Page 62 of The Heavier the Doubt…

Looking up behind me, she asked, “And are you her partner?”

“I’m her fiancé,” Hunter lied, and I did my best to keep my face straight. “Will I be able to go back there with her?”

Still smiling warmly at us, she said, “Yes, if you’d like.”

“I don’t want to leave her side,” Hunter huffed, causing my own smile.

“Well, you can’t follow her into the restroom for the urine sample, but you can sit with her while they draw blood,” she clarified, an approving glint in her eyes.

“I’ll take it,” he replied.

I watched as she placed a bunch of forms on a clipboard before handing it to me. “Please fill out all these forms, and then they’ll call you as soon as they’re ready for you.”

I nodded as I took the clipboard, letting Hunter lead me to a couple of empty chairs in the waiting room. I immediately began filling the forms out, most of it being standard form questions.

When I was finally done filling them all out, Hunter walked them back up to the counter, and it gave me a chance to scan the waiting room again. Apart from the one couple, there were four girls sitting in the waiting room, scattered about, no one interested in small talk or comparing stories. Everyone here was waiting for the information that might change their lives or not.

Hunter must have sensed what I was feeling because as soon as he took his seat next to me, he threw his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer to him. I glanced over at the other couple, and while they didn’t seem out of sorts, they weren’t comforting each other, either. The energy in here felt weird; was it a new beginning or a horrible occasion?

“I can hear you thinking,” Hunter murmured quietly.

“I’d like to know whatyou’rethinking,” I replied just as quietly.

“Well, if you’re thinking that I’m embarrassed to be here with you, I’m not,” he said, and my eyes immediately started to well up. “No one in here should be embarrassed to be here. By being here, it’s a sign that you’re taking charge of your life, and not being a victim to your good or poor choices.”

I choked out a laugh. “Christ, can you be even more perfect?”

“Baby, I’m far from perfect,” he snorted. “But I’m perfectly okay with you thinking that.”

Twenty minutes and two names called later, they finally called my name, and my stomach dipped with anxiousness, though I really had nothing to feel anxious about. I already knew that I was pregnant, and I wasn’t here alone like those other women, so I really needed to get my shit together.

I gave the nurse an awkward smile as she silently escorted us into the back. The clinic had no warmth to it, but I supposed that no clinics did. Their only purpose was to be functional, and this one seemed very functional. However, being so close to a college, it probably needed to be.

Once we got into a room, the nurse handed me a urine cup, then directed me towards the restroom to give them a sample. Even though it was standard, it still felt cold.

Too bad Hunter couldn’t come with me.

~

Hunter~

Even though I’d never been one to want to save the world, walking inside this clinic had felt like a real hit to the chest. I’d seen the one couple, but it’d been the other four girls, sitting alone, that had given me pause. Yeah, they could be here for a million different reasons, and it was even possible that their partners were at home with their other kids, or at work, or at school, or whatever, but the desolate feeling had felt heavy when I’d notice them sitting alone. Feeling the way that I felt now, I never would have forgiven myself had Alexandria come here alone.

When she walked back into the room, she looked uncomfortable but not sad, and I’d take uncomfortable over sad any day of the week. It was unacceptable to me for Alexandria to be sad. I could deal with whatever other emotion that she wanted to throw at me, but not sadness.

“Everything go okay?” I asked as she took a seat next to me, avoiding the bed.

“I’ve been peeing on my own since I was two,” she replied dryly. “Things went fine, Hunter.”

I reached over, then squeezed her thigh. “I’ll let that slide since I know you’re still nervous.”

Alexandria let out a deep sigh. “I’m always going to be nervous,” she announced. “I’ve never done this before, Hunter. I don’t know the first thing about being pregnant.”

I tried not to smile. “Most first-time mothers don’t.”

After a heartbeat of silence, she asked, “Was it wrong of me to feel sorry for those girls in the waiting room?”

“Nah,” I answered. “I kind of felt sorry for them, too.”

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