Elaine just shrugged following them to a table. They were able to find a waitress and ordered two beers each, and a few more shots. Tasha was quite excited about getting drunk and it didn’t take her long to get there. Two hours in, Elaine was at the table by herself holding purses and the twins were on the dance floor dancing, jumping around and singing along. It was comical to see how they hung onto each other to keep steady and upright. Elaine had drank some, but it would be some time, before she was comfortable with being completely inhibited. Or in the twins’ case, two sheets to the wind. She laughed harder when they wrapped their arms around each other and rocked side to side. They’d garnered some attention too, more stares than anything else. Elaine could just image what they thought, seeing twins dressed identically in black, the only difference was their color shoes. Some of them were probably questioning if they saw double, guys most definitely dreaming up twin ménage fantasies.
Then something changed. Ellie stopped moving, and she pulled away from Tasha, who was busy chewing on her bottom lip.
Oh no. What did she say? Elaine prepared herself for an explosion when Ellie marched determinedly towards her, Tasha chasing behind her. They didn’t look drunk. Whatever Tasha had said, had sobered them up.
Oh boy! Not exactly the way to find out that kind of news, but the cat was out of the bag judging by the dancing tears in Ellie’s eyes.
“Is it true?” she yelled over the music.
“Is what true?” Elaine returned in a normal voice. Ellie glared at her.
“Elaine, I already told her,” Tasha, who’d sidled up to the other side of Elaine, spoke in her ear.
Elaine released an exasperated sigh and said to her, “You’re cut off. No more drinking,” then she turned to Ellie. A few tears had dribbled down her cheeks, and the look of fear in her eyes was too much emotion for Elaine to handle. She took her hands and pulled her closer. “Ellie, for the past two years you’ve been struggling to get pregnant. And I’ve watched how each disappointment killed a little part of you after suffering all those treatments and self-administered injections. It ripped you apart when Tasha announced she was pregnant with twins.” She opened her mouth to argue, but Elaine stopped her, “It’s okay to be angry and resentful especially after what led to your condition. I’m not very good with emotions, and I’m very blunt and direct. Seeing you so heartbroken was making me very uncomfortable.” Ellie chortled then pressed her lips in a shaking smile, “So I directed some of your fertilized eggs to a surrogate agency I hired.”
Ellie gasped, but quickly covered her mouth with her hand. She was shaking all over, and Elaine wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing.
“Is she…is there…” Ellie choked out, and Elaine didn’t need for her to finish to know what she was saying.
“I had two women inseminated just to be safe. Only one of them is pregnant.”
Ellie sobbed then, pulling her hand away from Elaine and pressing both of them over her mouth. Tasha quickly rushed to stand at her side, wrapping her arms around her waist.
Elaine stared at Tasha completely out of her pond. What the hell now? She thought she was doing something good.
“Ellie,” Tasha began softly to her sister, “You are going to have twins in five months.”
Ellie cried openly then, almost taking them both down to the ground. Elaine was now completely confused. But she didn’t have long to dwell on it when she noticed a man come up behind Ellie and pull her and Tasha upright. He held them both in his arms, and she could see in his face he would have rather be holding on one, but Ellie had such a tight grip on Tasha there was no way he would separate the two of them.
Shaking her head, Elaine picked up her shot of Patron and saluted him before she downed it, “Daniel. Long time no see.”
“Elaine, what the hell is wrong now!” he barked at her.
Elaine shrugged, “Not sure. I’m waiting for the water works to stop so that I can find out myself.”
Ellie released Tasha and pulled away from Daniel. Elaine sat very still and waited to see what happened next. Ellie launched herself at her wrapping her arms tightly around her. Elaine was more than shocked by the hug, staring wide-eyed at Tasha and Daniel.
“So, does this mean I did good?” she said into Ellie’s ear.
Ellie chuckled in response and Elaine felt her nod, “Yes big sis, you did good. In fact, you did great.”
Elaine breathed a sigh of relief, “Good. You’re going to have to teach me how to read all these touchy-feely emotions. It was annoying not knowing if you were crying tears of joy or sadness.”
Ellie laughed out loud pulling away, “I’ll help you.”
Elaine nodded completely pulling away, “Just think, you get the babies without the fifty extra pounds, the pains, and aches and you can still drink.”
Ellie shook her head, “Everything is black and white with you?”
She shrugged, “I had to forget about the grey area when I was still pretty young, but I’m willing to learn,” Elaine just hoped everything else she’d forcefully forgotten with that grey area, would stay forgotten. But learning to be emotional again threatened that. Was she willing to risk it?
She watched as Ellie leaped on Daniel, who caught her deftly, his arms going around her waist. She whispered in his ear, and his eyes went wide as saucers then they grew inquisitive as they stared at Elaine. Tasha, on the other hand, was dancing close by, back to being a happy drunk, but even more intoxicated with the happy mood. Daniel gave Ellie one last squeeze and a kiss on the cheek before he let her go. He amazed Elaine when he leaned down to hug and kiss Tasha’s cheek before Ellie pulled her back onto the dance floor.
“May I?” Daniel pointed at the empty table stool.
Elaine nodded, staring after the twins. Their dancing and singing was ten times more than what it was before.
“That was a really good thing that you did,” Daniel spoke drawing her attention. She was startled a little. She hadn’t noticed how close he had placed himself to her. She pushed her half empty beer bottle away.
“I got the feeling you were more surprised by the fact I did something so…” she paused looking for the right word.
“Selfless? Sweet? Kind? Caring? Completely unlike you?” Daniel filled in for her with a very dangerous smile on his lips.
Why was I noticing his lips?
“Uhm, yeah… but it isn’t exactly completely unlike me.” A doubting brow went up, and she had to laugh. “Okay, maybe a little, but I wasn’t always so cold and calculating.”
He lifted the beer bottle to his lips, and she watched him drink it down for five seconds. He pulled it away and his lips were left wet and pinker. Why was she looking at his lips again?
“Really?” he asked continuing the conversation.
“Yeah, I was worse. But then I met Ellsa…” Argh! Was that even a safe topic to discuss? She looked at him, but he just smiled.
“It’s okay. I’ve made peace with who she is now and who she used to be. But I have to say I’m intrigued by what kind of inspiration Ellsa was in your life.”
She rolled her eyes, “She was the modern day hero, then they placed those chips in her head, and I was assigned to babysit her. Make sure she didn’t expose herself, if she had an episode.”
“Episode? The fainting and waking up with no memory thing?”
He was quite interested more now, than he was before, the first time she was trying to explain years ago. Maybe if she told him the whole truth she could eliminate any hang up he might have. Even though he said he was cool now, there was always that one hang up.