Page 15 of The Baby
She was quiet.I knew why. She was in her new clothes and we were heading to the diner. Of course the wordmaternityhad been added to the banned word list. She’d been white as a ghost as she maneuvered her way through all the pregnant mannequins. So much so I thought the morning sickness… which for her had been all day every day sickness… wascomingback.
But no, she managed to pick out a few basic necessities without any real pleasure in the process, and now as she sat next to me in the truck I couldn’t help but think she lookedadorable.
It made me sad to think she wasn’t enjoying all of this more. Of course being nauseous all time couldn’t have been fun, but knock on wood the worst of that seemed to be over. Now it was just time to settle in and bepregnant.
The truth was, I missed my wife. Not just in bed. Although, not going to lie I was missing the sex. Three years going and Ellie and I were still hotter than fuck in bed. Going months with nothing but the occasional hand job had sucked. I was an understanding husband, so of course I wasn’t going to push the issue, but she’d been puke-free for about a week now, so I was getting hopeful things would go back to normalbetweenus.
In the beginning she’d been worried about sex causing the miscarriage, which is why on her last doctor visit I made her ask Dr. Jenkins. He confirmed that there was nothing to prevent us from having intercourse. That her pregnancy was progressingnicely.
Intercourse. It made me wince at the time. The word seemed so clinical. Nothing close to what Ellie and I did, but whatever the doctor called it I wanted it back. I had been watching for signs that she wanted me back too, but there had been nothing obvious. Like her waking me up with a blow job, which she sometimes usedtodo.
It wasn’t just the sex either. I missed her easy smiles and her overall happy demeanor. Not to use the scale analogy, because that was her thing, but on a scale of one to ten of happiness, Ellie lived between eight and tenmostdays.
This quiet fearful woman next to me in the truck was somewhat of a stranger. And talking to her was hard now. Talking to Ellie had neverbeenhard.
I pulled up in front of the diner andparked.
“Youready?”
“Yep,” she said. Although she hadn’tmoved.
“I know you’re not waiting for me to open your door,” Iteased.
That got a flash of a smile. “You used to. I remember a lot of lifting me around back intheday.”
“That’s when I was wooing you. That part is over since we’re married. Besides, you’re fat now. The lifting would be hard onmyback.”
“Jake Talley!” she screeched even as she swattedmyarm.
There, I thought. That wasbetter.
I opened the door and by the time I got out she was waiting for me. I took her hand and together we made our way to the diner. I opened the door and I could practically feel her tension as she stepped inside. Worried that the place would be filled with familiarfaces.
It was. Hank and his wife were there. So was Mrs. Nash with the kids. We waved at them and then took our regular booth. It was Bernie who came over to us, which meant they had lost yet anotherwaitress.
Bernie was Frank’s wife, and she preferred to keep the books and handle the food orders, but ever since Kathy left Riverbend to move back to be closer to her sister, it had been a rotating door ofwaitresses.
Bernie was always the last option because Bernie had a hard time not spilling things onpeople.
“Hey Jake. Hey Ellie,” she greeted us. Then she looked harder at Ellie, as if sensing what was different about her. “Oh my, Ellie do you havesomenews?”
“Nope. No news,” Ellie said quickly. Then she scooted closer to the table as if to hide theevidence.
I sighed. I kind of hoped everyone finding out might change her feelings about it, but that obviously wasn’t going tohappen.
Bernie was clearly taken aback by the denial and at a loss for words. But she recovered quickly and nodded. As if realizing it wasn’t her place to push theissue.
“Well what can I get you todrink?”
“Water for me,”Elliesaid.
“I’ll takeaCoke.”
Bernie nodded again and shuffled off. I watched as she made her way over to Mrs. Nash and they started talking, looking over at usfurtively.
I shook my head. “You’re going to have to tell people at some point, Ellie. It’s becomingobvious.”
“I know, but it doesn’t have to be today. Besides it’s not really anyone’s businessbutmine.”
