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About an hour later, Jim woke up and slowly extricated himself from Elle. She had curled into him in her sleep. Their legs were tangled together. He managed to make it off the bed without waking her up. Sliding into his pants, he moved quietly into the bathroom.
When he flipped on the light, he immediately saw the remnants of the pregnancy tests strewn all over the counter. There were empty boxes, cellophane, and instruction manuals everywhere. Picking up the shopping bag, he put all of the trash into it. Moving it to the trash bin next to the toilet, he then turned on the tap.
After splashing water on his face and drying it, he moved restlessly back to the bedroom. Opening the door, he immediately saw that he’d woken her. On a wince, he said, “I’m sorry sweetheart. I tried to be quiet.”
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t think it was you that woke me.”
Jim asked, “Does your head feel better now?”
“Much,” Elle said. “Thanks for letting me sleep.”
Moving to stretch out beside her again, Jim said, “I fell asleep too. I’m starved. Do you think you could eat?”
“Yeah. I’m a little hungry too,” Elle said.
Considering, Jim asked, “Do you want to go out?”
“God no,” Elle said. “I feel like we have a lot of talking to do and it probably shouldn’t be in a restaurant.”
“Probably for the best. We do have a lot to talk about. Medical history, and all of that stuff.”
“Ooh,” Elle said with a slight smirk. “Let’s have a nice, romantic dinner in. We can discuss my grandpa’s diabetes.”
“You make another good point,” Jim said. Pulling her close again, he rested his forehead against hers. He wanted to kiss her, but wasn’t entirely sure it would be welcome at the moment.
Elle closed the space between their mouths a moment later, obliterating the doubt that had been running through his mind on contact. She nipped gently on his lower lip, drawing it into her mouth. Tilting his head, he threaded his hands into her hair and deepened the kiss.
Stroking his hand down her body with purpose, he fitted her more tightly against him. He continued to move his mouth against hers until her stomach gave a very loud growl. Pulling back with a grin, he asked, “To be continued after you’ve had dinner?”
Nodding, Elle said, “Yes, please.”
Now focused on dinner, they got dressed and moved into the kitchen. Elle had a drawer filled with a plethora of takeout and delivery menus. After a brief debate, they settled on Chinese. While they waited for their food to arrive, they sat on the couch.
By the time they had finished dinner, they had determined that the only major health issues they had in their family history amounted to some high blood pressure, diabetes, and a few instances of cancer. None of those things were incredibly startling.
As they cleaned up the trash from dinner, he said, “For what it’s worth, I don’t have any sort of STD. So, I didn’t pass that to you along with a baby.”
Elle blinked at him and said, “Shit. I didn’t even think about that. Honestly, that’s a conversation we probably should have had a lot earlier. Same goes for me too.”
“Yeah,” Jim said. “We did a lot of assuming. Things escalated pretty quickly.”
Elle smiled and said, “To say the very least.” Pouring them both more lemonade, she wandered back into the living room.
He followed, sitting next to her on the couch. Clearing his throat, he asked, “What are your thoughts on marriage?”
He watched her eyes widen. After a moment, she said, “I believe in the institution on a basic level. I assume you’re talking about marriage for the sake of the baby?”
Jim nodded.
“I don’t think I want to do that. Not just for the baby. I don’t rule that out as something for the future. If it does happen, I want it to be a natural progression of our relationship,” Elle said carefully.
Jim exhaled and asked, “So you want to continue to date and just see where things go? I’m not saying I don’t. What I mean is that I can see how getting knocked up on the first date would be a bit of a turn off. I would understand if…”
Elle gave him a look now, her eyes very serious when she said, “I really like you, Jim.”
Reaching out, he touched her cheek and said, “I’m glad to hear that. I was a little worried.”
“Don’t be,” she said, reaching over to put her hand on his thigh. “I’m more than a little relieved you didn’t just freak out and leave too.”
