Curls [H.S. A.U.]

Curls: Chapter 18

Arabella

The doctor takes my weight and blood pressure. He informs Harry and I that I am perfectly on track for the pregnancy, I've already gained a few pounds and should continue to throughout the process.

He states because of my short stature of five foot one it is possible that I will start showing in my fourth month, I might go into labor around eight months instead of nine, and that it's a good chance I will need a cesarean if the baby is larger than seven pounds.

Short girl problems, am I right?

"I may be asking a very personal question, but was this child planned?"

I blink up at the doctor. That is very personal and I am not comfortable answering a question like that. Whether or not the baby was planned has nothing to do with my health or his or hers health.

"How is that of any concern?" Harry questions right back.

The man shrugs. "You're very young and I am curious."

"I don't think that's an appropriate question to ask two adults, I suppose the situation would be different if we were teenagers. We will refrain from answering any questions that aren't related to the health of my fiancé and our baby."

The doctor avoids all eye contact with us as he instructs me to lie down. He puts the cool gel on my abdomen and switches the ultrasound machine on.

The baby is three and a half months developed.

It's absolutely astonishing to think that I have another person in me. I'm going to be a mother. Someone is going to need my attention and love to survive. It's mind boggling.

"Listen," I whisper to Harry. The doctor has the heartbeat turned on. I gasp and look up at my fiancé.

"That's the baby?"

"That's our baby."

➖✖➖

"¡Tan lindo!" (So cute!) Jesus' fiancé, Maribel, congratulates me as I pass a sonogram picture to Mami. My mother has every since sonogram she ever got of her children taped to the wall. She's started another wall for her grandchildren.

Elaine, Roberto's wife, has started the wall. Despite my mother's hesitance towards the Irish woman she's excited to get a grandchild.

I'm excited to finally have another woman in the family.

"You guys sure do work fast," Jesus jokes with Harry and I. "I thought you'd at least start wedding planning before a baby was even thought about."

My brother and Harry fade off into soccer talk and I stalk to the kitchen to find a snack. I'm really craving Gold Fish. Why doesn't Mami buy them anymore? If she's going to have grandchildren running around she has to have fishie snacks!

I find a box of Chex Mix, good enough I suppose.

I pour myself a cup of the snack as the front door opens. "Let me see my nephew!" The rest of my brothers and their wives barge in, yelling Spanish and English words about their nephew.

Mami holds up the sonogram and crowd gathers around her to see. The women find me eating and congratulate me. Elaine is last to greet me. Despite our parents disapproving of her (she cheated on my brother in high school) I still think of her as my closest sister in law.

She was my best friend even when she was a senior in high school and I was still in kindergarten.

She married my brother when they were twenty five, I was twelve and she had me as her maid of honor. Her maid of honor was a twelve year old.

Ever since then I've always looked up to her as an older sister. My first period was in the backseat of her car on my thirteenth birthday. We pulled up to a BP and she helped me put a tampon in.

"Congratulations, Bella," she says to me, tears pooling in her blue eyes. No wonder my brother fell in love with her. She was the popular girl in school, my brother was very well known because of his smooth talking. "I have a lot of maternity clothes that I won't need for a while, they're yours if you need them. I promise they aren't ugly or anything. Roberto specially ordered them because he knows I won't go out looking like an old woman."

She's thirty four years old but she's my best friend.

We share a hug and I kiss her cheek. "Thank you, Elaine, that means a lot."

She waddles off to her husband.

Two pairs of arms wind around my waist. I look up and giggle, Harry's shaggy hair in my face. He adjusts his fedora and rehugs me from behind.

"Let's hit the road. I have a surprise for you."

I'm taken back. "A surprise for me? Is today something special?"

"This is an 'I love you' surprise. Just to see you smile."