Tea Leaves and Opal Necklaces

Failure, Pressure, and Biao

Match Eleven: Failure, Pressure, and Biao:

-Ju-

I am not pregnant yet. Yao and I keep trying, but so far nothing. I keep looking for ways to keep the sex interesting. Sometimes, I have to remind Yao not to bring up babies at all. When he slips up, the mood goes dead. I end up rolling over and going to sleep. Yao pushes on my shoulder to try and wake me up.

"Oh come on," he complains.

"Nope," I said.

"Don't leave me hanging like this."

"You had your chance tonight, but you had to say the b-word."

"You mean 'baby'?"

I pulled my pillow over my head. "And this is why you aren't getting any tonight. Good night, Yao."

"That's not fair," my husband complained. "You've already got me hard. What am I supposed to do now?"

"That's not my problem. Maybe I might give you some tomorrow. But for now, let me sleep," I said. Yao tried shaking on my shoulder more, but I pretended to be asleep already. Finally, he gave up and walked into the bathroom.

Yao's getting better at this, though. He doesn't mention babies at all when we're about to try again. But, I'm still not pregnant. It didn't help that the mothers of the clan keep trying to pressure me as well. Bik looked at me with sympathetic eyes this morning.

"It's okay if you can't conceive now," she told me. "It took your parents four years before they had you." I don't know if that's supposed to be helpful or not. It felt like something died in me. Bik smiled and put her arm around my shoulders.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," she said. "Your mother had many health issues. You're young and healthy on the other hand. These things just take time." Gee, thanks. Can't they talk to me about something other than babies. Every time they open their mouths, I want to run away. But, I don't know how to stop them. I didn't want to come off as rude when they were trying to help me, but they are smothering me at the same time.

"How has your diet been?" Bik asked.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Have you been eating the food I've recommended you?" she asked. I didn't catch on right away. My face had a blank expression on it before something clicked inside.

"Oh!" I said. "Yeah, yeah."

"Good!" Bik said. "I just need to come up with a diet plan for Yao to increase his sperm count and strengthen the little guys up."

"Okay, I did not need to know that," I said. "Plus, shouldn't you be talking to him about that issue?"

"Yeah, but you are his wife," she said. "It's the wife's job to make sure her husband does the right thing. You have to be hard on him about what he eats and everything else that goes into his body." I nodded and pressed my lips together.

"You got me there," I said.

"I'm going to come over there one day and make a proper meal for you both," Bik said.

"You don't have to do that," I said. "I am getting better with my cooking. Really I am."

"Then, I will show you how to make it."

"You don't have to do that. I can just look the recipes up online."

"No can do. You can't rely on the internet all the time. Besides, it has a tendency to cut corners. Let me show the right way to cook proper meals for reproduction." Her tone warned me that I should give up now. I dropped my shoulders and sighed.