by Holly Rayner
"Are you sure you're okay, Mia?" Rami spoke from the doorway as Mia sat on the bathroom floor, slumped over the toilet for the third time that morning.
"Do I look okay?" Her voice came out harsher than she intended, but she felt so exhausted that she couldn't make herself apologize for it. "I feel like someone dropped a damn boulder on me and told me to swim upstream."
"I think you should see Dr. Farber," Rami said firmly. Mia groaned, another wave of nausea washing through her.
"I think I need to see an exorcist," she told him, hanging her head over the toilet bowl.
"Wait, wait," Rami cried.
Mia swallowed, turning her head to look at Rami, hearing the excitement in his voice. "What? Make it fast, I'm going to puke again in like, a minute." Rami came into the bathroom proper, sinking down onto his knees next to her.
"Think about it for just a second," he told her, his voice almost shaking. "You've been sick every morning this week. You're better in the afternoons. You're tired all the time, and yesterday you cried over that Petco commercial."
"That commercial is so sad though!" Mia frowned in irritation, even as the import of Rami's words began to sink in. He was right; she was only sick in the mornings, she was exhausted, and felt as if any little thing might make her cry.
Mia's mouth fell open and she stared at Rami. "I think?I think I have a pregnancy test in my purse," she said quickly.
"You carry one around in your purse?" Rami shook his head in amazement at her. "You really have been dedicated to giving me a kid."
"It's from before," Mia said. She hadn't given any further thought to becoming pregnant once she and Rami's relationship had become something that went far deeper than business. They had decided after their first night together that they would wait the full two months before talking to Dr. Farber again about starting IVF once more. Now-if Rami's suspicion was correct-they might have a reason to call her sooner that they'd expected.
Rami stood quickly and left the bathroom. Mia sat up, put down the seat and flushed the toilet to dispose of the last of the evidence of her illness. Either she had completely taken care of the nausea with her vomiting or the excitement of possibly being pregnant was enough to suppress the sickness. As she struggled to get up onto her feet, before sinking down to perch on the edge of Rami's bathtub, she realized she no longer felt the dreadful lurch in her stomach.
Rami returned after a moment, holding a slim box that bore the logo of one of the most sensitive pregnancy tests on the market. He opened it and spilled the contents out onto the countertop, looking at Mia. "Have you already peed this morning?" Mia tilted her head to the side, giving him a long look.
"I am not doing this in front of you," she said.
"I have seen every inch of your body," Rami argued. "And now you're getting squeamish about peeing in front of me?"
"Yes! That's-that's completely different!" Mia blushed, looking away.
Rami could see Mia wasn't about to change her mind. "Okay, fine, but as soon as you start the timer, you're going to let me in, right?" Mia grinned. One thing had improved immeasurably since they had become boyfriend and girlfriend, rather than just being a client and a contractor: she won far more arguments.
"I'll let you in as soon as I'm ready," Mia said, gesturing for him to leave. Rami looked for a second as though he might resist, then turned on his heel and left, closing the bathroom door behind him. Mia suspected that he would be waiting just on the other side, but if he could deal with hearing her using the toilet, that was fine by her.
Mia had taken so many pregnancy tests over the course of her partnership with Rami that she didn't need to read the directions, but to help steady her sudden burst of nerves at the prospect of finally being pregnant, Mia forced herself to read them anyway. She took a deep breath and picked up the collection cup, moving to the toilet once more. Instead of hanging over it, she sat down and followed the instructions on the slip.
She dipped the tip of the applicator into the cup, holding it there to make sure it was completely saturated, before replacing the cap and flushing the rest of the "sample" down the toilet. "Okay, five minutes," she called to Rami.
Proving her suspicion, Rami came through the door less than a second after she announced the start of the timer. "If that test isn't positive we are taking you straight to the hospital to see someone," he told her firmly.
"If that test is negative I will let you take me anywhere that promises to make me stop puking in the mornings," Mia agreed. She sat once more on the edge of the tub while they waited for the minutes to tick down, feeling somehow more anxious than she had with any of the previous tests. "It would be kind of funny if it was positive," she said, smiling slightly.
"Why would it be funny? It was kind of the reason we got together."
"Because, you big dope, we haven't even been trying to get pregnant. All that time and money spent on drugs and treatments and you end up knocking me up from purely recreational sex." Rami stared at her for a moment and then laughed out loud, leaning against the wall.
"When you put it that way, yes. Very funny." He shook his head. "All this time and all it would have taken was convincing you to sleep with me a few times. Who'd have thought?"
"We don't know that it's positive yet," Mia said, feeling anxious again. She had been so sure, so many times over the course of their attempts, that she would finally be pregnant; now that she was showing actual symptoms, she couldn't quite let herself believe it was possible.
Rami's phone alarm beeped, and Mia jumped up from her seat on the edge of the tub, hurrying to the counter before Rami could get there. She looked down at the applicator and the answer, printed in black and white on the result window, nearly made her fall to her knees. Pregnant. "Oh. Oh. Oh, my God." She turned and reached for Rami, sagging against him in relief. "We're-I'm-Oh my God, Rami, I'm pregnant." Rami's arms wrapped around her and he brought her closer to him, holding her tight, unable to find the words to express his emotions. For a long time, Mia could do nothing but stand there, letting him support her as a torrent of shock, joy and relief washed through her.
THIRTEEN