by Jamie Knight
At least I knew that my job would never break my heart. I called and ordered some Chinese food from my favorite Chinese restaurant. I would stop by the grocery store to pick up a gallon of mint double chocolate chip ice cream and a bottle of wine. I could drown my sorrows in some delicious food and good wine.
Chapter Ten
Anne
It’s been weeks since the date that changed everything and nothing at all and I couldn’t help but feel a deep emptiness. But, also I had that feeling that something was really off and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. It wasn’t until I was elbow deep in my third carton of ice cream for the week that I realized what had been missing: my period.
I made my way down to the convenience store for the fifth time that day.
“Back again, I see,” said the attendant, eyeing the contents of the conveyor belt. There was a pack of gum, incense, and two home pregnancy tests.
The attendant I’d me judgmental, but didn’t say anything as he rung up my order.
Oh my God, I thought. Just weeks ago, I had been hoping that the fertilization had taken effect. But, now this was a completely different set of circumstances.
As soon as I got home, I took both tests.
They both came back positive.
They both came back positive.
I stared at the blue plus signs, wondering exactly how all of this was about to change my
I stared at the blue plus signs, wondering exactly how all of this was about to change my world.
I had to call Judy and see what she had to say.
“Judy, I’m pregnant,” I said as soon as she picked up the phone.
“Congratulations,” she said, sounding more excited about the news than I was. “I know that you had been hoping that the fertilization would work. I’m glad to hear that it finally paid off.”
“No, you don’t understand,” I said, nerves starting to creep up into my voice. “This didn't happen with the fertilization process. This happened after my date with dr. Roberts. He is the father of my baby.”
The line fell silent as the weight of my words started to sink in.
“Whoa,” I said Judy, sounding like someone had not all of the wind out of her. “Well, what did he say when you told him?”
“That’s just the thing,” I said. “I just took the test and found out myself. And then I called you. I haven’t told anyone else.”
Judy sucked her teeth dramatically. I could already hear her Judgment of me over the phone.
“Well, why not?” she asked. “If he’s the father of your child, then he has the right to know.”
I thought about it for a minute and decided against it.
“Honestly, I don’t think that I can,” I admitted. “I am super excited about being pregnant and I kind of just want to bask in that for a while. I mean, after all of this time, I’m finally going to have a baby. That is certainly something worth celebrating. The bad part about all of this is the fact that I got pregnant by someone who took my virginity and then ditched me. And when I think about that, it’s pretty depressing. So, I don’t think that I can call him. At least not any time soon.”
“I can understand that,” said Judy, sounding apologetic. “Ted is totally a bastard for what he did and he definitely deserves to hear that. But, if the shoe were on the other foot and you had a child in the world, wouldn’t you want to know about it?”
I could hear the desperation in her voice. I knew that she was right.
“Yes,” I said.
“Well, then maybe you need some time to process things, but when you’re ready, you should tell him.”
I knew that Judy was right, but I wondered if I would ever be ready.
Chapter Eleven
Ted
Sitting at my desk in the middle of the afternoon while everyone else ventured off to enjoy the beautiful weather only made me think of Anne more. I was surprised and a little disappointed that I still hadn’t heard from her since the night that I had taken her out. Surely she had a good time. I was sure to lay out the red carpet for her and made sure to keep her smiling, at no small expense, I might add. The least that she could do was to return my phone calls.
My phone rang. It was Amy, my colleague, one of the only ones that I knew to be still in the building working away. Are influx of patients made for an my phone rang. It was Amy, my colleague, one of the only ones that I knew to be still in the building working away. Are influx of patients made for an influx of paperwork. And since there was only so much that Sheila, our receptionist, could do, I decided to ask Amy to help out. She agreed right away.
“Hey, there, boss,” she said, using the nickname that they had given me that I hated. “I’m just letting you know that I’m done in putting both mine and your roster of data for patients in the last year. I think I’ve earned the right to sign off for the day.”
Amy laughed at her own joke and I chuckled, too.
“Yeah, I'd say so. I’d say so. Treat yourself to something nice and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Okay, thanks,” she said, hesitantly. “And one other thing. I’m not really sure why, but Dr. Thomas came around earlier asking all kinds of weird questions about you. Did something happen?”
My Palms started sweating and a lump started to form in my throat. Why was Thomas still sniffing around? Was he trying to build a case against me for the ethics board? It was probably for the best that Anne hadn’t called. It would hurt my seamless professional reputation to risk any idea of Scandal, especially knowing that Dr. Thomas had his radar seemingly fixed directly on me.
But, still, it would be great to see her again, I thought.
Just then, Sheila buzzed my phone.
“Yes?” I said, wondering why she was still in the office.
“There’s an Anne White wanting to see you. No, she’s insisting on seeing you…”
It seemed like my prayers had been answered. I tried to clear my throat to tell her to let her in, but I stopped, hearing Anne frantically talking in the background.
“I tried to tell her that she was Dr. Renfro’s patient and was no longer on your roster,” Sheila continued. “But, she insisted that it was important to speak to you.”
“Go ahead and let her come back,” I said, curious as to why she felt such urgency to show up when she could have simply returned one of my many phone calls.
She exploded through the door of my office, looking a strange mixture of both angry and sad. I was confused, expecting that I would have seen more of the smile that I was used to seeing.
“So, how are you doing?” I asked lightly, trying to ease the mood. She put her hand up curtly.
“I’m not here to talk about anything personal,” she spat venomously. “I already made that mistake before. I am here for an official reason.”
I assumed that she meant medical. I had just seen her chart when I was in putting information and had kept it on my desk before I started daydreaming about her. I snatched it up and started flipping through it. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut.
“Congratulations,” I said half-heartedly. “I see the results of the test that the nurse gave you while you were waiting, and you’re pregnant. I guess you already knew that and that’s what you came to tell me, since you’re already on top of these things at home usually.”
I felt such mixed emotions standing there with her. I was happy to see her, glad that she was getting the baby that she wanted, but also slightly disappointed that she wasn’t carrying my baby.
Don’t be silly, Ted, I thought. Of course she’s not going to be carrying your baby. That’s probably why she never called. But, then why would she show up at my office like this?
I picked up her chart again, looking to see if she had ever made another appointment.
“Did you ever come in for your next appointment?” I asked, still trying to piece it all together.
“No,” she said, shortly. “I decided not to go through with it, especially when I found
out that you rudely switched me to another doctor without even consulting me or letting me know.”
My eyes almost popped out of my head. She had some nerve coming here with accusations.
I had my reasons,” I said, folding my arms, starting to get irritated. “I would have loved to have explained them to you over the phone, but you never called back. I know you must have gotten at least one call or message since I called several times and left several messages.”
I felt like I was in an alternate world where nothing made sense.
Chapter Twelve
Anne
I was seething mad. I knew that my eyes were rolling out of my head, but he was being such a jerk, I couldn’t help myself. I knew that he had been inconsiderate by not bothering to call, but to add being a liar on top of all of that was the icing on the cake. I had finally worked through my nerves about wanting to tell him about the baby and thought that he deserved the honor of not just hearing about it through the grapevine or over the phone, but came here in person and all I got was a bunch of lies. I couldn’t believe how much of an asshole he was being and I decided that, not only did he not deserve to know about the baby, but I was completely done with him.
“You’re unreal,” I said, backing out of his office.
“What?” he asked, dumbly. I wasn’t about to sit there and entertain more lies, so I left without another word.
“Anne!” he yelled down the hall after me. I moved even quicker, wanting to put as much distance between us as possible. I could feel tears burning behind my eye, but I will myself to hold them in until I got back to my own office.
The nerve of him! I couldn’t believe that I had let myself been taken in by someone who was obviously such a lowlife. I tried to busy myself with some briefs, but the words just seemed to swim around on the page. When I had reread the same brief for the third time I figured that it was time to admit that I just wasn’t in the mood to work. I got ready to head home and call it a day.
There was a knock on my door and it slowly creaked open. I was still gathering my things and hadn’t looked up, so I assumed that it was my secretary.
“Hey, I’m heading home for the day. I’m not feeling so hot. Don’t let anyone in since there aren’t any appointments…”
I looked up and a woman that I didn’t know was standing in my office.
“Who…who are you?” I asked, almost swallowing my tongue. “And how did you get in here?”
“Hey, sorry for dropping in on you like this,” said the short, dumpy lady with a nasally voice standing in my office. “I feel like we are already someone acquainted. I’m Ann McAllister. I think that I have something that belongs to you.”
She shoved a wad of sticky notes and her cell phone towards me.
All of the sticky notes had Dr. Roberts’ name on them.
“The messages got pretty excessive at one point, so I had my secretary put them all into one file for you. She clicked play on her phone’s recorder.
“Anne, hi. It’s Ted. Please call me.”
“Anne, it’s Ted again. I really had a great time with you. Could you give me a call when you get a chance? Thanks.”
“It’s Ted again, Anne. I’m really not trying to bug you, but I really want – need to talk to you. It’s important. Can you call me back? There’s something that I need to explain.”
“Hey, Anne. I’m not sure why you aren’t answering or calling me back, but I would love to see you again.”
One of his last messages was even him calling and leaving me both his cell phone and office phone number. He really had gone through the effort of trying to reach out to me.
His last message, though, was the one that took the cake.
“I know that you’ve been on your own for a long time and I certainly admire your strength for doing it. And I really feel like we hit it off and had a great time together. Or maybe you didn’t. I don’t know. I just believe that you really just don’t know what you’re missing out on. But, if you gave me a call back, you’ll be glad that you did.”
The phone went silent and I was at a loss for words.
“Well, it was just the sweetest, most sincere thing I’d ever heard. I almost felt lucky that we had the same name. It was like I was meant to hear them or something.”
I thought that it sounded weird for her to say that she was meant to hear my messages, but I think her anyway.
“No problem,” said the other Ann. “I actually know Dr. Roberts. He’s a really great guy. He made a wooden wind chime for my daughter, Cassie. She’s autistic and she absolutely loves the noise that they make.”
My heart swelled at the thought of him making toys for disabled children.
“That is really nice,” I admitted. I walked towards the door and hugged Ann.
“I wish all the best for you and Dr. Roberts,” said Ann. “And when you finally talk to him, tell him Ann McAllister says hello.”
She smiled at me. I smiled back.
“I sure will,” I told her.
Chapter Thirteen
Ted
I sat at my desk for what must have been hours, poring over the contents of just one file: Anne. I thought that maybe there was something that I was missing that would have explained what had happened in my office. She just seemed too moody and emotional for the pregnancy hormones to have her acting that way. I was convinced that it was something else.
But, what?
She said that she had gotten pregnant the old fashioned way, not using the fertilization. So, what did I have to do with it? Was the baby really mine? But, if it was, why did she leave so upset the way that she did?
Nothing made sense.
I turned back to the first page, convinced that I was going to find the answer. I read her name. Anne White.
That’s when it hit me. When I had found her name on Google, it hadn’t been spelled the way that I had seen it in the chart. In her chart, she had an E at the end of her name. The way that I found it on Google didn’t. Something told me to check the phone number and my heart almost skipped a beat at what I saw.
The number that I had been calling that I found on Google was different from the number in her chart.
I had been calling the wrong number all along.
Shit.
No wonder she had been so angry. Both of us had been right and just didn’t know it. I couldn’t believe that I had been so stupid to call the wrong person. I shuddered thinking about all of the lengthy messages that I had left her. It made sense when I thought that it had been Anne. The fact that another person had heard those messages was just embarrassing. I looked at the address listed in her chart, not wanting to make the same mistake again, and darted out the door.
I was going to see Anne and straighten out all of this mess. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be too angry or think that I was an idiot or something and actually want to listen.
The limo turned the corner and drove for a few blocks. My cell phone rang, vibrating in my pocket, startling me so much that I almost fell out of my seat. I looked down at the number and noticed that it was the same number listed in Anne’s file as her telephone number. I knew because I memorized it when I saw it, vowing never to forget it again.
But, how did she get my cell phone number? I was starting to get confused all over again.
“Hi, it’s Ted,” I said, trying not to sound too eager.
“Hi, Ted. It’s Anne. Oh my goodness. I am so glad to hear your voice. I got your messages and it’s an incredibly long story as to how that all came about, but I had to call you back and tell you that I’m so sorry for freaking out on you the way that I did. That was absolutely horrible and had I known the full story, I never would have done that.”
It was wonderful to finally hear her saying words that made sense.
“That’s okay,” I said. “And I’m sorry, too. I can’t believe that I had been calling the wrong number. And I called so many times! I’m just glad that we finally got the breakdown in communication figured out.”<
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“Me, too,” said Anne, her voice getting quiet. “There was something that I was curious about, though, that you mentioned in one of your messages. You said that if I called you back that I would be in for a surprise. Well, things have already been crazy and surprising enough. I’m not sure how many more surprises I can take. But, what was the surprise?”
“You’re right,” I said, agreeing with her. “There have been a lot of surprises here. And I don’t want to do anything that could upset you any more than you already have been, especially in your condition. And so much time has passed now, maybe it won’t even matter. But, I wanted to ask you to officially be my girlfriend.”
She gasped.
“Really?”
“Yes,” I continued. “I figured that it would just make things easier. That was my bright idea after I had already switched you over to a new doctor. I wasn’t trying to avoid you or anything if that’s what you thought. I just wanted to get a chance to actually be with you rather than having to sneak around with one of my patients.”
I heard her sniffle on the other end of the phone like she was starting to cry.
“That is very sweet,” came her choked response. “I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”
“You are very sweet. That’s why I went through the lengths I did of trying to impress you on the date. I wanted to be with you as your boyfriend.”
The line went silent for a few moments and I thought that she had hung up until she started to speak again.
“Well, you said that you wanted to be my boyfriend. Is that offer still on the table?”
I was ready to jump out of my seat and fly to the moon I was so happy. But, I stopped my celebration long enough to remember that she still hadn’t told me the reason why she had barged into my office so angry.