Come One, Come All to This Tragic Affair

“Will you please let me take you to the doctor?” Jaden will just not let this go. I have a little cough, a minor ailment for me, and she’s acting like I have pneumonia.
“I’m fine Jadey. I just need to sleep for a while and I’ll be fine.” I spit more mucus out into the sink, pretending it was foam from my toothpaste. Jaden was sitting in my bed, reading a magazine. She’d taken to braiding her hair at night. She said she looked like Ray hit by a tornado when she woke up after sharing a bed with me. I don’t know if she meant after sex or just sleeping, but I wasn’t gonna ask. It had this cute Catholic school girl aspect to it that I found pretty sexy.
Not that I would ever ask Jaden to put on a plaid mini-skirt. She’d probably hit me and call me a typical man. But she usually followed that up with, “but you’re my typical man, so I have to love you anyway.”
“Please Frankie?” She turned those big brown puppy-dog eyes of hers on me.
“I’m fine Jadey.” I kissed her cheek gently.
“If you get me sick then something could happen to the baby.” That worried me.
“Baby, I would never do anything that could hurt our child. But its just a little cough. It’ll probably be gone tomorrow.”
She studied me for a moment. “I’m taking you to the doctor tomorrow.” She said it in such a no nonsense voice that I didn’t dare argue.
Yet. Tomorrow morning I’d talk her out of it.
“Get some rest.” She rested her head against my chest.
“I love you Frankie.” She murmured, closing her eyes.
“I love you too.” I didn’t know if she’d heard it. She fell asleep so fast sometimes.
I woke up in the middle of the night, hearing the soft clicking of beads and Jaden’s whispering. If I listened carefully, I could hear her saying the rosary over me. She was sitting up, her wooden rosary in her hand and her eyes closed.
“You’re really worried aren’t you?” I said when she’d finished.
“I can’t lose another man I love.” Her voice sounded thick, like she was on the verge of crying.
“I’ll go to the doctor.” I promised. I couldn’t put her through the worry. Not after hearing from Charlie and from Jaden herself about what it had been like when Danny was getting worse.
--
It turned out I did just have a little cough, but the doctor gave me some antibiotics so I could get better and not get Jaden sick.
I had a little surprise for her, well, a big surprise if you think about it. I’d bought a house, one that was close enough that she didn’t have a long commute to the gallery but wasn’t on as busy a street as our apartment building was.
All I had to do was get her there. Everything was set up for us and I’d already started moving stuff out of my apartment.
“Just a little farther.” I promised, leading her down the busy sidewalk.
“You know how much I freaking hate surprises.” She was trying to sound upset but I could hear the excitement in her voice.
“You love them. And you’ll love this one.” We turned onto the side street that our house was on and I led her to the front door.
“Why are we at someone’s house?” She asked. She’d been to everyone’s house in my band, so she knew it wasn’t one of their houses.
“It’s not someone’s house. It’s our house.” I unlocked the door and held it open for her.
“You didn’t.” She gasped.
“I did.” I could barely keep myself from bouncing like a girl.
That is, until she burst into tears.
“I’m okay, happy tears.” She said when I looked horrified. “Pregnant woman in the house.”
“Do you like it?” I showed her around.
“I love it.” She jumped on me, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Thank you so much Frankie.”
“I’m glad. Now there’s just one last part of this surprise.” I loosened her grip so her feet were back on the floor before getting down on one knee. “Jaden Sofia Peretta, you are the one woman I’d ever think about spending the rest of my life with. Will you marry me?”
“Well what the fuck do you think?” She laughed, kissing me. “Of course I’ll marry you.” I slid the ring on her finger.
Everything is perfect.