She stood up. “That’s me,” she said. She hadn’t said he could go with her and he wasn’t sure what his next move should be. She turned to him. “Are you coming or did you change your mind?”
He jumped up like a kid being told it was time to open all the gifts under the Christmas tree.
He wanted to hold her hand, but she was a few feet ahead of him and then off to the side with the nurse stepping on the scale.
They got to the room and he sat in the chair in the far corner, Natalie being attended to, then told to change in the adjoining bathroom.
He was going to pull his phone out but saw the note on the wall that it wasn’t allowed. He had nothing to check or track, just didn’t want to be sitting there staring at the wall.
She came out in a gown, holding it together with her hands. She looked ridiculous.
He kept his lips sealed tight.
She was on the table with her legs swinging nervously. “You doing okay?”
“Sure. Nothing to be nervous about. I’m only going to spread my legs and put my bare feet in those metal stirrups while you watch a woman put her fingers inside of me.”
His jaw hit the floor. “Wow. Look at you cracking jokes. I didn’t think you had it in you for something like that.”
She let out a little giggle. “I didn’t mean to say it as a joke but what was on my mind.”
“The fact you shared it and didn’t sugarcoat it to some professional response says it all.”
That her walls weren’t just crumbling. They were falling.
It was time one of them took the next step.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
He didn’t even want to consider that what they had would fizzle. It wasn’t an option.
If he wanted her to continue to open up, his words had to come, not just his actions.
He knew how he felt.
He was positive she felt the same.
The door opened and a doctor came in smiling. “Hi, I’m Dr. Weber. It’s nice to meet you.”
Natalie shook hands, then the doctor came over and shook his. “Arik,” he said. No reason to give a last name.
“Your urine came back positive for your pregnancy, but I’m sure you already knew that.”
“Yes,” she said.
“Based on the last date of your menstrual cycle, your due date is January twentieth, but I’m going to do a quick exam andultrasound to compare. Why don’t you slide down and put your feet up?”
The doctor put on a pair of gloves and Arik had to decide if he wanted to look away. Not that he could see anything.
The wind from his rapidly bouncing knee was the only sound in the room.
The doctor pulled over the ultrasound machine, covered the long probe with a condom that had him cringing over the size of it.
But the minute he was told where to look and saw the tiny little circle on the screen, everything changed.
Every thought in his head fled.
Every breath was exaggerated.
