December 22, 2022 (continued)
Mercedes showered and dressed in a fitted pair of maternity-friendly skinny jeans and pea green tunic sweater. Not having the patience to do anything fancy with her weave, she simply touched it up with a flat iron and drew it all back into a low ponytail. After applying some natural tones of makeup, she rejoined her husband in her old bedroom.
When she entered the room, Sam was sitting on the bed with the tablet back in his hands. He appeared to be concentrating very hard on the screen as his finger slide slowly up it. Mercedes smiled and took a seat on the edge beside him. "What's so fascinating?"
Without taking his eyes off the screen, he titled the iPad so she could see the screen. "I'm looking at boys' names, like we discussed. Since you tied my love of astronomy into our daughter's name, I was trying to see if I could do something like that for our son."
She smiled softly, "Oh? Any winners yet?"
"Well…unless you want to name our son Whitney or Mariah," he joked. After catching a glance at Mercedes' deflated expression he chuckled, "I'm kidding. After all these years I'd like to think I know more about you than that."
"So," she nestled up to his side and when his arm came around her she asked, "What else do you know that could relate to a name for our son?"
As though he already knew this question was coming, he swapped the windows on the iPad, presenting a new tab that had a list of artists' names and movie titles, as well as names of their family members. He let Mercedes look it over as he said, "Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Luther Vandross are your favorite male artists…next to me of course." He grinned jokingly and Mercedes knowingly grinned back at him.
"Oh of course."
After another light chuckle he went on, "Porgy and Bess, Hairspray, West Side Story and Dreamgirls are your favorite musicals, and I Am Sam and The Count of Monte Cristo are two of your favorite movies. So I took different names from those and played around with them with our family's names too."
His finger scrolled a little further to show her a shorter list of possible baby names, based off of what he'd said.
"Edmond Evans?" Mercedes said aloud. She looked skeptically to her husband, "You really like that?"
He shrugged back, "It's not terrible."
She pursed her lips though a vague smile appeared as she kept reading the names. "Dante Jeremy…I really like that one."
"That one and Michael Jeremy were my favorites. But I thought Mike's head would turn into a balloon if we picked that one."
She snorted a giggle, "But at least we could nickname our son 'MJ'. That'd be kinda cute. MJ Evans."
"DJ Evans sounds pretty boss though," noted Sam.
"You got Dante from Dantes, right?"
He smiled crookedly, "Yeah. Dantes for a first name sounded kinda weird so I dropped the 's'."
Mercedes mused for a moment, "Ariesa and Dante…Dante and Ariesa…Michael and Ariesa…Ariesa and Michael…" She glanced at Sam as his arm came from around her and he set the tablet down. His hands came over her stomach and he bent his face over the middle of her belly.
"Alright you two, it's time for an Evans family vote. Kick once for Dante and twice for Michael."
Unable to help herself, Mercedes laughed heartily at him, "You're a trip!"
"Don't knock it 'til you try it, Baby. You feel that? I got a kick."
Gradually calming down from her laughs, Mercedes asked, "What if that was Ariesa? She gets to pick her brother's name?"
"Hey, I gave them both a fair chance to vote so if he didn't vote on his name—"
"Then we know who's gonna be the bossier of the two," she finished with a soft grin.
Sam kissed her tummy before lying back against the pillows again, "Well at least we have a name."
"You really want to go with Dante Jeremy?" Mercedes asked, smiling but with raised brows.
He shrugged and smirked, "Yeah, why not? We both like it, and one of them likes it too so…"
Mercedes leaned back into his side, stifling a yawn, "Dante Jeremy and Ariesa Annette…I love it. And hey, we'll be able to end everyone's wondering about their names so that's good too."
"Yeah." Studying her face, Sam kissed her forehead and asked, "You gonna go back to sleep?"
"Probably…if you stay put and another party doesn't start in my uterus."
He chuckled softly, "I can talk to them if you want, or sing to them…apparently they're already listening to their daddy."
Mercedes closed her eyes but smiled when he said, 'daddy'. She lolled her head to his chest, "Sing something. I love when you sing, and they do too."
Sam spent a moment, thinking of a song to sing a'capella. When one in particular came to mind he said, "Alright I wish I had my guitar for this but, here goes."
He tilted his head toward his wife while softly singing at a down-tempo, "I wanna love ya…and treat you right. I wanna love ya, everyday and every night. We'll be together…with a roof right over our heads. We'll share the shelter, of my single bed. We'll share the same room…" he'd forgotten the next lyrics so he hummed through them, causing Mercedes to giggle sleepily at him as he went on to the chorus.
"Is this love, is this love, is this love, is this love that I'm feelin'?" He kissed her temple, "Is this love, is this love, is this love that I'm feelin'? I wanna know, wanna know, wanna know now…I got to know, got to know, got to know now…"
Softly he said, the long, "Iiiii, I'm willing and able…so I, throw my cards on your table. I wanna love ya, I wanna love and treat you—love and treat you right. I wanna love you every day and every night…"
Sam sang on through the end of the song, even repeating a few parts here and there but by the time he'd finished, Mercedes had fallen asleep again. He kept close to her, relaxing while quietly humming the Bob Marley hit to himself.
The shower eased into commencement sometime in the early afternoon. In addition to the Jones-Owens and Evans families, the interior of the large Jones-Owens estate was occupied by Mike, Tina and their children, Kurt, Blaine and Lizzie, Burt and Carole Hummel, Brittany and Santana, Artie, Joe, Rachel, and—to nearly everyone's surprise—Finn, Quinn and their newborn daughter, Sophia. Mercedes' mother, Viola, sent them an invitation in Chicago, but after the birth of their daughter, it was assumed that they would not be coming. Finn and Quinn explained that they wouldn't want Sophia to have her first Christmas without her grandparents.
Upon their arrival, much of the women's attention went to fragile Sophia, Mercedes included. She gushed over the tiny babe, commenting profusely on her plump, rosy cheeks and how utterly adorable she was. Eventually, Viola Jones-Owens and Mary Evans rounded everyone up for a game. Sam and Mike, Finn and Joe, Marcus and Artie, Burt Hummel and Stevie, and the future grandfathers, Dwight Evans and Jeremy Owens were paired up for the game. Sam, Finn, Marcus, Burt and Mr. Evans were each blindfolded and positioned at one end of the room with baby dolls in their arms, while their game partners were at the other end of the room, behind a long table. Marcus and Sam had their dolls tucked under their arms like footballs while Finn, Burt and Mr. Evans held theirs expertly in their hands. The girls giggled and snapped photos on their phones as Mike, Joe, Artie and Dr. Owens verbally instructed the blindfolded quartet across the room with the dolls.
Once they reached their partners reached the tables, the foursome behind the table had to instruct their partner through a diaper-changing process. Marcus had tripped over Brittany's feet, sending Kurt, Blaine and the kids into a fit of laughs as he was heckled by Artie to find his kid and get up. Quinn, Ms. Jones and Tina were laughing as Finn started changing the wrong end of his doll. Blaine called out foul play on Stevie whose fingers slipped onto the table to help Burt. Mercedes and Mrs. Evans cheered on Sam, who seemed to be tying for a victory with his dad.
"Done!" Dwight Evans announced, shooting his arm in the air with his diaper-clad doll clutched in his hand.
Sam pulled his blindfold off to check his own handy work while Marcus was reprimanded by his mother for cursing. The audience of guests clapped and cheered for the winners. Dwight and Jeremy grinned at one another and clasped hands, acknowledging their victory. Their wives gave each of them a tin of Mrs. Evans snickerdoodle cookies as a prize.
The tables were turned when the girls were coaxed into the next game of being blindfolded and attempting to identify various jars of baby food. Lizzie and Little Mikey helped out the two grandmothers-to-be with passing out the jars to the girls. Mikey sniffed one of the jars and shrieked, "Ew this stinks!"
The men roared with laughter as all the girls grew visibly uncomfortable with anticipation for whatever jar the young boy was wielding. The only one to steel themselves for the mystery jar was Santana. Mercedes and Quinn gagged on the spoonful that entered their mouths.
"What the hell is that?" Mercedes demanded, prompting more laughs from the men.
"That smells gross!" added Quinn.
"That wasn't meat was it? Because you know I'm a vegan, right?" commented Rachel.
Viola and Mary apologized to Rachel, and she politely removed herself from the game to rinse her mouth out.
"Oh come on," appeased Tina, "Pureed ham isn't that bad."
"Is that what that is?" Brittany asked. "I thought it tasted like catnip."
Tina's brows furrowed, "Britt, no one's gonna feed us catnip."
"Tina, you're not supposed to say your guesses aloud," reminded Stacey.
"Oops! Sorry!"
"F.Y.I.," Mercedes cut in, "My gag reflex is up these days so keep talking about catnip and liquid ham, girls. Seriously."
"There are so many things I could say to that gag reflex comment," Artie jokingly muttered with a nudge at Joe's side. Joe stared at him blankly and then shook his head, turning his attention back to the game.
After getting through ten different jars, Tina beat out the girls by one guess—Carole Hummel guessed the second-closest. When the girls lifted their blindfolds, and adjusted their vision, they caught the men all staring at different cell phones and laughing.
"Were you guys taking pictures of us the whole time?" Quinn suspiciously asked.
"Of course they were," Rachel answered before any of the men had a chance.
As Mrs. Evans awarded Tina with peppermint bath salts, Mercedes narrowed her eyes, "If any of those gets tweeted out, I swear I'm gonna put the hurt on every last one of you."
"Yeah right, Mercedes," scoffed her brother. "You wouldn't touch Pops or Mr. Evans."
"That's because Dad and Mr. Evans don't use Twitter," she retorted smartly.
Dr. Owens smirked, "She's got a point there, Marcus."
Her brother shook his head while Viola Owens and Mary Evans moved on to the next game. Everyone was giving slips of paper and were told that they had three minutes to come up with as many boy and girls' names as possible, using the letters from Sam and Mercedes' first names. As soon as a timer was set, everyone went to work, scribbling down possible names. Lizzie and Little Mikey both insisted on papers and pencils so that they could play too, but the two ended up competing with each other on who could write out most of the alphabet first.
When the timer buzzed, Rachel, Artie and Sam had come up with the most names. They took turns reading off their list of names while the others in the rooms acted as judges to decide which ones were worth keeping and which names sounded too farfetched. In the end, Rachel was deemed the winner and awarded a silver picture frame as a prize, while Sam and Artie were given Christmas tins full of cookies for being the runners-up.
When Viola went to retrieve a cake from the kitchen fridge, Mary took a seat in one of the vacant chairs and asked, "Speaking of names—Samuel, Mercedes have you two decided on names for your little ones?"
Sam and Mercedes were sharing one of the living room's two love seats and previously watching as Stacey and Joe helped move their plethora of gifts closer to them. The two looked to Mrs. Evans though and smiled, "Yes,' they answered almost simultaneously.
Tina happily gasped while Kurt sat up a little straighter than before.
"Sooo, tell us," he urged in sing-song voice.
Sam looked to Mercedes and she smiled back to him; as his mother-in-law returned to the room with the cake, he said, "Well, for our girl we decided on Ariesa Annette Evans."
All of the girls, plus Kurt and Blaine "aw"ed at the name. Sam's mother pressed both hands to her chest, visibly touched that her middle name was being passed on to her first granddaughter. The guys wore smiles of varying sizes and a few of them nodded approvingly.
"And for our little boy," said Mercedes, "we're naming him Dante Jeremy Evans."
The singer stole a glance at her father and smiled a bit wider at the soft smile he now wore. As Quinn kindly burped her newborn, she smiled to the expecting couple and told them, "Those are really nice names you guys."
"Yeah and just so you two know, I'll be calling 'em 'DJ' and 'Reese'," Marcus said with a grin.
A few around the room chuckled but Viola pursed her lips at her son, "My grandbaby is not a peanut butter cup, Marcus."
"I know that Mama," he said, maintaining a shameless grin, "But my niecey is Reese."
The whole room filled with chuckles and giggles at that but Viola merely smiled and waved him off as she told everyone she'd be cutting some cake while Sam and Mercedes opened gifts. Mary retrieved a fresh paper and pen to scribe the gifts and who sent each of them, and Stevie and Stacey positioned themselves as photographers—along with several other shower attendees.
Sam and Mercedes alternated opening gift after gift; most of what they had received were clothes and bath items. Mike decided that Sam's kids would have to be 49ers fans, so he got them several sets of 9er gear; Tina balanced it out with some colorful outfits from her boutique.
Kurt and Blaine had picked out the most fashionable infant wear that New York had to offer, while Marcus, Stevie and Stacey opted on onesies and shirts with sassy phrases like: "My uncle spoils me", "Center of attention", and "I'm Daddy's favorite".
Santana and Brittany put together a basket of bath products with zoo animal-themed towels. Inside the card that came with it, Santana included a handmade coupon for, "A lifetime supply of chapstick from Auntie Tana." Sam pursed his lips at her and she merely shrugged and smirked back, "Your kids will thank me one day, Trouty."
Another basket full of bubble bath, bath salts, bath oils and candles wrapped in cellophane were marked in Quinn's handwriting from her and Finn.
"That's for you two," Quinn informed them with a soft smile as she rubbed her daughter's back. "And when Sophia gets too big for her clothes, we'll be happy to pass them on to Ariesa if you guys want them."
Mercedes blew a kiss to her blonde bestie and thanked her and Finn before going on to the next gift. Burt and Carole had given them an envelope with a receipt for two airline tickets enclosed. Sam and Mercedes both stared in confusion at the Hummel couple.
"Well, we both know that sometimes raising kids can be a little overwhelming, and with you two being out in California…" Carole trailed off on her explanation but Burt picked up the slack.
"We bought the tickets for ourselves to come out and visit. We'd done this for Kurt and Blaine, and now Finn and Quinn have one too. Anytime you kids need a little break, give us a call and we'll fly out there for a few days."
Mercedes smiled and pushed herself up off the couch, stepping over the remaining gifts to hug and thank Finn and Kurt's parents. Sam followed after her to do the same. Dwight and Mary also quietly thanked Burt and Carole—to this day they'd remained grateful friends to the couple for allowing Sam to live with them for the remainder of his senior year.
Once the cake slices had been distributed and all the gifts had been opened, Mercedes spoke up, claiming everyone's attention.
"I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone, on Sam and my behalf—not only for coming today but for being an important part of our lives, and our kids'. Mom and Mrs. Evans, thank you for putting this shower together for us. And to all our friends just…" her emotions got the better of her and she began to tear up, "I love you all, and I know Ariesa and Dante are gonna have the best role models to look up to, in all of you."
I decided to skip writing about Christmas since this chapter ended up being longer than I'd planned. Next chapter will be Mercedes' interview on a talk show! :) Please leave reviews! Any guesses as to who the talk show host/hostess will be? Let me know!
*Song lyrics mentioned in this chapter: "Is This Love" by Bob Marley