Blind Love

Chapter 28 • The Hot Seat

Since I'm assuming this is part of the pregnancy sickness, I don't know how we're going to explain it to Mum so that we can still keep it a secret like JJ wants. It happened so quickly that all I could do was have Maggie guide me inside the house, leaving Mum at the table to question what just happened.

I knock on the door one more time and the muffled sound of the water stream stops and the harsh click of the door opening startles me. I let go of Maggie's harness, bringing my full attention to JJ.

"Are you okay, love?"

"Yes, I'm fine now. Where's your mum?" she quietly asks.

"I heard her in the kitchen just a second ago. Are you okay? Was it the nausea?"

"Shhh, yes. The blasted egg in that quiche is what did me in. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me gag."

"You did that over my egg toastie this morning, too. Hm, I wonder which twin dislikes eggs so much, and for that matter, which one loves the grapes."

"Harry, we need to focus right now, please."

"M'sorry."

"It's okay. I'm just worried because I made a scene and I think I gave our secret away."

"How?"

"Because any time a woman rushes to the loo whilst covering her mouth, everyone assumes she's pregnant. It's so annoying."

"But you are pregnant."

"We know that. No one else does."

"The doctors at the clinics know," I smartly add, suddenly feeling a chill go down my spine. "You're giving me what's known as the stink eye, aren't you?"

"You're very intuitive," she says but I can tell she's smiling now. "I guess we'll have to tell her now and everyone else will get their feelings hurt because we didn't tell them at the same time. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen. That's not how I want our twins to come into the world, Harry."

This turn in conversation catches me off guard and I reach out to pull her in for a hug. While I hold my crying, hormonal wife in my arms, I hear footsteps coming closer down the hallway so I know Mum will definitely suspect something now.

"Is everything alright?" Mum worriedly asks.

"Yes, Mum," I quickly reply. "We had Chinese takeout last night and I guess it caused her stomach to be upset."

"Oh? O-okay then. I'm sorry to hear that. I have some tummy medicine in the upstairs loo. Why don't you two make yourselves comfortable in the living room and I'll get it for you."

"Let's do that. C'mon, love," I urge, sliding my hand down her arm to her elbow and I reach for Maggie's harness.

She agrees with a hum and starts guiding me. The hardwood floor beneath my shoes changes to what I recognize as soft carpet and I realize we're in the living room.

"Here's the sofa," she says and I feel the cushion before sitting down.

"Thank you," I reply and I feel the seat dip down next to me. I turn the palm of my hand upwards, silently inviting her to hold hands and she fits her hand in mine. "You're not going to take the medicine, are you?"

"Of course not. I'll just make an excuse or something. But I feel like we should just tell her."

"Really? What about your-, I mean our plan of announcing it to everyone tomorrow?"

"I guess in the time it took us to walk from the hallway to the couch, I've come to terms with the fact that life isn't perfect so I can't expect anything to be perfect. I have to just let it go."