13. Gender time already?

Mateo read the message from Jessica before he quickly looked up as the front door knob turned indicating it was opening. Automatically knowing it was Sofia since they were the only two with a key to the place.

He locked his phone as he sat it down, watching her as she walked in. She looked over at him not saying anything as she made her way up the stairs. He quickly followed after her, "Sofia."

It had been over a week and he hadn't heard anything from her and that wasn't normal for them. The longest they went without talking was a couple of days, it never lasted a week.

"Mateo, leave me alone." She let out. "I'm getting some clothes and I'm leaving. I'll eventually be over to clear all my stuff out."

That was the last thing he wanted to hear. "Sofia, no. Can we at least talk?"

She stopped pulling some of her clothes out as she looked at him. "Talk about what Mateo? You got a girl pregnant. And that girl isn't me and you just want me to stick around? That shit hurts," her voice cracked. You could hear the pain.

"I thought about it, I really did. Because I love you and you're literally like the best thing that has ever happened to me. But I can't Mateo. I can't look at another woman having the baby I'm supposed to be having. I can't look at her knowing she has half of me, that she has a part of you that I don't. I can't look at a child that is half you and half another woman." Tears were falling at this point.

Mateo got it. He understood where she was coming from but that didn't make it hurt less for him. She wiped at the tears. "I can't face the humiliation. Granted you say it happened during our break who would believe that when people don't even know we've ever broken up?"

"Fuck what people think!" He let out. "We know what's real."

She turned back to pulling out clothes as she shook her head. "Please Sofia," he neared her. "Please, give it a shot. Don't walk away without trying."

She stood still for a second as she continued to face the closet, closing her eyes as tears fell and her thoughts rumbled around in her head. "I'll think about it," she let out.

But he knew her, her "I'll think about its" typically meant no. Anytime her friends asked her to do something and she said that she more than likely wasn't going to do it.

But he didn't push it today, it was better than no.

—

Mateo and his mother were on the way to Jessica's they landed about 45 minutes prior and had rented a car.

His mother looked over at him, the whole way to San Francisco she could tell something was wrong with her son. "Hijo, que pasa?" She questioned in Spanish.

He looked over at her taking his eyes off the road for a second. One hand on the steering wheel the other arm resting on the console as his fingers rubbed his chin. He was deep in thought before she pulled him out. He shook his head before focusing back on the road.

"Mateo, somethings wrong. Talk to me."

He shook his head again. "Just Sofia."

"Ah," his mother let out understanding.

He nodded as he neared Jessica's place. He was picking her up and then they were heading straight to her appointment that was in less than thirty minutes.

"Well I know you're hurting. But we're about to walk into a joyous moment of finding out the gender of your baby. So try to push it out of your mind or at least to the back of your mind." She rubbed his arm as he pulled up in front of Jessica's apartment complex. He sent her a quick text telling her to come down as he laid his head back on the headrest.

"I'll try," he let out as he slightly turned towards his mother. But he couldn't help but to think that if it wasn't for this child his relationship would still be in tact. But he knew he couldn't blame his child for his actions. So he quickly wiped the selfish thought out of his mind feeling bad for even thinking it.

Within about five minutes Jessica was walking out. Her curls flying freely as she had on some simple khaki pants that resembled the look of joggers and a white tee in which you could see her small baby bump pushing through.

It caused Mateo to do a double take, actually seeing the baby bump forreal through clothes for the first time. She always had little bump under the shirt but it was like it had doubled in size from when he saw her a few weeks ago.

"Aw," his mother let out. "She's beautiful and she looks like she's carrying so well." She smiled as she watched Jessica walk to the car.

Mateo sat up, "yeah, that baby bump wasn't protruding like that last time." He couldn't lie and say it didn't change his mood a little because he did. Though it hurt to lose his girl, he was excited about this child.

Jessica quickly walked to the backseat as his mother opened her door, "no, no. You sit up here." Jessica shook her head no. "No it's fine! I'm fine." She opened the back door and quickly slid in.

Mateo looked back at her and then at her stomach. "That shit crazy," he let out. "Sorry mama," he quickly countered due to him cussing.

Jessica already knew what he was talking about as she laughed. "I know. Came overnight." She rubbed her belly.

"Well mama, this is Jessica. Jessica this is my mother, Catalina."

They smiled at one another. "So nice to finally meet you," Jessica let out. "He talks about you a lot."

His mother blushed as she looked at her son. He shook his head as he looked at Jessica. "You shouldn't have told her that." Causing everybody in the car to laugh.

Jessica and Catalina had small conversation as Mateo drove to the doctors office.

Once they got there and got checked in they didn't have that long of a wait until they were called back. The ultrasound technician had small conversation with her before having her lay down. Mateo and his mother stood beside her.

Mateo had his hands tucked in his pockets, his strong jaw tightened with anticipation as his mother stood there with a smile.

The ultrasound technician started moving the Doppler around after she put the jelly on Jessica's belly. She took different pictures as she went. Mateo was astonished at the growth of the baby from the last time.

"Okay," the technician smiled. "Ready to see what you're having?"

Everyone nodded in anticipation. As they all looked at the screen as she moved around. "They have their legs open today. Not so shy like they were last time," she laughed as everyone laughed lightly with her. She zoomed in on their private area. "It looks like it's a..."

Before she could even say it everybody already knew what it was by looking at the screen.

"Boy." Everyone said in unison as she stopped taking a picture of it to go along with the other pictures she took.

"Wow, easily can tell it's a boy." Jessica let out in astonishment. She looked at Mateo with a smile, "we got what we wanted."

He nodded as he held a big smile on his face. They both looked over at his mother who had tears coming to her eyes. She was so happy and excited to have a baby around. "Mama, stop." Mateo let out as he pulled her into a hug.

The technician cleared off Jessica's belly and cleaned up the area before walking out. "I'll have those pictures for you shortly." She let out with a smile.

"Can you show me the bathroom?" Catalina asked her as she nodded and Catalina walked out with her.

Jessica got up off the table. "How you feel?" She had a smile on her face as his phone went off.

He paused on responding to her once he saw it was Sofia. He quickly opened the message. I just wish it was me who was pregnant.

Another one came through. It just hurts, I truly believe you didn't cheat and that it happened during one of our short breaks - too short for you to even be entertaining anyone else. But I'll digress on that for right now. Because that's not what's hurting me the most. It hurts knowing you got someone else pregnant. Especially when we aren't the most safe in our doings and we've never even had a scare.

Was she saying she wanted to be pregnant? They hadn't talked about having kids anytime soon. Just as he thought it she sent a third message before he could respond, she was venting to him. She was typing whatever was coming to mind. And I know we haven't talked about having kids anytime soon but Mateo, I wanted to be the mother of your kids. The mother of your first, and your last and everything in between. Whether it was now or years down the road. And it's like you just took that opportunity from me and it hurts.

It lowkey crushed his heart reading the messages, he felt bad. Bad as hell. In his mind that was how everything was going to go, it was how everything was supposed to go. He looked up at Jessica who was patiently waiting on him. "I wish this was Sofia, instead of you." He let out without even thinking.

The small smile she had on her face dropped as she gave him a small nod with an "oh," and turned to exit the room. Leaving him standing there.