Sleep On It

“Jonah, we need to talk.”

Jonah just barely finished saying hello before I cut him off. He was still in the doorway entering our apartment when he paused to scrunch his lips at my request. It was later than usual, but I could tell he was coming straight from work because he was still wearing his Ray-Ban eye glasses, which he only did when he spent hours in front of a screen writing.

“Okay...” His voice drifted as he shut the door behind him. I waited for him to walk over to the empty dinner table. He pulled out a chair and gestured for me to sit and then did the same. Jonah's elbows perched up on the table as he folded his arm, one over the other. “...Shoot.”

I inhaled a long breath and slowly blinked my eyes for emphasis. “You're mom called...”

I wasn't even finished with my sentence before his ears perked up and he immediately jumped to conclusions. “Is she okay? What happened?”

I held up my hand and smirked. “She's fine” He sunk back into his chair waiting for me to continue. “She...I don't know how to say this.” I bit my lip as I tried to figure out the right words to say. Jonah's chin jolted forward in anticipation. I sighed and just blurted it out any which way it came. “She wants me to convert, like, before the baby and the wedding.”

“She said that?” Jonah looked at me confused.

“She suggested I take a more serious,” I air quoted the word “look into considering it because I'm not the only one it'll be affecting.”

Jonah sighed and rubbed his forehead before he took off his glasses and began rubbing his eyes. The mumbles under his breath were barely audible.

I waited a few seconds for him to wrap his head around it, but he still hadn't said anything.

“So...” I tapped my fingers on the table. “Crazy right?”

“I don't know” He declared. “I don't know” he repeated. And then again a couple more times. The palm of his hands laid on the table has he pushed himself up off the chair.

“Where are you going?” I asked, confused. “We're not done talking.”

Jonah was already half way to our bedroom. He turned around. “Anything other than conversion talk?”

I thought about it for a second, “no”

“Okay” He took his shirt off as he continued on his way to the bedroom. “I have to take a shower. We'll talk about this later.”

All I wanted was a little bit of thought from Jonah's end to help me figure out where I should even start with my decision. Looks like I wasn't going to get what I was searching for. I dropped my head onto my folded arms as I groaned.

The next morning I tried to get a hold of Jaime. He didn't answer my call and I knew he wasn't working. I hadn't seen him since the incident at his parents place the week before. I wanted to make sure everything was okay and maybe, if the moment was right, tell him about my run in with Henry.

I grabbed a box of doughnuts and a couple of coffees before I headed up to his apartment where I waited for him to answer his door.

I knocked again. Silence.

I was starting to get worried when I remembered Jaime kept a spare key hidden on top of his door frame. I put my things down and jumped up to grab it. Although my pregnancy weight still wasn't visible, it was the first time I definitely felt it.

I unlocked the door and opened it slowly hoping to see Jaime, but he wasn't there. The place looked like someone was living there, so it's not like he ran off without me knowing. I sighed as I left the box of doughnuts and his coffee on his kitchen counter and walked away.

That's when I heard a noise. I turned towards Jaime's bedroom and began walking in its direction. “Jaime?” I called out and I heard a noise again. I felt like I was maybe two and a half seconds away from panicking. For all I knew someone could have beaten Jaime up and left him tied up in his bedroom. “Jaime!” I called out louder this time.

His bedroom door was slightly open, so I very cautiously pushed the door and stood back in anticipation of fighting off some sick freaky serial rapist who was torturing my best friend.

“Oh my God!” I yelled as I covered my face with my hands. The last thing I was expecting, and yet the most logical, was seeing Jaime in bed with Henry. Thankfully nothing was going on, but just the thought that I invaded their privacy took me back.

“Lynn?” Jaime called out as he jumped out of bed and threw a t-shirt on.

“Oh my God” I repeated. “This is deja vu! I'm so sorry, J! I'm leaving, I'm leaving!” My face was still covered as I backed away to the front door.

I heard Jaime's voice laugh as his hand grabbed my arm and pulled it away from my face. “It's okay.” He reassured me. “We were just sleeping...see.” I looked over his shoulder to see Henry still in bed, silent, as his chest rose and fell with each breath. He was sound asleep.

“Oh”

“What's going on?” He asked when he finally realized I was in his apartment.

“I tried calling you” He obviously hadn't seen his phone yet by the way he furrowed his brow. “I knocked too and I got worried when you didn't answer. I thought maybe someone hurt you, or I don't know, maybe you hurt yourself.”

Jaime smiled again. “Why would I hurt myself?”

I widened my eyes and looked around. Did he really already forget? “Uh, Jaime, your dad wasn't exactly welcoming you with open arms.”

“Oh” he rubbed the back of his head and sighed. “That”

Jaime went back over to close his bedroom door so Henry wouldn't wake up and the two of us sat in his living room talking about what had happened.

Jaime went on to tell me how he and his mom went back inside to try opening up a little more to his dad, which he did eventually come around, but he still wasn't as accepting of his son as he needed to be.

“I'm sorry” I shrugged my shoulders not knowing what else to say to make him feel better. “So, what's happening here?” I pointed towards his bedroom where Henry was still sleeping.

Jaime rolled his eyes. “Don't ask”

“You know I saw him the other day. He's still with Jebrone.”

“I know...”

“Wasn't the whole point of this...”

Jaime cut me off, “It's complicated. Let's just leave it at that. Speaking of complicated how are things with Mr. Show Biz?”

It was my turn to roll my eyes. “We told his family about the baby this weekend. His mom ended up calling me yesterday and told me I should start thinking more seriously about converting.”

“Wow” Jaime lifted his brows. “That's heavy stuff...I mean, if it even matters to you.” I gave him a look and he went on to explain. “If you're not a religious person than why not? Maybe it'll open your eyes to something new. Or at least you can be supportive of your kid. I mean she'd kinda right, it's gonna have an affect. The moment you become pregnant it's no longer about you.”

We sat and talked through all the possibilities and different scenarios of things that could turn from either decision I made.

Before I left Jaime's place that morning I'd gotten a text from Jonah asking if I wanted to go to dinner. So, that night I met him at our favorite Italian restaurant in the Meat Packing District.

We had already placed out orders when Jonah suddenly cleared his throat and leaned forward.

“I'm sorry we couldn't talk about this last night..” He reached over and grabbed my hand. He looked down at it as he played with my fingers. “I just really needed to sleep on it and figure out how I really felt.”

“I'm not asking you to make the decision for me, Jonah.” I placed my hand over his. “I just want to know how you feel.”

He sighed. “I feel like it's asking a lot.”

“But?” I knew by the expression on his face that there was so much more he wanted to say.

“I'd like if you considered it. I thought about it a lot and I want my son, or daughter, to grow up with the same culture, traditions, experiences as I did, you know what I mean?”

I couldn't blame Jonah, his life involved way more religious events than mine ever could. It just wasn't something my parents where big about. There was the occasional church visit, but that's as far as it went.

Jonah looked up at me with longing eyes. “It would mean the world to me if we were all able to share them together.”