Well, that answered that question… Alicia turned back to the display and thumbed through more mint green and Easter yellow onesies. When money wasn’t an obstacle, she was able to get the cutest looks in every size possible.My baby is going to wear this yellow onesie until it’s two years old at this point.It had duckies on it! Wasn’t that the most adorable thing?
She linked a hand with Danica’s and held up green paint swatches. “Every time I walk into the nursery, I want to crave a York Peppermint Patty.”
“Great,” Danica said with a smile. “The cravings have already started.”
The salesperson commented that their items matched Alicia’s emerald ring. When Alicia looked down, she first saw her borrowed wedding ring as opposed to the ring she considered a symbol of her relationship. Her lips turned taut.
“We’ll get you a real ring after tomorrow,” Danica insisted. “One thing at a time.”
Easy for her to say. She got to pick out her own ring.Then again,I said I wanted this one.There wasn’t a single person by the name of Moreau who was happy about that.
In the end, the couple picked up a whole room’s worth of furniture and a starter set of clothes. Alicia didn’t want to get too crazy in case her tastes changed through her pregnancy – assuming she even had a pregnancy.Of course I do. Of course I’m pregnant. Why wouldn’t I know this?Because she had never been pregnant before and was currently going through a great and stressful upheaval in her life?
They arranged to have the furniture delivered later that week and packed the bags of clothes into the backseat of the BMW. Alicia was already buckled up in the passenger seat by the time Danica sat down next to her, keys in hand.
“Dinner?” She gestured to the late afternoon sun. One would have never guessed she had dropped thousands of dollars on baby stuff.
Alicia gazed at her wife’s profile with a wistfulness neither of them could describe. “I’m happy, Danica.”
She took Alicia’s hand between their seats. “I’m happy, too.”
“We’re married and having a baby.”
“Indeed we are.”
“Is it everything you’ve ever wanted?”
“You tell me, precious.”
For a moment, Alicia forgot all the bullshit that had happened in the past few weeks. The threats. The marriage. The mother-in-law’s stories. The theories she had about certain employees. The distance growing between her and her friends and natal family. Right now, for the first time in too long, Alicia was a young wife enjoying an afternoon with her sweet spouse.
“So glad that guy didn’t get his way when he pushed me down the stairs,” she muttered.
Her wife’s hold on her hand faltered. “What?”
Oh. Right. Alicia never told her a certain tidbit.
Her face paled to the point that she sensed the color draining from her face. Her smile dropped from her mouth. She snatched back her hand. Awful memories of tumbling down those stairs hit her in the back of the head.
“I wasn’t completely honest about that night,” she admitted. So much for their nice afternoon. “Someone pushed me down those stairs. I didn’t trip…”
There it was. The face that she was most likely to associate with Danica Moreau, a dominant businesswoman with a drive to get her way and set things straight.
“Who the fuck pushed you?”
Alicia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I don’t remember. I barely saw him.”
“Him?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure it was a man.” She sent her a pleading look to drop this. “I was going down the stairs because the elevator was out, and suddenly someone pushed into me, and I woke up with Dee over me. I don’t know who it was, honest.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this!”
“Because I didn’t want to upset you. What was the point when I didn’t even remember who pushed me?” Great. Now they were both upset.
“Alicia,” her wife growled. “There are security cameras in the stairwell.”
She started the car and got on her phone. Alicia’s chest tightened.
