32. Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Pregnancy forces every new mother to reevaluate her life in preparation for the momentous responsibility of caring for another life.”
A Young Woman’s Guide to the Joy of Impending Motherhood
Dr. Francine Pascal Reid (1941)
T he morning after Brit’s party was a bad one. First of all, I was awakened at eight o’clock by Brit calling on the phone. I got a huge guilt trip about leaving early, and when she deigned that I’d apologized sufficiently, she proceeded to give me every last detail about the rest of the evening, including gossipy little bits about those in attendance. Then, when I was practically falling back asleep, she started in about J.B., demanding more of an explanation about why on earth I would refuse his marriage proposal. An hour and a half later, I finally managed to get off the phone because of a sudden need to vomit. It was the first time I’d thanked God for giving me morning sickness.
After that, I began to get hungry since I was too awake now to try to go back to sleep. I headed upstairs to scrounge some breakfast. But Emma was already there, and as I opened the door to the kitchen, the sound of the smoke detector and the smell of burnt eggs sent me rushing back down to the washroom again.
I decided to have a shower before breakfast to give the kitchen a chance to air out .
″How was your little hen party?” Cooper asked when I returned upstairs. The windows were still open and the kitchen smelled much better. Cooper had made a lovely ham and mushroom frittata, but I really wished he would lay off the eggs. They were not that good coming back up, and even when they were not burnt by Emma, the smell gets to me.
″It wasn’t little, but I guess it was okay,” I told him, sliding into a chair.
″You don’t sound convinced,” Emma smiled at me. “You all sounded like you were having a good time last night.”
″It was fun,” I said firmly. “Brit had a good time, and that’s all that matters. They went out to a club afterward, but I bailed and came home.”
″You can still go out dancing and stuff when you’re pregnant, can’t you?” Cooper wondered. “I would have thought that would be right up your alley. You haven’t been out dancing in a while.”
″I know.” I pushed a piece of mushroom around my plate. “But I was tired and—I really didn’t want to,” I told them suddenly. “I knew all of those women last night, and the majority of them are my friends too, and I’ve gone out with them dozens of times, but I just had no desire to do anything with them last night. They irritated me all night with their silly talk and gossip—Brit’s sister was the worst of them. I just… I didn’t want to be with them.”
″Aaaw,” Cooper smiled. He went over to Emma and draped his arm around her shoulders. “Em, darling, our little girl is finally growing up!”
I was about to ask what he meant by that when J.B. made an appearance. And he was gripping How to Baby the New Mommy in his hand.
″Do you know about this?” he demanded, waving the book in my face.
″Probably if I knew what you were talking about,” I replied irritably, trying to avoid a book to the head.
″This. This huge needle thing!” J.B. showed me the page, and I got a quick glimpse of the heading Doctor’s Visits. “They have to stick this needle into the baby! Do you know about this?”
″Amniocentesis. Yes, I am well aware of that, thank you.”
″They stick it in the baby!” I wasn’t sure if this was coming from a hidden fear of needles or if he was really concerned about the baby. “It can cause a miscarriage!”
″Yes, but it’s important in determining whether there may be a birth defect, which can be more prevalent in older mothers. And they don’t stick it in the baby; they just need to get some of the amnio fluid. They do stick it in me, though, in case you’re wondering.”
″Oh. So you did know. Aren’t you worried?”
″I’m actually hoping I won’t need to get one since I’m still thirty-five and normally they don’t give them until the mother is older. I’ve got to talk to the doctor about that.”
″Oh. So you might not have to have one?”
″I’ll have to ask the doctor,” I told him patiently.
″Oh.” Some of the steam went out of J.B., and I hid my grin as he sat down. “I just wanted to make sure you knew about it,” he told me lamely.
″I know a bunch of things,” I said. “But if you find something you don’t think I know, you can come talk to me about it, okay?”
″Okay.” Emma set a plate down in front of him. After he thanked her, she turned to me and mouthed, So cute! “How come you didn’t come with the others last night?” J.B. asked me.
″Where?”
″The club. Morgan and Brit, all those women,” he grimaced. “Drunk, dancing on tables, and trying to make out with boys young enough to be their kids, women. You missed out on a great time.” His expression told me differently.
″So Brit told me.”
″I think they hit a couple of places before they stumbled in. What happened to you? Everything okay with…” His eyes shifted lower, to my midsection, before they met my surprised gaze again.
″Fine. It’s just—I just got tired. I didn’t really feel up to a lot of rumpusing with the wild things last night.”
I got up and took my plate to the sink. “That sitting all right?” Coop asked when he noticed the plate was empty. I’d left nothing for Sebastian this morning. He was weaving around my ankles, threatening to trip me in hopes of getting some scraps.
″Not bad. So far anyway. The fact that there was only a little bit helps.” I rinsed my plate and set it in the dishwasher. “Thanks.”
″Anytime. What are you up to today?”
″Not much. Laundry to start. Then maybe a nap.” I laughed.
″Oh, the life of a mother.”
“That sick stuff,” J.B. ventured suddenly, “I read that won’t last too much longer, right? It’s supposed to end in the second trimester, and what? You’re ten weeks now?” I had to say I was a little startled hearing those words coming out of J.B.’s mouth. Referring to the pregnancy in weeks, not months, and talking about trimesters?
″I’m eleven weeks along,” I corrected. “And yes, the nausea is supposed to end at the end of the first trimester.”
″I forgot to tell you,” J.B. said as he opened the newspaper to the sports section. “My sister told me about this weird combination of stale Coke, ginger, and something else you freeze that helps when you feel sick.”
″You talked to your sister about me?” I asked in amazement.
″Yeah, I called her about a month ago. I meant to tell you—”
″A month ago? Before you talked to me?”
″Well, yeah, I thought I’d let her know that she might have a new niece or nephew coming, and she—”
″You talked to your family before you talked to me? You told your family that I—that we were having a baby before you talked to me? Before you apologized for being such an ass? What if I told you to fuck off?” I cried.
J.B. lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Thought you’d come around. Face it, Case, you don’t hold a grudge too often.”
″You ass!”
″Ah, the sweet sound of insults flying across the table. I have to say I missed the two of you bickering,” Coop mused in a singsong voice.
“We don’t bicker,” I argued. “Bickering is for old married couples.” Coop raised an eyebrow at me but didn’t say anything.