she’d had her period.
When she did the math in her head, she was stunned. She wasn’t just a few days late. She was several weeks late! She was pregnant!
“Oh no!” she sighed and dropped her head into her hands, staring at the filthy cement sidewalk.
Pregnant!
The nausea in the mornings, her tender breasts, the way she’d almost fainted on Saturday, and her constant fatigue. Was fatigue a symptom of being pregnant? She wasn’t sure, but it would certainly make sense.
And then it hit her. Pregnant! Gone were all of the negative ramifications. She was pregnant!
She thought back to that weekend. Nasir’s roughly handsome features. His sharp eyes and hawk-like nose, the black hair and his tall, muscular body. He was magnificent!
Would her baby inherit those dark features? Or would her child be more like herself? Would they have her brown hair and brown eyes? Would her daughter have her obnoxiously large breasts? Cassy had no idea what Nasir’s parents were like. Was his mother beautiful? He had such harsh features, she couldn’t imagine what a feminine version of Nasir would look like. But a male version? Oh my!
“Are you okay?” the woman asked, obviously needing to get back to her day.
Cassy nodded her head. Was she really okay? No. Was she going to have to deal with this? Yes.
“I’m fine,” she finally said. “Thank you so much for your help.”
The woman laughed softly and gave Cassy another pat on her back. “I’m not sure if I helped so much as informed. But good luck!”
A moment later, Cassy was sitting on the bench alone, still trying to come to terms with the possibility that she might be pregnant.
A pregnancy test was her first priority. Standing up slowly, she looked around. The world was still revolving. It hadn’t changed dramatically in the past few minutes. But she had. Oh yeah, her whole life might have changed.
Pregnancy test, she reminded herself. She had to be sure before she let herself panic. She hurried across the street to the drug store and surveyed the aisles until she found what she needed. Self-consciously, she purchased the box and then walked back to her office. She stuffed the test into her purse and turned back to her computer. She wasn’t ready to deal with that test yet. She’d bought it. She’d take it. Just not right now. This crisis would be dealt with in stages. Slowly.
She focused on work, getting through meetings and contributing to her cases. She made it through most of her day, but when five o’clock came around, she knew that she wasn’t going to make it until her usual quitting time around eight or nine o’clock. She forced herself to work at least until six. But by that point, she was about to jump out of her skin. She felt like she was hiding a secret, which in an odd way, she was.
By six that evening, even though most of the other associates were still working, she packed up and left the office, not looking back and keeping her head held high. She had to get out of there, her curiosity and panic were starting to choke her.
Back at her apartment, she slipped the plastic stick out of the box and read the directions. She needed to pee on the stick? That’s all? Just pee on the stick.
Peeing on the stick just…it felt too simple!
Walking into her bathroom, she followed the instructions, then set the plastic stick gingerly on the countertop. Watching. Waiting.
Ever so slowly, the stick turned blue with a plus sign.
Breathing became difficult and her fingers shook as she hurriedly texted Naya and Ella, begging them to come over, now!
Twenty minutes later, they were in her living room, one with a box of pizza, Ella with a bottle of wine and Naya with her carton of milk, plus several different flavors of ice cream. “What’s wrong?” they asked as they sat down across from Cassy. They could tell that she was upset, but not sure why.
Cassy tried to explain, but the words wouldn’t come. So instead, she opened her hands, revealing the plastic stick showing the blue plus sign.
Ella and Naya stared. “Does that mean what I think it means?” Naya asked carefully.
Cassy nodded.
“You’re pregnant?” Ella asked in awe.
Again, Cassy nodded.
There was silence for a long time. Finally, Naya asked the question all three were thinking. “Are you going to keep the pregnancy?”
Cassy had been sort of thinking about that all day long. In the abstract, she hadn’t been able to