Hye-jae: Book 2 - New Loves

New Lives Part 50

The 2 were skittery with excitement on leaving the clinic.  They saw a cafe with outdoor seats - large potted shrubs interspersed among them for privacy - and made a mutual decision to take a mid-morning coffee to try to recover their equilibrium.  Having ordered, they sat back in their chairs and beamed at each other, until the waiter brought their coffees and what was a speciality of the region around Stuttgart - Swabian apple cake.  They shared it - warm, sweet and comforting - and then both sat back to enjoy the morning sunshine and atmosphere and to see how the other was feeling.

'I can see why you liked Sabine - she was lovely - though I was so nervous going in.'

'I could tell, love but I wasn't sure why.'

He looked a bit embarrassed: 'I was worried that the doctor might...tell us off?'

She gave a little laugh: 'why would the doctor do that?'

'Well, because we didn't plan it maybe or because we didn't know for so long or maybe even because we are on this tour at a bad time.'

She narrowed her eyes: 'hmm...maybe those are worries in your head, more than the doctor's, would you say?'

He thought about it but didn't respond.  She reached for his hand where it lay on the table and interlaced her fingers in his.  He gazed at their linked hands and for a moment, he was back in bed with Hye-won's fingers weaving through his before trapping his hands above his head.  He looked at her with a lick of his lips and she could see his thoughts as clearly as if he had spoken them.  She moved her head closer to his and he matched her pose, so they were right in each other's space: 'shameless, Lee Seon-jae.'

'And you wouldn't have me any other way, Oh Hye-won.'

'That's for sure - about that...and every other thing you are.'

A light kiss, a barest graze that had them both wanting more, then she thought for a moment.

'As for not planning the baby, we wouldn't be the first,' she seemed to take a mental moment to prepare: 'parents,' he grinned at that, 'to become that without too much planning and anyway, didn't you say this morning that a certain secret place had a secret plan?  Maybe our part in the plan was to do exactly as we did and enjoy it just as much as we did and let nature take care of the rest.'

He looked thoughtful and then the sun broke through, as he chuckled smugly: 'so, you could say that we were under the control of Mother Nature and couldn't help ourselves.'

He looked so pleased with himself and Hye-won was glad to see it.

'You also said that we didn't know about the baby but I've been thinking about that and actually, I think, deep down - maybe on some evolutionary level - my body did know.'

He looked sceptical.

'Think about it.  Almost from the first day I arrived, I lost all taste for alcohol so that I haven't taken more than 2 sips of anything,' she placed a protective hand on her tummy under the table: 'and that's great news for Baby Hye-jae here.'

He looked at her with eyes full of emotion: 'I don't think I will ever get used to this.  When you do that, I just feel so...totally in love with you, like I could just watch you do that all day, knowing our baby is so safe in there.'

Now her expression was full of feeling: 'you will make me cry,' though her smiles told him that she was far too happy to cry and instead she continued to reassure him: 'I really do feel that that was another indicator that my body knew a change had happened and my instinct kicked in to protect Hye-jae.  My appetite has always been fairly negligible - a combination of nature and habit, as I told you - but almost from the first day in Germany, I began to feel hunger and to eat well. I put it down to the more outdoors lifestyle and increased exercise,' that quick flick of the eyes that he just loved and which never failed to raise his temperature, 'but that must have been our little one telling me she needed her Mommy to eat more.'