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While waiting for their dinner, Elizabeth sketched a diagram for the banquet staff to use for table placement at the reception. After a few moves of the champagne fountain, cake, and gift tables, the bride to be seemed happy with the arrangement.
The waiter set their food on the table and Elizabeth was just about to dig in when Holly let out an audible sigh.
She glanced at her friend. “What’s the matter?”
Holly started to cry. “I don’t want to be fat at my wedding.”
Jody patted Holly’s arm. “Shh, you’re not going to be fat. You’re going to be a radiantly glowing bride. And you’re too skinny now anyway.”
Jody’s words didn’t seem to help Holly much, and sent Elizabeth into a spiraling depression, as the word fat resonated in her mind. She placed her hand over her stomach. Her period was now late, and she hadn’t been to the doctor yet, or even taken a home pregnancy test. She tried to keep her mind busy with other things so she wouldn’t think about the possibility of being pregnant, but it wasn’t working, the simplest little things, like the word fat, had a way of slapping her back into reality.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Finally, the weekend arrived and Elizabeth headed home from work. Her foot pressed down on the accelerator a bit harder than normal, eager to get to Joe’s house because she hadn’t seen him or the kids since earlier in the week, and she missed them. She parked her SUV in the driveway and ran into the house to change out of her gray wool suit and into a pair of jeans and a sweater. She slipped into her coat and boots before she grabbed the apple pie she picked up at the bakery on the way home from work.
Her knuckle hardly touched her neighbor’s front door before Max answered. She handed him the pie so she could shed her boots and coat in the entryway, and then caught up with him in the kitchen.
Joe glanced at her, offering a smile that lit up the room, indicating to her that he was as happy to see her as she was to see him.
“Hope you like ribs and kraut?”
“Love it,” she replied as she helped Max set the table.
Joe scooped some ribs, kraut, and potatoes onto Molly’s plate as she took her seat at the table. She wrinkled her cute little nose as he set the plate in front of her.
“You’re going to at least try it,” he said firmly.
Elizabeth poured glasses of milk and took her seat across from where Joe normally sat.
Joe set his son’s plate in front of him. “I love sauerkraut,” Max beamed as he glanced and smirked at his sister, whose nose still wrinkled in disgust.
What a little turkey. Elizabeth thought of Max as he teased his sister. She knew he loved Molly but yet he tormented her about having to try food she didn’t think she liked. Why? Just one of these ‘kid’ things she’d yet to figure out.
Joe handed Elizabeth her plate and then he prepared his and took his seat. They all watched Molly as she reluctantly forked some sauerkraut and eased it into her mouth. She removed the fork and chewed, and then forked another bite.
“See, now aren’t you glad you tried it?” her dad asked.
