Rachel Gibson - Not Another Bad Date

Instead he stepped back as if she was suddenly radioactive. “Goddamn it.” He scrubbed his face with his hands, then pressed his fingers into his forehead. “Fuck. How in the hell did this happen?”

Adele’s heart sank, but she wasn’t surprised. She moved past him and sat on the couch. She was tired and sick, and she just wanted to go to sleep and wake up and have this all be a bad dream. “I don’t know. It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

He dropped his hands and turned to face her. “You said you had one of those IUDs.”

“I do. Or did. Or, I don’t know.” She took a sip of tea. “Your condom broke just that one time. Just once. I don’t understand. I can’t believe this is happening. I’m as shocked as you are.” She glanced over at him and her heart sank even more. He was looking at her as he had the night the condom broke. With suspicion and distrust. “Don’t say it, Zach,” she warned.

But he went right ahead and said it anyway, “I don’t think you’re as shocked as I am. Obviously you don’t have an IUD.”

She wanted to cut him some slack for shock, but she wasn’t feeling generous. She was still in shock herself, but she wasn’t blaming him. “You think I planned this?”

He folded his arms across the chest of his flannel shirt and didn’t say a thing. He didn’t have to.

“I didn’t lie about the IUD, and don’t you dare suggest I did anything to the condom. I just didn’t know you have turbo swimmers that can take out birth control.”

“You knew this was the only way that I would ever get married again.”

She set her tea on the table and stood. She loved him, and his words sliced at her heart. “Who said anything about getting married?”

“Isn’t that what this is all about?” He raised his chin and looked down at her. “I knock you up, and we get married?”

“No.”

“Let me make this really clear. I’m not asking this time.”

Her wounded heart could only take so much. “Leave.” She pointed toward the front door. She was tired and sick and not in the mood to put up with Zach’s anger. “I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow,” she said, her lips stiff with her own anger. “I’ll call you once it’s confirmed.”

He reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out his keys. “What time tomorrow?”

She’d called Sherilyn’s OBGYN, who’d had a cancellation and had been able to get her in. “Ten thirty. I’ll call around noon.”

“I’ll take you.”

“I can drive.”

“I said, I’ll take you.”

“Fine.” But it wouldn’t change anything. They’d find out she was pregnant, but Zach still wouldn’t love her. She’d still be alone and scared and wondering what the hell she was going to do.

On the drive to the doctor’s office the next morning, Zach was unusually quiet. The scent of him filled the Escalade, his spicy deodorant and soap mixing with the smell of leather. He wore khakis and a wool coat over a blue button-down shirt. His hair was wet as if he’d just gotten out of the shower, and he looked tired. She knew the feeling. He’d asked how she was feeling and if he could get her anything, but that was about it.

They sat in the waiting room with other couples, the women in various stages of hugeness. While Adele filled out her medical information, Zach hung their coats on hooks by the door, then he took the seat beside her and kicked back with a golf magazine. Adele glanced up from the clipboard at the couple across from her. The man placed a hand on his wife’s rounded belly and leaned to whisper something into her ear. The woman smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. A couple in love, happy about having their baby.

Adele returned her attention to her clipboard, and her heart pinched. She looked at Zach out of the corners of her eyes. She would never have that. No loving touch or comforting whisper. No strong shoulder on which to lay her head. He lifted his gaze from his magazine. His eyes were void of any emotion.

After about half an hour, a nurse came and got Adele. When she stood, Zach rose also. She turned to him, and whispered, “Stay out here.”

He shook his head. “Not a chance.”

The thought of her feet in the stirrups in front of Zach heated her cheeks. “Things get a little personal in there.”

He lowered his face and said next to her ear, “I’ve had my face in your crotch. It doesn’t get any more personal than that.”

Her heated cheeks caught fire. “Fine, but if I am pregnant, you better not swear and start saying I tricked you again.”

He sat next to her right shoulder as Dr. Helen Rodriguez examined her. He didn’t say anything when the doctor confirmed the pregnancy, and Adele was reluctant to look at his face to see his reaction.

When it was over, the paper drape around Adele’s hip crinkled as she sat up. “Where did the IUD go? My doctor said it was there at my last exam back in June.”

Dr. Rodriguez stood and pulled off her latex gloves. “My guess is that it’s in your uterus, but I can’t be sure without an ultrasound.” She tossed the gloves in the garbage and picked up Adele’s chart. “Get dressed, and a nurse will take you down the hall, and we’ll look for it with the ultrasound.”

So many thoughts raced through Adele’s head, and none of them stuck. She was pregnant. It was real. She was going to have a baby. It wasn’t until the door closed behind the doctor that she thought to ask questions. Like, what did it mean if the IUD was in her uterus?

“You’re pregnant.” Zach frowned and handed over her panties and jeans.

She hopped down and reached for the table for support as she stepped into her panties. Zach wrapped a hand around her arm, and she wished things were different.

“Contrary to what you think, I’m not happy about this.” She felt sick to her stomach and sick at heart. She was scared, and she just wanted someone to tell her it was all going to be okay. “I’m not any happier about it than you are.”

“I doubt that.” He dropped his hand from her. “You’re the woman whose biological clock is tapping her on the shoulder.”

She looked up at him as she stepped into her jeans and buttoned them over her flat abdomen. “Don’t turn my words around on me. Wanting a family someday and an unplanned pregnancy are two different things.”

The arch of his brow spoke volumes. He was never going to believe that it was unplanned.

She and Zach followed the nurse to a second room, and fifteen minutes later, she lay on a table with clear goop on her stomach while the doctor ran the probe across her skin. “I don’t see the IUD anywhere,” she said. “If it was there, I’d see the copper.”

Adele glanced up at the doctor, then returned her gaze to the monitor screen. “It’s just disappeared?”

“It’s not anywhere in your pelvis.”

“That’s good. Right?” she asked.

“Very good. An IUD pregnancy is very high-risk. If it was there, we’d either have to dilate your cervix and chance a spontaneous miscarriage. Or leave it in, and at seven weeks gestation, there’s a 25 percent chance of a spontaneous miscarriage. The rate goes up to 50 percent by midterm.”

“How does an IUD just disappear?” Zach asked.

The doctor looked at him. “About 7 percent of IUDs are expelled by a woman’s body. Usually within the first year of insertion.” She returned her gaze to Adele. “Which makes this case unusual because you’ve had yours in for three years.” She pointed at the monitor and moved the probe. “Here’s a heartbeat.”

Adele squinted at the monitor, and Zach scooted forward in his chair for a better look. “That little white thing surrounded by black?” he asked.