Reunited After 25 Years 45: You Can Be My Baby

As soon as they reached the house, Andrea went into the bedroom and threw herself across the bed, where she cried herself to sleep. When she awakened, she saw Anton was gone but that both vehicles were still there. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she realized that he must be at Sally's house.

As tempted as she was to barge over there and burst in on them, she was far too afraid of what she might find them doing to actually do that. Instead she paced back and forth wondering what to do, glancing at the hands of the clock, which seemed to move painfully slowly, ever so often. At last she decided to go to visit her mother, as she desperately needed someone to talk to.

"Andrea!" Jewel was surprised to see her daughter arriving alone. "Is everything all right?"

"Anton and I had a big fight, and he's gone to visit the woman next door," Andrea said miserably.

"Oh, no!" Jewel stepped aside and motioned her daughter into the house. "Have a seat and tell me about it."

"It started this morning," Andrea began. "Anton and I went to see the fertility doctor that Dr. Lloyd referred me to. He ran some tests and told me I was already in menopause. He said that the only way we could have a baby would be to use donor eggs, but then it wouldn't really be my baby, Mom. Anton got mad at me for not wanting to do that and just walked away. When we got home I took a nap, and when I woke up, he was gone. Both the cars were still there, so I knew he was at Sally's." Andrea began to cry then, huge, wracking sobs.

"Oh, dear!" Jewel held her daughter and let her cry on her shoulder. "So tell me about this Sally person."

"She lives next door to us," Andrea said. "Her husband's in Iraq and she doesn't have any children, so she's all alone. She's had the hots for Anton the entire time he's been living there."

"So do you think he's having an affair with her?"

"Before this morning, I would have said no way," Andrea replied. "But after the way it went this morning..."

"So explain this business about the donor eggs."

"It's where they take an egg from a younger woman who's still fertile and fertilize it in a test tube and then implant it in the infertile woman. She carries it and gives birth to it, but it isn't really her baby. Don't you see? The baby would have the genes and chromosomes of the egg donor, not the woman who gives birth to it."

"Why, that's crazy!" Jewel exclaimed. "Do you mean that Anton wanted you to go along with that scheme?"

Andrea nodded. "He didn't want to have a baby at first, but I kept bugging him about it until he finally gave in. Then we tried for a few months and didn't have any luck, and then we found out that I was in menopause."

"Well now, I told you you two were too old to be starting over anyway. You've got Denny, and he has Dasha. That ought to be enough."

"At first I thought it would be, but then I found out Dennis had a daughter..."

"So that's it, isn't it?" Jewel asked softly. "You found out Dennis betrayed you in Vietnam, and you thought that having a baby with Anton would make you feel better about it."

"That's only part of the reason." Andrea sighed. "But another thing is that I want to have Anton's baby because I love him so much."

"But it's silly to have a baby together as proof of your love," said Jewel. "I know plenty of people in second marriages who don't have any children together, and they're still very happy."

"Mom, do you remember Carol from high school?"

"Vaguely."

"She just had a baby boy a couple of months ago, and she's the same age as me."

"Well, the change comes to some women sooner than to others, I suppose. But you should be happy for what you already have, honey. Denny has grown up to be a wonderful young man, and you were fortunate to have found love again after having been alone for so long. Just be happy for the life you and Anton have together now, and try not to worry too much about what you want but don't have. Things could be a lot worse, you know."

Andrea visited with her parents for a couple of hours and stayed for dinner. Jewel asked her if she'd like to spend the night, but Andrea suddenly felt anxious to see Anton again.

When she got back home, she found that, to her disappointment, her husband still wasn't home, so she watched a couple of hours of television to try to take her mind off things and then went to bed.

Anton finally came home a couple of hours later. Andrea was lightly dozing when she was awakened by the sound of his key turning in the lock, and she felt a combination of relief and apprehension. What on earth had he and Sally been doing together for all those hours? She decided that she really, really didn't want to know.

She heard him go to the bathroom and then come to bed. "Andrea?" he asked, very softly.

"Yes?"

"Oh, good. You are awake." He softly touched her hair. "I am so sorry, Andrea. You received devastating news, and then I picked fight with you. I had a long talk with Sallochka, and she helped me to see how wrong I was. Will you please forgive me?" He sounded as if he'd been crying, and she didn't smell vodka on his breath.

"So that's all you were doing all this time? Just talking?"

"You are the woman I love, Andrea. My wife. Please believe me." That didn't really answer her question, but she didn't dare push it. She lacked the courage to do so.

"Andrea, if we never have a baby together, you can be my baby. All the love I have for the baby, I will give to you instead."

He made love to her then, more deeply and passionately than ever before. Whatever had occurred between him and Sally certainly seemed to have renewed the desire he felt for her, Andrea. That being so, she concluded that perhaps she should be grateful for it, although she knew she'd never want to know any of the details.