“Sweetheart, please don’t cry. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. This whole thing is dumb. I don’t even know why I’m crying.”
“I’m sure it’s perfectly normal. It’s just…well, it’s just your hormones are all out of whack right now.”
I started crying even harder.
“Nicole,” he said hugging me. He didn’t finish his thought. He just kept holding me, and I slowly gained my composure.
I snuggled my head in Jake’s chest, and everything just melted away. I don’t know how much time passed, but we stayed like that for a while.
Before I knew it, it was time to head up to bed.
“So, did you have a tough day?” Jake asked as we crawled under the covers.
“No, not really. I mean, right now every day is uncomfortable, but it wasn’t really a bad day. I just can’t wait for…Evan…to be born.”
“That’s the first time you’ve called the baby Evan.”
“Yeah, it felt kind of nice. It makes it a little more real.”
“It’s going to be very real very soon.”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling at him.
“I love you. Sleep well.”
“I’ll try,” I said as he gave me a kiss goodnight.
Chances were slim to none I was going to sleep well tonight. I haven’t really slept well in weeks. Normally, I would sleep on my back, which I can’t do being this far along in my pregnancy. I’ve had to sleep on my left side to keep the blood circulating, and I’m just not used to doing that.
As I lay in bed in the dark, I started thinking about the day. It had gone fairly smoothly for most of the day. At lunch time, Jake and I had an ultrasound and got to see the baby. That has been my favorite part of the week these days. The doctor said that the baby looked strong and healthy, which is always a relief.
As the day went on, it just seemed like all of the little things started to build up. When Jake called to tell me he was going to be late, that was kind of the icing on the cake.
Jake and I have been married for almost four years. We were originally going to wait until we were done with college, but after our junior year, we decided it was time.
Sometimes we have disagreements. I mean, we grew up with different family lives, so we are naturally going to see things differently. Sometimes. Over the last nearly eight years we’ve been together, we have grown to share a lot of the same interests, and we agree on most of the big issues in our lives. It wasn’t always that way, but when you are together with someone for so long, you learn to compromise.
That’s what has made it so hard lately. It has seemed exceedingly difficult to be on the same page with Jake. What should be little things have been big things, and it has just felt like he has been very insensitive. He probably hasn’t been as thoughtless as it has seemed, but that hardly made me feel better. If he only knew what it was like to be in my shoes, maybe he would have had a different respect for what I have been feeling. Every man should have to spend some time in their wives’ shoes so they could understand exactly what we have to go through.
It definitely has not been easy being pregnant. As much as I’m looking forward to baby Evan coming into our lives, I am just as excited to get my body back to normal. It will be nice not to feel short of breath so much. I’ll probably feel light on my feet, too.
I was feeling unusually drowsy as I allowed my mind to wander. Maybe tonight I would actually get some sleep. I can only hope.
DAY 2813
As the alarm clock went off, I slowly opened my eyes. I was staring at myself. Uh-oh.
~~~~
This book was set in Times New Roman, 11 point font
Headings were set in Garamond, 14 point font (bold)
Nicole’s mother’s note was set in Brush Script MT, 11.0 point font (italicized)
Nicole’s signature was set in Kunstler Script, 11 point font
About the Author
Adrian Stephens was born in southern California, but has lived most of his life in Las Vegas, NV, where he currently resides with his wife, Cristy, and two children, Bailey and Brendan. Adrian never had an interest in reading for fun until his brother, Dustin, bought him the first six books of the Harry Potter series for Christmas in 2006. He read the entire set in less than a month, and never stopped reading. A few years later, the first of several story ideas came to Adrian, with this novel being the first to be completed.
In My Shoes Page 29