36
Air e
I woke up in a foreign bed. A foreign room, I realized as my vision became steady. The bed I lay on top of was soft and comfortable, but the springy mattress made me feel like I was sinking into a sandpit. Events of how I got here filtered through my mind. I remember being at a party, Ivy's baby shower, and then falling into Nolan's arms. This room must be one of Ivy's guest rooms. The dizziness was still there, but I was no longer feeling that dull ache in my head. Nolan was sitting on a chair next to the bed and when I turned on my side to face him, he got up and placed a hand on my shoulder, gently pushing me back onto the bed.
"You need to rest. Ivy's calling the doctor. She'll be here soon."
"I'm fine. How long was I out?"
"About thirty minutes."
"I'm fine." I repeated and sat up against Nolan's protests. The room spun as I got into a sitting position.
"The doctor will be here any moment." Was that worry etched on Nolan's face? He looked like he had aged years in a day.
"And I am telling you, I don't need one."
Nolan raised his eyebrows. "Do you often faint? Is that a normal occurrence for you?"
I adjusted myself again when I felt another bout of dizziness and leaned my head against the headboard. "No. I must have not eaten enough today or something."
He frowned. "You threw up earlier." Recalling the morning.
Before I could launch into another protest, a soft rap sounded on the door and Nolan went to open it. A woman in a doctor's coat, a stethoscope around her neck, and a white Gladstone bag came in.
"Hi, I'm doctor Miller," she said, shaking Nolan's hand. "Is that the patient?" She nodded in my direction.
"Yes," Nolan said, "Come on in."
She strolled over to the bedside. Her disarming smile made me relax but not enough to take my guard down.
"I heard you fainted," she asked.
"It's nothing, really."
"I think it's better if we make sure," Nolan interjected.
Reluctantly I consented. She sat down next to me and took several tests, including blood pressure and glucose levels. My glucose levels were normal for what I had eaten, but my blood pressure was high. Probably because I was pregnant, but I didn't tell her that. Not with Nolan present.
"I don't see anything amiss," the doctor said when she finished the checks.
Nolan thrust his hands in his pockets. "She threw up in the morning."
Doctor Miller raised her eyebrows. "Was it something you ate?"
"I don't know, probably."
"Could be the milk." Nolan rambled. "Food poisoning, maybe."
I leaned into Nolan's suggestion. "Yes, maybe that."
But the doctor didn't seem to buy that explanation. "Are you two sexually active?"
Nolan nodded. I was too scared to respond.
"Maybe you're pregnant," she said. "We could do a pregnancy test..." Doctor Miller stopped talking when she saw the way my face probably drained. I glanced at Nolan. His demeanor changed as he took in what Doctor Miller was suggesting.
"Or," she fished a box out of her bag, "You could take one in your own time," and gave me the box. "Otherwise, rest, drink a lot of water and stop stressing."
I nodded and watched her as she wrote a prescription, which she handed to me as soon as she was done. Then she closed her bag and got up.
Nolan shook her hand. "Thank you, doctor."
"It's probably nothing, but if anything happens, you know how to find me."
When the doctor left, Nolan raked his hand through his hair with a shaky hand. "You freaked me out."
I got out of the bed, trusting my legs not to fail me, and when I didn't stumble, I put on my shoes. Nolan looked at me, surprised. "Where are you going?"
"You heard what the doctor said. I'm fine."
"We still have a lot to talk about."
"I don't think so." The door was a few feet away from the bed, and I was desperate to leave the room. I wanted to avoid spending more time with Nolan because I knew what he wanted to ask. And just as I was about to make my way to the door, Nolan slid in front of me, blocking my exit.
"I said we need to talk."
I scoffed and sidestepped him. But I must have done it so quickly that I stubbed my toe and stumbled. The thin high heels I had on didn't exactly help my balance, but Nolan was quick to catch me.
"You're not well."
I sighed. He was peering at me like I was some sick little Victorian child. His pity was not welcome and made me feel like I couldn't walk on my own two feet. Even when I tried to wiggle out of his hold, he held me firm, his hands gripping my arms tight, not enough to hurt, but enough that I couldn't move. "The doctor," I stressed. "Said I am fine,"
"I'm talking about the other thing she alluded to."My heart skipped a beat. He motioned to the pregnancy test still in my hand. "We had sex without protection a few times."
"And I told you I was on the pill, remember?"
"It's not one hundred percent effective."
I wiggled out of his hold again and this time; he let me go. "Are you forcing me to take the test?"
He blanched. "No. But, it's better if we know, don't you think? This is important."
Fuck, I wasn't going to get out of this one, was I. Nolan was going to hound me down until I took that test or wait until I was showing. Either way, he was going to make sure he found out. "Fine. You want to know the truth. I am pregnant."