Page 41 of Three Times You

“My assistant will do the draw. Are you afraid of needles?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“As long as they’re not too long.”

“This one’s not too long.”

A young woman bares Gin’s arm, fastens a rubber strap around it, taps her forearm, finds the vein, and inserts a small needle. The first test tube with her name on it fills with blood. Ginevra watches without the slightest fear as the nurse replaces test tubes one after the other until they’re all filled with her blood.

“All done, doctor.”

“Fine, thanks. Now please leave us alone.”

The doctor takes out a tube of gel, opens it, and spreads some on the tip of the probe. Then he gives Gin a series of instructions:

“Uncover your belly, please.”

Gin raises her blouse and pulls down her pants with a loose, elastic waist, chosen especially for this visit among the assortment of maternity clothing that she’s purchased. She turns to her left and sees the visuals of the sonogram on the screen.

The doctor reassures her. “I warmed up the gel so you wouldn’t jump in the air, neither you nor your baby. There now, do you hear the heartbeat?”

Gin, thrilled, nods her head while the doctor measures the fetus’s limbs and shapes and transcribes that information onto a document in an open folder. “All one hundred percent normal, and it’s growing. I can see the sex too. Do you want to know or would you rather keep that a surprise?”

Chapter 34

As I enter the apartment, I hear Gin’s voice from the living room. “Well? How did it go?”

She is sitting with her feet on the coffee table, a cushion behind her head, very relaxed as she watches the TV, which is playing with the sound turned down.

I tell her how my day went. Then I ask, “Tell me, how did it go at the doctor’s?”

“Excellent. Perfect measurements, growing normally…and I even found out the gender.”

“Wow, I can’t believe it. At last!”

Gin picks up a folder lying next to her on the sofa and hands it to me, but when I try to take it, she yanks it back just in time.

“No, I’m not giving it to you. You should have come to the appointment!”

“It’s not like I forgot. I really couldn’t. Giorgio was in Milan, and there was no one else who could solve this problem. Believe me, I absolutely had to stay.”

“Of course, big producer…”

“Silly.”

Gin extends the folder in my direction once again. I try to grab it, but she’s faster than me, and by twisting her wrist down ever so slightly, she makes me miss it again.

“Hey, stop it. You’re being awful!”

“Tremendously awful and tremendously vindictive. All right, then, let’s play a game. Let’s see if you can guess the gender. After all, it’s right here in black and white. If you guess right, then you can choose the name. If not, I decide. You up for it?”

“All right.”

Gin smiles at me. She sets down the file on the backrest of the sofa, right in front of me. I look her in the eyes and try to suss it out.

She raises one eyebrow. “I’m not giving you even the slightest hint.”

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