Epilogue
Fourteen months later
Ella
“Ella, are you sure you didn’t flush a tampon or something down the toilet?” Jesse asks, coming into the upstairs bedroom.
I shake my head. “Haven’t used any of that in a while, honey.” I point to the obvious presence of our baby growing inside me for the last seven months.
“Right.” He sighs and comes into the room. “How are you feeling today?” He asks, placing a kiss on my temple.
“Decent. I took a nap after lunch.”
“Good.” He looks down to the floor. “Your feet say otherwise, baby.”
I look at them; they do look pretty swollen today. I’m on them every day, almost all day when I’m at work. I thought maybe they’d get used to it but that’s not the case.
I’m due right before Christmas and counting down the days until I finally get to hold her in my arms. Yes, her.
It’s a girl and we already picked a name: Cora Lee Jennings.
I’m ecstatic, over the moon to have a mini me and even more excited to see Jesse be a girl dad.
She’s already got him wrapped around her finger and she’s not even here yet.
He talks to her when we’re lying in bed or sitting on the couch, and he sings to her. It’s really sweet.
The day I found out I was pregnant was a day I’ll never forget. The emotions, the excitement, the reality, it was such a whirlwind.
We’d been trying to get pregnant since the start of the year. No luck in the first two months, but when March came, I just knew. Jesse didn’t think I was, but I felt different. I can’t explain it—mother’s intuition, maybe?
Still, I managed to surprise him.
After he fell asleep, I snuck into the bathroom and took a test. It turned positive within a minute, and I started shaking. Nervous, excited, so many emotions at once. I couldn’t wait to tell him.
I went back out, turned the lights on, and woke him up. He was irritated at first, groggy from sleep, but as soon as he saw what I was holding, his expression changed.
“Are you serious?” he asked. “Is it right?”
He was thrilled.
When the excitement settled for the night, we climbed back into bed, but I don’t think he let go of me all night. We always sleep cuddled together, but that night was different. For the first time, he wasn’t just holding me. He was holding us.
Still working full-time, I’ve never been so tired in my life. Jesse has been insisting I start maternity leave early and go back whenever I feel ready to after she’s born. While I’m glad he’s confident in our finances, I haven’t reached the desire to leave yet.
“I just don’t understand why the toilet downstairs isn’t flushing right. It’s not that old,” Jesse says, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Maybe Cody would know. He knows more about plumbing than I do.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I say with a hard swallow. I know why it’s not flushing and it’s not for the reason he thinks.
The other day when I was cleaning the bathroom, I flushed a pumice stone after I was done using it.
It wasn’t a big piece, I didn’t think. I thought it would just dissolve over time because when you use it, that’s what it does.
After a quick Google search, I found out they do not just dissolve. But it was too late.
As I listen to Jesse on the phone with Cody, guilt eats me. I don’t want him to get mad at me but I know being honest with him is the right thing to do and something I have been trying to get better at.
As I finish hanging the rest of Cora’s clothes I just washed, my mind plays around with different ways to tell him, what exactly I should say, how I should word it so that he doesn’t get mad.
I hear him downstairs, proceeding to call someone else, asking questions, explaining the problem.
More guilt creeps in, especially when he starts talking about the possibility of having a bigger issue.
Something about the pipes? Oh gosh. I know he just has to take the toilet off and pull out the stone.
I head downstairs to start on dinner and, a few minutes later, Jesse emerges from our bedroom.
“Cody and Dad said I need to take it off first and see if there’s a visible blockage but that means I’m going to need a new seal, so I’m gonna run down to Cody’s. He said he had one.”
“Oh, okay.” I watch him throw on a sweatshirt and slip on his boots.
“I’ll be right back.” He huffs and leaves.
The only reason I didn’t stop him was because I know he still needs to take the toilet off to get it out anyway. As soon as he gets back, I’ll tell him.
Ten minutes later, he’s already back, pulling his boots off at the door. I step away from the stove. Time to be a big girl and tell him the truth.
“Babe.” My voice falters a little.
He looks at me. His breathing fast and unsteady from being out in the cold.
“I, um, do you think a pumice stone being flushed would cause this problem?” I ask.
He thinks for a moment. “Yeah, why? Did you flush one?”
“Not a full thing but like … some.”
He steps more into the kitchen. “Define some. How big?”
I hold up my fingers about four inches apart to show him. Not realizing I’m shaking until now. Why is my nervous system so dramatic?
Jesse groans and my body tenses up. “Don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad. But why on earth are you shaking?” He grabs my wrist and gently pulls me against him. “Come here. Don’t be scared of me.”
His embrace is comforting, but my round belly keeping him at a distance is annoying.
“I don’t know why I get so nervous.”
“I don’t either. Getting mad over this would solve nothing.”
“I know.”
“When did you flush it? How long ago?”
“Just the other day. I thought it would dissolve but they don’t. I didn’t find that out until after I did it.”
He puts his hands on my shoulders and turns me to face him. “Promise me, next time, you’ll tell me a little bit sooner than this. Please?”
My throat goes dry, so I nod and he kisses me before he meanders back toward the bedroom.
“At least now I know what I have to do. How long till dinner?”
I look back to the stove. “ Twenty minutes?” I guess. I’ve hardly started.
“Alright, I should be done by then.”
As I get back to the stove, I think about the exchange.
I don’t know why I didn’t just tell him.
He wasn’t even close to mad. He’s always soft and gentle with me.
It’s like I’m waiting for him to snap or run out of patience.
We’ve been married over a year now and he’s never even raised his voice at me.
The pasta is done. I strain it into the sink and dump it into the pot of sauce I have been slowly whisking.
Just as I reach to lower the heat, Jesse’s voice calls out to me.
“Ella Kate …”
My body tenses and my heart rate quickens. I turn to see Jesse enter the kitchen. Hands on his hips, he stops a few feet away from me.
“Sweetheart,” he warns gently.
“Honey …”
“Come here for a minute?” He gestures.
I follow him to the bathroom. It’s a mess—the toilet is lying on its side, and there’s some metal rod thing lying on a trash bag. He points to a wad of paper towels beside it and the pumice stone which I recognize. My jaw falls slack when I see it is way bigger than what I said.
“Babe, this is nowhere close to this.” He mimics my measurement with his fingers.
“I didn’t flush that,” I can barely say without laughing.
“You did.”
“I’m sorry.”
He sighs lightly, his blue eyes soft on mine. “You’re lucky I love you.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” I flirt.
“Yeah? Talk is cheap.”
“Well, lucky for you, what I have in mind doesn’t involve much talking,” I tease. “From me at least,” I add, spinning around on my heels out of the room.
His hand still manages to smack me in the butt. “Yeah? Well, it’s rude to talk with your mouth full anyway.”
My jaw drops and an involuntary laugh escapes me. I shake my head and continue back to the kitchen. I love that he’s still just as obsessed with me as he’s always been.
As I stand at the stove I feel Cora start to move around. I rest a palm against her harsh movements. I feel her pushing against my entire hand—with her foot, I’m guessing. When I realize she isn’t getting comfortable anytime soon, I set down the oven mitt and go back to the bathroom.
“Jess, she’s really moving,” I tell him as I feel a knee or elbow gliding across my stomach.
He quickly washes his hands before letting me guide his hand to the right spot. I watch as his eyebrows lift in amazement. He doesn’t get to feel her move often, as I’m usually at work, and she isn’t always active at night.
“Oh wow.” He laughs. “That feels like it hurts.”
I shake my head. “It doesn’t.”
He smiles as he waits for another. I step up onto my tiptoes and pucker my lips for a kiss.
The second his land on mine, she kicks his hand, as if she’s already becoming territorial. Jesse breaks away and looks down at my stomach.
“She’s all mine until you come out.”
I laugh and nudge him playfully. He looks back to my eyes, then lips, kissing me once more. “Thanks for letting me feel her. I love you,” he says before getting back to work.
“I love you too.” I spin back around for the kitchen.
It still amazes me, despite my being swollen around the clock, waddling like a penguin, and eating like a bear preparing for hibernation, Jesse still gets up every single day and shows me just how much he loves and cares for me.
Whatever he can give, he gives. Any girl would be spoiled rotten to have him, and I thank God every single day that after everything he and I have been through, I’m still the one he chose to call his.
The End.