Mileven Stories

Tell Your Truth (1995)

Summer time was quickly approaching and the Wheeler family was in the midst of tidying up their apartment. Well, more accurately, Mike was attempting to sweep away the cluttered mess he had somehow built up in just forty eight hours.

On the other side of the apartment, El was busy looking over her outfit again. She analyzed her body from every single angle to see if her bump was at all noticeable.

For the past four months only Mike and El, plus her adoptive parents, have known of the pregnancy. But, by the end of the day, there would be about ten more people in on the news.

All month long they have been contacting family and friends quite consistently to assure they were all still able to make it.

In fact, earlier that morning, Mike called up the entire guest list one more time.

"Jesus, take the Wheeler boy away from the phone line. You woke me up. Now for the last time, I'll be there. If you call again, I'll be at the local bar instead", that was what Steve had said before abruptly ending the call.

The two soon to be parents couldn't help but pester them. They needed everyone they loved to be in attendance since it was such an important gathering.

Mike was just about done shoving his workbooks underneath the couch when he heard his wife calling him.

"Babe, can you please come here? I don't know what to do."

He rushed down the hall and felt his breath snatched from his lungs when he found his wife looking at herself in the bedroom mirror.

She had on a black and white ankle length dress that had a few ruffles scattered among her chest and stomach. Her hair was pulled back, which allowed him to see her face perfectly.

To him, she looked like an angel.

Mike took a deep breath and put his arms around her. Her eyes met his through the mirror before flickering to his hands, which were resting on her stomach.

She had looked calm before, but now Mike could see her eyebrows beginning to crinkle in an unpleasant way.

"You look absolutely beautiful, love", he said, hoping that his truthful compliment would settle whatever disturbance had just popped up in her mind.

She quickly pointed to his hands and said, "Mike, what is this? Can you see my bump that obviously? I don't want them to walk in and immediately know I'm pregnant."

As soon as she finished talking he quickly pulled his hands off her stomach before raising them high in surrender.

He was about to assure that her outfit did a fantastic job of hiding the slight bump she now had between her hips, but she began talking again.

"I'm just going to switch into your Gremlins hoodie and shorts. That way I can say, 'surprise, we're having a gremlin of our own!', actually, that's genius."

El was quickly moving over to their closet to find the hoodie when her husband stepped in front of her.

"Nope. The Gremlins hoodie is off limits for this event because you look amazing. I can't even tell you have anything different going on until I actually touch your stomach. So as long as you don't let anyone lay their hands there until after lunch, then we'll be fine."

She could tell he was really telling her the truth because he had always been a bad liar. After soaking up this information, she took the time to give him a look over.

He was wearing a simple white button down that was tucked slightly into his dark blue pants. He looked casual, yet ready to get down to business when necessary.