Love Me Always

CHAPTER 19

Bella

After the nausea dies down, again, I give Nora an earful. It's reckless! It's obvious why she came to that conclusion—she spends her days in obstetrics so she has babies on the brain, whereas I would have never in a million years come up with such a diagnosis.

"I'm not pregnant. It's a stomach bug. A nausea thing. Whatever. I'm fine."

She's watching me with an indulgent smile.

"Come over to my office tomorrow and let's do a dipstick." she says, all calm.

"Is she ok?" Blake asks when he enters our room.

Nora looks down at me and smiles softly. "She will be. I think it's just a 24 hour bug but I still want her to come at my office tomorrow."

Well played Nora, well played.

***

"I need another one." I demand.

"That's the forth one."

"You're a doctor, you of all people should know you need a large sample size if you hope to have verifiable results."

Nora levels me with a hard stare. "You've done three tests and they've all shown the same result. You're—"

"God. Don't say it out loud! Can't you see I'm freaking out here? Give me another dipstick."

I stick out my hand, but she doesn't immediately deliver. I try to steal another test. I'm pretty sure she can spare a few more, but she holds the box up, just out of my reach.

"Nora."

"Face it, babe."

I'm sweating bullets.

"Just one more, please." Our eyes lock. 

She sighs and hands it over. I rip into the plasticky-foil wrapper and reach in for the test strip. Carefully, like I'm being graded on my technique, I dip it into my sample cup until it's covered to the blue line and then I lay it on the lip of the cup and watch as it develops. I lean down and prop my hands on my knees, watching as the dye seeps up the white strip, coloring it a pinkish red. The first pink line appears in the control region and then . . .  a second band darkens half a centimeter underneath it, in the test region.

My stomach drops.

Four samples, same result.

 "Can you check the date on that box?"

"I checked, they aren't old."

"Well then, what else causes false-positives?"

"Bella?" Nora says, gripping my shoulder.

"Hm?" 

"You're pregnant."

Blake

My alarm chirps at my bedside and I reach out, feeling the other end of the bed with my eyes still closed. Pillow, sheets, comforter, but no warm body. I roll over, blink my eyes open, and frown when I see that Bella's already up and out of bed. Then I spot a note on my bedside table.

I left you breakfast downstairs. XO

And then down in the kitchen, beside a plate of toast and eggs is another note.

See you at work! :)

At the company, I go looking for her, but when I show up, she's not in her office. I check the lounge then head to Ava's office. She's not there, but Ava is, and when she sees me, her eyes widen.