Page 69 of Imperfections Seduced
Ten minutes later, after sitting in complete silence watching her and her phone, the nurse calls her name.
“Ms. Reed.”
“Yes.”
“Should I come in with you?”
“That’s why you’re here, right? You had some questions you wanted to ask my doctor.”
“Do you have to get undressed or need privacy for whatever you do at these exams?”
“What, are you scared I’m going to get undressed in front of you? If I do, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”
Yeah, nothing I haven’t seen before, but I don’t want to see it again.
“Don’t worry, Nick, you can take the crease lines from your forehead. The only skin I’m exposing today is my stomach.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to wait outside till you’re finished?”
“Fine, wait outside the exam room. I’ll tell the doctor to get you when the exam is over.”
I don’t feel right being in there with Kate, it’s too personal. She follows the nurse down a hallway into an examining room. There’s a chair outside the door. “I’ll wait here until you’re finished.” The nurse looks at me; she has a warm smile. Cute redhead with dark brown eyes and shoulder-length hair. I’d say she’s around twenty-five.
“You don’t have to sit out here, Mr. Reed, you can come in with your wife.”
My eyes move over to Kate. I uncomfortably wait for her to correct the nurse, but she doesn’t. She smiles at me, turns around, and walks into the room. I look down at the nurse standing in front of me. “She’s not my wife.” I put on a smile and try not to sound annoyed.
“I’m sorry, I assumed you were together. You looked like you were a couple.”
“It’s okay. I’ll wait out here until the doctor’s finished with the exam.”
Thirty minutes later, Dr. Horn, a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair, walks out of the exam room. I met him on his way in to examine Kate; we shook hands, and I told him I had a few questions to ask him after he was finished with Kate.
“Mr. Alexander, you can come in now. Ms. Reed said you wanted to be in here for the last part of the exam.”
I enter the room and see Kate lying down on the table with some type of gel on her stomach. What the hell? I told her I did not want to be in here for this. She takes one look at my face, and I know she can see I’m not happy. She looks away quickly, like she’s not sure what or if I’m going to say anything to her. I stop looking at her and turn to the doctor when he speaks.
“Okay, we’re all ready.” He places something on Kate’s stomach and tells her to watch the screen. He startsmoving it around her stomach, and I hear a swooshing sound.
“Kate, are you ready to see your baby?”
She doesn’t say anything until she looks at me. “Yes.”
I look at the screen intently. The swooshing sound starts to get louder and louder and then I see it. The doctor touches a few buttons and points to the screen while he’s talking. He points out the arms, legs, head and body of the baby. I sit still staring at the screen listening to the doctor. He points again at the screen.
“This is the baby’s heart. As you can hear, it sounds strong and everything looks to be progressing normally.”
Kate looks at me, and she’s smiling a genuine smile. She can’t stop smiling at me, she’s so excited. I don’t know what to do; at a time like this, you should be happy. I wasn’t expecting this. I could be hearing my baby’s heartbeat for the first time. This could actually be my baby I’m looking at. I take a step forward and look at the screen while Kate talks to the doctor.
“Can we find out the sex of the baby or is it too early?”
I look at her and look at the doctor curiously. “Isn’t it too soon for that? She’s hardly even showing yet.”
He looks up from the machine at me. “No, at sixteen weeks, if the baby is positioned right, there’s a very good chance you can see the sex of the baby.”
I’m not sure I want to know. This is not what I signed up for when I came here today; all I wanted to know was when she will be able to take a paternity test. I scrub my hand across my face. The doctor sees the uncertainty on my face. Honestly, I don’t want to know anything but that this is not my child.
“Yes, we want to know!” she says firmly, all excited.
