Remote Miscommunications

Blake sat silently next to her for more than a minute as he contemplated her explanation. Again, he hadn't caught her in a single lie yet, and the details of her explanation would be something that he could obtain proof of by asking her to see the report that she had presented on the project. That wouldn't be necessary, he decided.

"I want you to get tested for STDs," Blake calmly told her.

"Go to hell," Sarah replied. "I'll get one when you get one."

Blake's broad smile confused Sarah. He savored the expression on her face for a few seconds before continuing, "Sarah, it is your response to that single request that convinces me more than anything else that everything you have explained to me about your activities with Norm Washington were as innocent as you described them. Had you capitulated and acquiesced to my request, I would have known that you doubted your convictions about the nature of the time you spent with him. Agreeing to be tested, even if you had never cheated on me, would have told me that you had lost confidence in us, and me."

Crawling onto his lap so that her face was only inches from his, Sarah said, "Sweetheart, I have spent the last three hours trying to put myself in your shoes. I know that if you did something to give other people even the slightest suspicion that you were having an affair, I would be pissed. I would trust you and believe that there was an innocent explanation, but I would still be angry with you for putting both of us in a position of having to defend the sanctity of our marriage to others. I realize now that this is exactly what I have done, and I am so very sorry."

Leaning forward to place her face against Blake's chest, Sarah was ecstatic when she felt his arm folding around her, pulling their bodies closer together. Blake took her sigh of contentment as a sign that it was his turn to speak.

"Can I tell you how I have spent the last three hours?"

Sarah simply nodded her head against his chest.

Blake continued, "I spent the first hour or so recalling everything that you explained about the project that you and Norm Washington were assigned. I understand how your enthusiasm over not just the assigned project but also proving the viability for employees to work from home might have blinded you to the way that others could potentially view your actions. I also have to believe that your confidence in my trust and love for you would have contributed to your lack of concern."

Without moving her head from his chest, Sarah said, "Blake, I would never take your love for me for granted. God, I treasure and cherish your love as the most important thing in my life."

"Sarah, I didn't say that you took my love for granted. It's more like you felt so secure in my love that you believed everyone else would view it the same way. That's not a bad thing, it just may not be realistic. Look, since you haven't mentioned any comments by your coworkers about your activities with Norm, maybe none of them got the wrong idea. I just want you to know that I will support you and stand with you to prove anyone's misconceptions about our marriage wrong."

"Thank you. I hope it doesn't become necessary, but I love what you are offering. So, how did you spend the rest of your time between when you left Maggiano's and when you got home?"

"Talking to Ryan Donovan," Blake replied with a smile.

Ryan Donovan was one of the senior partners in the consulting firm that Blake worked for. He had been the one to not only hire Blake right after he graduated from Vanderbilt University, but he had also been his mentor and biggest advocate for all of Blake's professional career. Ryan had made no secret of his desire for Blake to become a partner in the firm by the time he was thirty. That was two years away.

"And?" Sarah asked.

"We discussed a lot of things," Blake explained. "The long and short of it is that he agrees with me that the time is right."

Sarah finally raised her head off of Blake's chest and looked him directly in the eyes. "Right for what?" she asked.

"For two things. First, the time is right for me to be offered a partnership in the firm. He was going to spring it on me Monday, but I sort of drug it out of him sooner than he had planned."

Sarah's elation was obvious as she kissed Blake's face all over and said, "That's wonderful! What's the other thing?"

"I convinced Ryan that we should eat what we cook."

The look of elation quickly morphed into one of confusion. Blake grinned at her and said, "We promote our services as being the best in the consulting industry at identifying and then helping organizations to improve their operations. I convinced Ryan that we should lead by example and work at improving the processes that we employ ourselves. He agreed that having me travel to client sites for the analysis of their operations and then to go back for the presentation of our recommendations was a waste of my skills and experience. We're going to be hiring some new blood out of a few MBA programs and train them to do the leg work. I will be able to remain here, reviewing their analysis and working with them to develop our strategies for presentation to the clients. My need to travel out of town will be reduced by more than seventy-five percent."

Sliding Sarah off of his lap so that he could stand, Blake then took her hands and helped her to stand in front of him. Leaning down to place a chaste kiss on her lips, he said, "You see, I agree with you. I also think that we should move our plans to have children up."

Sarah squealed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped up so that she could do the same with her legs around his waist. "Sweetheart, you truly are a 'keeper'. Now, I think that it's time for me to report for impregnation duty!"

~~~

Mr. and Mrs. Lee approached the viewing window at the hospital nursery and stood beside the middle-aged African American couple smiling down on the baby boy through the glass. They could tell it was a boy by the blue blanket, but if that wasn't enough, the sign at the foot of the bassinet read "Baby Boy Washington".

"He's a cutie," Mrs. Lee said to the couple. "Your grandson?"

"He is," replied the female member of the couple, apparently Mrs. Washington. "We feel so blessed. Do you have someone in here to visit with?"

Pointing to two bassinets so close together that they were practically touching on the sides, Mrs. Lee said, "Our daughter just had twins. One boy and one girl."

"Congratulations," both Mr. and Mrs. Washington said in unison. "They are beautiful babies."

Mrs. Lee said, "Thanks, and congratulations to you both as well. Was the mother white?"

Mrs. Washington turned and stared at the Lees, attempting to gauge the motivation behind the question. Based on the fact that this couple was claiming the two twins, who were also biracial as their grandchildren, she accepted the question as simple curiosity.

"Yes, our middle son is engaged to the baby's mother, a nice young girl that works at the same company as him. They plan to get married in June after the divorce from her first husband is final."

Mr. Washington checked his watch and said, "Well, they should be done in her room by now, so we ought to go visit with the mother before we leave. Again, congratulations."

"Our daughter is white," Mrs. Lee offered unsolicited before the other couple turned and walked up the hallway towards the patient rooms.

The Lees stood watching their twin grandchildren sleeping, trying to convince each other about which features on each child could be attributed to their daughter. The blue, almost silvery eye color was an easy determination, but there were also the tell-tale signs of the kinky, curly hair inherent in the race of the father.

The nurses working inside the nursery glanced up at the visitors occasionally but otherwise ignored them as they went about their task of caring for the eleven infants currently in the nursery.

As she checked the vital signs on Baby Boy Washington, the nurse commented to her partner, "Do you think that anyone even takes notice of biracial babies anymore?"

Her partner replied, "I'm sure that some people still take offense with people of different races having children together, but I think that it is becoming less common, especially around a city such as Atlanta where interracial relationships are so frequent."

"True," her partner agreed. "Then there is the public acceptance of people such as Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry, and Derek Jeter. All of them, plus other prominent biracial people have to have influenced society's acceptance significantly. I mean, look at our situation right here. Out of eleven babies born in the last two days, five of them are biracial."

Looking around the nursery, her partner nodded her head and said, "Well, if these twins grow up to be as cute as they are right now, they'll have the world on a string. Have you seen their mother?"

"I have, and she is beautiful, without question. Have you seen their father?"

"No, I haven't," she said, and then nodded toward the viewing window, "but maybe that's him?"

Her partner looked up and saw a tall, strikingly handsome black man standing beside the middle-aged couple at the window, smiling down at the twins with obvious adoration and love in his eyes.

Mrs. Lee sensed the presence of the newcomer and looked up at him in surprise. "I thought that you were going to wait until this evening to visit with Sarah so that her father and I could visit with her together."

The hospital only allowed two visitors at a time into the patient's room, and her parents had hoped to spend their time with their daughter together.

The man smiled down at Mrs. Lee and said, "You're good to go. I just wanted to check on the rug rats here before heading down to administration to complete the birth certificates."

"Did you and Sarah finally decide on names?" asked Mr. Lee.

"Something other than 'Kid1' and 'Kid 2", teased Mrs. Lee.

"Or 'Pete' and 'Repeat'," chuckled Mr. Lee.

The man chuckled along with Sarah's parents and said, "Sarah and I have decided on 'Samuel' and 'Samantha'."

Mrs. Lee gasped and said, "They'll both be 'Sams', or 'Sammys'. Won't that get confusing?"

The man winked and said, "We could spell their names differently if that would help you tell the two apart."

"Just don't nickname one of them 'Sambo'," teased Mr. Lee.

His wife punched him in the arm before asking, "What about their middle names? That could be a way to differentiate them?"

Blake shook his head and grinned even bigger. "I don't think that will work. They both will have the same middle name, 'Lee'. Samuel Lee and Samantha Lee Chevalier."

Mr. Lee embraced his son-in-law and said, "My boy, I told Sarah the first time that she brought you to meet us that you were a 'keeper'."