Redeeming (10 page)

“
Pregnant?
” Babs gasped.

The employee looked at Babs like she wa
s nuts and then a second later he looked back at Daniella. “Alright, well, I was told there was a woman in this aisle with jeans and tan t-shirt who needed access to the pregnancy tests. You… are wearing jeans… and a tan t-shirt. Seems like it should be you. Did you want to see one or not?”

Babs
’ looked as if she were about to faint. Harold pushed his thick glasses up the bridge of his nose. Otherwise, he seemed unaffected by the revelation that his supposed blind date was shopping for pregnancy tests.

“No, there’s been a mistake. A misunderstanding!” Daniella said in an excited tone.

“So… you don’t want to see the tests then?” The employee asked.

“Me? No.” Daniella replied. “In fact, I…”

At that instant, Tricia came showed up with an armload of stuff including soda, detergent, and toilet paper. Oblivious to the significance of the moment, not to mention the people involved, she asked, “Well, did you get the pregnancy test, yet?”

***

“What?” Daniella was on the verge of a panic attack. Her mind raced with visions of the pregnancy telephone game that was sure to follow. Babs was already ticked at Daniella. If she didn’t think of something, and quick, her mom would blow her phone up worse than a cold calling insurance salesman. Eight eyeballs stared at Daniella, each one of them in search of a different answer from her. Panicked, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind…

“No, how could I?” Daniella replied as she lowered her eyes and stared at Tricia. “
You…
didn’t tell me which one you wanted.”

A pause hung in the air. In the distance, a price check request for cough medicine rang out over the intercom. The group turned its collective attention to Tricia in the hopes that a resolution to the pregnancy test issue might be at hand. Tricia glanced around the strange faces and then back towards Daniella. As she did, Daniella started to nod in an expectant manner.

“Remember?” Daniella said with a leading tone. “You asked me to pick up the test for you while you grabbed a few things…?”

Tricia clutched the assortment of home goods in her arms and nodded in mock understanding.
“Yes… I…” she began. “Sorry. I’ve been a bit scatterbrained today.”

Her eyes moved from one person to the next as she spoke.

“After all,” she said with a nervous laugh. “It’s not every day a woman thinks she might be pregnant.”

Of everyone, the store employee seemed to be the most relieved.

“Great,” he said. “Which test did you want?”

“Oh… I…” Tricia said. “I forget. Daniella, which one was it again?”

Daniella nodded and replied, “It’s the one in the far right. The one that has the digital display.”

With that, the man unlocked the case, retrieved the
test, and handed it to Daniella. In a tone laced with relief and fatigue he said, “Is there anything else I can help you with ma’am?”

Daniella clutched the box and shook her head.
“No, no thank you. Thanks for your patience. Sorry about the mix-up.”

“No problem, happy to help.” He replied as he locked the case.

As he left, Daniella turned to Babs. “Babs, this is my friend, Tricia.”

“Pleasure to meet you my dear.” Babs replied. She motioned towards her son and said, “This is my son Harold.”

Tricia nodded her head. “Oh,
ohh
… You’re Harold?”

“Yeth,” he said. “Nith to meet you.”

Tricia smiled as she shook his hand. “Yes, it’s… nice to meet you as well… finally. Daniella’s told me so much about you.”

“Oh? Is that right?” Babs replied with a curious tone.

Daniella’s head snapped towards her friend. No way was she going to let Tricia drag her down this rabbit hole.

“Yes,” Daniella began. “And as much as I wish we could get into all that right now, Tricia was feeling quite ill earlier. I’m sure what she’d like to do more than anything right now is get home and rest. Isn’t that right?”

Tricia shook her head. “No, I feel pretty good actually. I’m not sure what happened but all of a sudden my nausea kind of went away.”

“Oh you poor thing,” Babs said. “It is awful isn’t it? Why, I remember when I was pregnant with Harold. Oh! I was a mess for a while early on. Hopefully, it will get better for you as time passes.”

“Well, no sense taking a chance with it, right?” Daniella interrupted. “I’m sure you’re eager to get home and see the results of the test…
aren’t you?
”

“Yes…” Tricia replied in a nonchalant tone. “I suppose.”

Daniella leaned in, hugged Babs and apologized to Harold for being so flaky. With the promise that she wouldn’t let much more time go by before they got together, they made their way through checkout and back to Tricia’s car.

“I am going to kill you…” Daniella threatened as they climbed inside the vehicle.

“What? What did I do?” Tricia replied in an innocent tone as she turned the key in the ignition.

“Uh!” Daniella exclaimed. “You cannot be serious right now. Back there? What the hell was that?”

“Oh, I was just having some fun with you.” Tricia chuckled. “What’s the big deal anyway?”

Daniella shook her head
in disgust when all of a sudden something delightful occurred to her. She began to chuckle as well.

“What’s so funny?” Tricia asked.

“Oh nothing…”

“Bull… what is it?”

With an impish grin, Daniella turned towards her. “Let’s see…” she began. “By now, Babs is on the phone with my mom. At some point, the topic of you buying a pregnancy test will come up and…”

“Shit!” Tricia exclaimed. “My mother!”

Daniella laughed.

“That’s not funny, Daniella.” Tricia warned. “What the hell am I supposed to tell her? She’s gonna stroke out if Marilyn calls her.”

“
When
she calls her…”

Tricia chewed her lower lip as she backed the car up.
“I am screwed. What the hell am I going to tell her? This is your fault, Daniella.”

“My fault?” Daniella scoffed. “You are the one that dragged me here to buy the damn test.”

“Damn it…” Tricia grumbled.

“Look,” Daniella said. “Just tell her you bought
it for your neighbor. What’s her name? The one who lives down from you. The one with all the kids.”

“Oh yeah,” Tricia replied. “Becca… Good idea. Hell, I’m not even dating right now so she’ll buy it.”

“Let’s hope so…” Daniella said.

“Hah!” Tricia replied. “You better hope so. If she doesn’t, I’m rolling over on you. There’s no way I want her on my ass over
your
pregnancy test.”

“I’m not worried about it.” Daniella lied.

***

Angry phone calls or not, Daniella had more dire issues to deal with in the moment. Once they arrived back Daniella
’s apartment, the veiled threat of irate moms fast became a distant memory. She rushed inside, tore open the packaging of the pregnancy test, and scanned the instructions.

Tricia walked in behind her and closed the front door.

“You know…” Tricia began. “For someone who didn’t want that an hour ago, you sure seemed to have changed your mind.”

Daniella ignored her as she mum
bled to herself and read the directions. “Use a watch… point the tip downward… stream or sample…”

“What are you doing?” Tricia interrupted.

“Shh!” Daniella replied. “I’m trying to read the instructions! Okay… five seconds… three minutes… plus, minus… got it.”

She finished opening the remainder of the packaging and placed it on the counter. Unfortunately, she felt as if she were about to be sick again. Only this ti
me, the nausea was different from before. She’d never been so nervous in her life.

“I can’t do it…” Daniella said as she dropped the test stick on the counter and took several steps back.

“What?” Tricia said. “Why not?”

Daniella looked at her with fear in her eyes.
“I mean, what if… you know?”

“It’s positive?” Tricia asked.

“Yeah, it’s not like Jett’s a normal guy or something.” Daniella stammered.

“So what?” Tricia said with a confused look on her face. “Someone gave birth to him, right? I don’t understand what you are getting at.”

A hard lump formed in Daniella’s throat. If she told Tricia the truth about what happened to Jett’s birth mother, well, things would get
real crazy, real quick,
if the test came back positive. Rather than create a new set of problems for herself, she decided not to say anything.

“It’s nothing…” Daniella lied. “I guess I’m nervous is all.”

Tricia walked over to Daniella. “I’m right here.” She said as she leaned in and embraced her. “No matter what the results, I’ll always be here for you. You know that, right?”

Daniella nodded as they embraced.
“I know. Thank you.”

A few seconds later, they broke free of one another.

“Well?” Tricia said. “That test won’t take itself.”

“I know,” Daniella began. “I’m going…”

Daniella made her way into the bathroom and took the test. Now, there was precious little to do except wait out what would be the longest three minutes of her life. She started the timer on her cell phone and exhaled.

This was not the w
ay she imagined this moment in her life unfolding. Sure, there was every chance she would have still used a pregnancy test but otherwise, not even close. She figured if she ever got pregnant in the first place it would be because she was in love and with any luck, married for God’s sake.

This circumstance wasn
’t in any crystal ball she owned.

Nineteen seconds.

Yet, here she was, alone in the bathroom of her crummy apartment with a pee stick in her hand. How romantic. Not only that but if a little plus sign appeared, well, her life which wasn’t complicated enough already just cranked up by another thousand percent or so.

Thirty two seconds.

How could she have been so stupid? What was she thinking? If it was true, she didn’t have any idea what to do. Whom could she even tell? Tricia knew, of course, and she could trust her with the secret but if her mom or Jett found out… Well, Marilyn would probably threaten to strangle her at first but she’d come around before long. After all, it was hard to imagine her mom not being thrilled to have a grandchild.

Or was it a grandbear?

Daniella groaned in confusion.

Fifty two seconds.

But Jett… Daniella felt ill. She didn’t have the slightest clue what it would mean to carry his child. The only thing she knew was his own mother died giving birth to him. How was she supposed to wrap her mind around that? Daniella wasn’t a selfish person by any means but the thought of that terrified her. If she was pregnant and did keep it, would it mean the same for her? Would Jett even let her think about doing it or would he insist that she get rid of…

One minute, twelve seconds.

“Daniella?” Tricia said as she knocked on the bathroom door. “What’s going on?”

“Um, j
ust waiting for this thing to tell me whether I’m pregnant or not.”

“Oh,” Tricia replied. “Well, can I come in?”

“Yeah, hang on.” Daniella replied. She walked over to the bathroom door and opened it. “Sorry, I didn’t know it was locked.”

“That’s okay.” Tricia said. “Well, anything yet?”

“Not yet, it takes a few minutes for the results to come back.”

“How long’s it been now?”

Daniella picked up her phone. “One minute, thirty five seconds.”

Tricia rubbed Daniella
’s shoulder. “How… are you? Are you okay?”

“No, I’m freaked out.” She replied. “God, you’d think with all the technology in the world, they could make these things work quicker. The anticipation is killing me.”

“Where are the instructions?”

“Over on the toilet seat.”

When Tricia passed by her, Daniella leaned back against the bathroom sink. As she did, her palm hit the edge of the test stick. She felt the impact of her hand against it and turned her head towards it right away. To her horror, she watched as it hurtled towards the toilet bowl.

“Shit!” S
he screamed.

Tricia
’s head turned on a swivel to see what the commotion was about. As she looked back towards Daniella, the stick hit the toilet seat at just the right angle and flipped up in the air. If one of them didn’t act fast, the next time it came to rest would be in six inches of water.

“Grab it!” Daniella yelled.

Tricia reached for it and as she did, she lost her footing. The bath mat slid out from under her and she collapsed on top of the toilet bowl. Her left hand fell inside of it and as it did a plume of water splashed her in the face. She shook her head and looked to her right hand. In it, she clutched the test stick. For the moment at least, it was safe.