A short story that I'm in the process of writing. It tells of a woman, Charlotte and the rollercoaster ride she has during her pregnancy. Enjoy! :)
The hot July sun spilt onto the thirsty grass. I lingered in the shade of the doorway, leaning against the cold Perspex. Almost absently, my fingers flitted over the flat plain of my belly beneath my tank top. Finally, it was happening.
Graeme, my husband, was digging a patch for a flowerbed in the corner. I watched the sun glint in his blushed hair, the way his strong shoulders shifted under his checked shirt. We would have been married for six years that autumn. Slowly, I entered into the sun; let its warmth fill me inside out.
“It’s happened.” The words felt unreal, slippery on my tongue. He turned slowly, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
“What has?” Even six years on, he still made my heart flutter. I paused, let the moment settle. “You don’t mean…?” he let the sentence trail. I nodded, a smile breaking like dawn across my face. In an instant, he enclosed me in his arms, and picked me up swinging me around, my hair whipping behind me, my lungs filling with air. I squealed, my arms hooking around his neck. His lips found mine with such aggression that I forgot how to breathe temporarily. “You’re serious?” He asked when he broke the kiss.
“Of course I’m serious!” I gasped. “What do you take me for?” He set me back to earth carefully and wrapped his arms around my waist. Graeme and I had been trying for a baby for as long as I could remember, and after fertility treatments, IVFs and every other treatment imaginable, we had simply stopped using contraception, hoping luck might strike, and now it had.
“Beatrice.” My face was pressed into his shoulder. He smelt of his orange shower gel.
“What?” I mumbled.
“Beatrice for a girl, and Antony for a boy.”
“I don’t think so, Graeme Franca, do you?”
“They’re not bad names!”
“No, and they’re not good ones either!” We subsided into our own thoughts, swaying in the sunshine.
“I still can’t believe it!” He face split into a wide grin, and his cool hands found my stomach. “A little Franca! Wait till I tell mum and dad!”
My smile vanished.
“Graeme, maybe we should wait a little bit.”
“Why?”
“Well, with our track record, maybe telling everyone might not be the best course of action right now.”
“You’re right.” Graeme drew back from me slightly, and clasped my hands. “Things are going to be so different from now on.”
YOU ARE READING
Self-Discovery
Short StoryCharlotte and Graeme have been trying for a baby for years, yet, when the time comes, Graeme's affair with an American model is exposed, and left on her own, Charlotte begins to question herself. Will her journey of self-discovery take her anywhere...
