Sparks Fly

CH22: A Small Sac

We're after a couple that is all smiles and giggle. I hope that doesn't dampen Sara's mood. I wanna hold her hand but I'm still angry at her, too angry. And how dare her father say I brought Jay into her life. If only he knew, and how dare her for bringing him back into my life. Sara's mother is sitting quietly staring into the unknown while Sara is reading one of the pregnancy magazines kept for visitors. We have put in a special request with the doctor for her to see Sara before her other visitors as we all have jobs to get back. She did not respond to our request so let's see how our little abuse of power goes.

"Don't shut me out, I can't stand everyone treating me like this." Sara whispers into my ear while holding the magazine to her mouth kind of like a buffer from the outside noise.

"I'm not shutting you out."

"Then why the silent treatment? Talk to me please, I'm already feeling very awkward here." I turn my face to look at her and ask her in a serious tone.

"Why isn't Jay here?"

"You wanna do this right now?"

"You were never good to one another. You'd break up every now and then and don't forget the massive fight between you two, 3 years ago."

I can't believe she went back to him and got pregnant.

"How did he even land in that city?" I ask with my temper flaring.

"You're not gonna like this," she whispers lightly, trying to avoid the question.

"He was there on a business trip, we just happened to be at the same club on a Saturday night. He wasn't alone." She pauses to gauge my expression and continues. "Neil was also there."

The doctor calls for us before either of us could say something. All three of us enter her office, since there are only two chairs for visitors, I let Sara and her mom take a seat while I stand by the door. Pleasantries are exchanged and Sara tells her about her pregnancy. The doctor tells her to lie down on the bed kept in the room. While she does so, the doctor switches on her machine which has a little monitor attached to it. First she squirts some gel onto Sara's exposed stomach, she flinches a bit saying it's 'cold'. The doctor then runs a device across her belly and looks towards the screen. A black and white grained image starts to form, till a small sac is visible on the screen.

"Your baby," the doctor points at it. Sara gets up from her lying position to get a clear view of the screen. Her mother's gaze is also locked on it.

"I'll take a couple pictures of it."

A tear rolls down Sara's eyes and she plops back onto the pillow. Her mother excuses herself to pay the bill and tells us to meet her at the reception. We go back to our seats where the doctor is writing her diagnoses and attaching the pictures to it. The doctor tells Sara that she's still quite early on in her pregnancy and needs to be careful with it. No stress, heavy lifting and has to get a follow up checkup in the upcoming month.

We exit her office as the happy couple makes their way inside. Sara looks at me nervously from time to time, before breaking the silence.

"I'm sorry."

"Are you?" I know I'm getting nasty but she's an adult. She knew exactly what she was doing by getting involved with Jay again.

"Neil asked about you," she says.

"Your mother must be waiting, you should leave. I'm gonna stay here for a while, Karan is coming to pick me up." I deflect her comment.

"One more thing, tell your dad about him. Call him to your house this evening, even better. He has to know."

"I don't even know where he lives. He was just visiting and it was supposed to be a one time thing." Her voice is low as she speaks.

"You don't even have his number?" She shakes her head.

"Let me see what I can do." Remembering what the doctor said, I add. "Don't stress about it."

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"Quite an eventful day you've had."

"Karan, don't ask." I say as I tighten his arms around me.

We're currently at his office and can't go anywhere else as he's swamped with work. Karan with his arms wrapped around me stands in front of his glass windows staring at the sunset outside. I just explained to him Sara's situation and how breaking the news of our engagement would not be very polite of us. He understands, that's just the kind of man he is.

"No issues. I'd just have to hold my mama back to not run to your house. As soon as I told her about the proposal she was constantly smiling."

"She likes the thought of her only son getting married." I tease him.

"She likes weddings. She also wanted to invite your family to dinner but.."

I rest my head on his shoulder, hoping he gets the message that 'we'll get over this'. I share with him what we'll be doing further. I stayed there for 15 minutes more after which I let Karan get back to his work. As I reach home, I skip dinner and try to get some work done considering the fact that I haven't been to my office in almost three days. Usually such behaviour could get you fired but my manager happens to be very understanding. I log out of work at around 1 am at night. But before going to sleep I open one of my desk drawers and take out a notepad. I flip through its pages till I get the number I was looking for. Years back I had changed my phone number but instead of saving the phone numbers on my new device I just wrote them down here. Maybe somewhere at the back of my mind I knew I can't just get rid of them, neither from my past and seems like nor from my future.

I dial the number and hold the phone to my year. The other person on the line picks it up after three rings, not surprised that he's awake.

"Hello," he says. His voice sounds a bit hoarse but it still has the same tone and voice pitch to it.

"Hello," he repeats himself. There's silence for a few seconds after which he cuts the call. Putting my phone against my head in frustration, I dial his number again.

"Hello," he shouts into the phone.

"Uhm. Hi, it's me, Gia this side."