No," Candice answered, not waiting for her to finish. Instead she raised her chestnut brown eyes to gaze intently at a flock of red breasted robins, trail blazing across a bright blue sky.

Barbara thought to comment further, but then decided to leave well enough alone. Most guys had trouble remembering real anniversaries like wedding dates or birthdays. Remembering the date of the first day you met a girl and kissed her had great sentimental value, but most guys wouldn't think to write it down, much less remember it.

"I mean, it's not like I'm pissed he didn't call to mention it's been exactly two years since he first kissed me under this very tree."

"Well then, if it doesn't bother you, why do you think about it and why did you suggest we come out here to have a picnic? It doesn't faze you that he said he's going out with the guys to some ball game?"

"Had I reminded him of the day's significance, I'm sure he would have changed his plans and spent the day with me, but that's not what's got my heart in a knot."

"Fine, I'll bite. What is it that has your heart in a knot?"

"Well, it's the fact we've been dating and making love for two years, and well, that's all we're still doing, is dating and making love. I guess I didn't think about it so much before today, and then, this morning when I woke up, it just seemed to hit me like a meteor crashing down on my skull. We're still not married, and worse still, we're not even engaged. Two years to date a guy is a long time. I guess I've had so much fun and have had so many great times with Adam that I never gave it much thought before. We spend so much time together. If we're not having breakfast in bed, then we're having lunch, or if we're not having lunch then we're out to dinner and dancing. We just seem so enamored with each other. So why hasn't he gotten down on bended knee yet and offered me an engagement ring?"

"You're both still so young, so maybe he doesn't see the rush," Candice said reassuringly. "You're just twenty-one. And Adam is what, twenty-three? You both make such a great couple. I think we that are family, not to mention all your friends, automatically assume that you two will be married someday."

"Someday. Wow. Hardly etched in stone if he can't get the damn fence post out of his butt after two spectacular years of sexual bliss. What will it take to change him from a boyfriend into my husband, a silver bullet? I can't even technically call him a fiancé because he hasn't proposed to me yet."

"There is, of course, the race and religion card he may be thinking about."

"The what card?"

"You know, the fact that for one thing he is white and you are a black girl. Maybe he is caught up in that angle, you know two people from different cultures and racial backgrounds, not to mention the second thing, you know, that you are Baptist and he is Catholic. He is devout in his religion, isn't he? I'm sure I heard you say once he goes to church every Sunday, am I right? Do you even try to go with him?"

To his church? I don't see the point. Church for me is boring. I mean, I'm not an atheist or anything. I don't even go to mine, well, maybe once every few months or so. Why would I go to his church if I don't even go to mine?"

"Well, if he is a big believer in the man upstairs, then, well, you know-"

"No, I don't know, especially since I never try to get in his way or discourage him from attending his church whenever, however. And as for the racial thing. We have such great chemistry that I'm sure neither of us even notices our skin colors any more when we're together. And our friends and families are so used to seeing us together that they probably don't notice it anymore either. I really don't think your race and religion card theory holds any water. You kind of frustrate me when you come up with these goofy thoughts."

"Easy girl. Don't get yourself all worked up. I'm only trying to help. But, have you told him how you feel about his lack of commitment? You know, how you're getting all impatient and uptight?"

"Well, only in passing here and there, you know, how it would be nice if he and I took that long walk down a short aisle."

"And?"

"He simply says it's something to definitely think about and then he changes the subject. It's very non-committal, don't you think?"

Barbara paused. It was a conversation she dreaded getting into. Many men had trouble making a real commitment. Chances were certain that Adam was not cheating on her, but marriage was a very big step, and so many factors came into play.

"Perhaps Adam doesn't think you two are ready to tie the knot?" Barbara ventured, waiting for her sister to bite her head off.

"How could you possibly even think that?"

"That's just my point. I don't think it, but Adam might. Marriage shouldn't be entered into lightly."

"So now you're taking his side?"

"I'm not taking anybody's side. I'm just playing the devil's advocate here for a minute. You two have your whole lives ahead of you, and-"

"Damn it sis, you make it all sound so casual. I'm very much in love. My entire world revolves around the guy, and I get the sense that the longer I take to nail him down is the more he will take our relationship for granted. I feel like I need to be around him even more than the air I breathe. I know that sounds cliché, but for me it's very much real. I'd lose my mind if he ever broke it off with me, although I couldn't imagine him ever doing that. He seems just as in love with me as I am with him, but...but..."

"But what?"

"I don't know. I always get creeped out thinking how he might one day meet somebody new. Stranger things have happened. At least if he and I were already married it would be harder for him to cheat on me or run off with another woman."

"Really? Married men have affairs all the time. Don't forget also that marriage can sometimes suck all the fun and joy out of a relationship. Perhaps he thinks that things are going so remarkably well the way they are, that to rock the boat by getting married might upset the applecart so to speak."

"So what am I supposed to do? Never get married? I'm sure if you were in my place you wouldn't be giving yourself that same advice that you are giving to me now."

"Maybe. Who knows? I guess that old saying is true that unless you've walked a mile in a girl's shoes, don't try to judge her."

"Exactly."

"So I take it that this is the reason you invited me out on this little picnic today?"

"What reason might that be?"

"Don't be coy, sis. You want advice, or at least someone to be a sounding board for your ideas."

"What ideas might those be?"

"Are you saying you don't have any ideas on how to get Adam to propose to you?"

"Something like that. I mean it never dawned on me these whole two years that I would have to eventually beg the guy to want to marry me. As I said, I've been dropping hints, but he is avoiding them conveniently, and short of starting world war three, I don't see how I can be more blunt and direct about it. I'm not big on ultimatums."

"You mean like saying marry me or else?"

"Precisely. They are so easy to backfire. I would be scared to death of saying marry me or break it off, for fear he might choose to break it off. I mean, as I said, I can't really see that happening. But my heart is so invested in him that I could never ever take that chance."

"So you feel trapped, right?"

"Very much so, like a rat in a maze. Do you have any ideas?"

Barbara tried to ponder over her sister's predicament in earnest, then suddenly thought of a possible solution. It brought a brief smile to her face.

Candice picked up on her sister's momentary expression as though a light bulb had gone off in her head.

"You have an idea for me, sis?"

Barbara remained both coy and silent, mulling the new idea as it swirled around her brain like some foreign object in a toilet bowl. In the end, though, she flushed it away, deciding it was a dumb idea to begin with and that she should just remain absolutely silent.

"What is it? You thought of something, didn't you?"

"Never mind, it was a dumb idea, and might even backfire badly. Forget it." She then turned her face away, wanting to take a break from the intense scrutiny of a problem that seemed more complex than solvable. She said nothing more to Candice, and instead gazed at the golden waving tall grass as the winds made them swirl and bend. Spring weather in Southern California was so pleasant.

Candice gave her a minute or so to comment then tapped her playfully on the shoulder.

"A penny for your thoughts? You seem to have come up with an idea in that pretty little head of yours, but then drifted off on me there for a minute."

Barbara mulled over her sudden brainstorm. Alarm bells were going off like wild fires in her weary mind. A bad idea had swept across her brain, and now she sought to vanquish it forever without even so much as vocalizing it. She certainly didn't want to risk making her sister's relationship with the heartthrob Adam any worse.

"You thought of something or not?"

"Nothing really," Barbara shot back, seeking to quench her sister's curiosity. Candice was, after all, grasping at straws, flailing like some drunken woman going down for the third and final time.

"Go ahead, tell me."

"Forget it. It was a dumb idea."

Candice sighed and felt frustrated. The whole reason she had invited her sister on the damn picnic was to pick her brain for ideas. And now that there finally was some half-baked scheme floating around that keen little mind of hers, she sought to know exactly what Barbara had come up with.

"I'll be the judge of what's dumb or not. Just tell me what your idea was."

Barbara threw up her arms. "Fine, if you really want to know, I think that the reason Adam is not moving forward with a proposal is because he is completely comfortable with the arrangement the way it is now."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, if you want to light a fire under his indecisive butt, then you have to introduce something new into the relationship."

"Such as?"

"A baby."

"A what?"

"A baby. See. I told you it was a stupid thought."

Candice let the thought rattle around her head for a moment. No ideas were perfect, and all had their shares of pros and cons, although the idea of a sudden baby seemed to come across as being dangerous at best and catastrophic at worse. No telling how a baby might upset the apple cart either way.

"I wouldn't call it a stupid thought per se, just perhaps a little unorthodox, is all. It has possibilities. But then again, many possible pitfalls as well."

"Exactly what I meant. If you were to become unexpectedly pregnant, then Adam would have to rethink his game plan about resisting the idea of marriage, but then again there are no guarantees. It would all be too unpredictable and volatile to be certain it would actually work. Having a baby is a lifetime commitment. And I know you once told me you were against abortion. That being the case, it's not like you could turn things around and suddenly change your mind if you were to get into the family way and he backed away. You would be stuck."

"I hear you, although...although..."

"Although what?"

"Although I could lie, and say I was pregnant, even if it wasn't true. And Adam would have no way of knowing that. Then, after he took responsibility for his kid and proposed, I could always, later on, just say I miscarried, but by then the wedding will have been scheduled, paid for and the guests invited."

"I feel a migraine coming on. Do you have any idea of the devastating ways such a plan could backfire and get you neck deep into some real nasty shit?"

"Don't see how it can backfire."

"Really? And if Adam were to find out you lied? What then? And if you did tell him shortly before the wedding you had miscarried, what then? He might not care about the money spent on caterers and then he might cancel the wedding. It's not like he couldn't afford it. He's very well off financially, remember that."

"Are you saying then that I would have to get pregnant in the real sense? And have a damn belly showing for all the world to see? I'm not really ready to have a kid just yet. Maybe a few years after I've been married."

"I'm sorry I gave you this stupid idea in the first place. I should have simply bit my tongue and quit while I was ahead."

"I don't think your idea is stupid at all. But it is a little desperate, and like I said, I'm in no way shape or form wanting to get pregnant just yet. I'm twenty-one, so maybe when I'm twenty-five, but not now. But that doesn't prevent me, as I also said, from telling Adam a little fib. I could tell him I ran out of pills and that it wasn't planned. Meanwhile, I wouldn't really be pregnant, but he would only think I was. Then, I could hit him after we're married, or almost married, with the fake miscarriage news. At least then I'd have a husband."

"Maybe, maybe not. You're forgetting what I just said about him calling it of if you couldn't cough up that baby bump. And, if you weren't convincing enough in your acting, then you could wind up looking untruthful to him, and that could end your relationship with him for good. Guys aren't stupid."

"Why are you trying to discourage me from at least trying it? It is, after all, your idea."

"Don't remind me. Although I was talking about you actually being pregnant as opposed to merely lying about it. But, you say you don't want a baby yet, so what can I say?"

XXX

Candice eyed Adam cautiously. He was, as Barbara had eluded to, extremely smart. What if he might pick up on the fact she was lying to him? She debated viciously in her mind over whether to mention the imaginary baby or not.

"You seem preoccupied this evening," Adam said, sensually dragging the soapy sponge across her magnificent, large black breasts.

She sighed with joy at the touch of the sponge, then gasped as his hand roamed over her hips, thigh and bum cheeks. He was the master of foreplay, and after half an hour of wicked tease, had her climbing the walls waiting for his succulent white cock.

She reached for his erection but he backed away, taking her outstretched hand and leading her out of the shower's pounding warm water. He wanted to talk.

She began trembling as he led her onto the marble tiles.

"What's wrong?" she asked, acting innocent.

"You tell me," he said, trying to decipher the strange look on her face. She was obviously up to something. He just couldn't figure out what it was.

She tried to summon the courage to manufacture a baby out of thin air, but the words escaped her. She had already spent a full half hour arguing gently over why they hadn't yet set a date for a possible wedding he still hadn't agreed to. If she mentioned out of the blue that she was pregnant, he might wonder why she hadn't mentioned it earlier, during the discussion. Surely such a revelation would have aided her marriage argument.

"It's nothing, really," she managed, realizing that now wouldn't be the opportune time to unload such an unexpected and imaginary bombshell.

Her words put him at ease.

His hands then flowed over her silky smooth black skin like butter over a warm, freshly baked roll. His touch, as usual was riveting. He certainly had magical hands.

He reached for her violet painted lips with a warm skilful mouth, pressing his muscular white chest to her firm, turned on breasts.

A part of her wanted to revisit the marriage discussion they had bantered over before the shower, but she was far too horny now to stop and mince more words. It was time for paradise.

Her hands lowered themselves to his round, sexy bum cheeks and he took that as a signal to start bringing her multiple orgasms.

He lift her off her feet like a black rag Barbie doll, impaling her tall hour glass figure on his ten inch erection.

Then they began to kiss in earnest...

XXX

"So, did you tell him?"

Candice sighed and stared at her sister with distain and regret.

"I wanted to, I really did, but somewhere between my toes curling and my nipples stiffening I kind of got off track."

"You find him simply irresistible, don't you?"

"Well duh. You've seen Adam dozens of times. You know how dreamy and hunky he is with his clothes on. Just imagine how I must feel seeing him with his clothes off."

"I can well imagine. Still, there has got to be a way. Do you think he suspects you're up to something?"

"Maybe. He paused for a moment while lathering up my breasts. Somehow I must have been giving off vibes that I wanted to desperately tell him something. We had argued earlier over the whole marriage idea, and he got the sense right there and then that I was holding something back. Honestly Barbara, I'm beginning to wish you never brought up this dumb idea in the first place. There doesn't seem to ever be a good time to spit out the lie that I'm about to swell up like some black helium balloon."

"You're afraid he might figure out you're lying, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean it's not like he ever lets anything get by him. It's almost as if he's psychic or something. To make matters worse, sometimes he even senses what I'm going to say before I even say it."

"Yeah, some guys are like that. They can gaze into their lover's face and watch her eyes as she speaks, and they somehow know whether she is lying or not."

"A built in lie detector system! Tell me about it. He knows me like a damn book, and he also knows how I don't want a kid right now. He's going to wonder why I was so careless with my pills if that was the case. I just don't see how he's not going to be suspicious if I try and cry wolf about a bun in the oven."

"Unless-"

"Unless what?"

"Unless you really are pregnant?"

"Damn you girl, are you going to go down that path again?"

"Well, hear me out for a minute. If you think about it, if you were to bite and play fast and loose with not taking those pills, sooner or later one of his little fishies is going to strike pay dirt."

"And when they do, what? I get a prize for becoming a beached whale? I'm not even sure I could even ever get my hour glass figure back. You know how I struggle with every little calorie as it is."

"You know what they say, no pain no gain."

"Yeah, only I'll be the only one doing all the gaining. I can't imagine purposely having to put on thirty to forty pounds just to have a kid I don't want right now."

"But you will want a kid one day, no?"

"So?"

"So, just let that day be now, is all."

"Will you listen to yourself, Barbara? Just because you're my sister, you think you can talk me into doing something I don't really want to do."

"I agree it will be really awkward and a big sacrifice for you, but if you want to nail down Adam, that may be your only way."

"Whatever happened to you telling me you were sure he'd get around to popping the question sooner or later?"