“Okay. Well, that’s good. I think. How are you coping with everything, Alison?”
I let my head drop back onto the sofa. “Sometimes, shockingly well. At other times, not so much. I’m trying not to blame myself for what happened with Noah—”
“The bad luck thing?” Brooke asked gently.
“Yeah. I thought I’d gotten beyond it, but you have to admit, when you look at my history and then something likethishappens, it does make you stop and think.”
She shook her head. “Coincidence, Alison. Change your perspective. Consider this situation from another angle. You had nothing to do with whatever caused this man’s surgery snafu. It would have happened even if you hadn’t met at the wedding and hit it off. Right?”
“I keep telling myself that,” I agreed.
“And having some strong emotions about Noah’s situation is perfectly rational. If you find yourself struggling to handle all of it, your response is normal. I’m glad you were aware enough to make an appointment so that we could unpack this and work on some ways to cope.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “It wasn’t Noah’s coma that made me call. I was doing okay. I got through seeing him in the hospital. I’ve been using the affirmations and visualizations you gave me before. I was doing all the right things.”
“Good. Wonderful. I’m glad to hear that. But then, what else happened?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and tucked my feet beneath me, wishing I could burrow into the sofa cushions and just disappear. But that wasn’t going to happen. No amount of wishing or hoping or praying was going to change the hard truths. Troubles and difficulties didn’t just go away when they were ignored, no matter how much I wanted that to happen. I’d learned long ago that facing facts was the first step in solving problems.
And this one? Yeah, ignoring it definitely wasn’t going to make it go away.
Squaring my shoulders, I lifted my chin and faced Brooke.
“Yesterday, I found out that I’m pregnant.”
