Page 174 of Haze of Obedience

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"What?" he repeats.

"Zoe looks like she's glowing, doesn't she?"

He studies me. "She always lights up the room. What's your point?"

"Yeah, but she's a little brighter than normal, don't you think?"

He focuses on me again. "What are you getting at, Silvia?"

"Are you guys using condoms?"

"Excuse me? Why do you need to know that?" Dirk asks, all insulted.

"Well, I'm kind of an expert on this but Zoe, if you're throwing up then fine, glowing, hungry all the time, and feeling the urge to saddle up on Dirk at all hours of the night, I'm pretty sure you’re pregnant."

Silence.

Dirk and I both gape at her.

She takes my hand and pulls me through her bedroom and into her bathroom and takes a pregnancy test out of the cabinet. "Take this."

I stare at the box with my heart pounding.

"I'll leave you two alone."

I hear the door shut when I finally gaze at Dirk.

"Is it safe to say that neither of us ever thought about birth control or anything beyond STDs?"

"I...I..."

He steps forward and wraps his arms around me. "Take the test, and let's see if this is why you're getting sick."

"What if I am?"

He tilts my head up. "I'd be okay with a little Zoe running around. What about you?"

"What if it's a little Dirk?"

He strokes my cheek. "I'm good with that too. You?"

"I...I kind of thought I was too old to have a kid."

"You're only thirty-eight."

"Yeah, but I'm almost forty."

"I'm forty-two."

"But you're a guy. It's hip for you. Except you were supposed to impregnate a twenty-year-old during your mid-life crisis."

He laughs. "Is that so?"

"Yep."

He kisses me. "Take the test. Let's see what the situation is before we get all excited."

I pee on the stick, then Dirk and I pace around Silvia's bedroom for five minutes. When it's time to look, I freeze. "You look and tell me."

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