Love Thy Neighbor

Chapter 66

Marian has taken Lila to a play date with a friend who lives the next block over. Shawn is still on his run. I could call him, but this is news that has to be delivered in person.

I go downstairs and start pacing. Where is he? Feeling impatient, I go outside and sit on the steps. As I wait to see his tall figure appear on the sidewalk, I make a mental checklist of things I need to do. I need to make an appointment with the OB/GYN. I need to start taking prenatal vitamins. I should cut way back on coffee. I can't drink anymore.

I try to remember if I'd had much alcohol since Toronto. I'd had a lot that weekend, but I don't think I'd had more than a glass of wine since then. I could ask the OB/GYN if that was anything to worry about.

Suddenly all of my PMS symptoms made sense. I felt bloated. I had tender boobs, which often happened to me before my period, but is also an early sign of pregnancy. I was tired. I felt slightly queasy or out of sorts. I thought that was PMS, but I guess it was more morning sickness.

Ugh. I was not looking forward to that again. I'd been sick for two months with Lila. I was finishing up grad school, so it was not great timing for me to be a puke-machine. So far I wasn't feeling that bad. Maybe this pregnancy would be different.

I wonder where all my maternity clothes are. I know I packed them away in boxes after I had Lila, but who knows where they ended up when I moved into Shawn's house. Maybe they were in the attic storage area. I wouldn't need anything for a while, though I have heard you show earlier with the second baby. I could not wait to have a baby bump!

Lila is going to flip out when we tell her! She won't know for awhile, though. I don't want to tell anyone for at least another month, just to be safe. We'll tell our parents then, too. I know everyone is going to be overjoyed.

Finally, I see Shawn round the corner with a bag in his hand. He sees me and raises his free hand to wave and then takes out his earbuds. I run down the steps and meet him on the sidewalk. I give his sweaty body a huge hug.

"It's nice to be greeted with such enthusiasm," he says, grinning.

"I'm pregnant!" I blurt out.

"Pardon, what did you just say?"

"Pregnant. I'm pregnant!"

"I need to hear that one more time," he says, looking confused. I'm pretty sure he heard me, though.

"I. Am. Pregnant."

Shawn drops the bag and leans over putting his hands on his knees. I think he's starting to hyperventilate. He looks a bit pale. "You're not joking with me, are you?"

"Shawn! I would never joke about this. I'm pregnant!"

He straightens back up, and I can tell he's just trying to breathe. He grabs me and pulls me into a hug. "How?" he asks into my hair between breaths.

"Dr. Woods called. That was why she left me that message. All my tests were normal except the pregnancy test!"

"But when? I was on tour so much."

"I looked at a calendar and I am fairly certain it happened in Toronto."

"No fucking way," he says, his voice catching as he's starting to cry.

I pick up the bag of food and lead him to our house. We go in and sit at the counter in the kitchen. He just sits there looking shocked.

"I guess maybe the loose pants did the trick," I say, trying to be funny.

It finally hits him how this happened.

"I have working sperm!" he says proudly, wiping away the tears. "My boys did their job! We are going to have a baby, baby!"

The tears are gone, and he is now euphoric, but still a little in shock.

"Do you know the due date?" he asks.

"Well, not definitively, but I think it's right around Lila's birthday. How crazy is that? They will be exactly four years apart."

I take the subs out of the bag and give him his. I figure raising his blood sugar will help with the shock.

We eat our meatball subs, talking between bites. Shawn has a million questions. When can we tell people? Do I feel pregnant? Is there possibly a mistake? Do I think it is a boy or a girl? Can we still have sex?

I answer each question, running upstairs at one point to retrieve the pregnancy test so that he can see for himself that I am definitely pregnant. He seems almost back to normal by the time we are done eating.

He turns to me, grinning, "It's kind of crazy if it was Toronto, yeah? I mean, the alley and all. What if that was what did it?"

"We had sex a couple other times that weekend," I remind him. "There's no way of knowing which time did the trick."

"It was the alley. I can just feel it. Plus, I'd gone a while without, you know, doing anything. I would have had a high concentration of sperm. It was definitely the alley."

"So our baby was conceived up against a door?" I say, somewhat horrified by this possibility.

Shawn grins. "How fucking perfectly ironic is that?"

I guess he has a point.

The end.