Chapter Fourteen

Richard

Rue wouldn’t even make eye contact with me as we sat in the examination room waiting for the doctor to come in with the test results. Flora stood beside me, her hand rested almost possessively on my back, and there was a chilly silence in the room around us. I had wanted to apologize to Rue ever since Thanksgiving, but I hadn’t been able to find a time to call her when Flora wasn’t right there in the room with me. It was almost as though she knew that I wanted to do something that she likely wouldn’t approve of and was hovering close by to either prevent me from doing it, or in order to catch me as soon as I did. She still didn’t know that I had spent the holiday with Rue. I had been so frustrated with her patented sick act that she dragged out any time that something wasn’t going her way or when she wanted attention that I had just left the house. By the time that I had returned she had made a miraculous recovery and was eating sushi in the living room completely devoid of any type of holiday cheer.

It was still like that and she still hadn’t bothered to ask what I had been doing. I wasn’t going to volunteer the information. That didn’t change, though, that I wanted desperately to sit down with Rue and try to apologize, try to make amends for offending her. Though I still couldn’t for the life of me understand why she would purposely put herself through living somewhere like that, I knew that it had been wrong of me to openly criticize it. We didn’t know each other well enough for my attempts at humor to appeal to her.

Were they attempts at humor, or was I really that much of an ass?

When she came into the medical center that morning she hadn’t acknowledged me. There had been consistent silence amongst the three of us from the time that we walked in until now, and while Flora seemed entirely comfortable with it, I was starting to dread the possibility of facing nine more months of this. Finally, the door clicked open and Dr. Morgan stepped inside, carrying a folder. He looked at each of us for a few seconds and then smiled. That smile told me everything and I felt my heart swelling before he even began to speak.

“Congratulations,” he said. “Rue is pregnant.”

****

Rue

Everything around me got fuzzy and I felt suddenly dizzy.

Pregnant. I’m pregnant.

Though it was exactly what we had wanted to find out at this appointment, actually hearing those words sent a shock through me, hitting me unexpectedly hard as though somewhere deep inside myself I hadn’t really allowed my mind or my heart to believe that it was even a possibility. It was like I had just assumed that it wasn’t going to work. After the disaster of Thanksgiving it seemed that it would be the appropriate continuation of things that we would find out that the insemination hadn’t stuck, and we would go our separate ways; them to find another woman whose womb wouldn’t betray them, and me to figure out some other way that I was going to save Grammyma’s house. But that’s not what happened.

I’m pregnant.

I turned and looked at Richard. He was staring at me, his eyes sparkling. I felt everything that had happened fall away and all I saw was the man I had met, the man who I hadn’t been able to get out of my mind. We smiled at each other and before I realized what I was doing, I was on my feet, closing the space between us as he did the same. He gathered me into his arms and hugged me close. I filled my lungs with the scent of him, closing my eyes so I could memorize it. He suddenly took a step back, patting my shoulders as if he was worried that he’d done something wrong and was trying to put me back together.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Are you OK?”

“She’s fine,” Dr. Morgan said with a slight laugh. “She’s not breakable, I promise. We’ve gotten through the first hurdle. The procedure worked, and Rue is officially pregnant. Your baby is happily growing and has actually gotten through a few key phases of development already. Now we move forward. This is just the beginning.”

“So, what now?” Flora asked, bringing a stark end to the doctor’s speech.

Until that moment I had forgotten that she was even in the room and now that I remembered I felt a dampening of my happiness. I wished that Richard and I could just experience this together.

“Now we decide how to proceed. Rue can either be under my care or the care of one of the midwives.”

“Midwife,” I said promptly, not giving Flora a chance to interject even though I could see in her face that she was getting ready to say something. “I really appreciate all that you’ve done for me so far, Doctor, but I’d like to have a midwife, if that’s an option.”

“Of course, that’s an option. We can start you under her care in just a few weeks, once a bit more development has happened. For now, just relax. Enjoy the news. If you notice any signs of problems, such as bleeding, cramping, or dizziness, come in as fast as you can. Other than that, I’ll set you up for your first meeting with the midwife in January.”

“January?” Richard asked, sounding slightly frantic. “Why that far?”

“Because there’s really nothing that we can do until then,” Dr. Morgan said. “The baby has plenty of growing to do, and until around the middle of January, we won’t be able to even see a heartbeat. After that, I promise things will get more exciting. So just go on home. Enjoy the holidays. Start thinking of a fun way to announce your pregnancy on Valentine’s Day. Congratulations again.”

My heart fluttered in my chest.

Valentine’s Day. Could it be more perfect? Or less perfect? I was having a hard time deciding.

****

Richard

Valentine’s Day. Could there be a better way to celebrate than to tell everyone I’m going to be a father? …Maybe one.

We walked out of the medical center and Flora glared at Rue. All pretext was gone now, and I doubted that there was ever going to be anything but this type of uneasiness between them.

“Make sure that you’re following the diet that I gave you,” she demanded. “I don’t want this baby being born with a food addiction or already behind in the fight against childhood obesity. Besides,” she looked Rue up and down, scrutinizing her, “there’s no real point in you getting fat, is there? You won’t have a built-in excuse once the baby’s born.”

“Flora!” I scolded, but she didn’t seem to care. She simply turned and stalked toward the car. I turned to Rue. “I’m sorry,” I said. “That was really uncalled for.”

“Everything about her is uncalled for,” Rue said. “And that’s fine. I’m not doing this for her. I’m doing it for you. And only for you.”

My heart filled, and I smiled at her.

“I’m so happy,” I said.

“And I’m so happy for you. I promise I will do everything I can to be the very best home for your baby until its born.”

I nodded.

“I know you will.”

I could hear Flora shouting at me from the car, but I ignored her. Nothing was going to ruin the joy that I was feeling that day.

“I guess I’ll see you in January?” Rue asked.

My happiness sank just slightly. That sounded so far away.

“I was hoping that I might get a chance to see you over Christmas,” I said.

Rue glanced around me toward Flora’s voice and shook her head.

“I don’t think that that would be the best idea,” she said. “I can’t imagine that Flora would be too delighted to have me around for the holidays.”

I nodded. I understood where she was coming from. If I was her, I wouldn’t want to give up my Christmas to spend time with Flora, either. And after the way I behaved the last time that I was there, I couldn’t imagine that she would be too keen on inviting me back to her home any time soon. Feeling the urge to hug her one more time, I gathered Rue tightly to me, but stepped away sooner than I would have wanted to. I looked at her still-flat belly, nearly laughing at myself for thinking that somehow, she should look different even though the baby was still barely a speck.

“Go ahead,” Rue said, as if she could read my mind.

I reached forward and touched my fingertips to her stomach, imagining that somehow my baby could sense that I was there. This was something that I had wanted for so long, and now it was happening. With all of the emotions coursing through me I didn’t know how to feel in that moment, but all I knew was that, at least for that second, I was glad to be sharing it with Rue.