I had just dragged myself back into my bedroom and crawled under the covers with the intention of hiding out there for a good while when my phone rang. My heart sank, and I let out a bit of a groan. I really couldn’t deal with Tom right now.
But I knew from experience if I didn’t answer, he would only call more. My head was spinning, and I didn’t think I could tolerate listening to it ring repeatedly, so I grabbed my phone off the table. When I glanced at the screen, I realized it wasn’t Tom. It was Ava.
“Hello,” I said.
“Amanda?” she asked. “It’s Ava.”
“Hey, Ava,” I said. “How are you doing?”
“I was upset we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. I’ve missed you since you left,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wish we had gotten a chance to say goodbye, too. But I just had to get out of there. I’m sure you understand.”
“Of course I do. I wouldn’t have wanted to hang around here, either, if I were you. But it’s not the same without you around. There have been a couple of times when I’ve been out shopping or getting ready to go to lunch or something and picked up the phone to call and see if you wanted to come with me,” she said.
“I’ve missed you, too,” I said. “It was really nice spending time with you while I was there.”
My stomach was starting to feel sick again, and I drew in a breath, held it for a second, then let it out slowly.
“Are you okay?” Ava asked. “You don’t sound too good.”
“I don’t feel too good,” I said. “But I’m okay. With all the stress and everything, I managed to get myself sick.”
“Sick?” she asked. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve just been sick to my stomach for a couple of days. I must have caught a virus or something. I was actually going to spend today being a productive adult and do things like laundry and grocery shopping. But now I think I’ll be spending the day curled up in bed hoping I’m done throwing up,” I said.
I meant it as a joke, but it seemed to have gone over Ava’s head. She was silent for a couple of seconds.
“You’ve been sick to your stomach?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Like I said, I think I caught a stomach bug. Either that, or I ate something bad. It’s pretty gross right now, but I’m sure I’ll be better soon.” I laughed.
“Uh-oh,” she said.
I gave a short laugh. “It’s really okay. It’s not a big deal. I feel bad right now, but I’ll feel better in the morning. I’ll just get a lot of sleep and maybe order some ginger ale from the grocery delivery. I’ll be fine in the morning.”
“No, you won’t,” she said.
That struck me as odd. “What do you mean? How do you know I won’t feel better?”
“Because I’ve felt that way before, and I most certainly didn’t feel better the next day. I didn’t feel better for a few weeks,” she said.
“A few weeks?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Amanda, I don’t think you caught a stomach bug. And I definitely don’t think you ate something bad.”
“Why?”
“When was the first time you and Tom had sex?” she asked.
I thought about it, counting back through the days I’d been home and then while we were there. “Four weeks ago.”
“Did you use protection?” Ava asked.
I felt the color drain out of my face. “No. We didn’t use any protection.”
Even as I was saying it, my mind was going over the calendar. I realized my period was late. My heart started pounding in my chest, and my lungs constricted so it was harder to breathe.
“Amanda, I think you need to go get a pregnancy test,” Ava said.
I nodded even though I knew she couldn’t see me. “I’m going to go now.”
“Update me as soon as you know,” she said firmly.
“I will. I promise,” I said and hung up.
Getting dressed as fast as I could, I grabbed a plastic bag out of the kitchen just in case and ran outside to jump in the car. I managed to get to the drugstore without getting sick but had to sit still in the parking spot for a few seconds to keep it that way. When my stomach felt settled again, I got out and rushed inside.
The pregnancy test aisle was nothing short of overwhelming. The sheer number of options was staggering. I had no idea there were so many different kinds. This was the first time I’d ever been in this sort of situation, the first time I stared at the rows of different sized and colored tests with everything that ranged from a simple colored line to actual words and estimation of pregnancy stage as results.
Gathering six of the most promising-looking options, I bought them and rushed home. I read the instructions for the tests, then proceeded to take all six of them, glad I had hydrated as much as possible. The results were supposed to take three minutes to show up, but it seemed like only a matter of seconds had passed before the tiny windows on the sticks started to morph.
Five minutes later, I was still staring at them. Another five minutes after that, reality was sinking in. No matter how long I stood there and stared at the tests, I couldn’t make the results change. Those lines weren’t going to spontaneously disappear or turn a different color. And I certainly wasn’t going to make different words show up on the digital ones.
They were positive. Every single one of them. Six different little sticks announcing to me that I was most definitely pregnant.
Not even bothering it to throw the tests away, I crawled back into bed and called Emily. It only took her a matter of minutes to get to my apartment. She used her key to let herself in and rushed to my bedroom to comfort me.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said. “I know it doesn’t seem like it right now. But I promise, it’s going to be okay. Let me go make you some tea. It’ll make you feel better.”
She was still in the kitchen brewing the tea when my phone rang. I realized I hadn’t called Ava back, and it was her checking in on me.
“So?” she asked when I answered.
“I am,” I said without introduction.
She drew in a breath. Emily came back into the room with my tea and gave a questioning look to the phone in my hand.
“Who is that?” she asked.
“It’s Ava,” I said, switching over to speakerphone. Reality was really starting to settle in, and rather than the almost numb feeling I had, I was starting to freak out. “What am I supposed to do? Everybody at work is going to have an absolute field day with this. And what about the society pages? What about the tabloids? The company is just starting to get big, and Tom has already been followed by photographers.”
“That really cannot be what you’re thinking about right now,” Ava said. “You don’t need to be worrying about it. We can figure out how to handle that later if it comes up. But right now, you have other things to think about. Specifically, Tom. You really need to tell him.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to,” I said, tears finally starting to fall down my cheeks. “How am I possibly supposed to tell him about this?”
Emily reached out and took my hand. “You’re going to be fine. You’ll figure out what to say.”