Bachelor Mother

Do it.

Melanie Randell twirled the delicate wineglass in her hands. She’d thought some Pinot Noir would give her courage, but she’d been wrong.

Bubba won’t laugh at you. Just explain the situation to him.

But this was so personal.

She sighed and set her glass down. How had she managed to get herself into this mess? It was a simple quirk of fate, a trick played by Mother Nature. Here she’d thought she had all the time in the world, only to have the proverbial rug pulled right out from underneath her.

So ask him, dodo. The worst thing he can do is tell you to forget it.

Melanie got up off the couch in her living room and walked over to the sliding glass door leading to her patio and redwood deck. Sliding the glass door open, she headed to the edge of the deck and leaned on the railing. Glancing over at Bubba’s house next door, she smiled.

Soft rock music escaped from an open window. There were lights on low in Bubba’s living room. As Melanie listened, she heard soft, throaty feminine laughter.

She could picture Bubba with his latest conquest. She’d be the type who filled out a brief bikini to perfection. Just as Bubba epitomized the all-American surfer, the women he went out with looked like Baywatch babes. She’d always teased him about the succession of Gidgets in his life and he took her ribbing with good-natured tolerance. Nothing ruffled Bubba.

What you’re going to ask him to do just might.

Another breathy giggle floated across the cool evening air. June in Southern California could be uncomfortably warm. But as both their houses were less than six blocks from the beach in Santa Monica, she and Bubba always escaped the worst of the heat.

Melanie stared up at the sky and tried to will herself into action.

What if he says no? You’ve already exhausted all your other options.

As quickly as the first thought entered her mind, the second followed.

But he’s always been there for you. So why wouldn’t he help you now?

It was true. Her older brother Donnie had dragged Bubba – Robert Jonathan Williams, actually, but they’d always called him Bubba – home with him one day after school. It seemed as if he’d never left. They’d both been in the third grade and sat next to each other in their classroom.

Melanie, six years younger than her brother, had never known a time when Bubba wasn’t around. She’d trailed him as a toddler, annoyed him as a little girl, and gone to him with boy problems as an adolescent. He’d rumpled her hair or teased her playfully. He’d even taken her side against Donnie a few times, especially when she’d insisted she was old enough to leave home and start living her own life.

She glanced quickly at her watch, squinting against the soft light from the living room. Ten forty-six. Gidget was going to spend the night.

You can’t just barge in and interrupt them.

Melanie sighed.

That’s right, look for the perfect time. Only there never is a perfect time. Ask him now.

As if someone else was responsible for her movements, Melanie went back inside her house and locked the sliding door. Grabbing a light blue hand-knit sweater, she pulled it over her head and reached for her keys.

Hesitating just a moment, she glanced quickly into the hallway mirror.

You look fine.
Her long blond hair was mussed and she hadn’t bothered with makeup. There were slight shadows underneath her deep blue eyes, evidence of several sleepless nights. As she studied herself she bit her lip, still not sure what she was about to do was the smartest thing.

Without giving herself too much time to think, she walked quickly to the front door and let herself out.

The walk to Bubba’s front door took less than a minute. Melanie rubbed her damp palms against her faded jeans and rang the bell.

The first ring didn’t bring Bubba to the door. She waited almost thirty seconds, then knocked.

Listening carefully, she heard footsteps. As Bubba swung the door open, she stepped back.

“Hey, Mel! I haven’t seen you for at least a couple of hours.”

He smiled and she felt herself relax. He wasn’t mad at her for interrupting him during a private moment. It
was
  Friday night, after all.

Bubba leaned against the doorjamb, his entire manner relaxed, wearing a faded pair of cut-offs, his chest and feet bare. That muscled chest was covered with dark blond hair. Melanie noticed he needed a haircut. Perhaps she could cut it on Sunday.

When he spoke again she realized she hadn’t said anything.

“Mel?” He touched her upper arm gently. “You look like hell.”

She couldn’t say what she had to say in public, on his front steps. Something this momentous – at least they should be sitting down.

She took a deep breath. “Bubba, could I talk to you for a moment?”

He looked puzzled. “Sure. Listen, Mel, if it’s about Henry getting into your garbage, I – ”

“No, this has nothing to do with your cat. But it’s – ” She glanced beyond Bubba, down the hall to the softly lit living room. “It’s kind of private.”

“Okay, I get it. Come on inside.” He stepped back, allowing her to walk in front of him down the short hall to the living room. Melanie recognized Joanie, one of Bubba’s girlfriends, curled up on the couch. The remains of a pizza in a cardboard container and two empty wineglasses were scattered over the glass-topped coffee table.

“Hi, Mel.” She didn’t look up from the glossy magazine she was reading.

“Hi, Joanie. I like your hair.”

None of Bubba’s girlfriends looked at her as a threat, probably because she and Bubba were in and out of each other’s houses on a regular basis. “Living out of each other’s pockets,” as her brother Donnie said.

Bubba disappeared into the kitchen and came back with another glass of wine. He handed it to Melanie, then picked up Joanie’s glass.

“Nope. I’m leaving.” Joanie swung her long, tanned legs off the couch and stood up gracefully. She flashed a dazzling smile at Bubba.

“Walk me to the door, babe. A day at the beach with you has just about fried my brains.”

“Joanie, you’re going to give me a swelled head,” Bubba teased.

“Among other things, I hope.”

Mel laughed, then sat down on the couch as Joanie picked up her oversized bag and sweatshirt. Once they were in the hallway, Melanie closed her eyes and set her glass down. She tried not to eavesdrop but she heard Bubba give Joanie a good-bye kiss. She knew he would stand in the open doorway and make sure she got safely into her car.

When the door closed, Mel jumped.

Bubba walked into the living room with the grace of a natural athlete. She watched him as he turned off the stereo and came back to the couch. He sat down next to her, his arm along the top of the couch as he caught a strand of her hair.

“So what’s bugging you, Mel?”

She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

He studied her face. She could tell he was worried. “Mel, is it Phillip?”

She was sure her face reflected her disgust as she reached for her wine. “No. That’s been over for almost a week.”

“I thought he hadn’t been coming over as much.”

“Ah, he’s ancient history,” she replied, taking a sip of her wine. She had to do something to stifle her nervousness.

“Is it something at work?” he asked.

“No, everything’s fine.” This was getting nowhere. The way she was orchestrating this conversation, she and Bubba would be playing twenty questions all night.

Get to the point.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you a really big personal favor.”

“Anything.” He squeezed her shoulder.

“Bubba, don’t agree until you hear what it is.”

“Aw, come on, Mel, you know I’d do anything for you. Is it another problem with Donnie?”

She smiled, touched by his loyalty. How many times had Bubba gotten her out of some mess while they were growing up? How ironic that their very personal pattern was once again being repeated.

She set her wineglass down and looked him straight in the eye. “It’s serious, Bubba. And it’s something very important to me.”

“Okay.” He was silent, waiting for her to continue.

She looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “Six months ago, I went to my doctor for a checkup. He told me I only have a couple of months – ”

“Oh my God!” Before she could continue, she was enfolded in a pair of warm, hard arms. His chin was on top of her head as he raised one hand and stroked her hair. “God, Mel.”

She broke away but he didn’t release her completely from the circle of his arms. “No, it’s nothing like that.”

Bubba looked truly shaken. His tanned face was pale, his blue-gray eyes dark with emotion. “Then what is it? You only have a couple of months to – ”

“Get pregnant.” She finished the sentence for him, relieved the truth was finally out in the open.

“What?” Bubba looked thunderstruck.

She took advantage of his silence to quickly fill him in on the details.

“My gynecologist found an ovarian tumor. It’s nothing fatal, but he told me that if I had any intentions of having a family, it was best if I got pregnant within the next few months.”

A short silence ensued, then Bubba said softly, “And if you don’t?”

Her shoulders slumped as she looked down at her hands in her lap. It hurt, putting her worst fears into words. “Then I take the chance I may never be able to have children.”

“Oh, no, Mel.”

She knew Bubba was aware of how devastating this would be. When she was a child, hadn’t she always been surrounded by her dolls and stuffed animals? Nurturing, her friends called her. She’d never doubted that someday she wanted to become a mother, have children. But at twenty-six, she’d thought she had plenty of time.

“You’re sure about this?” he asked.

She nodded her head. “I got a second opinion, and a third.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I was so scared, then so angry. I kept thinking, why did this have to happen to me?”

He gave her a brief, hard hug, then released her. “So that’s why Phillip hit the road, right? He didn’t want an instant family.”

“Yeah. He told me – he said he’d thought about maybe one child, to keep me happy, but not until his practice was better established.”

“What a first-class ass.” Bubba reached for his wineglass and took a sip. “So you want me to go talk to this jerk, huh?

It took her a second to understand his meaning. When she did, she grimaced. Why was he sometimes so dense? Why hadn’t he offered, made this easier for her?

Summoning up all her courage, she blurted out her thoughts.

“Bubba, I want you to get me pregnant.”

“Get you
what
?
” Wine spewed out of his mouth, all over the front of his cutoffs.

Had it been another time, Melanie would've laughed. Now she felt close to tears.

When she started to speak her sentences were rapid, as if she were afraid he’d cut her off, send her home.

“Bubba, I’ve tried
everything
! 
When I found out, I’d only been dating Phillip for nine months. I thought he was the one. With time, I thought he would love me enough to marry me and we could start a family. But then suddenly I didn’t have time. I told him the truth. And I know it was sudden, but when he found out, he just left.”

Bubba started to say something but she held up her hand.

“I went to a singles’ bar last night with Alicia. She thought I should just take someone home and, you know, never let him know.”

Bubba reached out, clasping both her hands between his.

“I couldn’t do it. Not with a stranger. It just didn’t seem right. And what would I tell little What’s-Her-Name when she asked me?  That I met her father one night at a bar but he never stuck around?”