Page 13

Marie

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I ’m officially, maybe, eight weeks pregnant. The past three weeks flew by, but it’s been wonderful having the girls with me. Less lonely. They give me a reason to keep moving forward instead of drowning in the pain of losing James for good.

Of going through this pregnancy alone, being a single mom right off the bat. I’m so lucky to have them.

They wanted to come to the appointment with me, but they have school, and this isn’t important enough for them to skip. At least not yet.

I park in front of the building and stare at the name etched into the glass. Dr. Brenton Evans, OBGYN, MD.

I wonder if he’s the Evanses son, what a small world that would be.

I shuffle my purse up onto my shoulder and head through the glass door and up to the desk.

I sign in and wave to the receptionist, turning around to sit on a chair beside a table that’s stacked with magazines.

The room is half filled with pregnant women, couples holding hands, and a few strays like me sitting alone.

I flip through the magazines as I wait, they should already have my insurance information from the initial phone call a few weeks ago so I relax back and try to get comfortable.

“Ms. Edwards?” I turn and find the receptionist standing from her chair looking for me.

I head over to her and smile. “We just need to see your ID and insurance card to scan into the system. Here’s some paperwork for you to fill out, too.

” I nod and hand over the two cards, taking the clip board with me to my seat.

Well, there goes that, I thought I could get out of talking to anyone for fifteen minutes.

Name, age, birth date. Information on my health… have I ever been pregnant before? Any miscarriages, abortions, or issues with my menstrual cycles?

When my last period was, have I had any cramps, bleeding, or odd pains? What my symptoms have been. Do I drink or smoke? Am I sexually active… Do I do drugs? Sigh.

I write down the date, and just write down that I’ve had some swelling and numbness in my legs, a ton of nausea, but I’m able to eat and drink after it abates.

I take a sip of my water as I sign the waivers. I stand up, handing off the papers and she hands me back my cards. She’s adorable, with her blonde pigtails, bright green eyes, and flushed cheeks. The hot pink scrubs really work for her.

“Thanks! We’ll call you back soon.” I nod and sit back down, finishing up the magazine. I don’t understand this new-age fashion nonsense. It’s all lace and completely see-through it seems. The actresses and models are gorgeous, though. They have the bodies for the clothes, that’s for sure.

Shit, I’m mostly always in scrubs, like today. They’re lime green and have enough pockets to hide all of the fun stuff in, like my hand sanitizer, mints, and ginger candies that I’ve been living off of lately.

“Ms. Edwards?”

I snap my head up towards the doors in the back of the room and make my way towards the medical assistant. “That’s me.” She nods and we take my weight and vitals.

“This is your room here. Are you a nurse?” She looks down at my scrubs and smiles at me. Hers are almost the exact same color as mine.

I shake my head. “I’m a sports medicine PA.” She nods and follows me into the room.

“Well, nice to meet you. My name’s Marissa and I’ll be doing the rest of your vitals. Go ahead and strip down and put this gown on. We’re doing a full physical today, along with a pap, unless you’ve had one in the past year?”

I nod. “Yeah, I just had my check up with my work, we do yearly physicals for my job.” She writes that down and shrugs. Her brown eyes are kind, open.

“All right, go ahead and write down the doctor’s information so we can get the records. We’ll just do blood work, a UA, and an ultrasound. He might still do a pelvic exam and cervix check though.”

I shrug and wait for her to leave before I strip down. I tie up the back and sit down on the paper on the exam table and scroll through my phone, sending out a message to the girls to let them know I’m all checked in.

Alyssa: You better send us the ultrasound pictures!

Caroline: Seriously, it’s bad enough we couldn’t be there. We better see our niece or nephew or shit’s going down!

I snort and let them know they’ll be the first to see the baby after me. I’ll even put the damn ultrasound on the fridge for them to gawk at every day if they want.

Someone knocks on the door and I sit up, setting my phone on the chair on top of my discarded clothes.

“Hi, I’m Brenton, how are you feeling today?”

I blink at the gorgeous man that stalks in and begins to wash his hands. He looks like a taller, broader version of Mr. Evans. Holy shit. They have the same hair and eye color, same facial structure, too.

I chuckle and shake my head. “I know your parents! I wondered if the last names were a coincidence or not. They’re an amazing couple.”

He squints his eyes at me and tilts his head to the side.

He has thick dark hair, hazel eyes, and is tanned to perfection.

He must love the outdoors. “How is it that they know you? They usually overshare everything when I see them at family dinners.” He grabs my file and begins to rifle through it.

“Ah, is anyone else coming in today with you? Boyfriend, husband?”

I shake my head. “Nope, just me. Single mommin’ it. And I rented out their place off of Maple Dr.”

He chuckles and sits down on the stool and wheels it over to me, I’m now taller than him. He’s stunning, wow. He fills out those black scrubs like no one’s business.

“Nice, that’s the house I grew up in. We just had it remodeled last year when they were thinking of selling… I personally couldn’t let it go, begging them to rent it out in case I ever started a family and wanted to buy it.”

I nod and we sit in odd silence for a few moments.

“Well, let’s get started. I’ll do a quick exam, then we can do some blood work, the ultrasound, then a UA. We need your bladder filled in case the dates are off.”

I lay back and close my eyes. I’m not a fan of exams, even if I do them every day with my own hands in the clinic.

Eventually it ends, he did a pelvic exam and checked out my cervix and said everything looks good.

“I’ll draw some blood. We need a workup done and we’re going to check out your hcg levels. Can you tell me about the swelling and numbness you’re experiencing? Your blood pressure looks great, so I’m not too worried.”

“I eat pretty healthily, nothing processed since I found out… So I’m not sure what’s going on. I drink a ton of water and rest and elevate my feet at work when I chart, but for some reason my legs just get that pins and needles feeling and my ankles swell.”

He frowns and writes down some notes. “Well, hopefully the blood work and your urine will tell us more.” He winks at me and focuses on drawing some blood before setting it all to the side to label it.

He walks to the back of the room, dragging the ultrasound machine over to me and gets me in position.

The clinic must be tiny, I’ve never had a doctor draw up my blood before.

I do it in our clinic because we don’t have a phlebotomist. Maybe it’s the same here.

Feet up in the stirrups and legs spread under a blanket, I feel so out of place, so alone. Ah, balls. An intravaginal scan. Great.

I spread my legs and he taps around on the keyboard after lubing it up and inserting it into me. I’m quite shocked that he’s doing so much on his own. Maybe he’s a new doctor, or just a smaller clinic, less patient load.

He moves the screen over to me as he adds more pressure against my insides. Christ, this is uncomfortable.

He hums and furrows his brows. “Do multiples run in your family?”

I blink at him and shake my head. “No… Not that I know of. The baby’s father has twin sisters, that’s all I know. I never met my extended family. Well, I met my grandfather once, but he passed away when I was little.”

He shrugs and points at the screen. “Two sacs, two babies… fraternal twins. Were you on any fertility meds or anything?”

I snort and blink the tears out of my eyes.

Fuck. Me. “No. I was on the pill. I took it religiously… They were conceived after we drank a little too much, celebrating an engagement of some mutual friends.” I sniffle and clear my throat.

“I thought we used condoms, but the night is sort of a blur.” I chuckle at myself to stop the tears from streaking down my face.

Shit this man might think I’m a psychopath or something.

He nods and takes some measurements and I hear him printing out the images.

“Well. Looks like you’re double blessed, Ms. Edwards, regardless of how it happened.

You’re due around May 9 th of next year…

you’re almost nine weeks along. Since you’re having twins, you’ll most likely deliver sometime in April.

” He smiles at me and leans back, setting the machine aside.

“Maybe my parents can have us over for dinner, you look like you need a friend.” He smiles softly at me and I find myself nodding.

Friends, I can use more of those.

“That would be wonderful, thank you,” I croak and he helps me stand, handing me some paper towels to clean myself up with.

“Don’t mention it. I’ll let you get dressed.

I’ll be right back in.” He hands me a cup to pee in and takes the blood out with him before I get dressed.

I take photos of the ultrasound images and send them to the group chat with the girls.

I rush to the restroom and piss in the cup and leave it in the cubby, at least I didn’t have to walk across the hallway with it in my hand. I hate doing that.

Me: It’s your fault I’m having two! Aunties Caroline and Alyssa, meet your TWIN nieces or nephews. Or one of each. Damn it.