by Lund, S. E.
“I am,” Luke said. “Unless you don’t want me to, but sweetheart, I’ve been up close and personal with your lady parts. You have no reason to be embarrassed.”
“Peeing isn’t the same as sex,” I said with a smile.
“Go ahead,” he said. “If you insist, I’ll turn my back while you pee.”
“Okay,” I said and waved at him while I took the test out of the box and read the directions. “You can turn around while I pee.”
He did, his back to me.
After reading the test instructions twice, I pulled down my undies and peed on the test stick as described.
Then, I replaced the cap and placed the test stick on the counter.
“Three minutes,” I said to Luke. He turned around as I was flushing the toilet. “We have to wait three minutes.”
I washed my hands while Luke bent over the stick, like he was trying to see if there was a single pink line or two.
“It’s too soon to check,” I said and smiled. “Three minutes. I’m going back to bed.”
I went into the bedroom and laid back down on the bed, pulling the covers over me. “I’m calling in sick.”
“Okay,” Luke said and followed me to the bed. He laid on the bed beside me after placing the test on the bedside table. “We’ll wait together and spend the day together either way.”
His cell alarm went off and he sat up and picked up the test stick.
“Here goes everything,” he said and turned on the bedside light.
He held it out for me.
“Oh, my God,” I said, staring at the two pink lines. I glanced at Luke, who was smiling smugly.
“My boys work,” he said and leaned down to kiss me. “I hate to think of it that way, but you never know until you know.” He kissed me, again and again, laughing. “I’m going to be a father. You’re going to be a mother. We’re going to be parents.”
I was surprised at the glee on his face. He was actually happy about the news.
“You’re happy,” I said, swallowing back my nausea.
“I am,” he said and lay back down beside me. “I mean, it’s sooner than we planned, but we were planning on it eventually.”
He pulled me into his arms, but at that moment, a wave of nausea swept through me and I had to push him away.
“Sorry,” I said and jumped up and ran to the bathroom. I stood over the toilet and dry-heaved. I had nothing in my stomach so there was nothing to come up, but I felt horrible.
He followed me and popped his head inside the bathroom. “Are you okay? Can I get you something? The ice bucket?”
I shook my head and sat on the toilet after I closed the lid.
“I don’t have anything in my stomach. It’s just the dry heaves.”
“More Dramamine?”
“Is it safe for pregnant women?” I asked.
“I’ll check.”
Luke left the bathroom and brought his iPad over, searching on Google for the drug information.
“It says here that there have been no studies showing any danger to the mother or developing fetus from use of the active ingredient. You can take it.”
I reached for the package, which was sitting on the bathroom counter, making a face at the prospect of actually chewing it and swallowing.
“Can you get me the water?”
Luke brought me the bottle of water and I popped the tablet in my mouth and chewed, making a face as I did from the sickly-sweet taste. I washed it down with some water and sat for a moment, recovering.
“How long does morning sickness last?” I asked.
“Usually over at twelve to fourteen weeks,” Luke said, showing me the page on the internet he’d found.
“Oh,” I said and frowned. “Another six to eight weeks of this? How will I survive?” I stood and walked back to bed, lying down and pulling the covers up around me.
Luke sat on the bed beside me, still searching the internet.
“It says here that you should eat dry toast or crackers in the morning,” he said and pointed to a website. “You should eat in bed first thing, so you have something in your stomach to absorb the stomach acid. You’re supposed to eat frequent meals that are smaller rather than three squares. Drink plenty of water. Eat fruits and vegetables that are easy to digest. Avoid pungent or unpleasant smells. Use peppermint aromatherapy. Drink ginger tea. Take Vitamin B6.”
“Okay,” I said listlessly. “Can you get me some crackers and ginger tea?”
“Coming right up,” he said and jumped up like he was excited to be my nurse. “I’ll go right down to the restaurant and get it now, rather than wait for room service. Be right back.”
“Okay,” I said and closed my eyes. The wave of nausea had passed and now I was just tired. Incredibly tired.
I dozed while Luke went on his mission to get me crackers and ginger tea. When he arrived back about fifteen minutes later, I opened my eyes when he came into the bedroom, a tray in hand.
“I got this from the people at the restaurant downstairs. They were nice enough to fix you a tray. Here,” he said while I sat up in bed and put pillows behind my back. “This is a special tray for use in bed.” He folded down the legs and placed it over my lap.
“Thanks,” I said and looked at the piece of dry whole wheat toast, the package of honey and the cup with an herbal ginger tea bag and pot of hot water.
I actually felt somewhat better when I smelled the ginger tea after I’d poured the hot water over the bag.
“This actually smells good,” I said and put some honey into the cup.
“Put some of the honey on your toast to make it go down more easily,” he said. “The manager of room service said honey gives you instant blood sugar and will make you feel better.”
I smiled at the expression on Luke’s face. He seemed to like looking after me.
“You like this,” I said while I spread some honey on the toast, which was pretty much cold by then. “Being my nursemaid.”
“It’s a new look I’m trying out. It might just come in handy over the next few weeks.”
He grinned at me.
“Ugh…” I took a bite and made a face, for the toast was dry and even the honey didn’t appeal to me. “If I have to deal with this for six weeks, I’ll lose weight.”
“Apparently, some women do during the first eight to twelve weeks. Remember, the embryo is pretty tiny right now. Not much happens in terms of size until about sixteen weeks, when it’s between four and six inches in length. You don’t get to claim you’re eating for two until it’s about six months along.”
“Aww, shucks. I was hoping to start pigging out as soon as my morning sickness is over.”
I shoved a piece of toast in my mouth and bit, chewing with effort, then chasing it down with a gulp of ginger tea. After I finished, I laid back in my bed and closed my eyes.
“How are you feeling?” Luke asked, taking my hand.
“I feel like I could sleep for twenty-four hours. Can you bring me my phone? I’ll have to call Professor Gibson and let her know that I’m going to miss class.”
“Sure.”
Luke went to where my cell was charging and disconnected it from its charging station. He sat on the bed beside me and I took the phone, searching through my contacts until I found Professor Gibson’s number.
I texted her a short message that I was sick and wouldn’t be in class, asking for any readings that were assigned for the following week that weren’t on the syllabus.
Then I lay back and closed my eyes.
“This will pass,” he said and took my hand once more, stroking it. “Just another six weeks or so. Piece of cake.”
“Don’t mention cake,” I said and made a face of disgust.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said with a laugh and leaned down to nuzzle me, his nose in the crook of my neck. “I won’t mention food again. Can I get you anything? Ginger ale? Peppermint tea?”
I sighed, my eyes still closed. “Ugh.”
I heard him
chuckle. “Do you want me to leave you alone? Or do you want me to stay in here with you? We could watch television.”
“If you need to go to work, go ahead. You don’t have to stay here and look after me. I’ll be fine.”
“No way,” he said and lay down, propping a pillow behind his head. “I’m here for the long term. I’ll watch the news. John and I can text if he needs anything from me. If we need to talk, we can Skype.”
For the rest of the day, we stayed in bed, with me dozing on and off, my nausea gradually lessening as the day wore on. By three in the afternoon, I felt totally normal and was able to eat an actual meal of chicken, salad and a whole wheat bun.
“You looked hungry,” Luke said, watching while I ate my meal brought up by the room service staff.
“I was hungry. It smelled good and I actually wanted to eat it. Thank God. Maybe my morning sickness really will only be in the morning. I could work around it if so. I can talk to my advisor and see if I can switch my office hours and maybe I can drop my morning class and take one later in the day.”
“I’m sure if you explain, they’ll try to accommodate you.”
I shrugged. “They don’t expect students to get married and have babies. They expect doctoral students to be focused on study.”
“We’ll make it work,” Luke said, his voice firm. “Don’t stress about it.”
He leaned over and kissed me, then took our meal trays away and placed the serving cart they came on outside of the room.
“You’ve got to call Candace and your parents, get them to come for the wedding. Will you tell them you’re pregnant or wait?”
I made a face, not sure what to do. “Maybe we should wait. I mean, considering how many conceptions fail to come to term, I might be getting them all excited over nothing.”
“We’re still getting married,” Luke said, frowning. “I don’t want to wait. I want to marry you anyway, so we’ll go ahead, and we’ll tell everyone you’re pregnant when you’re more like twelve weeks along.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait?” I asked. “Your mother will hate it when she finds out I’m pregnant. She’ll claim I trapped you into marrying me.”
Luke took my face in his hands and looked in my eyes. “Alexa, I’m marrying you because I love you, not because it’s the right thing to do. We can get married tomorrow at the justice of the peace, and I’ll be just as happy as if we had a big formal wedding. How we do it is up to you. There’s nothing my mother can do that can stop us from marrying. She’s out of my life. It was her choice and she can live with it.”
I smiled finally. “Okay. We’ll get married. Not tomorrow. I want my parents to come and I want Candace there. Plus, Dana and James. John and Greg. Jan and Mara.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe. He’s my father’s best friend and if my father’s coming, he should have someone on his side.”
“Will your father come?”
“He will,” Luke said. “I know he’ll want to be there. He’ll want to be there to see Dana and Jamie.”
I smiled and exhaled, feeling like maybe, just maybe, it would all work out.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Luke
I couldn’t not tell Dana.
Of all the people in my life, she was the closest outside of Alexa and John. I had to tell John, too, but I told Dana first. While Alexa was on campus, I drove over to Dana’s for a visit. As soon as we were sitting down with a cup of coffee, I told her.
Flat out. “Alexa’s pregnant.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Oh, my God!” She gave me a huge hug and kiss. “Alexa’s pregnant?”
“She is and I have a receipt for a pregnancy test and a box of Dramamine to prove it.”
She covered her heart with a hand. “Your baby will be what – a year old when Jamie is just two and a half years old?”
“Yes,” I said, doing a quick calculation in my head.
“They can play together,” Dana said, staring off into the distance. “I want them to be close. Real friends. Cousins like we never had.”
“They will be,” I said and laughed, glad she was so glad. “We’ll make sure of it. I know Alexa will be happy to have someone else to talk to who has gone through this.”
“How is she? How far along?”
“She’s just a few weeks and has morning sickness.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. I sure know about that. Tell her to drink lots of peppermint tea. That worked for me. Tell her she can have all my maternity tops and pants if she wants. They’re all still in really good shape, and I won’t be using them again. Oh, I can’t wait to talk to her. When will you two come over for a visit? Come over on Sunday and we’ll have Sunday Dinner. Roast beef and roasted potatoes. How does that sound?”
She jumped up and down and waved her hands. “Oh, I’m so happy!”
“We’re going to get married in two weeks,” I said. “At the beach house. We’re going to have a small wedding – just family and friends.”
“Oh, good! Tell Alexa if she wants, I can help her with that, too. How is she handling morning sickness and classes?”
“She’s taking it easy in the mornings, because that’s when she feels sick, but she’s better around noon or so. She’s going to rearrange her schedule, so her classes are in the afternoon.”
“Poor thing,” Alexa said.
We spent the next hour talking about the wedding and baby while I held little Jamie. While Dana talked about all the fun we’d have with our children, I played with him, imagining having my own son or daughter. At that point, I didn’t care what we had as long as it was healthy. Girl, boy – twins. It was all good.
I checked my watch. “Well, I have a meeting now at the office. We’ll come by on Sunday afternoon and spend the evening with you.”
“Okay,” she said and gave me a big hug and kiss. “I’m so happy for you both.”
“We’re happy, too,” I said and squeezed her, kissing little Jamie before I left. It was so nice to know she was as happy as I was.
I’d tell John while I was at the office. I knew he’d be happy as well. He was always really positive about getting married and starting a family. In fact, he couldn’t wait to start his own, but unfortunately, hadn’t found the woman yet.
The limo took me to the office, not far from the old one John used to work from, close to Columbia. I knocked on John’s door and popped my head inside.
“You ready for me?”
John nodded and finished typing something on his computer.
“Come in, have a seat. I’ve been going over my notes before you arrived.” He turned to me after I sat in the chair facing his desk. “So, what’s first on the agenda? The specs from Walter? Or financing?”
“Alexa’s pregnant.”
His mouth opened, his eyes wide. “What?”
I smiled. “Seven weeks, so we really shouldn’t be telling anyone, so keep it quiet for now. I’ve told Dana but no one else besides you. Just in case.”
“Of course,” John said and looked me over, his eyes still wide. “Your mother’s going to freak.”
“Fuck her,” I said, my anger at her attempts to break up our relationship still close to the surface. “She’s out of my life, as far as I’m concerned.”
“What about your father?”
I shrugged. “I haven’t told him yet, so we’ll wait and see. He said my mother would soften when she learns our first baby has been born, so he’ll probably be happy.”
“I’m so sorry that your mother is being such a…”
John hesitated, but I didn’t. I finished his sentence for him.
“A first-rate bitch?”
“Your words, not mine. But, yeah. She’s only hurting herself. It’s not like you two would break up because she’s unhappy. So, all of her tantrums are for nothing. I don’t get it. There’s nothing wrong with Alexa. In fact, you two are really good together.”
“We are,” I said and leaned back in the chair, my frustration at my mother’s me
ddling still high. “That’s all that really matters. It’s not like Alexa’s some hillbilly with no education. She’s doing her PhD in International Relations at Columbia for fuck’s sake. Her father was an air force captain and manages an airport. They’re good wholesome middle-class stock.”
“They’re decent people, which is more than I can say for some of your family’s friends and acquaintances.”
“Exactly,” I said. “When I think of all the cheating and lying and fraud that’s gone on among my father’s friends and business partners, it makes Alexa’s family look like saints.”
“So,” John said and leaned back in his chair, his fingers entwined. “Alexa’s pregnant. When are you going to make an honest woman out of her? Have you set a wedding date? I’m the best man, I hope…”
“Of course, you are. We’re getting married next weekend at the beach house. You’re welcome to bring a date.”
“Felicia?” John asked.
“Of course, if she wants to come with you. Are you two a thing?”
“Maybe,” John said with a grin.
“Well, at least her mother will be off my back if she thinks she has you in her claws.”
“Felicia’s a beautiful woman and really sweet,” John said. “We have fun together.” He smiled to himself and that was when I knew he was happy with her.
“She is beautiful and sweet,” I said, feeling awkward that I hadn’t been into her, although John always seemed to be.
“She’s not sarcastic enough for you,” John said and smiled.
“No, not nearly,” I said with a laugh. “Alexa, on the other hand…”
John laughed with me. “You two were made for each other.”
“We were,” I said. “We are.”
I smiled, thinking of Alexa’s wit. It was definitely something that made it work between us.
“So, wedding next Saturday, and then what? You guys are moving into your apartment soon, right? What about a honeymoon?”
“That will have to wait until her morning sickness is better. Maybe we’ll take off to a tropical paradise for Thanksgiving. Her morning sickness should be gone by then.”
“You should fly to Tahiti. It would be poetic for you to spend your honeymoon there, since it’s where you got engaged.”