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“You’ve been to the doctor?”
“No.”
“You found a lump?”
“No.”
“Then what makes you think you have cancer, for God’s sake?”
“Because I’m nauseous and I’m tired and my breasts are sore and heavy, and my mother got it when she was my age…. What the hell are you smiling about?”
“You don’t have cancer, dude,” Shawna says gleefully. “You’re pregnant!”
“What? No. That’s not possible. I have an IUD.”
Shawna shrugs. “My mother had an IUD when she got pregnant with me. Apparently I came out holding the damn thing in my fist.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Don’t look so upset. Wouldn’t you rather have a baby than cancer?”
“You really think I could be pregnant?”
“Well, I’m no doctor, but unless you’ve been celibate this past month, which would be a real waste considering how hot your husband is, I think I’d rule that out before I start writing my will. Anyway, it’s easy enough to find out. Get one of those pregnancy kits. That way you’ll know for sure.”
“Oh my God,” Heidi says, her hands reaching down to cradle her flat stomach. She’ll stop at a CVS on the way home.
If it’s true, how will Aiden take the news? she wonders, trembling with a combination of joy and terror.
More to the point, what will Lisa say?
—
Heidi sits on the tile floor in her bathroom, staring at the thermometer-like device in her hands.Pregnant,it reads.1–2 weeks.
“Oh my God,” she whispers, staring at the two other discarded pregnancy kits on the floor, both of which have revealed the same thing: She’s going to have a baby.
But while a baby might be what she’s always wanted, she knows Aiden is ambivalent about fatherhood, his own father having deserted the family when he was a child. There’s also his PTSD to consider. So, if she’s being practical, this is probably not the best time to be adding to their family.
Then there’s Lisa.
She has no doubt that Lisa will be apoplectic when she finds out. When Heidi first mentioned her dream of starting a family, Lisa had pretty much demanded they postpone any such talk for at least a few years.“Babies are expensive.You can’t afford one,”she’d said.“Besides, you needto give yourselves some time alone together.To make sure your marriage is on solid ground. For Aiden’s nightmares to fade,”she’d continued, unprompted, couching her directive in a veneer of concern for their welfare.
“You’re the nightmare,” Heidi says to the image of Lisa in her mind’s eye. She pushes herself to her feet. “I’m having this baby, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”
We’ll see about that,she hears Lisa say, as downstairs, the front door opens and closes.
“Babe?” Aiden calls out. “You home?”
“Be right down.” Heidi gathers up the pregnancy kits and tosses them into the wastepaper basket, then heads down the stairs, deciding to tell Aiden the news straightaway. They can figure out together the best way to tell his mother.
He’s watching her from the bottom of the stairs. “Hi, you,” he says as she reaches his side.
“Hi, you,” she says in return, standing on her tiptoes to plant a tender kiss on his lips. “How’d it go with the therapist?”
He shrugs. “Okay, I guess.” He walks into the living room and plops down on the sofa.
Heidi sits down beside him. “I have some pretty exciting news.”
