Eighteen: New

   "Moving furniture is exhausting." I grumbled , lying down on the expansive emerald green rug that we'd bought from the furniture store, to color coordinate with the drapes and the wallpaper, since I didn't feel like exerting the effort it would take to move to an armchair.
   "And to think, the furniture shop employees moved in everything new we'd bought, we only had to move the things from my old apartment that we'd put in storage and a few things from our old apartment." James chuckled, as he propped himself up on the sofa, his hand hanging down, as he attempted to tickle my nose. His mother had so graciously paid for our new two story, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, suburban, "We're getting our shat together"- or at least that's James described it; buying a family home, a career change, we were only twenty-five and he had still decided that we were the epitome of the average American newly wed couple who had inadvertently began nesting- home, allowing us to be more generous with our furniture budget, surprisingly we had to buy a lot of things, because we weren't in possession of anything fit for a guest bedroom or to fill a living room that wasn't also the dining room or a second bathroom, and my Etsy decoration budget.
   "Ehh, stop." I weakly protested, swatting his hand.
   "Not in the playful mood?" He teased, poking my arm. "C'mon."
   "Dammit, James!" Lately I'd been rather irritable, I tried my hardest to keep my promise to myself that I'd made two months ago, in September, however it was growing more difficult, I grew tired rather quickly, a downside that made running a classroom of five year olds especially difficult, and I'd been achy. I contributed it to my vigorous exercise regime, I was determined to lose the ten pounds that I'd somehow managed to gain. "I'm sorry." I tried softening my tone, I didn't want to have a row. He pulled him arm away from my face, standing up from the sofa.
   "Help you up?" He gestured for me to take his hand, which I did, as he pulled me up from the somewhat comfortable floor. "Can you believe it? We're officially homeowners. We should buy a dog, not that Skeddadles would appreciate that, we should buy an economical family car, hell, we should host Thanksgiving in three weeks."
   "Thanksgiving?" I hadn't ever pondered the idea of hosting the holiday dinner for my parents, whose home I usually went over to. "We haven't even experienced Thanksgiving together yet, maybe we shouldn't host it this year."
   "Christmas Eve will mark our one year anniversary!" His eyes lit up, as he giddily smiled. "We've known each other for almost a year, that deserves celebrating, as does having our home furnished, I think there's wine in the kitchen, I'll go check." He kissed me tenderly on the forehead, before leaving to get the wine.

   Instead of waiting for him, I meandered towards the bathroom, a location I'd been visiting more ever since my bladder had decided that it wanted to become the size of an olive. I opened the door, pausing to look at my profile in the mirror that hung over the sink.

   The weight I'd gained, instead of being muscle weight, had gone straight to my bloated stomach, tragically. I wasn't one to obsess over my weight, I knew that I was perfectly healthy and that muscle weighed more than fat, so I shouldn't obsess over the number, especially when I still looked lean, the exception, though, was when I started gaining weight for no apparent reason. It bothered me, not knowing what was going on with my body, fortunately I had my yearly physical with our family doctor tomorrow, an event I had to take off the first half of work for, so I could voice my concerns to her.
   "She'll know what's going on." I murmured to myself, patting my stomach.
   "Did you say something, Lavender?" I heard James ask, as he knocked on the bathroom door. Did I mention how I had gained weight? He might think that I was baiting him, that it was a trick, despite it not being one.
   "Uh, well," I opened the door, to see him holding two green bottles of beer. "My shirt's a bit tight and I was pondering why."

   "Probably muscle, you're so strong, you could probably take me out." He chuckled, setting the bottles on the edge of the sink. "You look ace."
   "Endearing, thank you, but I'm not sure that's it."
   "Your knockers." He nonchalantly replied, a fruity- frisky- grin appeared on his face, as his eyes lingered on my chest. "You've gone from a B to a solid C. I have to say, whatever you're doing, I fancy it, especially when you say tight tops make 'em sore, so you go without and then I might give you a massage."
   "Perhaps you could give me a massage now, we do need to Christen the house."
   "Really?" He exclaimed, raising an eyebrow. I nodded, understanding his perplexity. My emotions had gone from me being an overly emotional, teary mess, to me being in a mood where, if anyone touched me, I wanted to roughly touch, or slam, depending on your perspective, my fist to their face, to me being in a yes-I-know-we-are-in-Trader-Joe's-but-hell-I'm-horny-let's-go-do-it-in-the-restroom-or-the-car mood, usually I experienced all three within forty-eight hours. He began snogging me affectionately, moving from my lips, to my chin, nibbling at my neck, as his hands played with the hem of my tank top. "You're so beautiful."
   Frustration, along with another feeling that was in my abdomen, being growing in my mind. He was so muscular, his skin soft, supple a thin blue t-shirt was stretched across his bulging biceps, I could feel his abs against my stomach, through the measly cotton.
   "No foreplay..." I whispered, taking off my tank top in one solid motion, tossing it onto the tile, where the rest of our garments would join it.

♢ ♢ ♢

 

  
   "Mrs. Colton, you're in excellent physical health; your blood pressure and heart rate are normal, your routine blood test didn't show signs of anything out of the ordinary, however we don't have any records of you visiting another physician for your pregnancy-"
   "Pardon?!" I exclaimed, glancing at Dr. Havar, my doctor. "Are you sure that you didn't mix up my blood samples with someone else? I'm not pregnant."
    "Mrs. Colton, your blood tests show that you are. Your symptoms, fatigue, nausea, the aches and pains, the weight gain, the mood swings, they can all be explained by your pregnancy. Now, we have excellent pre-natal care on site, I'm sure that they can fit you in after this appointment, would you like me to check?"

   "I'm... I'm pregnant?" It was... It was completely possible, considering how, ehem, active James and I were, however I never really considered the possibility. We'd never discussed having children, we just presumed, since we were both a bit embarrassingly reckless when it came to anything that had a vague connection to pregnancy prevention, it would happen one day, still I was a bit taken aback.
   "It can be a very big shock, would you like time to process it?" I nodded slowly, leaning on the bench. I was going to be a mother... James was going to be a father! Should I call him? Should I wait to tell him? Should I do this or that or, hell this was wonderful news, James and I didn't move to the burbs because we were tired of city life, we were nesting. He'd be overjoyed, I was calling him. I clutched my phone in my hand, quickly pressing his name. The phone rang and rang, until finally I heard his voice saying he was too busy to get to the phone right now, please leave a message.

   "James, I, uh, I'm at my doctor's appointment and..." Dammit. I couldn't tell him the news in a message. "And, and I'm healthy." The fetus- hell, I drank beer yesterday night and I went out with Sandi to celebrate her engagement and we did tequila shots and, oh gods, what if the fetus wasn't okay because I drank? I didn't drink excessively, but still for a pregnancy, oh gods, oh gods... My hearty began beating faster, what if it, he, she, was deformed or had health problems? I ate sushi and had an irregular sleep schedule and, oh gods. "Um, anyway, yeah. All I wanted to say. G'bye." I hung up, my joy being replaced with intense apprehension. Oh gods.

Next Chapter