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Monday was okay. Nausea and a little fever. Nothing Tylenol couldn't handle.
But Tuesday? Tuesday had Nicola rushing to the restroom in the middle of a meeting, emptying the hearty breakfast Mary had put together for her after her appetite had come back.
"That's it. We are going to the hospital!" Blair just was not having it this time.
"Can I come?" George piped in.
The women narrowed their eyes at him. "Go back and do the barely-there work you have, asshole," Blair told him.
"We need to wrap up the meeting," Nicola said weakly, dabbing her forehead with a wet napkin.
"Okay, I will wrap it up." George resigned to taking over the job. He pointed a finger at Nicola, "But you are going to the doctor."
"Exactly," Blair said.
Nicola groaned. She hated the hospital. She hated needles and stuff.
"Come on, let's go!" Blair took her hand and before could protest some more, dragged her to the car and then to the hospital.
"When was your last period?"
The tell-tale question of impending doom.
"Y-you think I am pregnant?" Nicola asked the physician.
"Just ruling out possibilities." The nice doctor smiled at her. "Are you on birth control?"
"No," Nicola confessed. "I had episodes of depression in my teenage and I researched birth control and found out that there's an increased risk of relapse so I didn't want to."
"Of course." Dr. Welma McCarty nodded. "But there are birth control options that pose no such risk, so if you change your mind, we are here to let you know about the options."
Nicola nodded. She wanted to tell the nice doctor that she was getting a divorce and wouldn't require contraception for a long time. But too much information, and she didn't want to share anything that was not medically significant.
"So, last period?" Dr. McCarty asked.
"Uh..." Nicola took out her phone and her period app. "I am two weeks late." Dread. Dread like no other. "B-but but I have irregular periods when I am stressed. And I-I have been very very st-stressed lately."
"We will just check anyway, to be safe."
Nicola rubbed her chest as the doctor left the room. "This is bad!"
She wondered if she should call Dominic.
"Why should I?" She muttered. This was nothing. Just a false alarm.
A nurse came in with a tray containing a small container and a syringe.
"We need your blood and urine samples." She said, holding out the container. "The restroom's over there."
Nicola nodded and set to doing the task robotically.
And then she sat down to have blood drawn.
This was nothing. Just a false alarm. Nothing else.
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"The tests came back positive." Dr. McCarty was cautious to not smile as she said it. "As per your last cycle, you should be six weeks along."
YOU ARE READING
Always The Second Choice
RomanceNicola married Dominic, a man twelve years older than her, in place of her sister for the sake of her happiness. It was a sacrifice she never regretted but when rumors of an affair fly, she decides that she had had enough. But Dominic cannot afford...
