The Hook-up

Chapter 41

"Babbyyy...what are you doing today?" Bruno whined into the phone a few days later.

"I work until 3 and then I have a doctor's appointment." She told him.

"But you're not sick? Blow it off. Come hang out with meeeeee..." he asked her.

"I can't. It's my annual." She told him.

"Your what?" he questioned her.

"I'll tell you about it when I'm done. Are you going to be home?" she responded.

"I think so. But text me before." He answered. "Laur?"

Lauren was just about to hang up the phone as she turned into her parking space at the small independent newspaper she was working at. "Brunz...I have to go to work."

"Okay, okay." He answered. "Have a good day, Lauren." He said hanging up the phone.

She looked down at her phone shaking her head. "It's always me, me, me, me with him."

**

Lauren sat in the cushy chair at the gynecologist's office. She started to look down at her phone playing a game of Angry Birds as people came in and out of the office. Some with looks of joy, others looks of sadness and others with looks of indifference. I wonder what I will look like when I leave.. she thought to herself as a nurse came out holding a big chart fill of papers. "Ms. Holt?" Lauren stood up following the nurse making small talk as she was led into the small examining room. "Go ahead and get undressed. Your doctor should be here in a second." Lauren turned to the small area where clothes were to be laid down. She looked into the small mirror above the chair where she was going to set her clothes. She ran her fingers along her neck looking at the small marks on her neck he had left on her from their last few nights together. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her hand causing her to look at her still bruised hand from the night in Las Vegas.

"Ouch..." she said to herself putting on the uncomfortable gown sitting in the chair going back to her game of Angry Birds. She heard a soft knock on the door and the doctor walk in as she flung a bird toward a wall.

"Hello Lauren. How are you today?" the short Indian doctor who was recently married to another doctor in the practice, asked.

"I am okay." Lauren answered with a small smile.

"Alright...let's get you weighed first..." she grabbed Lauren's chart sliding over the lever to get an accurate weight. "122...." She said writing down the number. "You've lost a little weight. That's good." The doctor said.

"I'm trying still. It's hard." Lauren answered.

"And your pills are working okay? No bad side effects?" the doctor asked.

"No. Things are good." She responded.

"Alright..." the doctor started to exam Lauren's body. She moved around causing Lauren to flinch a little. "Does that hurt?"

"A little..." Lauren answered.

"It looks like your cysts are close to rupturing..." the doctor told her.

"What?" Lauren asked.

"When was the last time you had sex?" the doctor sat up asking her.

"Yesterday..." Lauren answered.

"And did you feel any cramping or pelvic pain after?" the doctor asked.

"A little. Like for 10 minutes...like I couldn't walk. But it went away after I took Advil." Lauren explained.

"Try to take it a little easy." The doctor told her. "If he goes that deep all the time it really could rupture and you'll need to go to the hospital. "I want to do an ultrasound. Go get dressed and we'll see how these are...." Lauren looked at the doctor as she left the room grabbing her clothes.

"Damn, Bruno. You hurt me everywhere...." She sighed as she placed her shirt over her head going back to her phone seeing that he had texted her.

I'm home. I hope you're okay.

I'll be there in an hour.

She heard the nurse knock on the door. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah..." Lauren grabbed her things heading toward the lone bathroom.

"Same thing..." the nurse told her.

Lauren smiled back closing the door, undressing and then taking her things back toward the dimly lit ultrasound room.

"It's just going to be the same as always, Lauren." The doctor explained to her what the ultrasound would do. She moved the tool around stopping in one place. "There..." she pointed. "There are four on your right side and one on your left. The one on your left is the biggest...it's the size of an egg... and if you keep at the rate you are that will pop and hurt horribly in less than a week."

"He'll be gone in two..." Lauren answered.

"Okay. Please be careful. I know we've figured out your Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. You've been at it since you were 15...but please be careful."

"Dr. Harris?" Lauren asked as the doctor started putting things away.

"Yes?" she asked turning around.

"Will I ever be able to have kids?" Lauren asked.

"With the right treatment, Lauren." The doctor frowned. Well, I guess I'm leaving with a sad face. Lauren answered.

"Okay." Lauren said grabbing her icky hospital gown trying not to cry.

"We will see you in about six months. Please be careful." Dr. Harris answered.

Lauren went to the front desk scheduling her next appointment for December. She got in the car, turned on her music and drove toward her apartment to pick up a few things before going back to Bruno's. Before she could step into her door she felt tears falling down her cheek. "Why? I do this after every appointment. And I get the same answer every time...no...never..." she fell on the couch burying her head in the pillow hearing her phone ring. "Oh..." she picked up her phone knowing it was Bruno. She wiped her eyes pushing the tears away. "I will be there in 10 minutes. I'm just getting my stuff..." she told him.

"Elle...what's wrong?" he asked concerned. "I didn't do anything did I?"

"No. You didn't do anything. It's me." She paused. She heard him looking for the right words to say.

"Lauren...whatever it is it's okay." He told her.

"I can't have kids." She blurted out.