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“Shit!” she said. “I don’t have time. I know your name. I will find you on social media. Are you on Facebook or Instagram or both?”
“Both,” he said.
“I will find you,” she said and shut the door.
He went to the window and watched her drive off. Then he called his brother and told him everything.
“Thank fuck you’re having some kind of issue and I can help you for once,” said his brother, whose name was Fron. “So, you gotta get a paternity test. She could be lying to you.”
“Yeah, hiding it from me, trying to make sure I never found out, but she’s just using me,” he said with a sigh.
“Fuck women, man,” said Fron.
“I can’t wait for you to meet her,” said Gunnar.
HILJD HAD Abounce in her step at work. She mostly liked her job. Before getting pregnant, she’d been thinking about trying to start her own private practice, but now that the baby was coming, she was happier here, in a medical group that was affiliated with a bigger conglomeration, one that owned the local hospital and a bunch of other hospitals throughout the state. She was going to stay there, because it was going to be easier not to be in charge of everything.
It was going to mean she had to endure for a while, however. All the things she hated about her job were basically because of bureaucracy, whether it was coming down from the top of the organization she worked for, or from the insurance companies, or from government interventions—wherever it was, bureaucracy was evil.
The smaller and more independent she was, the less she’d have to worry about that sort of thing.
Maybe someday, she thought. For now, the most important thing was the baby.
She sped through all her morning appointments—not because she wasn’t attentive or because she was breezy and preoccupied, because she was just, well, better at her job. She was in a good mood, and she felt like her brain was functioning better for the first time in a long time. Maybe it was the orgasms or something.
She looked down at the answered questions of a woman who was there for her third appointment, and she suddenly realized the symptoms were because of the way her meds were interacting. “Good news,” she chirped. “We can put you on this instead, and everything should clear up.”
Then, when she was dealing with a man who was there for his first appointment in years, she found herself really empathetically tuning into how nervous he was. She said a few things to put him at ease right off. “Oh, sure, everyone gets a little nervous at the doctor’s, even me, and Iama doctor,” was one of them.
After that, he opened right up, and she was able to easily diagnose him.
He shook his head. “That’s it? I’ve been stressing about this for six months, and that’s it?”
“Sometimes, it’s easy,” she crowed.
At lunch, she opened up her phone and there was a message from Gunnar on Facebook.
I found you first,it said.
She grinned.Aren’t you resourceful? Shouldn’t have expected anything different.
Are you busy tonight?
Right to the point, I see.
If we’re dating, we need to go on dates.
She laughed, delighted.I’m actually going to a Yule lunch this evening. The one out at the Community Center. It’s a tradition, night after the lighting of the Yule log.
A Yule lunch was usually not held at lunchtime, but it did tend to feature lunchy-type foods. Typically sandwiches with pickled herring and a bunch of sides, pluslotsof beer. She would not be indulging in the beer, of course. Lunches started in the afternoon or evening and went late. There were lots of them held in the orc community during the season, and she usually made it to more than one.
Let me take you to the Yule lunch.
She considered, grinning at her phone screen, feeling alive in a way she hadn’t in… in… had she ever felt like this? It was somewhat reminiscent of the beginning of things with Valdemar, but the mating bond had been somewhat oppressive in its demands on them and everything about it had been utterly certain, which she realized was different than this feeling, this feeling that was possibilities.
The uncertainty made it exciting.
My mother will be there, she typed back.
