Page 18 of Coyotes Ever After

Tess: I’m almost three weeks late. Fingers crossed I’m in menopause.

Cam: Does Dom know?

Tess: omg are you kidding? He’d flip his shit if he knew I was even a day late.

She doesn’t respond right away. I fight my urge to look at the test, because the directions said not to. Instead, I open an app and start ordering our Chinese food.

Definitely extra sugar-covered donut things, becausedamn.

There’s a knock at the door.

“Excuse me, ma’am?”

I look at the door. “What?”

“We have other customers waiting to use the restroom. Do you know...how much longer you’ll be?”

Oh, hell no. I’m not about to leave this bathroom until I can read that test result.

“As long as it takes for the diarrhea to stop. I had Indian for lunch, so I might be a while yet.”

There’s a few seconds of silence. “Okay. Um...okay. Take your time.”

I go back to my phone.

Cam: Sorry, Mae was spilling an entire box of Cheerios on the floor and I had to grab it. How much longer until you get the results?

I glance at the timer on my phone.

Tess: Three minutes.

Cam: Okay. Want to talk through both scenarios?

Tess: Not really. Hannah got into Wharton today.

Cam: I heard! She called me. I was a blubbering mess in the grocery store checkout line. I’m so damn happy for her.

Tess: Yeah, same.

Cam: Why are you doing the test in a gross public bathroom? Why not at home?

Tess: Because Dom would bust me with the tests. Or find them after. I don’t plan to ever tell him about this little scare.

Cam: LOL okay. Better buy some oversized shirts and really stretchy pants....

Tess: Not funny. Be supportive. It’ll be negative.

Cam: There are worse things, you know. I’m basically the old woman who lived in the shoe over here. Five kids. Constant chaos. But it’s our chaos.

I stare at the timer on my phone as it counts down the final thirty seconds.

Tess: Okay, it’s time.

I pick up the stick, my jaw dropping when I see a plus sign. Again.

Tess: WTF I have to go get more tests.

Cam: You’re pregnant. More tests aren’t going to change it.

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