Chapter 14
FORD
“Sit, have some breakfast.” My mate held a plate in his hand, and I felt bad. He already cooked for me, and I had to decline.
Shoes in hand, I was already at the door. “I can’t, Zack. I’m late.”
I overslept again, and it wasn’t that I’d stayed up too late either. I’d been in bed minutes after I finished dinner. I’d been exhausted after finishing up the new inventory system I created.
“You need to eat.”
“I’ll grab something at work.”
“Sampson isn’t going to be mad. Just call and let him know. Please, mate. Stay and eat.”
“I have things to do.”
“He won’t be mad if you stay and eat.”
“Love you.” I ran out the door. If I stayed any longer, I was going to cave. It was difficult to deny my mate anything.
I threw my shoes in the passenger seat and took off.
I remembered hearing as a kid that if you drove barefoot, you could get arrested.
I wasn’t sure how true that was, but I could see why people didn’t do it.
It wasn’t comfortable, but it got me to work just on time.
I raced in with my shoes in hand exactly at clock-in time. Sampson rolled his eyes.
“Too much dilly-dallying this morning?” he teased.
“No, I overslept.” I didn’t get into the fact that my mate had tried to wake me up four times, only to have me fall right back asleep. “Just give me five seconds, and I’ll be ready to show you what I finished up yesterday.”
“No rush. You know you could’ve just called and said you weren’t going to be here on time.”
“Or I could be here on time.” I joined him at the computer after clocking in and getting my shoes on.
I thought about grabbing a sandwich from the cooler, but my stomach didn’t like it when I didn’t sleep well, and last night I hadn’t slept well at all.
I had all sorts of crazy dreams, the weirdest of them being a polar bear with dragon wings circling around our cabin.
That was what I got for letting myself get overly exhausted, I guess.
“Wow, this is so much easier than what I was doing,” Sampson said.
“Thanks. I wanted to streamline it, but I didn’t want to get too fancy.”
“Oh, I appreciate it. I had one of those salesmen come in with their little scanners and tablets and a special computer designated just to inventory, and all of it tied into our register. No, thank you. My head was spinning before the presentation was fifteen minutes in.”
I knew from previous conversations that I was far from the first line of fire for getting this project done, but I was the only one who’d actually made anything happen. I felt pretty proud of that.
“I’m going to whip up something to eat. You want something?” he asked. One thing about working here, you never went hungry.
“No,” I said, but my stomach growled loudly, announcing me as the liar I was. “I mean, yes. Sounds good.”
He went into the kitchen where we made our sandwiches—and by we, I mean he.
We also did some minimal baking, cookies and such, a lot of it from frozen.
Nothing too fancy, but the pre-done food did make up a decent chunk of the business and, based on the numbers I’d been running, a decent part of the profit.
I caught myself mid-yawn. This was ridiculous.
“I gotta stay awake,” I mumbled to myself.
I went to grab a cup of coffee, but as I reached the pot, I didn’t want it.
Instead, I wanted orange juice, something I’d never liked.
It took me a while to figure out the right one.
People liked pulp in theirs, but I didn’t like food in my drink.
I eventually found the right one and guzzled it all the way down the second my co-worker had finished ringing it up. That felt better.
Sally, who was running the register today, offered to take the bottle from me. “I didn’t know you like this stuff.”
“Usually I don’t, but today I had to have it.”
“I get that way sometimes with chocolate milk. Why is it that when we have cravings, it’s always sweet?”
“I don’t know.”
One of our regulars came in, so I went to help them. Then I wandered out to the kitchen where I found Sampson putting the top on a bagel for each of us.
“I didn’t get creative.”
“That’s okay, I’m sure it’s delicious.” It smelled fabulous. When my teeth sank into it, the flavor exploded in my mouth. I chewed it, making little yummy sounds, loving it, but after the third bite, my stomach had had enough.
“It’s not you, Sampson,” I said and put it down and covered it with my napkin. “I’ll have this for lunch.”
“Not hungry?”
“That’s not it. I didn’t sleep right, and so my body’s being weird.”
“Is your body being weird because you didn’t sleep well, or is your not sleeping well part of your body being weird?”
“I don’t know. I guess a bit of both. I was just really tired from overworking, I think.”
“And what was weird about your sleep?”
“An abundance of dreams—wacky dreams.”
“Like?” What was with his twenty questions today?
“I mean, a polar bear with dragon wings circling our cabin. Like, what?”
“Come with me.” He took me by the wrist and led down the aisle where we had most of our health and beauty products. He reached for a pregnancy test, took it off the rack, and handed it to me. “Go home. You’re not working today.”
“What?”
“Go home, take this test, show your mate, and then celebrate.” He said it like it was clear as day and not the wildest thing a boss had ever asked me to do.
That was when it dawned on me. “You think I’m pregnant.”
“I don’t think you’re pregnant. I know you’re pregnant. That’s why your body’s trying to figure out if you’re having a cub or a dragon, and why you’re exhausted, and why you couldn’t even eat a whole bagel.”
“Ha, I thought so when you had the orange juice.” Sally appeared out of seemingly nowhere. “I only like chocolate milk when I’m pregnant, but I didn’t want to add that part. Didn’t want to jinx you.”
“Hurry up, go home,” Sampson said. “And maybe take a picture of your mate’s face when he finds out you’re pregnant. Let us live vicariously through you.”
“I’m taking this home, and I’ll do as you said, and I’m going to enjoy my day off. But don’t get your hopes up.”
I tried to figure out if there were any telltale signs of being pregnant that couldn’t be explained away by other things, such as working too hard.
I came up with none. I pulled back into our driveway only a few hours into the day.
My mate was staying home today, working on some repairs around the house.
When I walked inside, he was half under the kitchen sink.
“Honey, I’m home.”
“What, honey?”
“Well, yeah, because you’re under the sink, like the old sitcom, but they always… never mind.”
“Why are you back already? Are you not feeling well?” He stood up and put his wrench on the counter.
“I’m back because my boss has decided I need to take…” I held up the box, “one of these. And Sally said when we look at it, she wants a picture. Oh, and then I’m allowed to have the day off, either way.”
“You’re pregnant?” His eyes went wide.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t think so, but Sampson and Sally have me questioning that.”
“Hurry up, go find out.”
I went in and took the test, and then called my mate in.
He stood behind me, his arms wrapped around me, his chin on my shoulder, as we watched the test. It felt like forever waiting for it to flash “Pregnant” or “Not Pregnant,” but I was glad we had that kind of test because there was no misreading words.
“What do you think, Zack? Is it okay if I am?”
“No, mate, it’s better than okay.” He kissed my cheek just as the test flickered: PREGNANT.
I turned in his arms and hugged him tight. “We’re going to be dads.”
“Yes, mate, we’re going to be dads.”
Tears were flowing down my eyes as I stood there with my mate, the father of my child, a joy filling me that I never knew possible.
“Look up here.” I turned my head, and there was the click of the camera on his phone, which for some reason he had set ridiculously loud.
“For Sally?” She wasn’t exactly a big friend of ours, but I did work with her. Still, it was odd that my mate took time out of this moment to take a photograph for her.
“She can have a copy, but it’s for me,” he said, showing me a second photo. “I want to remember this moment until my last days. Because up until now, this is the happiest I’ve ever been.”
“Same for me. So very same.”