It was about 3 o’clock when Jeremy finally heard from Robin. She explained to him that when her flight got in yesterday, her immediate supervisor was waiting in the town car at the airport for her. That had never happened before, so she knew that she was in for an all-nighter with the team. She told him how she kept meaning to call him, but she just couldn’t break away. Then, when she finally made it to her hotel room in the wee hours of the morning, she was asleep before he head even hit the pillow and she had no idea how she was awake to head up their presentation to the clients this morning.
Jeremy, being the understanding one, had no reason to doubt her story. He knew how hard she worked and had no reason to ask more than the necessary questions.
Robin, on the other hand, was just good at lying. She could spin a story to cover just about anything, which is why she was having a freak out over what she was going to tell Jeremy if it turned out she was pregnant. She didn’t want to know, but she knew she had to find out sooner or later.
So after getting off the phone with her husband, Robin walked the 6 blocks to the nearest drug store. She bought three different kinds of pregnancy tests and told herself that no matter the results, pregnant or not, she would break it off with Greg. Things were just getting too complicated and she was becoming careless.
She rushed back to the hotel and up to their room. When she walked in, Greg was just putting on a shirt.
“Babe, where are you going?” Robin asked him.
“I just got a call from LW and he is sending me a fax with the changes for the LW meeting we have Tuesday morning. Watch out, though. He might be trying to reach you on your cell and you know we don’t want him to know we’re here together. I told him I was here for a baseball game with a buddy,” Greg responded.
Greg stopped at the door when he saw the lost look on Robin’s face. He tried to get her to tell him what was wrong, but she just waved him off.
“I’m fine. Hurry down so you can come back up. I’m getting hungry,” she told him.
He hopped over to her and placed a soft kiss on her lips.
“Be right back, love,” he replied. Then he was out the door.
She knew that she had at least 10 minutes to kill before he came back upstairs. She’d been holding it for about thirty minutes now, so she was ready for a release.
She picked up a small plastic cup from the small kitchen counter in the room and took it in the bathroom with her. If she was going to do this, she wanted to make sure she had enough for all three test.
She knew she should probably wait until the next morning, when her HGC levels are at their highest, but tomorrow she would be back on a flight for home. She didn’t wanted time to calm down from the freak-out she knew she was bound to have.
She did her business in the cup and then set it on the counter. After washing her hands, she opened the first test. She dipped the stick into the liquid and set it aside. She opened the second test and did the same thing. After opening the third test, she poured a few drops onto the spot for the urine and set that test aside. She poured out the remaining liquid and flushed the toilet. She washed her hands again, said a little prayer and left the bathroom.
She went to the kitchen and set the oven timer for 5 minutes, as all the test claimed they would be done in that time.
She walked over to the window and peeped out. She was nervous and was getting fidgety. She sat down in the high-backed chair in front of the window and crossed and uncrossed her legs. She swore she could hear the ticking of the clock on the bedside table, even though it was digital. She knew then that she was extremely paranoid and thought she needed a drink.
Just as she got to the minibar, she heard a very small bell ding. She rushed to the stove to turn the timer off, only the stove still read two minutes. That’s when she realized that it was the elevator dinging out in the hall. She listened for footsteps, but they passed her hotel room door. It wasn’t Greg, yet.
She opened the minibar and took out two small bottled of rum. She downed the first one in two gulps and then just as she opened the second one, she heard the oven timer go off. Her hand froze in mid-air.
She slowly walked over to the oven and turned the timer off. She stared at the bathroom door for a few seconds before she slowly made her way to that door.
She pushed the door open and walked over to the counter. She took a deep breath and then looked down at the tests.
This was going to be so confusing.
She picked up the box for the first test. It was supposed to have two pink parallel lines if she was pregnant and one pink line if she wasn’t. There was one pink line that was barely there. She figured that meant ‘no’. She gave a little smile at that response.
Then she moved onto the next one. It was supposed to show two lines for a positive reading and one line for a negative reading, also. Only this time, there were two very thick lines. Her breath caught in her throat upon reading that one. It was positive!
She dropped that one in the sink and picked up the third test. She was glad that she got a third one because, surely, this one would give the real result, right?
She picked up the box for the third test. It was supposed to give a simple yes or no answer, only there were no words in the window. Clearly, the test was wet enough to produce an answer. She just knew she followed the instructions to a T. But there was nothing in the window of the test.
Clearly frustrated she picked up the box again. Looking for anything about a test not giving you a response, she came across the expiration date of the test. It was dated a year and a half ago.
She picked up the boxes for the other two test and looked at the expiration dates on them, also. She was dumbfounded. All the test expired more than a year ago.
How was she supposed to get accurate results from these test, she wondered.
She sat down on the toilet again with her head in her hands. She was going over and over in her mind what to do when Greg walked back in. She was so wrapped up in her own thinking that she didn’t hear him calling her name or step into the bathroom. The first thing he saw was her sitting on the toilet. The second things were the tests lined up on the counter.
He looked back at Robin then walked over to the test results.
“Robin,” he said, trying to finally get her attention. “What’s all this?”
She jumped when she finally heard him. She looked up at him through the tears in her eyes.
“I don’t know,” she told him. “I should have checked the dates on them before I bought them. They’re all expired!” she screamed.
She half laughed and half cried as she shook her head.
“Just my luck, huh? One says it positive, one says its negative, and the other one, it don’t say nothing,” she screamed again.
She got up and walked out of the bathroom and flopped down on the bed.
Greg took a moment and looked at the tests again. He knew that Robin wouldn’t calm down until she knew the truth. And he knew he couldn’t get her to go to a clinic. She would only see her own doctor.
“Baby, don’t worry so much about it. I promise you it’ll be fine. Like I told you already, we’ll get through it and work it out. Just trust me. I got you, baby.”
Robin sat up and grabbed her phone. She was an hour ahead of the time it was at home. Looking at the clock, it was just a little before 5 pm. She would try her doctor’s office first and if she couldn’t reach her there, she would page her.
She got through to the office and made an appointment, but the earliest she could be seen was a week and a half from today. She booked the appointment and immediately started going through conversations in her mind about what she was going to tell Jeremy.
But, her thoughts were interrupted by a wave of nausea. She ran past Greg to the bathroom and slammed the door.
She definitely knew her body and her body was definitely telling her she was pregnant.
____________________________________________________________
Jeremy, being the understanding one, had no reason to doubt her story. He knew how hard she worked and had no reason to ask more than the necessary questions.
Robin, on the other hand, was just good at lying. She could spin a story to cover just about anything, which is why she was having a freak out over what she was going to tell Jeremy if it turned out she was pregnant. She didn’t want to know, but she knew she had to find out sooner or later.
So after getting off the phone with her husband, Robin walked the 6 blocks to the nearest drug store. She bought three different kinds of pregnancy tests and told herself that no matter the results, pregnant or not, she would break it off with Greg. Things were just getting too complicated and she was becoming careless.
She rushed back to the hotel and up to their room. When she walked in, Greg was just putting on a shirt.
“Babe, where are you going?” Robin asked him.
“I just got a call from LW and he is sending me a fax with the changes for the LW meeting we have Tuesday morning. Watch out, though. He might be trying to reach you on your cell and you know we don’t want him to know we’re here together. I told him I was here for a baseball game with a buddy,” Greg responded.
Greg stopped at the door when he saw the lost look on Robin’s face. He tried to get her to tell him what was wrong, but she just waved him off.
“I’m fine. Hurry down so you can come back up. I’m getting hungry,” she told him.
He hopped over to her and placed a soft kiss on her lips.
“Be right back, love,” he replied. Then he was out the door.
She knew that she had at least 10 minutes to kill before he came back upstairs. She’d been holding it for about thirty minutes now, so she was ready for a release.
She picked up a small plastic cup from the small kitchen counter in the room and took it in the bathroom with her. If she was going to do this, she wanted to make sure she had enough for all three test.
She knew she should probably wait until the next morning, when her HGC levels are at their highest, but tomorrow she would be back on a flight for home. She didn’t wanted time to calm down from the freak-out she knew she was bound to have.
She did her business in the cup and then set it on the counter. After washing her hands, she opened the first test. She dipped the stick into the liquid and set it aside. She opened the second test and did the same thing. After opening the third test, she poured a few drops onto the spot for the urine and set that test aside. She poured out the remaining liquid and flushed the toilet. She washed her hands again, said a little prayer and left the bathroom.
She went to the kitchen and set the oven timer for 5 minutes, as all the test claimed they would be done in that time.
She walked over to the window and peeped out. She was nervous and was getting fidgety. She sat down in the high-backed chair in front of the window and crossed and uncrossed her legs. She swore she could hear the ticking of the clock on the bedside table, even though it was digital. She knew then that she was extremely paranoid and thought she needed a drink.
Just as she got to the minibar, she heard a very small bell ding. She rushed to the stove to turn the timer off, only the stove still read two minutes. That’s when she realized that it was the elevator dinging out in the hall. She listened for footsteps, but they passed her hotel room door. It wasn’t Greg, yet.
She opened the minibar and took out two small bottled of rum. She downed the first one in two gulps and then just as she opened the second one, she heard the oven timer go off. Her hand froze in mid-air.
She slowly walked over to the oven and turned the timer off. She stared at the bathroom door for a few seconds before she slowly made her way to that door.
She pushed the door open and walked over to the counter. She took a deep breath and then looked down at the tests.
This was going to be so confusing.
She picked up the box for the first test. It was supposed to have two pink parallel lines if she was pregnant and one pink line if she wasn’t. There was one pink line that was barely there. She figured that meant ‘no’. She gave a little smile at that response.
Then she moved onto the next one. It was supposed to show two lines for a positive reading and one line for a negative reading, also. Only this time, there were two very thick lines. Her breath caught in her throat upon reading that one. It was positive!
She dropped that one in the sink and picked up the third test. She was glad that she got a third one because, surely, this one would give the real result, right?
She picked up the box for the third test. It was supposed to give a simple yes or no answer, only there were no words in the window. Clearly, the test was wet enough to produce an answer. She just knew she followed the instructions to a T. But there was nothing in the window of the test.
Clearly frustrated she picked up the box again. Looking for anything about a test not giving you a response, she came across the expiration date of the test. It was dated a year and a half ago.
She picked up the boxes for the other two test and looked at the expiration dates on them, also. She was dumbfounded. All the test expired more than a year ago.
How was she supposed to get accurate results from these test, she wondered.
She sat down on the toilet again with her head in her hands. She was going over and over in her mind what to do when Greg walked back in. She was so wrapped up in her own thinking that she didn’t hear him calling her name or step into the bathroom. The first thing he saw was her sitting on the toilet. The second things were the tests lined up on the counter.
He looked back at Robin then walked over to the test results.
“Robin,” he said, trying to finally get her attention. “What’s all this?”
She jumped when she finally heard him. She looked up at him through the tears in her eyes.
“I don’t know,” she told him. “I should have checked the dates on them before I bought them. They’re all expired!” she screamed.
She half laughed and half cried as she shook her head.
“Just my luck, huh? One says it positive, one says its negative, and the other one, it don’t say nothing,” she screamed again.
She got up and walked out of the bathroom and flopped down on the bed.
Greg took a moment and looked at the tests again. He knew that Robin wouldn’t calm down until she knew the truth. And he knew he couldn’t get her to go to a clinic. She would only see her own doctor.
“Baby, don’t worry so much about it. I promise you it’ll be fine. Like I told you already, we’ll get through it and work it out. Just trust me. I got you, baby.”
Robin sat up and grabbed her phone. She was an hour ahead of the time it was at home. Looking at the clock, it was just a little before 5 pm. She would try her doctor’s office first and if she couldn’t reach her there, she would page her.
She got through to the office and made an appointment, but the earliest she could be seen was a week and a half from today. She booked the appointment and immediately started going through conversations in her mind about what she was going to tell Jeremy.
But, her thoughts were interrupted by a wave of nausea. She ran past Greg to the bathroom and slammed the door.
She definitely knew her body and her body was definitely telling her she was pregnant.
____________________________________________________________
After her long shower, Charlotte sat on her bed while she got dressed. She heard the faint sound of her phone indicating that she had a voicemail.
She got dressed and then played the messages on her phone.
“Hi, Ms. Roberts, it’s Mrs. Mathers. We met at the mall when you helped me out? I wanted to speak with you about a few things, if you had some time today. Oh, and I wanted to say thank you again for your help yesterday. You came along at just the right time. I really hope that you’ll be able to help us with this party. Anyway, give me a call back whenever you get the chance, please? My number is 555-6985. Thanks again. Bye.”
Charlotte went back and checked the number that she missed while talking to Jeremy yesterday. Sure enough, it was the same number. She hated to miss calls from important or potential clients, but she would miss them all again if it was for Jeremy.
She broke out into a smile again. She realized that she’d become one of those blushing girls who just beamed with smiles and hearts and love at the mention of their man’s name. She’d just never had that before. It felt… nice.
She went to pick up her house phone to call Jeremy, but when she did, she got no dial tone, but she could hear faint sounds coming from the other end of the phone.
“Hello,” she said, thinking maybe the telephone lines got crossed.
“Charlotte,” the voice said into the phone. “What’s up girl? Man, I missed you.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. The lines weren’t crossed, she just happened to pick up the phone at the exact moment it would’ve been ringing.
“Damien, why are you calling me?”
“Huh, who is Damien? Oh, wait, I forgot you had it like that, you and your “many menses”?”
The guy on the other end of the phone laughed at his own joke. Charlotte still didn’t recognize the voice.
“Who is this?” she asked, getting a little nervous. She was very good at remembering voices, especially guy’s, but this one, she couldn’t place. She knew it wasn’t Damien or Jeremy. And she hadn’t given out her house number to anyone in a long time.
“I’ll give you a hint: Thud,” the person said.
Charlotte laughed out loud for a good five minutes before coming back down to earth.
“Thud” was a nickname she’d given to one of her ex-boyfriend’s from a few years ago. His real name was Terrance Hudson, but he always went by “T Hud”, which Charlotte turned into “Thud”.
It had been years since they talked. Terrance had been shipped off somewhere overseas with the military three years ago. That was the only reason they’d broken up.
“Terrance. God, its been, what? Three years? How are you? Where are you?”
Charlotte was shooting so many questions at him, he didn’t know what to answer first.
“Hey, wait, slow down. Let me answer the first five then you can shoot the next ones at me,” he laughed. “First of all, I’m back. For good. I’ll explain all that later. Secondly, I want to see you. I need to see you. I could really use a friend right now. And lastly, I’m standing at your front door.”
Charlotte almost dropped the phone. She couldn’t believe it.
Terrance was the one person that she’d met since Jeremy who could actually be competition for him. When they were dating before he left, Terrance had bought a ring and was going to propose. They’d already talked about marriage before all that and they were happy, truly happy. The only reason they weren’t together now was because of his call to duty. But now that he was back, she didn’t know how to react to that.
“Well…” he sang into the phone. “Are you going to open the door?”
“Yeah,” she said, shaking the memories away. “I’m on my way.”
She hung up the phone, threw on some lip gloss and ran to the front door. She looked through the peephole and immediately her heart skipped a beat.
She opened the front door to see a much more mature looking Terrance standing there.
“Hi honey,” Terrance said, with his arms spread wide. “I’m home, baby!"
8 comments:
This was a great post!
oh, my...mum
I love it!!! cant wait....
Oh, wow. I am speechless. I can't wait for the next post! Great suprise twist!!!
i love this blog. its getting more exciting!!!!!
I agree with all of the above!! I LOVED the pregnancy plot twist...all expired - that is good!
Wow, that was a good twist!! Great post as usual!! I hope you don't mind me doing this, Lady, but I wanted to drop in and let you all know, I am having firewall issues with blogger, it won't let me access the sign in page at blogger...I can't get into goodreads.com and a few other sites I normally visit too...sometimes i really hate living on a military establishment...sneeze wrong and they block you! so...I can't post to "It could have happened" until they get everything straightened out!!! I am sorry guys!!! I miss you all! as soon as it allows me access I will post...or I may just go to like wordpress or something...I don't know...I'll let you all know asap...in the meantime, I am still reading your blog!!!
~Dicia~
Its fine, Dicia. I've been wondering if you were okay. If you need me to do anything, let me know.
There will be a post up later today, hopefully.
Thanks for reading!
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