45: No Stolen Kisses

Marta exhaled — she felt as though the world were collapsing around her. Mario, for his part, had been weighing up both possibilities, when a vivid image of a newborn baby receiving a gentle knock on the head appeared in his mind.
"Would I have given it a concussion?"
Marta looked at him in disbelief, her own doubts momentarily set aside by Mario's spontaneous innocence.
"A ten-day-old embryo? I don't think so."
"Blimey — ten days, of course!" He exhaled with relief. "It's a strange feeling — as though I'd known you forever." He was starting to get anxious. "Well, it's true it could be from the first day, but that would mean it's the whole... do you follow me?"
"Am I the one who has to calm you down now?" She tilted her head and took his face in her hands. "Mario, what did you call me earlier — Pikachu?"
"Pikachu?" He blinked, his eyes beginning to dart about as though following a bouncy ball ricocheting off the walls.
"Right — look at me and don't drift off. Shall we both calm down?" She stole a kiss.
It caught him off guard and he went still.
"More." This time it was he who kissed her — one arm around her back and the other hand at her nape, surrendering once again.
"Mario, I don't want to feel old if it turns out to be a false positive — but I don't want to feel guilty when you have to deal with a teenage child and a senile mother. Right now, I need you calmer. All right?"
She looked directly into his eyes — her gaze clouded with tears, but she could still make out the plea in those hazel eyes. His small, brief smile was enough to jolt him back to himself.
"I don't want to lose you." He cried.
"Why would you lose me?" She frowned slightly. "I don't follow."
"Because whatever I choose, I'll be taking sides — and I don't want to make you choose. Not about this."
"I think we'll both feel calmer if we do another test, don't you?" She suggested.
"I'll go alone — you stay here and rest. Drink water, or whatever — I'll be back in a moment."
Mario straightened up, kissed Marta quickly, and headed for the door.
"Won't be long." He said, just before closing it.
Marta began pacing around Mario's living room. She drank some water and kept herself busy assembling the easel. She remembered seeing it lying on the street that morning, when she had made her peace with him, and a faint half-smile surfaced — one that faded when she remembered the mare coming towards her.
"Being alone isn't helping me."
She turned to the easel and thought of her friend and sister-in-law. Perhaps she shouldn't call her that anymore — Sebastián had been gone for eighteen years now, and if her heart already belonged to someone else, the term no longer applied. She called her.
It took a while for her to answer, and when she did, her voice sounded strange — a different tone.
"Is something wrong?"
"Felisa, something very strange has happened to me today — can you talk, or are you with Manuel?"
"Yes to both." She laughed.
"Is he on speaker?"
"Hmm? No — shall I put him on?"
She hesitated.
"Actually, put him on."
A smack was heard on the other end of the phone.
"Boss — what can I do for you?"
"In a hypothetical scenario of expanding the family — how would you feel about being a grandfather?"
Manuel waited a couple of seconds before answering.
"I would love to spoil that third generation rotten — the one who'll inherit GODANE!" He paused to add the finishing touch. "Wouldn't you?"
"Spoil them?"
"Of course, Marta — you're telling me Mario might make me a grandfather!" His laughter came through, and Felisa's too. "That's wonderful!"
Marta rolled her eyes.
"It's only hypothetical, Manuel."
"I thought as much, Marta — but it means Mario is a man and not a brick wall, as your daughter painted him the other day, doesn't it?"
She raised her eyebrows, creasing her forehead.
"I'd forgotten about that. Thank you, Manuel." She paused. "But let Mario be the one to tell you — all right?"
"Understood, boss!" Manuel let out another burst of laughter on the other end and then hung up.
At that moment, Mario came in with a small pharmacy bag and a larger, heavier one.
"Are those several?" Marta was looking directly at the small bag, which appeared to have several boxes and something round in it.
"Yes — and a hospital-grade container to do it properly." He handed it over.
"What's in the big bag?"
"Art supplies, my queen." He smiled.
"You're calmer."
"The girl at the pharmacy told me that the second line's darkness corresponds to the concentration of the pregnancy hormone — so it's almost certainly a positive. That's what settled me."
"I called Felisa to share my doubts, and she was with your father." She shrugged as she got up from the sofa. "They were laughing — those nervous laughs you let out when someone's tickling you."
A look of pleasant surprise appeared on Mario's face. Then one eyebrow dropped with anticipation, and then both drew together in a worried frown.
"You're not going to take his company from him, are you?"
Marta reached him and took the bags from his hands so he could wrap his arms around her when she raised hers onto his shoulders.
"What are you talking about, handsome?"
"If my father is unfaithful to you, you could claim his share of the company."
Marta narrowed her eyes with mischief.
"I don't think I'd be in much of a position to claim anything, do you?" She gave him a quick kiss.
Mario stayed looking at her lips, wanting to continue. He raised one corner of his smile above the other with the mischievous expression she had passed on to him.
"Fair point." He admitted, pulling her into his arms. "Shall we do another one? I brought one that shows the words."
"Let's!" Marta stretched her arm to open the bag as best she could. "Which one is it?"
He took hold of it with one hand and pulled out a long white box with sky blue stripes and fuchsia lettering.
"This one."
"You need to be ready for both results — because we're going to have to get ready for a baby, or else you're going to have to put up with a girlfriend who's hormonally unstable from the menopause."
"Girlfriend? Is that what I call you from now on?"
And she closed his mouth with a kiss.