Moving Forward (Completed)

Chapter Sixty Four

Katherine excitedly sat the white stick on the counter, the boxes flashing along the screen bothering her less this particular morning than they normally did. It should have been the first day of her period, but she'd awoke to find nothing there. She always started in the morning—granted sometimes later than others, but typically she'd wake to find she'd started. Today she hadn't. This was the first pregnancy test she'd ever taken with the possibility of being late.

The seconds ticked by and her excitement grew—the third box becoming solid as the fourth flashed. She stared at it, waiting for one little word to appear. Not pregnant popped up and she chunked the test in the trash. She took a breath and stepped into the shower. She could always take another test the next day if she still hadn't started, but the excitement was gone. She no longer felt like it was possible this month and resigned herself to relax. They'd try again the a couple weeks.

"Do you think we're not having enough sex?"

Rafael looked at her like she'd absolutely lost her mind. "Sometimes it feels like all we do is have sex."

"Uh huh," Katherine nodded, barely acknowledging what he'd said, "I've been reading that sometimes the first go isn't as effective, that... fresher..." her faced scrunched as though it wasn't the best word choice, but had went with it anyway, "sperm is better."

He smirked when her hands reached to unfasten his slacks. "What are you saying?"

"That we should have sex at least twice a day during peak ovulation."

"You know I'm not in my twenties right?"

Katherine rolled her eyes, pushing him back on the bed as Rafael chuckled and kicked the pants from his ankles, gripping her hips as she straddled him.

Rafael watched her exit the bathroom. He could tell from her slumped shoulders as she crawled back in bed the result hadn't been what she'd hoped for.

"I take it the test was negative."

Katherine sighed. "I didn't even get to take it." She'd been greeted that morning with her period.

Rafael tugged her under his arm. "When do you ovulate again?"

"Around the new year."

"Why don't we leave MJ with your parents and get out of town for our anniversary."

Katherine smiled up at him. "Some place cold where we can snuggle by a fireplace?"

"And have all the sex you want," he smirked, "but I do have one caveat."

"What's that?"

"You can't pack anything you use to schedule when we have sex. No ovulation kits, no timelines..."

"But..."

"No added stress."

Katherine opened her mouth to argue, but quickly closed it again. "Ok." Those things didn't seem to be working anyway. She gave him a quick kiss and wiggled out of his arms to start cleaning the house and make a shopping list for Christmas lunch.

Katherine sat her bag down, glancing around the small house they'd rented for the short getaway. "That's a lot of flowers."

Every fabric surface in the place was covered in a floral print, not the same print, a varying array of flowers mostly pulling from the same color palette... mostly... She was relieved to see that the place had been sparsely filled with furniture. Considering the couch looked like the same one her grandmother had owned in the nineties, she feared the room might be disorienting if overwhelmed with similarly upholstered furnishings.