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“I dated a few guys before Mike in college,” she said.
But not much. A few dates here and there and she kept to herself. All her friends were sleeping with people and she was still a virgin. She wanted it to mean something when she had her first experience.
It did with Mike. She did love him at some point. Maybe early on. Longer actually. That might be why it hurt so much to realize that they weren’t on the same page and never were going to be.
“What went wrong with you and Mike?” her mother asked. “Other than you said he wasn’t looking to get married?”
She sighed. “I don’t know, Mom. I thought we agreed about things. We were young and never really talked about it. I guess that was the mistake.”
“You should never take things for granted,” her mother said. “But at nineteen it’s hard to have those conversations too.”
Whitney raised her hand. “You can’t win, Gillian. I did what your mother is saying is hard to do and I lost your brother. I scared him.”
“You were still in high school though,” she said. Trey and Whitney seemed so in love in high school and Whitney was the first to admit she smothered Trey by making plans for the future when he wasn’t thinking of anything more than graduation.
“It’s not much different. Then I met Kevin and rushed with him too. It bit me in the ass in more ways than one.”
“Well,” Gillian said, “you rushed and I was stuck in quicksand.”
“You rushed to move in with Mike,” her mother pointed out.
“No,” Whitney said. “I’m sorry, Leslie, but I disagree. That is what we all did in college. Living with someone with other roommates isn’t rushing.”
She was glad that Whitney was sticking up for her. “I felt the same way. I didn’t think it was rushing. I had roommates and he joined with us. We lived together for two years like that and graduated. It made sense to get our own place after. I just didn’t think eight years later we would have been in the same darn spot.”
“When did you find out that he didn’t want to get married?” Whitney said. “Not that we should be hashing this out when you’ve got such a catch now.”
“I think I need to talk about it a little though,” she said. “I haven’t before.”
“No,” her mother said. “You haven’t. I just want you to see any mistakes or signs you missed so you know what to look for now with Rick.”
She wasn’t going to take offense to her mother’s words. She knew her mother meant well.
“I think Mike and I didn’t talk much. I just assumed. Then I’d say around twenty-five I’d made a comment about getting married and he said he wasn’t ready, that we were young yet. He wanted to put money away. All these things, and I thought, okay, I get it.”
“I can see that,” Whitney said. “Hang on, the food is here. My treat.”
Whitney ran to the door when the bell went off. “I think she wanted this day more than you,” Gillian said to her mother.
“She needs it too,” her mother said. “Plus I want to talk to her about a baby shower at some point. Though it’s early yet and I know Wendy is all over it.”
“I’m sure Wendy will have no problem doing it with you and you know that.”
“I’m starving,” Whitney said. “This kid is sucking all the food out of me. I feel like I’ve never eaten so much in my life, but thankfully Ben keeps me running so I haven’t gained that much.”
“You look awesome,” she said. “Not even like you’re pregnant.”
“That’s because I’m hiding it well.” Whitney lifted her shirt. “Look at my belly. It’s popping now. Trey said it’s like it came out overnight. I’m almost out of the second trimester now so my doctor said to expect that to happen.”
Her sister-in-law had leggings on and a long sweater and you could see her belly now. It was popping out as she said and adorable.
“That looks like most people’s Thanksgiving Day belly,” Gillian said, laughing.
“I know,” Whitney said, rubbing her belly. “I’m so excited. Every time she moves I just get so excited.”
“I want a brother,” Ben said.
Whitney laughed. Ben wasn’t pouting but smiling while Whitney cut up his pizza for him. Her mother put him in his seat and Gillian went to get him some milk.
