Page 96 of More Than Words

Sloane told me this morning about the plans she had for Sam and Kristine. He’d been the hiring committee’s first choice for the opening in the fantasy department, but they were going to let Mark pitch the position in Chicago during his final interview. If he decided to take it, Kristine would get the fantasy position, and I’d requested Andrea to take her place. She’d said there was interest from another editor for her, but Adrian hadn’t said anything about who he was planning to replace Sam with.

Absently flipping through my emails, I shifted on the uncomfortable paper underneath my legs, wishing they’d hurry and get this thing out of me.

My plan was to ask Adrian to use condoms for the next few months until the timing worked out better to try. I still wasn’t sure how I was going to balance everything, but Leila had laid into me when I told her I was considering waiting until a time when things slowed down at work.

She’d been pissed when I mentioned it on the phone, telling me to stop doing the things I thought I needed to do to make people happy and do what I wanted.

Getting my ass handed to me by my best friend was probably the only reason I was currently sitting on this hard-as-rock exam room table with my pants off.

A knock sounded on the door, and I tossed my phone onto the pile of clothes in the chair to my right.

“Good afternoon, Isobel. How are we doing today?” Dr. Charles asked as she stepped through the door, pulling a cart behind her. From what she’d told me at my last appointment, IUD removal just required a speculum and a small device that would collapse the arms so she could pull it free. She hadn’t mentioned anything about an ultrasound being needed.

“I’m good,” I responded absently, watching as she uncoiled the cord on a long wand and covered it with a condom.

“We got your preliminary urine test results back, and they’ll be in to collect a blood sample soon, but I just need to check something before we send you down the hall for a full scan.”

“Scan of what?” I asked, my heart beating faster as she squirted the gel onto the tip of the wand and stepped toward me.

“It seems your IUD may have stopped doing its job. I’m going to do a quick transvaginal scan to see if I can locate it, and then we can talk about removal options that pose minimal risk to the fetus.”

“I’m sorry…the what?”

“I guess I should have led with that,” she chuckled, smiling at me while she held the ultrasound wand in the air. “Congratulations, Isobel, you’re pregnant.”

She kept talking, but I couldn’t follow anything she said because the room started spinning and then everything went black. The last thing I remembered was the sound of her calling for a nurse.

ISOBEL

Boston

I was numb. Walking back to the office a few hours—and lots of tests—later, the oppressive heat coming off the sidewalks didn’t even faze me.

The part of me that had craved a child for over fifteen years was elated, but the practical side knew that I had officially bitten off more than I could chew. And the insane part of it all was I didn’t regret it. I was fucking terrified of what the next year would hold, but I wanted this baby. Desperately.

It was strange walking into the building after most of the people had left for the day. My thirty-minute afternoon appointment had turned into three additional hours of sitting in waiting areas for testing and then attempting to focus on all the information Dr. Charles had thrown at me.

Moderate Risk Geriatric Pregnancy, had been the thing that stood out to me the most. It could have been worse. Much worse, but so far, she seemed to think that the chances of carrying this baby to term and having minimal complications was good.

I’d had two different ultrasounds, and both showed an egg sac with a tiny speck in the center of it and nowhere in sight was my IUD. Apparently, spontaneous expulsion of the device happened in point zero five percent of women, and I was one of the lucky few.

All those months I stared at negative pregnancy test after negative pregnancy test. Having to go through two curettage procedures after my miscarriages to remove the tissue of the children who never made it to fruition and watch as my marriage crumbled. And all it had taken was a vanishing IUD and Adrian. Maybe that confirmed the universe had never wanted me to end up with Grant.

Riding the elevator up to my floor, I knew chances were good he was gone for the day, but I still needed to check. When the doors parted, Andrea sat in the reception area, studying papers spread across the surface of her desk while she chewed on the end of her pen.

“Oh shit,” she exclaimed as I walked closer. She’d clearly thought she had a quiet space to work with everyone gone for the day, but right now, I was relieved to see her smiling face. “I didn’t know you’d be returning today. Adrian said you had an appointment this afternoon, and I assumed, since you didn’t come back, you were out for the rest of the day.”

“Things didn’t go exactly as planned. I just stopped in to get my laptop and the things I need to take with me when we head to New York in the morning.”

“Want to take me too?” she joked, smiling widely.

“Well, not this trip, but maybe on one in the future. I saw your application for one of the copy-editing positions had made it through the initial screening.”

“Oh, uh, yeah…” She looked nervous, chewing on the side of her lip as she nodded. “Actually, I had a meeting with Sloane and Adrian today. He offered me the position in the mystery department.”

Well, fuck. Dickhead beat me to her.

“That’s great.” I tried to sound excited she’d been given the opportunity to advance, but none of the other candidates had really stood out for the position in my department. “I’m sure Adrian can show you the ropes. Despite his behavior sometimes, he’s very good at his job.”

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