Two-bit
I sat on our couch- nervously waiting for the lady from the adoption agency to show up. We had finished moving in yesterday and we hardly had to wait longer than twenty four hours for an interview. Olivia was sitting beside me in a nice sundress, she looked gorgeous today. I was so nervous, we had little idea what to expect from this interview. There was a knock on the door and we both stood up and walked over but she took my hand in both of hers tightly and I opened the door.
An older woman (probably middle aged) smiled and reached to shake my hand,
"Hello, I'm Kimberly. You must be Keith and Olivia, it's wonderful to meet you."
"You as well. Please, come on in." She did as such and Olivia smiled,
"No need to take your shoes off, could I get you something to drink?"
"Yes please, do you have any juice?"
"We have apple and orange," Olivia said nervously. Kimberly smiled,
"I'll have some orange juice please."
She went to get her a glass and brought a tray out with juice and cookies, setting it on the coffee table. Kimberly sat across from us and I took Olivia's hand in mine,
"So this interview is going to have questions about your childhoods, your adult life, your marriage, and why you'd like to adopt, along with a few other categories should the first half of this interview go well." We nodded and she looked at me,
"Why don't we start with you Keith. Tell me about your childhood."
"Well… I grew up in a lower class family… When I was five my father ran out on my Mom, sister, and I… And my Mom started working three jobs to support us. When I started in school I met a group of guys- the same group of friends I have today- and their parents started helping my Mom out by sending me snacks and lunches and bringing dinner over some nights. Some nights my little sister and I would stay with them while Mom worked but most of the time my Mom would make sure she was home to help us with homework and tuck us in for bed. It was hard at times, when I was ten I started becoming responsible for watching my little sister and it was hard, I was only ten and I had no idea how to take care of a seven year old."
Kimberly nodded and wrote down a few notes. She looked at Olivia and she squeezed my hand,
"I grew up in a middle class family, throughout my childhood I did different sports and activities, I have a twin sister who is also my best friend. My father was a functioning alcoholic, but he's been clean for for fifteen years."
"Okay this leads into my next question. Obviously there was some alcohol dependency in your history Olivia, how has this affected you?"
"Well… My father always was a very opinionated person and it only got worse when he drank… Usually by the time my mother picked us up for school he was already three beers in and it was hard- growing up with a man that would comment negatively on our weight and our appearance constantly."
"I'm sorry to hear that Olivia, it can't have been easy."
She nodded and Kimberly looked at me, "From what my mother always told me, my father was an alcoholic and he was often in between jobs because of it. When I was fourteen my mother started drinking… But I would never say that she was an alcoholic. There were a lot of families in my neighbourhood with alcoholic parents… One of my best friends had them and it was absolutely terrible to see. I… I started to heavily drink when I turned sixteen… My Mom was constantly working and my sister was… Well changing, and it was really hard to handle and I turned to alcohol. I was an alcoholic until I met Olivia… And she really helped me. I'm not sober… But instead of being drunk every day I maybe have one beer a week." Kimberly smiled and nodded,
"Well that is a big accomplishment. Congratulations. Now what type of discipline did your parents use when you were a child?"
"My Mom used a lot of guilt and it made me feel absolutely terrible." I said and Olivia nodded,
"My Mom tried to use guilt but it ended up being a lot of physical discipline. We'd gotten the belt a couple times when we were little and my Dad used to hit us when we messed up, but once we got older and he sobered up he stopped."
"Okay. Now moving on to your adult lives, are you still close with family members and extended family members?"
I nodded, "Out of the six guys I grew up with… I see two of them at least once a week.. The third one lives in Kellyville and I see him about once every two weeks. One lives in Texas and we see him once a month and the other two are moving back from New York and Maine so I think I'll be seeing them once a week. My Mom… My sister I see maybe once a month and my Mom I see almost every day."
"That's good to hear." I nodded and Olivia smiled,,
"Well.. I talk to my parents roughly twice a week and we have a family dinner every Sunday.I see my sister almost every day, we have a family dinner with her and her husband every Friday… Her husband Steve is one of Two-bit's best friends… And then on Saturday dinner is usually with all of his other friends and we rotate houses."
"That is fantastic to hear. It's good to hear that you're still very close with do you consider to be your support network?"
"I'd have to say mainly each other. The two of us have no secrets, we talk to each other about everything and we've been especially depending on each now with our problems trying to conceive. But other than each other I'd have to say my twin sister and probably Steve for Two-bit."
I nodded, "Yeah. I agree."
"Have either of you ever been seen my a therapist or counsellor?"
We both shook our heads. She wrote that down and smiled, "What is your financial situation? Are you able to pay for your current but also save for the future?"
We both nodded, "I own my own business, a restaurant in town and Olivia is the project manager for a residential construction company." She smiled,
"That's good to hear. Now I notice you two don't have any pets. Will you be having any in the future?"
"Well I'm allergic to dogs and to be around them I need to take medication so we wouldn't want a non-hypoallergenic dog in our house hold, but I think we're open to animals." Olivia said, looking at me. I nodded in agreement.
"Alright, now lets discuss some strong points of your marriage," She said, writing down our reply for the pet question.
"Well, we're typically very good with communication," I said, looking over at Olivia. She nodded,
"And we have a great balance between alone time and our daily life. We also agree on our money spending and our spiritual beliefs."
"That's great to hear. Now lets move on to why you want to adopt and your experience with in fertility."
"Well, we learned a little while ago that we're both fertile but I have.. Well.. Slow swimmers because of my alcohol abuse when I was a teenager. We've been trying to have a baby since we've been married and it hasn't been happening. We decided to adopt to give another child a chance that doesn't have a loving home and needs a family." I said, and Olivia wiped her eyes,
"We want a child, we want to give a child a good home. We want to be parents and raise a family."
"Do you have any concerns with adopting?"
We both looked at each other and we shook our heads, "No. We know that the child won't be perfect but we're willing to help them no matter what."
"Who will be staying with the child or baby? How much maternity or paternity time can you have?"
"I'm allowed one year and Keith can stay at home as often as he wants because he runs his business. However when we need to go back to work we plan on looking at an established day care and learning centre." She seemed impressed and wrote that down.
"Do you have any preferences on ages or gender for a child? And what about siblings?"
We both shook our head, "We have no preferences. If we could get younger children we'd prefer that but we won't turn away a child in need that fits us."
"How about a child with disabilities such as autism or health related disabilities like a heart defect?"
"We are open to anything." I said firmly, "We'll love them as our own."
"Now, I understand this may be a difficult question but would you be open to a child with a different nationality that looked different than yourselves?"
"We have thought about it… And we've read some studies on how it could affect the child but our family and extended family are very welcoming. We'll deal with any type of racism and comments in a way that makes our child know that we love them no matter what is said."
"I'm sure you know that this process can take anywhere from nine months to nine years. Now do you have your references?"
I nodded and handed her a clear protective folder, "Our references are all in here." She took the folder and smiled,
"Wow, that is a very thick folder."
"We… We wanted everything to be perfect. We want a baby… Or babies in our life and we wanted to try and have things done so it would end up faster."
"Well, I can assure you that everything was perfect so far. We need to run police checks and background checks but as it stands now there's no reason for you both not to get accepted."
"Thank you so much," Olivia said, and we both stood up to shake her hand,
"No thank you for wanting to adopt and help a child live their life to the fullest."
She smiled and walked out. Olivia hugged me tightly and I kissed her head,
"It went well baby… We're going to have a family." She sniffled and nodded and I rubbed her back.
We went to the basement and she put a movie on for us to watch. We didn't get very many days like these to sit around and do nothing, but some of the stress I had from a week ago was gone. Our loft apartment sold for over asking and definitely helped to offset the cost of buying this house. Once we moved in and customized it and painted it it wasn't so bad. It was nice being in a house with privacy- I could bang my wife in the kitchen and no one noticed.
Half way through Olivia moved to look up at me- her head resting on my lap- and she chewed on her lip,
"Two?"
"Yeah babe?" I asked, not looking down from the screen. She sighed and waited for me to look so I looked down at her,
"Yes Ollie?"
"What if we don't get a baby? Would… Would you hate me?"
"Olivia, the reason we can't have a baby isn't your fault… I told you that. It's my fault. If I hadn't drank all those years we'd probably be on our fourth baby by now. But I could never hate you, especially not because I can't get you pregnant." She nodded and closed her eyes, resting her head against my stomach. We were supposed to be at Darry's in an hour, we were having dinner and I didn't doubt that we'd be doing some sort of bonding with everyone together.
I let her sleep, I know that the adoption interview kept her up worrying all night, I was up with her.
She woke up half an hour later and rubbed her eyes, "Does my hair look okay?" She mumbled and I smirked,
"You just woke up and that's the first thing you ask?"
"We have to leave soon don't we? I don't want to redo my hair. Did you pack the swim suits?"
"You're kind of asleep on me, how do you think I could have packed the suits?"
She sighed, clearly annoyed and she got up to pack a small duffel bag herself. I walked by and grinned as she bent over to pack the bag and I couldn't help but bite my lip.
"Stop staring at my ass, can you get the pie out of the oven?" I nodded and put the pie in one of our cooler bag and we left.
When we showed up we were the second last car to get there, surprisingly it was Steve and Tessa that were late. Olivia gave me a worried glance before I squeezed her hand,
"Hey, if anything was wrong you know that she would call you." She nodded and we went inside, most of the families with kids had gotten a babysitter, in Johnny's case he would just put his girls to bed after dinner.
Dallas and Beth were chatting quietly when we walked in to the family room, Soda and Presley were talking to Pony and Audrey and Johnny was talking to Darry.
"Anyone heard from Steve?" I asked, shaking Darry's hand and giving Charolette a hug,
"Tessa texted me to say they were running a little behind but they should still be here before dinner." Charolette said, hugging Olivia. We nodded and went into the family room to join in on the conversations.
After half an hour Steve and Tessa came in, we could all tell that they'd been fighting. Steve's told me a few times that when they fight it's an all out blow up fight and from what Olivia's told me Tessa can't stand it. They plastered a fake smile on their faces and greeted everyone before we started dinner.
"You guys had the adoption interview today right? How did that go?" Ponyboy asked and I grinned,
"Well we think it went really well… Surprisingly our history with alcohol may help our case. She said it would still take a while but we have no preferences with a child- ages, gender, nothing, so we're hoping that that will speed the process up a bit." Charolette smiled,
"I'm sure that will definitely help your case. You guys just have to be ready if they confirm you that it's one call that changes everything." We both nodded,
"We're ready but we're scared," Olivia said, sipping her glass of wine.
"Well now is as good of a time as ever, Dallas is starting at my company as the head plumber." Darry said, wiping the corners of his mouth with a napkin.
We all grinned and congratulated them and finished dinner, starting the dishes so we could have a break before dessert. Elena and Johnny went to put the kids to bed and when they came back I knew I wasn't the only one that picked up on the fact that her hair was just a little messy and she was a tad red in the face. I grinned,
"Hey Johnnycakes, I think Elena's got a little something something on her chin." Elena blushed deeper and Johnny smirked,
"No she doesn't, she swallows it all." Elena blushed deeper and smacked his shoulder and he grinned at her.
"Why don't we head out to the back yard?" Darry offered and everyone nodded, some couples heading to different rooms to get changed while others went to change in the pool shed. Olivia and I changed in the living room, I couldn't help but watch as she changed, she was so beautiful.
When we walked out Elena was holding a glass of wine in her hand and she had her arms crossed, talking to Johnny who had his back to us.
"Shit kid, when the hell did you get inked?" Steve asked, walking out holding a beer.
He turned around and we saw that he had a piece on his side as well, "My side was the summer before I left here and the wings were just before I met Elena. Then I got the girls's names added as they were born."
We all nodded and noticed that Elena also had a tattoo on her calf, it looked like some type of family tree. Beth walked out holding Dally's hand and she had a dream catcher with a wolf in the hoop covering the side of her thigh. It was really good, and I knew it must have cost a fortune.
"Who isn't inked?" He asked, looking around. Darry and Audrey were the only two to raise their hand.
"Damn," I said and everyone with a tattoo shrugged. Pony came out holding a beer and I think everyone was shocked with the amount of tattoo's on his torso.
"Jesus Ponyboy when did those all happen?" Darry asked, eyeing his chest.
"Well this one on my side was before I left for college, the same time with Johnny, and the rest of them happened over the course of my schooling and my marriage."
"What do you have?" We asked, looking at Soda. He grinned wickedly and Presley sighed,
"He's got one right on his ass cheek."
"Oh what's that one?"
Soda grinned wickedly and turned so his back was to us and he dropped his trunks. There, right on his ass was her name.
"Ain't that classy," I said grinning. He pulled his trunks back up and we saw a better version of her name on his chest. Presley had his name on her chest as well and Darry grinned,
"So who doesn't have the name of their spouse on them besides Audrey and I?"
Charolette nodded, she had a beautiful piece of scenery on her shoulder blade, but other than those three everyone had the name of their significant other.
"What's that one?" Olivia asked Beth, there was two numbers visible from the side of her… Well.. Breast. She smiled and moved her… Breast, so that we could see the full tattoo,
"It's my badge number. Sometimes I have to go undercover for a case and it's not always easy to carry my badge on me in case."
"Yeah especially with the shit you have to wear," Dally said, looking at her hungrily. She smiled at us and shrugged,
"Sometimes I have to dress skimpy to get attention from the right suspect." We all nodded understandingly and noticed that Dallas's name was on her hips in gentle cursive writing.
"Well who would like something to drink?" Darry asked, going to the bar fridge that was built into the island facing their pool. Charolette went to go and get out a couple drink floaties and everyone ended up with an alcoholic beverage (except for the girls that were pregnant and Johnny).
Later that night during a Rated R version Olivia revealed one of her deepest secrets-
"Okay, Olivia, what is something that no one knows about you?" Ponyboy asked curiously.
Olivia swallowed hard and I took her hand tightly. We'd been talking about her telling the family about this, but I knew that it was going to be hard for her,
"Well… The only thing that no one knows… Besides Two-bit… Is that I'm bisexual." We both looked around as everyone was kind of quiet before Dally smiled,
"Thanks for trusting us enough to tell us Olivia." I knew that this meant the world to Olivia, she'd been struggling with this since I met her. The game continued shortly after and it was a rather interesting game. That was until it became my turn to answer a question.
Beth grinned, "Well you haven't gone yet so it's your turn," I figured I'd get something terribly girly like "how did I fall in love with Olivia" but it really shocked me when Beth had other things on her mind,
"Would you ever watch Olivia have sex with someone else?"
I bit my lip, that was a good question. Would I?
"Shit," I said, "I… I don't know. I don't think I could watch her get that intimate with someone else. I'd get too jealous and maybe a tad territorial. They wouldn't know what she likes and how to make her orgasm in under two minutes like I do. I guess my answer is no, I wouldn't."
Olivia smiled and took my hand. Later that night we were laying in bed, our arms wrapped around each other.
"How are you feeling babe?" I asked, hoping she knew what I was asking.
"I feel… I feel so accepted and welcomed with them." I smiled and kissed her head,
"I hope you're not offended by my answer to Beth's question but I just… I love you and I don't ever want to share you like that with someone."
"Two-bit had you have said yes I may have been a little worried. I may be bisexual but I don't want to be with anyone but you, physically and intimately. You're an amazing husband and a perfect best friend… And if I had to go through this whole thing with anyone I'm so glad it's with you." She said softly, leaning up to kiss me. I slipped my hand down her back slowly before grabbing her ass. She got the idea and climbed on top of me and started kissing down my body- tonight was looking better by the second.