Page 41 of Family Like This

Amelia

Don’tthrowup.Don’tthrow up.I wiggle in my chair as I fan my face with my program.Why is it suddenly so hot?

A package of Ritz crackers drops into my lap. “Eat.” I glance next to me at Katie, who gives me a knowing look. “I know it seems counterintuitive, but it will help. The same thing used to happen to me. I’d get queasy, then I’d feel insanely overheated. The nausea would kick into overdrive. It wasn’t until the tenth time it happened that I ate something and realized it helped. Eat.”

I stare down at the package of crackers. It’s worth a shot, especially since I don’t want to puke in the middle of Miles’s graduation ceremony. Thankfully, it’s outdoors so I don’t have to worry about the crinkling of the package as I open it.

Apparently, this is the first year they’ve held it in the baseball stadium, but it seems like the right call, seeing as the place is nearly filled.

I pull a cracker out, hoping it’ll help, even though the blandness of Ritz sounds awful right now. I have wanted all the spicy things through this pregnancy. That’s not abnormal for me, but this baby has kicked it up a notch. Before I put the cracker to my mouth, Katie slides me a tiny bottle of the gochujang hot sauce I’ve fallen in love with.

I glance at her and she smiles.

She had these in her purse for me.

A strange urge to cry hits. Miles has been beyond thoughtful and caring, but this is different. This is the love of a mother, and… I don’t know what to do with it. It feels so good but it also makes my heart ache.

Nausea quickly overpowers every other sensation in my body, though, so I squirt some hot sauce onto the cracker and shove it in my mouth.

Nauseous. Nauseous. Spicy. Nauseous. Shit, I think I might throw up. Spicy. Oh, that’s good.

I take another cracker and do the same. A few crackers in, I don’t feel quite as warm anymore, and my nausea has subsided. Well, this is good information to have.

“Thank you,” I whisper to Katie, handing back the hot sauce and crackers.

She takes them and slips them into her purse.

“I’m glad it helped.”

I lean back in the seat, grateful they have a legit stadium here and not uncomfortable bleachers. I’m not even in my second trimester yet, and I already feel the urge to bring a pillow to sit on with me everywhere I go.

Pregnancy is somehow simultaneously the sexiest and most unsexy thing ever. I mean, it’s sexy in that I am horny as fuck and everything is extra swollen and Miles knows how to work that. And it’s unsexy in the sense of throwing up, crying, and needing things like butt pillows.

“How long does this go on?” I ask, leaning next to me and whispering to Sarah, who I was surprised to learn has already graduated.

She chuckles. “Oh, a while. I mean, I tuned most of it out. There’s all this talking. Then they go through the individual departments that are part of this ceremony.”

Thankfully, Miles and his friends are all in the same ceremony, so we don’t have to do this twice. My butt couldn’t take it.

“Is it weird to watch everyone else graduate and not be up there with them?”

“A little, but it’s cool, too. It was weirder last year to be the only one graduating. Even though I’m partway through my graduate program, I feel the finality of today, too. We’ll finish packing up the lake house tonight and tomorrow morning, then we’re heading back to Ida, and that feels like the end of this chapter of our lives. I’m excited about celebrating today. My graduation day was not nearly as happy.”

My brow furrows. “No?”

She laughs and shakes her head, then leans in and gives me the cliff notes version of what happened on her graduation day slash birthday last year and the chaos it led to.

Every time I’m with one of the girls I learn a little more about them and their strength.

“Well, no wonder you’re ready to celebrate today.”

She laughs. “Yeah, for me, this kinda feels like a do-over.”

“Fair enough.”

Everyone starts politely clapping for the boring speech that just happened, and thankfully, it’s time to get to the actual graduating students.

Business is up first, so we sit tight, waiting for Miles’s name to be called.

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