Page 17 of There Are No Words

I had topee.

Why in the world did the doctor advise you to arrive at the appointment with a full bladder if no one was ever going to take you back? I mean, how hard was it to call my name, to put me out of my misery? Allegra Morelli—one name, two words. That was all it would take for me to be able to release the floodgates currently threatening to break right here in the waiting room.

Sorry, Doc, but my bladder did not know the wordwait. It was a four-letter word, but it might as well have been that never-endingsupercaliword because it meant nothing to my bladder, which was officially ready to burst.

Brady was sitting next to me, his legs manspread. It was an important appointment, and he’d said he wanted to be part of it all, so here we were—not a couple, yet showing up to my first prenatal appointment together. I could see why he wanted to come, though, don’t get me wrong. We were going to get confirmation that I was pregnant, have an ultrasound, and we’d get to leave with our first sonogram of the baby. Hence the necessity of urine.

It was a big day for us. Probably not as big as my blown-up bladder right now, but you got the idea.

“I told you not to bring a bottle of water in the car. You’d already drank one before you left the apartment,” Brady commented.

I whipped my head so fast I thought I might get whiplash. On the bright side, that would have diverted my attention from mydesire to do the pee-pee dance right here in the ob-gyn’s office. Did that dance really work, by the way? Any time I’d ever tried it, I only had a stronger urge to go when I quit shaking like I was my very own carnival ride.

Meanwhile, I gave Brady the death stare, and he backed his head up, his eyes still on me. “Do you know how difficult it is to pee on command?” I didn’t give him enough time to answer, merely continued—“Very. I don’t want to be here any longer than I need to be, okay?”

I could tell he was sticking his tongue in his cheek. “I can’t say I blame you. This place is jam-packed. Maybe if they didn’t take so long to call people back, the waiting room wouldn’t be like this.”

Before I could answer, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I leaned toward Brady so that I could have better access to retrieve it.

Maria:Did you jot down all the prenatal classes we found online to ask the doctor about?

Allegra:Yes, Mom.

Maria:Okay, that was wicked.

Allegra:*angel emoji*

Maria:Check your email. I sent you a list of other questions to ask the doctor. Don’t leave until you get the answers to those. They may not seem important now, but they will be.

Allegra:You didn’t have to do that.

Maria:Of course I did. You’re my sister, and you’re having a baby!

Allegra:Aren’t I too old for you to be making me lists like this? I can take care of myself.

Maria:Sure, but if Mom were here, she’d make sure you didn’t go there without a list, and since she’s not here, I’m doing it. Check your email!

“Maria can be so bossy,” I said aloud, scrolling to my email app and opening it.

Brady nudged my arm. “What’s the matter?”

I clicked into her email and immediately regretted it. There was a laundry list of questions. She couldn’t possibly think I was going to ask all of these, could she? If I did, the doctor wouldn’t have time for any other patient today, and I’d probably drive him to drink at the end of the day. No way. “This,” I replied, rolling my eyes as I handed Brady my phone so he could see for himself how intense Maria was with her list.

I watched as his eyes scanned the forever-long email.

He let out a low whistle.

Yeah, my sentiments exactly.

To give you an idea, there were thirty questions, and some of them had sub-questions.

“We’ll be here all day,” he said what I had been thinking.

“Exactly!” I exclaimed. “Let’s pick the most important ones and just ask those.”

“Sounds fair to me. Do you want to do the honors?” he asked, passing the phone back to me.

I shrugged. “I guess.” I looked at the screen and brought my hand to the bottom of my chin, suddenly feeling too lazy to hold up my own head. Seriously, when would we be called into a room? “Never mind,” I was quick to say. “How about we do this? I’ll read them aloud and bold the ones we think are good.”

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