SWNOVELS HUGE STEPS: Chapter 15
“Toast or eggs?” I look around at my empty apartment and solemnly swear to invest in a furry creature to talk to so that I don’t look like a crazy person mumbling to myself so much.
I break out the egg carton, but for some reason, the idea of a tomato and mushroom omelet isn’t as appetizing as it used to be. I shove them back into the refrigerator, and instead, stick a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster, but even the toast smothered in the usual strawberry jam doesn’t really do it for me. I frown at the half-eaten food on my plate hating the prospect of wasting food it, but my stomach is starting to rebel at the idea of eating so early.
Since I’m running a little behind this morning—I must have been super exhausted from yesterday’s morning’s shift—I don’t have time to make much else and scramble to put on my work clothes. Work. Just what I need to keep me from thinking about both Jared and Jamie’s lips on mine this week.
“You look a little peaky. Are you okay?” Dandie says as I slip my apron over my head.
“Yep. Everything’s good,” I answer, giving her a smile. Dandie is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known, but she’s always worrying over the littlest things with me and Shay.
Speaking of Shay… “Shay’s due in around 12:30, right?”
Dandie nods, pushing her reading glasses back up her nose. “Yes, ma’am. You’re free to go after two.”
—
It takes some working, but I manage to clear out all the work orders from the night before, plus the two that came in while Dandie was running the cash register in the front. It’s been a nice distraction, but my stomach isn’t too happy with having to heave this way and that any time I have to bend over for something. Hopefully, I’m not catching the stomach flu.
“Hallelujah, it’s raining food!” Shay sings at the top of her lungs, spinning around with a large brown paper bag in her hand as she comes in through the back door. “Lunch is on the house, my friend. I managed to sweet-talk the owner next door into throwing in a few free egg rolls.”
I’m totally famished but after the way my stomach was acting earlier, I’m not really sure I’m ready to dive into lunch just yet. It’s from my absolute favorite sushi place so I’d be crazy to say no.
Shay opens the bag of food and I swear I nearly keel right over.
The smell. Oh god, the smell! My stomach lurches as the scent of fresh sushi and greasy fried egg rolls waft past my nose, completely overwhelming the sweeter, subtler scent of the shop. “Oh no,” I moan, grabbing my stomach. “I don’t think I should eat anything.”
Shay gives me a funny look. “What? I thought you’d be starving by now. Did you order lunch earlier, or something?”
I shake my head, the tension in my stomach fading off a bit.
Seemingly not paying much attention, Shay sits the bag on the little wooden table in the middle of the room, cracking open one of the Styrofoam containers. “You finished up the last of the advance orders, right? I know there were like three or four of them when I got in yesterday,” she says, putting the food down and pulling the latest order ticket off the clipboard Dandie keeps hung up above the ribbons. “But no customers, so it wasn’t a big deal.”
My stomach roils again, and I’m trying to decide if I need to make a run for the bathroom or not. “Well, we’ll see how it goes today,” I reply through the grimace that won’t wear off.
“You okay, girl? You look like you’ve just smelled the world’s sweatiest ball-sack.”
“Not. Helping. Shay.”
Chuckling, she finishes depositing the money into our cash bag. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. But really though, you don’t look too good. Did you eat something off today?”
The very last thing I want to talk about is food at the moment. “I think it’s the sushi,” I mumble, trying so hard to concentrate. “And I did do up the last advanced order today. There were only two so far.”
The look Shay gives me is unmistakable and the possible reason for my tummy woes hits me like a ton of bricks. “Your favorite California spring rolls are making you feel sick?”
Even though my mouth is now as dry as cotton, panic surging through me like molten metal, I wipe my hands on my apron and shrug. Morning sickness. Ugh. I shake my head as though that’s gonna work to remove the shudder-inducing realization. “Well, I mean maybe they’re just not cooked well enough. They have a new chef in there, and I noticed last time that the burger was a little extra greasy, so maybe that’s why it’s making me feel gross.” It’s the lamest response in the long history of me and Shay’s friendship, so I’m not at all surprised when she doesn’t buy it.
“God, when I was pregnant with Kevin? Ugh. I remember I couldn’t eat Thai food for the whole nine months and I even waited after that until I was absolutely positive it wouldn’t make me sick anymore. It was that bad. Imagine…no red curry for over nine months! I swear I’m not having any more kids…”
Shay cuts the next strip of ribbon, obviously waiting for me to chime in, but when I don’t, she turns slowly to look at me. “But that was just me, and this is probably just some stomach bug or something, probably. Right?”
Almost instinctively, I fight the urge to touch my stomach, even though I know I won’t find anything there yet. All the blood drains from my face. In fact, it feels like all the everything in my body has just drained away, leaving me as a sad sack of skin on the floor. I take a deep breath, trying to remain calm. But all I can think is, fuck…fuck…fuck…
“You’re not pregnant?” Her voice isn’t as strong as it usually is.
Shay’s hand slips from its usual place on her hip, and she reaches out to touch my shoulder, concern plain as day on her face. “I mean, it’s not possible, right?” She lowers her voice, checking to make sure Dandie and the customer up front can’t hear us. “You and Cody were…being all weird and chaste, right? Didn’t you tell me something about Cody wanting to wait until the actual wedding to have sex again?” There’s a pause and then, “Fuck, girl. Do we need to go get you a pregnancy test?”
The only thing that is making any sense in the world right now is snipping the ends off the stems of the cascade’s flowers—because things like pregnancy tests just don’t compute.
It wouldn’t be Cody’s baby. It couldn’t be Cody’s baby…because Shay’s right. Cody had been acting weird for a couple of months leading up to the engagement party. He kept pushing off sex with me, claiming it would make it even ‘hotter’ if we held back as much as we could until the actual wedding. I wasn’t a fan of the idea at all, but there really wasn’t much of a choice given to me.
I crunch the numbers in my head. I’ve had my period since he mentioned that, twice, in fact. My stomach fills with lead, practically bringing me to my knees right here in the middle of the shop.
If there’s a baby, it can’t be Cody’s baby.
It would be Jamie’s. Or Jared’s. And there’s no way of telling which one…
“We need to go. I need to get out of here right now,” I say desperately, clinging to the edge of the counter. “Where’s the closest place I can find a pregnancy test?”