The One I Love

by Mia Ford

  “I miss my puppies,” she whimpered.

  “Well, I’m sure they miss you, too,” I replied. “Get some rest. I’ll check on you at lunch.”

  I hung up the phone and smiled, not because she was sick, but because I got to hear her voice. It had been two months since I went back to her shop and met Mr. Floppy. We actually came to find out a week later that Mr. Floppy was actually a Miss, but either way, I loved that little fur ball. Reese and I had spent almost every day together after that, not wanting to miss a moment of time. Being broken up for less than a day ended up being the worst twelve hours of my life, so I wasn’t willing to be apart from her anymore. Her being sick had actually been the first time in those two months that we were apart, but she insisted, not wanting to give me what she had.

  The day I went back to the shop to get Reese back, I figured out that my feelings for her were intense. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was completely in love with her. I hadn’t told her yet, though. I wanted it to be special, and I wanted to see where things were going to go. By that point, though, sitting there feeling helpless to help her through the sickness, I knew that I couldn’t imagine my life without her, and I knew that my love for her had grown exponentially in a very short amount of time.

  I could see my future with Reese very clearly now, and there was no misconception about what kind of couple we would be. She wanted to see the world, just like I did, and I imagined us hand in hand, exploring the outer reaches of earth, finding new things, experiencing the beauty of life. I had the ability to leave whenever I wanted, and I could easily make her company viable enough to stay in business while we went. She was sick right now, so I wasn’t going to bring it up just yet, but there was no doubt in my mind that she needed to know how much I loved her and where I wanted to take our relationship.

  I shook my head, realizing that I needed to stay focused on my work or I would never get this new project off the ground. I opened up the documents online and began reviewing the protocol that the project management had set up. Everything looked perfect, just as I assumed it would since we had been working on this day in and day out for several months.

  “Mr. Butler,” my secretary said through the intercom. “Mr. Haynes is here to see you.”

  “Send him in,” I said with pleasant surprise in my tone.

  “Caleb,” I said happily as he entered my office.

  “Blaine,” he replied, walking forward and giving me a hug. “It’s good to see you.”

  “You too,” I said, sitting down as he also took a seat.

  “I just figured I’d stop by and see how you were doing,” he said, smiling.

  “I’m really well,” I replied.

  “And Reese?”

  “She’s good, though she has a bit of a stomach bug,” I replied.

  “I thought that season was over.” He chuckled. “Well, I hope she feels better. I’m assuming things are going good between you, then.”

  “Man, it’s fantastic,” I said, smiling.

  “I’m happy to hear that,” he replied. “You really do deserve to be happy. I’ve had the two of you on my mind.”

  “Thank you, that means a lot,” I said, shaking my head.

  “I can already see it.” He chuckled. “The huge wedding you never wanted, only instead of people, there will be about three hundred puppies in attendance.”

  “That sounds like a nightmare,” I said, grimacing.

  “How are you doing with the whole dog thing?”

  “It’s actually going pretty good,” I said, taking in a deep breath. “I made friends with one a couple months back. She’s pretty adorable.”

  “That’s good,” he said, laughing. “Nice to know you’re making friends. And what about work? You haven’t mentioned it at all.”

  “We’re doing phenomenal,” I replied. “We have the new program coming out for release in just a couple months. It’s the replica of the AI system that I made for my house. Reese made me realize it was stupid to keep it to myself. People would love it. The response has been overwhelming, and we already have a quarter of a million pre-orders.”

  “Wow,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s amazing, though it kind of creeps me out. I’m just glad that you found Reese in time.”

  “In time for what?”

  “In time to save you from starting a relationship with your AI,” he said, laughing. “I was starting to get worried about you.”

  “She doesn’t like brunettes,” I said, smiling. “She wasn’t really my type anyway. I like to be able to see the women before I sleep with them.”

  “You didn’t think that way when you were wasted back in the day,” he said, laughing.

  “True, but we all grow up some time,” I replied. “You, on the other hand, will stay a child forever.”

  “Probably,” he said. “Well, listen, I only had a few minutes. I’m on lunch, but I wanted to stop in and get the quick version.”

  “Thanks for coming by, man, I miss seeing you,” I said, standing up and shaking his hand. “We need to get together soon.”

  “We do,” he said. “Get some beers and talk about everything in a less formal setting.”

  “Like the back of a dirty bar,” I said, laughing.

  “Precisely,” he said, walking to the door. “Take care, and tell Reese I said ‘hi.’”

  I nodded my head and watched him walk out the door, always enjoying when he stopped by to just talk. I missed being around him, having drinks with him, and shooting the shit. I intended on keeping my promise to get drinks with him soon. I looked down at my watch and realized it was after twelve. I grabbed my jacket and let my secretary know I was headed to lunch.

  When I got out of the building, I walked down two blocks to this amazing little café and bought a quart of chicken noodle soup and some ginger ale and caught a cab, not wanting to waste time going back to the building for the car. I rode straight to Reese’s apartment, excited to see her, but feeling terrible I had nothing better to offer than soup and soda. I looked up at her apartment window before walking in the main door and climbing the stairs. Hopefully, I wasn’t going to wake her.

  I stood at the door and knocked hard, listening as I heard her tiny footsteps shuffling across the wood floors. She opened the door and stood there staring at me, leaning her head to the side and sighing deeply. She looked terrible, her face the color of paper, her eyes bloodshot, and her hands were shaking. I gave her a sad look and leaned in, kissing her forehead. At least she didn’t seem to have a fever, though that was strange for as sick as she was.

  “You know you shouldn’t be here,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to give you this viral plague. It’s absolutely terrible. You should quarantine me and probably my neighbors, too, because of ventilation.”

  “Nonsense,” I said, walking past her into the apartment. “I brought you soup and some ginger ale.”

  “As much as I appreciate that, I’m holding off on trying any more anything, except water,” she groaned. “I just want like an hour of not puking my guts out.”

  “I’ll put it in the fridge, and you can eat it later,” I said, smiling and walking into the kitchen.

  “Thank you for the thought,” she said, leaning against the doorframe.

  “Come on,” I said, closing the fridge and taking her hands. “Let me tuck you into bed.”

  I walked back to her bedroom and helped her climb into bed, setting her trashcan next to her and pulling the covers up to her chin. She forced a sweet smile as she leaned back into the pillow. I leaned over and kissed her forehead.

  “You have sweet dreams, okay?” I whispered. “I’m going back to work, but if you need anything, just call or text. I will text you when the day is over.”

  She nodded her head and smiled as I turned and walked down the hall and out the front door. I hated to leave her like that, but I really didn’t have a choice. I went back to work and tried to focus, knowing that I had this big project coming closer and closer. On th
e way home from work, I pulled out my cellphone and called Reese, hoping that she was feeling better.

  “Hey,” she said sleepily.

  “Hey there. How are you feeling?”

  “Like hell,” she said. “But I have the Hulk here next to me, keeping me company. He looks pretty sick, too. His skin is green.”

  “You still have your humor intact.” I laughed. “Half alive and you’re cracking jokes. I love it.”

  “You know me.” She chuckled. “But I’m actually feeling tired, so I’m going to lay down and try to sleep.”

  “All right, text me if you need me,” I said. “Miss your face.”

  “Miss yours, too,” she said.

  By the time I was off the phone, my car had arrived at my complex, and I went right up and fixed myself some leftovers from the take-out from the night before. I sat there alone at the table, and I realized just how quiet the apartment was without Reese in it. She really did light up everything she did and everywhere she went. I really missed having her there with me. I had gotten used to her presence and had forgotten what it was like to live by myself.

  After dinner, feeling my body dragging from the amount of work I had done over the last couple of months, I climbed into bed and laid there staring at the ceiling. I could smell Reese’s shampoo on the pillow case, and I sighed, thinking about our future and how much I just wanted to get started on it. I wanted Reese to know how much I adored her and how much everything she did made a difference in my world. I couldn’t wait for her to one day wake up in the bed next to me and not have anywhere to go because she was already home.

  Not now, but someday in the future, I definitely saw us building a family together, living in some big house outside of the city, and having little clones of us running around the house. The sound of our children’s laughter would complete everything, but first, she needed to know how I felt. We had so much time in front of us and so many things I wanted to do, and I couldn’t wait to start doing them with her by my side. Sometimes, I felt like we were frozen, but then I remembered where we were just two months before, and my heart would skip a beat.

  Chapter 22

  Reese

  The cold porcelain of the toilet clung to the skin on my forehead as I rested my head just inches from the water. I reached up and grasped the bowl with my hands and pushed myself upright, flushing the toilet and then leaning back against the wall. I groaned and wiped my forehead on the back of my hand, realizing that through all of this, I still didn’t have a fever. This time was better, though. I managed to make it four hours and a cup of soup without puking, so hopefully some of it got into my system. If not, I was going to start looking like a starving child from a third world country.

  I had been this sick, if not sicker, for three days now, and not once did my body show chills, fever, or any other sign of a virus. I had tried anti-nauseous pills, but I couldn’t get them to stay down long enough to do any good. I was absolutely miserable and had promised Blaine, and myself, that I would go to the doctor soon if this didn’t at least start to ease up some. I did find that the ginger ale that Blaine brought over usually stayed down, so I spent my time carefully sipping on that, wishing that sleep would find me sooner rather than later. I was exhausted, but between the puking and the headache from puking, I couldn’t seem to fall asleep.

  I pulled myself up off the floor and leaned back against the wall, trying to stabilize myself until the dizziness subsided. Slowly, I stood up, reaching my hand out for the doorframe and pulling myself out into the hall. I looked down at my bedroom but decided that I wanted to give watching a movie a try. I shuffled slowly toward the living room, my feet dragging across the cold wood floors until it felt the soft rug beneath my feet. I plopped down on the couch and fell to the side, laying my head on the pillow and pulling the throw over top of me. I couldn’t figure out what the hell was wrong with me, but I knew I couldn’t keep this up for much longer.

  I reached over and grabbed the remote, clicking on the television and stopping at the first movie it fell on. It was an old black and white movie, which was fine since I wasn’t planning on following along too feverishly. To my surprise, though, I found the couch extremely comfortable, and for a few moments, I could feel the rumbling of my stomach subside. I took a deep breath and snuggled down in the couch, hoping that the worst of it was passing. I stared up at the television, feeling the exhaustion hitting me and struggling to keep my eyes open. After a few minutes, I just gave in, letting my body get the rest that it needed.

  I didn’t know how long I had been asleep, but my phone ringing loudly on the coffee table in front of me jolted me awake. I blinked several times, scanning the room and seeing that it was dark outside. I had been asleep all afternoon and into the evening. The movie was over, and there was some sort of infomercial blaring loudly. I reached up, shut the television off, and picked up my phone. I looked down at the screen to see Leena’s number, so I answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Good, you’re still alive,” she said with a deep exhalation. “I was worried about you. I called like five times.”

  “I fell asleep,” I said, yawning and pulling myself up to a seated position. “I actually think the worst of it might have passed. I feel a little bit better.”

  “What is wrong?” she asked. “I mean like, list your symptoms.”

  “Well, I was pretty much nauseous as hell for close to four days,” I said. “I couldn’t keep anything down, not even water, and after heaving over the toilet every thirty minutes, my chest was sore to the touch. Then, from laying around I’m assuming, my lower back was really achy.”

  “So, you were sick to your stomach, your boobs hurt, and your back was sore,” she repeated. “Any fever?”

  “No,” I replied. “That was the weird part. No fever the entire time, or chills for that matter. I didn’t feel sick, other than my stomach.”

  “God, that sounds horrible,” she said. “You either have the death virus, or you’re carrying around a mini-Blaine.”

  “Don’t joke.” I laughed. “Pregnancy is not funny.”

  “Hey, I’m just saying, you’re having sex now, and you’re not on any birth control,” she replied, chuckling.

  “We use protection,” I said.

  “Every time?”

  “Well, there have been a couple times… no. Stop freaking me out.” I laughed.

  We went on with a different conversation, and even though I laughed at her jokes, internally I was having the conversation over again with myself. I tried to figure out when my last period was, but I was always terrible with remembering those things. That was why I marked it on my calendar so I could plan the next month and know when PMS was going to rear its ugly head. I was a grumpy bitch during those times.

  When I got off the phone with Leena, I groaned, pulled myself up from the couch, and shuffled into the kitchen. There was no way that I was pregnant, but just to ease my racing mind, I would prove it to myself by finding that little red “P” that I wrote on the first day of my period every month. I stared at the November page, figuring out what day it was currently. It was the twentieth, so I ran my finger up but didn’t find any “P.” Maybe I just forgot to mark it on the calendar. I flipped back to October and scanned that one too, but the page was completely blank.

  I stepped back and dropped the pages back down, wondering how I could have been so careless as to not make note of my period. Well, if the calendar wouldn’t give me the peace of mind I needed, a pregnancy test should do the trick. I pulled on my hoodie, boots, and gloves and grabbed my wallet, leaving the apartment and going across the street to the drugstore. I grabbed one of the well-known brands of pregnancy tests and checked out, ignoring the smirk on the clerk’s face. As I was walking back across the street, I could feel my breasts pulsing inside of my bra. They were really sore, about three times as sore as when my period would come around.

  I went into the bathroom in my apartment and opened the package, reading the instructio
ns really fast. For some reason, just holding the stick in my hand made me nervous, and I started to question what the results were going to be. I peed on the stick, put the cap back on, and set it on the counter, starting my timer for three minutes from then. I could feel butterflies start to erupt inside of me and fill my chest with anxiety. Oh, man, what if I was pregnant? What if I hadn’t written down a period because I’d never had one? I started to feel my heart beat faster as I paced the bathroom floor, looking over at the timer every three seconds or so. This was the most anguish I had been in for a long time, and I didn’t like this feeling of not knowing at all. I mean, from what I knew about pregnancy, my symptoms were really starting to line up.

  If I was pregnant, it would change my entire life. I would have a tiny human growing inside of me, and I would no longer be responsible for just myself. I would have to change the way I ate, the way I slept, the way I spent money, everything. Sure, I wanted children. There was no question, but right then and there was not quite the timeframe that I was expecting. And what would Blaine think? Would he freak out and run away? Would he be happy? God, there were so many questions that I just didn’t know how to sort through them all. I took a deep breath and cleared my mind, telling myself I was freaking myself out for no reason.

  Just then I jumped, hearing the timer go off on my phone. I walked over and turned off the alarm before setting it down and taking a deep breath. I took a step toward the test and picked it up, closing my eyes as I flipped the window toward me. Slowly, I opened one eye and looked down, my shoulders collapsing and my mouth hanging open. I ran my finger across the viewing window and shook my head in shock, my legs suddenly feeling like jelly.