Chapter 5 #2
“Have you noticed me being moody lately? He brought up the fact I’ve been having mood swings this week, and I can see what he’s saying, but have I been like this with you guys as well?”
Madison frowns, thinking about it. “I haven’t noticed mood swings, but you have been super tired. Maybe that’s causing moodiness at home?”
Chelsea nods. “You’ve definitely been tired a lot. And you did get super cranky with that woman at Coles the other day, remember? I mean, I only remember it because it’s so unlike you.”
“Ugh,” I say, remembering the incident. “Yeah, she really pissed me off.” But Chelsea’s right; it’s not like me to lose my temper the way I did. Even when I’m receiving the worst customer service known to mankind.
“Hormones are a wonderful thing,” Bobby says dryly. “I live for them each and every day in this salon. Pregnant women are the worst. I’d rather you shoot me than have me deal with pregnancy hormones.”
I stare at him.
Holy. Shit.
I pull out my phone to check my period app.
I’ve been so busy these last few weeks that I haven’t thought about my period or lack of it.
“Holy fuck, Vee,” Madison says. “Are you pregnant?”
My heart beats faster as I check my app.
My head snaps up and I meet Madison’s gaze. “I’m two weeks late.”
Her face breaks out in a huge smile. “Ohmigod. We need to get you a test!”
The alarm on my phone sounds before I can reply. The one I set to remind me it’s time to leave work.
I silence it as I mutter, “Shit. I don’t have time to get a test. I have to go home and get ready for this wedding.”
“The chemist is less than a ten-minute drive,” she says.
“Yeah, and then it’s the time to get a park and get served and get back to my car and all the things I don’t have time for.
” I mean, I already made it clear to Nash that he doesn’t have a second to waste this afternoon.
I can hardly be the one who is late. “I’ll get a test on the way to the coast.” I’ve allowed an extra twenty minutes for traffic, so we should have time to stop.
“We need to know as soon as you guys do,” Chelsea says. “Text us!”
My mind is already moving on to thoughts of pregnancy tests and finding the time to do one as she says this, so I barely process it, but when my brain catches up, I agree to text them.
All I can think about though is the fact that Nash and I have been trying to get pregnant since the day we were married two years ago.
We did fall pregnant once, eleven months after we started trying, but I miscarried that baby a month later.
We’ve gotten to the point where we’ve started discussing our options because I’m nearly thirty-five.
I’m both excited and a little scared to think I might be pregnant now.
Scared because I don’t want to go through another miscarriage.
Each one kills me a little more. I also don’t want Nash to have to live through it again. My last one took its toll on him too.
I say goodbye to the girls and exit the salon out into the warm April sunshine. April is my favourite month of the year. Mostly because it’s the month Nash and I celebrate the anniversary of our marriage, but also because I love the weather at this time of year.
I breathe the sunshine in deeply and close my eyes as I lift my face to the sun.
Please let me be pregnant.
And please please please let this baby be the one.
Nash’s POV
I eye my wife as she fidgets in the seat next to mine.
Something’s off with her tonight and I want to know what the fuck it is.
I thought we sorted shit out this morning when I mentioned her mood swings, but she’s been acting fucking weird from the minute she got home from work to now.
And she’s growing weirder by the minute.
“Velvet,” I say, placing a hand on her thigh. “What the fuck?”
Her eyes cut to mine. “The fuck, what?”
Yeah, she’s in a mood all right.
“What’s going on in that mind of yours? You’ve been off since you got home from work.”
“Nothing,” she says, but even the look in her eyes tells me she’s lying while trying to avoid this conversation. She then puts her hand on mine and changes her body language and voice when she says, “Shit, I’m sorry. You’re right. I’ve been off because some stuff happened at work today.”
“What stuff?”
“Just stuff.” She leans in close so she can kiss me before glancing at the bridal table and saying, “Now that they’re finished with the speeches, I’m going to the bathroom.”
She pushes up out of her seat to leave, but I stand, and catch her hand, stopping her. “You’ve been to the bathroom ten fuckin’ times tonight, sweet thing. What gives?”
“I haven’t been ten fucking times,” she says all muttery and grumbly.
“Yeah, you have.”
She opens her mouth to continue arguing with me but is interrupted when Kathy joins us.
“Oh my God, Velvet,” she says, gushy as fuck and not in the kind of way that sounds genuine. “You look ah-may-zing! Tell me who did your hair!”
If I was a chick, I’d fucking roll my eyes right now. I have no idea how Velvet puts up with this woman.
“Roxie from the salon where I work did it for me,” Velvet says, giving Kathy a huge smile. All I can wonder is where the fuck my smile is because she hasn’t fucking smiled at me like that this afternoon. “You look so beautiful, and the wedding was amazing. Congratulations.”
Kathy beams like she just got plugged into the mains and stole every fucking ounce of electricity from every other fucker.
Between all this white in my face, and this fucking beaming going on, I’m not going to have any energy left because it’s going to take everything I have in me just to survive the next few minutes.
“Oh, you are a darling,” Kathy says before shifting her attention to me.
“And Nash, don’t you look good in a suit.
” She winks at me before looking back at Velvet and saying, “It’s a good thing I never saw him in a suit before today, otherwise I might have ditched Jimmy and chased after your man instead. ”
Jesus fuck.
How much fucking longer can this shit last?
Velvet answers my question when she moves into me, sliding her arm possessively around my waist, and saying, “It is a good thing, Kathy, because the rejection would have hurt.”
I almost fucking choke on the laughter threatening to take over my body.
Velvet’s tone is as possessive as her body language. Not something I see often. My wife is secure in her knowledge that I’m hers, and hers alone, but fuck me, Kathy may have finally found a way to annoy Velvet as much as she annoys me.
“Oh babe,” Kathy says, swatting at her. “You know I’d never dream of stealing your man. I mean, goodness, I just got married.”
Velvet grips my shirt, leaning even harder against me. “I know,” she says all sweet without the actual real sweet.
Kathy looks at her like she’s trying to figure out Velvet’s true feelings—me too, Kathy, me fucking too—and I wonder if we’re about to have some girl-on-girl fight action here.
I’m all the fuck for it if we are. Maybe it’ll get me out of this reception sooner.
But she ruins all my hope when she reaches out for Velvet, squeezes her hand, and says, “Right, I better get back to my husband, sweetie. I’ll come find you later for a drink. ”
I watch her walk away, enjoying the hell out of Velvet’s grip on me.
“We need to find you more friends who threaten to steal me,” I say. “This possessiveness you’ve got going on is hot.”
She grips my shirt harder, her nails digging into me. “Trust me, you do not want to see me fight for you.”
I chuckle and rest my hand on her ass. “Trust me, I fuckin’ do.”
Looking up at me, she shakes her head, but there’s a smile on her face, and fuck me, it’s beautiful. “I love you, baby, but you are the worst sometimes. You should not encourage these mood swings.”
I lift my brows. “Oh, so we’re admitting shit for what it is now?”
She purses her lips and lets me go. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
Before I have a chance to ask her why the hell she’s making so many trips to the bathroom, she’s gone.
“Christ,” I mutter as I sit back down and reach for my Coke.
“Women,” the old guy sitting next to me says.
I eye him. He’s gotta be seventy at least. “You sound like you’ve had a lot of experience.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” He jabs a finger in the direction of a woman on the dancefloor. The woman who’s been sitting on his other side all night. “She’s my fifth wife. I’ve lived through some shit.”
I laugh. “I bet you fuckin’ have. You think this one’s a keeper?”
“I’m not convinced. She’s spent the last three years arguing with me every damn day.
I imagine my hands around her neck at least five times a day.
” He shrugs. “But the sex is good, so I’m keeping her for now.
” He leans closer to me. “I’m not sure why you’re still sitting here when your wife is in the bathroom, and you’ve been looking at her all night like you want to fuck her. Go and get the job done, sonny.”
He’s got a good fucking point.
I drink some Coke before standing and looking down at him. “I’m not convinced I’ll see you again, so good luck with wife number five. I hope this one works out for you, man.”
“You and me both,” he says. “Divorces are fucking expensive.”
I leave him and make my way to the ladies’ bathroom, entering it without a fuck to give when two women stare at me like I’ve just committed a sin that will send me straight to hell.
“Velvet,” I call out, eyeing the two stalls that are occupied.
“Nash?” she calls back, sounding confused. “What are you doing?”
I move towards the stall she’s in. “Let me in.”
The toilet in the other occupied stall flushes and the woman exits it with a scowl on her face. “Are you right?” she says.
I grin. “Absofuckinlutely.”
She flattens her lips and gives me a disapproving shake of her head before walking to the sink to wash her hands.
“I’ll be finished in a minute,” Velvet says. “Is everything okay?”