A Shooting Star

The Climb

"So..."

Connie narrowed her eyes at his innocent tone. "So, what?"

He turned his head and kissed her stomach, then propping himself up kissed her. "My beautiful Connie..."

His words made her blush, which only made her more suspicious. "Yes, my Steven?"

He reached over to touch her stomach. "When is our next appointment? I haven't gotten to see baby yet."

She smiled. "All that just to ask when you get to see baby?"

His eyes sparkled. "Yes. When?"

She'd seen Steven eager, but this was another level of excitement. "I haven't gotten an ultrasound yet either. Let me check my calendar." She pulled a small calendar out of her purse and scrolled to the back. "I know phones have a calendar, Steven."

"But it's so much more convenient! Look watch this: Crystal, set an appointment at 12:45 for Tuesday." The phone dinged. "Crystal, when is my appointment?"

"Your next appointment is at 12:45 on Tuesday afternoon. Would you like to hear your next one?"

"No." He put his phone away and chuckled at her expression. "See how easy that was?"

"See how easy that was?" She mocked him without missing a beat and he pressed his lips on hers.

She could feel his smile against her, he was so thrilled.

She wished she could feel the same. "It looks like it's on Monday at 2:30."

Her boyfriend opened his mouth to say something then froze. "Do you hear someone calling my name?"

Connie listened for a moment. "I-I don't think so, are you still hearing it?"

He shook his head. "Weird, I heard it once but I don't anymore. Maybe they lost interest. So, can I come to the appointment?" He flashed his best puppy dog eyes and she playfully turned his face away.

"None of that, and don't be silly. Of course you can come." He rested his cheek in her hand and looked up at her face.

"How are you feeling, NiNi?" He had begun to say this every so often, making sure she had everything she needed. But the tone here was a bit different.

"I'm scared, Steven. This is so... much. A baby, an entire entity is going to be dependent on my ability to have a proper pregnancy. There's so many things that could go wrong! I mean Intrauterine Growth Restriction, my water could break early, preeclampsia, spontaneous abortion–!"

Steven sat up and snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Hey, NiNi you know what I told you about searching up things that can go wrong. I hate to say it, but I don't want to have to bring your mom into this."

She scoffed. There was no way he was seriously threatening to sic her mother on her.

"I'm serious, Connie," Steven repeated firmly. "You do this and you get so stressed out and anxious you can't focus on the present. It breaks my heart."

She pouted but he didn't falter. "I know. But I'm allowed to be worried."

"Of course you're allowed to feel worried, Ni. That's normal pregnancy stuff. But," He tapped her temple gently, "When you let that big brain of yours lead you down dark paths of things so incredibly unlikely to happen that you can't think about anything else, someone has to step in." He himself looked worried. "I know you thrive on knowledge, and I love that about you. It's normal to want to know what you're getting into. It's normal to be scared."

Connie started to cry. She knew it was irrational, but she felt like he was scolding her and she didn't like it one bit.

"Oh honey, I'm sorry..." He reached for her but she swatted his hand away.