Part of Me: Friendship, Texas #3

by Magan Vernon

  “That’s really him in there? His heart beating and swimming like that?” Johnny asked.

  I pried my eyes away from the screen to look over at Johnny. His stare never left the little baby on the monitor. His eyes wide and smile brighter than I’d ever seen it.

  Without even thinking, I took Johnny’s hand and squeezed it. He finally moved his eyes from the screen to look down at our entwined hands before slowly leaning and placing a light kiss on my lips.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but then the tech made a ripping sound, and my eyes snapped toward her to see a few little plastic sheets in her hand. “And here are the first pictures of your baby. I’ll give you a moment to look at these. When you are ready, get dressed and head to the office to meet with the doctor.”

  With that, whatever Johnny was going to say was forgotten. I quickly put my clothes back on, and he kept his eyes trained on the little pictures as we made our way to one of the exam rooms.

  “Whoa!” Johnny yelled as soon as the nurse left us alone in the little room.

  I turned around to face him, thinking he saw something on one of the ultrasound pictures. Instead, he was crouching down in front of a little table, eye level with a plastic, anatomically correct vagina complete with clitoris. “Is this...?”

  “Uh, yes, that would be a vagina. I’m sure you’ve seen plenty. That’s why we’re in this situation.”

  “It’s just weird seeing a plastic one,” he said, poking the little rubber clit with his finger.

  “Stop it! Don’t poke the clit!” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Imma keep poking it,” he said, turning toward me with a big grin on his face and his finger still on the rubber nub. “Poke, poke, poke.”

  “Stop it!” I said, trying to hold back my laughter.

  “Pokey, poke, pokeeeeeeee,” he sang. Just before he could start another line, the door opened, and the doctor stood there with his tablet and his glasses perched on his nose, giving Johnny some major side-eye.

  “Um. Yeah, I’ll stop now,” Johnny mumbled and sat on one of the chairs next to the exam table.

  The doctor held his hand out to Johnny; the glasses on his nose now making him look even more like Burly Santa. “Hello, I’m Dr. Stiller.”

  Johnny shook his hand, the same hand he’d just had on a plastic vagina. “Johnny Laughlin.”

  Dr. Stiller gave him a curt smile then sat down on the wheelie stool. “Okay, I’ve looked at your ultrasound, Sofie, and it looks like you measure exactly nine weeks and one day, so no surprises there. And I didn’t see anything else to be concerned with from the ultrasound at this point or with your family history. Are you taking your prenatal vitamins?”

  I nodded.

  “Good.” He smiled and explained a few more things about my symptoms. We found out what to expect as I went into my second trimester, and then he folded his hands together and crossed one leg over the other.

  “Now, I’m sure since the two of you are here that you have some questions from me, so let’s hear them.” Dr. Stiller looked from me to Johnny then back at me.

  Johnny didn’t say a word, so I guessed I had to be the one to ask the thing really bothering me. “Can we have sex?”

  Dr. Stiller smiled slightly. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Johnny says he found some app online that says the baby has nerve endings now, and he’s afraid of having sex because he thinks the baby can feel it.”

  “Sofie, geez, you don’t need to tell the guy everything,” Johnny groaned.

  I whipped my head around to face Johnny. “He’s a doctor. An obstetrician. He knows these answers better than whatever app you have—”

  “It’s actually a very common question for someone during their first pregnancy,” Dr. Stiller interrupted, and I turned to face him.

  “Now, did either of your parents have any complications or is there any history of pregnancy complications in your families?” Dr. Stiller asked.

  I shook my head, and Johnny replied, “Not that I know of.”

  Dr. Stiller smiled. “At the beginning of pregnancy, the body has a different hormonal balance than at the end. As we get closer to the delivery date, the cervix softens and changes on its own because the body starts to release its own hormone cocktail to tell the body to get ready. That’s when we’ll actually want you to have even more sex since semen softens the cervix. But right now, you don’t have to worry about that because of your mucus plug. As soon as the pregnancy began, the cervix closed off the uterus. The mucus plug closes it off so nothing gets into the uterus to harm the fetus. Including a penis.”

  “Okay. That seems legit,” I said, nodding even though I was not sure what he was saying. Basically, I had some sort of plug in me, and we had the go-ahead for sex.

  “Any other questions?” Dr. Stiller asked.

  “Nope,” I said, shaking my head then looking back at Johnny, who didn’t even raise his head as he shook it.

  “Okay. Then we’ll get you set up for an appointment next month. Take care, you two, and call me if you have any problems.”

  “I don’t think I can ever look him in the eye again,” Johnny whispered as Dr. Stiller left the room.

  “Well, you don’t have to but make sure you at least look at where his hands are going in the delivery room.”

  Chapter 13

  After the appointment, Johnny followed me to the townhouse.

  Even though I was still a little goopy from the appointment, I figured it was the perfect time to work on what the doctor said we could do and get to screwing.

  I was ready to jump his bones when we entered the townhouse, but he reached into his pocket and pulled out his vibrating phone. He looked down at it then as he closed the door behind him. “Um. It’s my mom with a FaceTime call.”

  “Why is your mom FaceTiming you right now?” I asked.

  “Because I may have texted her to do it when she had a chance. Thought it might be a good time to tell her, so she doesn’t have to find out from TNC or Facebook or something,” Johnny half muttered.

  I sucked in a deep breath. “Um. Okay. I guess let’s answer.”

  Johnny followed me to the couch and swiped to unlock the screen and answer the call.

  A middle-aged woman with dark blond hair, short and sort of spiky but not as short and spiky as Johnny’s—more like the “I want to speak to a manager” mom cut—appeared on the screen. Even though she was older and female, I could see the similarities to Johnny in the dimpled chin and dark green eyes, but the wrinkles at the corners of her mouth hinted at a permanent scowl that threw all the other similarities out the window.

  “Johnny! You answered, and you’re okay! You gave me a heart attack when you said you wanted to FaceTime. Last time you did that was after the games, which, of course, was a good thing, but before that was when Scotty dislocated your shoulder at practice and you weren’t sure you’d be able to compete.”

  Okay, now the rambling similarities sounded familiar.

  “Hey, Mom. No, don’t worry; no one pulled my arm out of the socket or anything like that.”

  Johnny’s mom put her hand on her chest. “Oh, thank goodness. Way to give your mom a heart attack. Where are you anyway? That doesn’t look like the pool or your apartment.”

  Johnny smiled, but it was forced, not like the usual one he wore. “Very perceptive, Mom. I’m actually at my girlfriend’s place. Here, meet Sofie,” he said, angling the phone toward me.

  I didn’t know what to say or do, so I just did a little wave, forcing a very toothy smile.

  “Girlfriend? You FaceTimed me to tell me about your new girlfriend? Well, I guess this is one way of introducing us. Hello, Sofie, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Michelle, Johnny’s mother.”

  “Hi, uh, Mrs. Laughlin. Or Michelle. Or whatever I’m supposed to call you,” I squeaked.

  “How about Grandma or Gigi? Those sound like good ones? Maybe even Mimi?” Johnny asked, angling the camera so we were both on the screen.
>
  Michelle’s eyes widened. “What?”

  Johnny held up the ultrasound pictures that had somehow ended up on the couch next to him. “Surprise! Sofie and I are pregnant. You’re looking at the future Olympic backstroker in either women’s or men’s relay. I mean, in like, you know fifteen or more years because right now, he’s just swimming around in Sofie’s stomach.”

  Michelle blinked rapidly then swallowed hard. “I didn’t even know you were dating someone, and now, you’re...you’re having a baby? What about your sponsors? What about your meets?”

  Okay, so she obviously wasn’t taking the news of being a grandma well.

  “Mom, those will all still be there. Having a baby isn’t the end of the world,” Johnny said, putting his arm around my shoulders and squeezing.

  “Oh, uh, well, it looks like I’m getting another call. I’ll text you later, Johnny. Nice to meet you, Sofie. Bye,” Michelle rambled off before the phone disconnected.

  Johnny set the phone down on the coffee table and ran his hand over his face before sighing. “Well, that didn’t go as I expected.”

  I put my hand on his knee. “Sorry.”

  He shook his head, turning toward me. “No need to be sorry. I guess I just thought she’d be a little more excited.”

  “Well, she did just find out you had a girlfriend, and since, you know, she’s been in this situation before, it’s probably a bit of a shock,” I offered.

  “Yeah but that doesn’t mean she had to be a bitch about it,” he grumbled.

  “Johnny...”

  He let out a breath and leaned back on the couch, taking me with him since his arm was still around me. “Sorry she was like that to you. Normally, she isn’t that brutal.”

  “Not the first time an adult woman didn’t seem too happy to see me,” I muttered, thinking of the utter look of disgust Christy Quinn’s mom, Tomiko, always had when I was around. The woman might have been shorter than I was, but she was the dragon lady, as Lia and I liked to call her.

  “I’m gonna go do a few laps,” Johnny said, practically jumping off the couch.

  “What? Are you going to drive all the way back to Ft Worth? Now?” I asked, standing up next to him.

  “It’s still early enough in the afternoon, and I could use another workout.”

  I raised an eyebrow as I followed him to the door. “Didn’t you literally just spend all morning swimming before you came here for my appointment?”

  He sighed, turning toward me with his hand on the doorknob. “Look, the pool gives me time to think. Some clarity. I just need a little bit of that right now.”

  “And you don’t think your knocked-up girlfriend needs some of that too? Or at least some support from the swimming boyfriend?”

  “You can always go with me to the pool,” he offered with a shrug.

  “Uh, I’m not even sure I own a bathing suit or know anything other than a doggy paddle.”

  “Then I’ll swim and call you later,” he said, leaning in to kiss me.

  I backed up before his lips could reach mine. “On second thought, I guess it couldn’t hurt to learn some moves from an Olympic backstroker.”

  ***

  If someone had told me that at the beginning of March I’d be in a lime green bikini and cover-up, sitting in my boyfriend’s car to drive to a swimming pool in Ft. Worth, I would have probably never believed them.

  But here I was, watching as he pulled into the TCU rec center that had a virtually empty parking lot.

  “Where is everybody?” I asked as I got out of the car and stared at the building.

  Johnny grabbed a duffle bag from the backseat, slinging it over his shoulder before we headed inside. “Mostly everyone is gone for Spring Break, so we should have the place pretty much to ourselves.”

  Two older gentlemen, possibly professors or staff, were at the other end of the pool, swimming the slowest laps possible and a bored looking lifeguard was perched on a stand, but that was it.

  “See? I told you. Empty,” Johnny said, tossing his bag on a bench then immediately stripping out of his sweat suit.

  “Okay, so where’s the shallow end? I’ll wade there for a while,” I asked, wondering if the pool even had a shallow end.

  Johnny’s smile turned to an all-out grin as he grabbed my hand. “You can’t start out in the shallows. When looking at a pool, you have to just...Jump. Right. In,” he yelled, jumping into the pool and tugging me with him.

  The cold water lit my skin on fire, and I blew a million bubbles out of my nose before I managed to doggy paddle and kick my way to the surface. Gasping for air, I grabbed the side of the wall.

  “I told you I’m not a very good swimmer.” I gasped, pushing my now very curly and wet hair out of my eyes.

  Johnny gracefully swam over to the side of the pool, putting his hands on the ledge next to mine. “I wouldn’t let you drown, babe. And besides, you did fine. You swam way better than any dog I’ve seen.”

  I gently shoved his shoulder. “Did you just call me a dog?”

  “You did have that awesome doggy paddle going on,” he said, taking his hands off the side then splashing his hands in the water, letting a small wave hit me in the face.

  “You called me a dog and then splashed me? This means war, Laughlin.” I cupped a big scoop of water in my hands before pushing it toward him. Johnny looked away just before a big wave hit him in the eyes.

  “Oh, now this,” Johnny said, slowly pushing off the side of the pool then wading until he was in front of me, “means war.”

  Before I could say anything, my eyes had widened as Johnny pried me off the ledge and then pulled me under with him.

  It was only for a second, but I still gasped for air when we floated back to the top, wrapping my legs around his waist before spitting out a mouthful of water.

  “Was that necessary?” I asked.

  Johnny leaned in, wearing a huge grin on his face. “Yes, it was.”

  Then he kissed me. Not one of the soft, sweet kisses we’d had lately but one full of passion that had me moaning into his mouth.

  Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pressed my body against the hard lines of his. I’d been against him many times before, but something about floating while his strong arms were around me made everything even more sensational. That or it was the pregnancy hormones making me super horny, not caring if we were in a public pool or that the old people at the other end of the water might be staring.

  Just as I was about to move my hands down, thinking maybe the other people in the pool would just think it was a handsy, fast-moving make-out session if I moved our swim panties aside, I heard an all-too-familiar voice.

  “Hey, Johnny! Thought you’d be here,” Emily’s way-too-chipper voice called from the side of the pool.

  “Cock block,” I muttered under my breath as Johnny broke the kiss, untangling his arms from me and pushing us toward the side of the pool.

  “Hey, Speedy,” he said, with too big of a smile for someone who had a boner in a little swimsuit.

  Emily was in some tight black one-piece suit more like shorts and a tank top fused together on her long, slender frame. She’d piled her wavy brown hair high on her head before she put a black swim cap over it.

  “Hi, Sofie. Wow, you don’t even look pregnant,” she said, her eyes looking below the water at my stomach.

  I blinked hard. I hadn’t even told my best friend yet about being pregnant, and Johnny literally just freaked out telling his mom, but this girl knew? The girl who was a former hookup?

  “Uh, yeah, I haven’t started to show,” I muttered, absently covering my bare torso.

  “Was I interrupting or did you guys wanna race a few laps?” Emily said with way too big of a smile as she looked at Johnny and me.

  “Well—” I started then Johnny put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it.

  “Sofie isn’t much of a racer, but maybe you and I can get in a few laps. This was just going to be a quick workout,” he said, and
my jaw felt like it was about to drop to the bottom of the pool.

  “Sure, like 800M?” Emily asked.

  Johnny laughed. “In your dreams, Speedy.”

  Then he turned toward me. “You okay with that, Sofie? I’ll be done in a few minutes then we can hang out at my apartment for a while.” He leaned in and lowered his voice. “And finish what we started.”

  He didn’t even give me a chance to respond before he kissed my cheek and headed to the other end of the pool with Emily.

  If I didn’t like his former hookup before, now, I hated her.

  ***

  I didn’t say a word about Emily until we were back in Johnny’s apartment, and he was already down to only his bathing suit, about to hop in the shower.

  “Johnny, we need to talk,” I said, letting out a big sigh.

  He turned toward me with his bathing suit halfway down as I crossed my arms over my chest and made a few steps across his small bathroom.

  “When a girl says she needs to talk, it’s usually because the guy’s in trouble and she wants to break up,” he said, pulling his swimsuit down the rest of the way so he was naked. It took a lot of willpower to keep my eyes on his chest instead of his member.

  “Well, I’m not breaking up with a naked man in his bathroom, but we do need to talk about you ditching your pregnant girlfriend to swim with your ‘former hookup,’” I said, making sure to air quote and put emphasis on ‘former hookup.’

  “Are you jealous of Speedy? I thought I told you; she’s just a teammate. We’re totally in the past,” Johnny said, taking a few steps closer so that we were toe to toe. He could have practically poked me in the stomach with his manliness.

  “Jealous might not be the right word, but the fact that you told her I was pregnant without talking to me? Yeah, that pissed me off. Then you go and leave me wading in the water while you two go swim and giggle like two little middle school girls? Well, that’s really messed up.”

  Johnny sighed, running his hand over his face. “You’re right. Both of those were dick moves, and I’m sorry. I told Emily about our appointment today after practice. It’s why I was running late. I was really messing up my sets, so she asked me what was wrong and I told her. I didn’t think she’d show up at the pool today, and I should have probably told her we were busy. I suck at this whole boyfriend thing. It’s probably why all of my relationships before you have failed.”