As Marianne shut the door behind her, Greg exited the bathroom drying his light brown short length hair with a small towel while another body towel wrapped him from the waist down.
Having a terrible loveless relationship did not make Marianne blind, because she could obviously see the fully shaped man right in front of her.
"Six foot of a whole hunk but no brains", she thought to herself.
"I thought you were cleaning the living room?" He asked her.
Marianne snapped out of the fantasy and replied immediately,"I wanted us to talk before you left."
"But I told you that I needed to leave urgently, can't this wait?", He asked while dressing up real quick.
"This really can't wait, I-" Marianne was cut off again.
"You look tired and sick, have you been to a hospital?" He asked with sudden concern.
Marianne's tongue got heavy and tried to respond but words could not leave her mouth, every second that passed was torture. She wished he could just read her mind or predict like he did the first pregnancy when Marianne was carrying Rose, he had paid more attention to her back then when everything was still fresh and sweet between them.
He would go out and buy the test himself and tell her to be calm, waited patiently as she did the testing in the bathroom. Worried about his reaction, she held the pregnancy test tight in her hands like she was about to break it. He held her shaking hands and rested her head on his chest and told her, "we'll figure it out."
At the time they had been living in a humble two roomed house, Bedroom/living room/kitchen and a tiny bathroom right where the stove was installed so you can imagine the tight space.
Marianne let go of the test and looked up to him waiting to see his reaction, her eyes watered and she couldn't feel her knees. Greg got down on both knees, pressed his head against her still flat belly and whispered with tears filled in his eyes,
"hello there".
Marianne was at a loss of words but at least she could breathe knowing he was happy to know they were about to become parents and just the feeling of knowing a little person was growing inside of her was enough to make grown woman cry.
She wished it was going to be the same with the recent one but with the way things had become between the two of them, she was positive he did not want any more ties to her. But she still had to speak up, to let him know that sexual relations always have consequences, in their case it was a pregnancy.
"Marianne?", Greg called out to her seeing that she had drifted away in thought.
"No not yet, I took a home pregnancy test first", Marianne stood still waiting for his reaction with her nerves all over the place.
"What did you just say? A home what?",
He paused for a second waiting for her to repeat her sentence.
"Wait you don't have to", He raised his hand as a time out gesture to stop her from talking.
"Marianne, how could you let this happen?!" Greg raised his voice at her as if she were a teenager who didn't know what she was doing..."Weren't you on the pill?"
Confused as she was, Marianne couldn't find the words to respond to Greg's ridiculous questions. What did he expect from unprotected sexual relations? A dog in a gift box?
"Aren't you gonna say something to defend yourself?", Greg insisted she answered with a face so angry he'd be capable of harming her.
Considering the safety of her daughter and her unborn child, Marianne calmly replied,
"I don't know what happened, I'm so sorry."
"You better be, we're not having this child, one is enough trouble", He commanded.
Marianne's heart sank as those words played through her mind, feeling all sorts of emotions in that moment she couldn't object. All she could do was stare....
"Hello, did you hear what I just said? We're not keeping it",
Greg insisted some more as he paced from corner to corner in the bedroom.
"What if I die?", She asked quietly.
He turned to her and asked, "did you die last time?"
Marianne was reminded of what could have been Rose's sibling had he not forced abortion pills down her throat, the horror of seeing a life fade away against her wish still haunted her till date. But would she allow him a second time, will he keep forcing her to terminate till she finally died?
Marianne had to think fast, there was more to lose than last time. If she died who would care for her little Rose? What will they tell her when she's older? How will she take it? Will her spirit rest?
There were no positive answers to any of those questions, it was time for her take a stand no matter what he said. For Rose.
"I'm not getting rid of my baby!", She said with a little shake in her voice.
"Can you even hear yourself? You want to keep this baby? Have you any...", Greg paused as though he had an epiphany.
He paced a bit more around the room making Marianne dizzy for some seconds, then came to her , rested a hand on her shoulder and said,
"you're right my love, why put your life at risk like that. This is a blessing sent to us and we must embrace it with all our love and care, sorry for way I came out at first you took me by surprise okay."
"No I should've found a better way to tell you,it's my fault." Marianne was confused at what just happened but tried to take the blame as usual.
Greg sat her down and pulled up a stool right in front of her to sit and face her directly in the eyes,
"this is a wonderful surprise and we shall treat it as such, lemme go for my meetings, text me what you'd like me to bring for you on my way back home and we'll celebrate. Do you have cravings yet?" He asked.
"Greg this mood change is drastic even for you, are you sure you're happy about this pregnancy?", suspicious Marianne had to ask, it was weird.
"Oh come on, a baby changes everything. I'm super excited",
He leapt from the stool with a huge smile on his smile and finished up getting ready.
"I'll be back earlier today okay, I don't wanna leave you all alone all day." He pinched her nose and gave her a peck on her sweet light pink lips.
"Oh I won't be alone, I have Rose and now another one on the way but I'd definitely need your company as well." She responded with such joy and relief.
"Mommy!", Rose called out to her from the living room.
"I better see what she wants", Marianne quickly walked to the door and opened it.
Greg gave her another smile and said,
"sure i'll be right down to say bye to Rose".
Night fell and Marianne had been feeling so good about herself all day since Greg's sudden change of heart towards the surprise pregnancy she thought would end up bad,"maybe he remembered how blessed we were to have Rose", she thought to herself.She had been cleaning all day while Rose was playing at her friend's house next door, she had so much energy a ten mile marathon would be a breeze.She Vacuumed and mopped all the rooms, washed every dish in site, put clothes in the washer and dried them outside cause her mother use to say,"what better way to kill germs than with the scotching sun?", she always had the strangest theories.Marianne spread the dry clothes on her and Greg's bed and headed back into the kitchen to continue preparing a special meal for supper, her mood leaned towards spaghetti and meatballs and she was probably the best at preparing this dish because there would always be second servings. Rose finally came back at four and Mariann
Marianne came to and found herself laying on a hospital bed, in a hospital gown and connected to a drip. Greg was seated right next to her dozing off at the edge of the bed while Rose was fast asleep on the sofa right across from her bed, her head was pounding like someone were drumming on it and she felt sick to her stomach.She lay her hand on her tummy and woke Greg from his snooze, "my baby? Is the baby okay?", she asked with tears in her eyes."You're awake! Nurse!", He called out to a nurse immediately.Marianne held his hand tight before he could step away, "Greg, my baby. Please tell me"He put his other hand over hers and finally gave a response,"I'm so sorry my love, we lost it",Marianne put her hand over her mouth as tears started to flow down her cheeks, she gasped and let out a loud sob."Why? How? I was just fine and...." she looked up to him and anger immediately filled her heart."What did you do?", She asked him hitt
The nurse finally let Greg in though not so willingly after she noticed the uncomfortable situation Marianne was having, she stood by the door for a good minute while he walked in and approached the bed Marianne was on. Greg sat back on the stool he had been sitting on before he left and held Marianne’s hand.“It’s going to be okay, I’m here for you”, he assured her.Nothing anyone would say could change Marianne’s mood at that point, the only thing she wanted was to have her baby back, but that was not possible. For the last two days of knowing she was pregnant she had been planning out his or her future, where she would give birth, what kind of clothes the baby would be wearing, what school or food to consider etc.Now what? Does she just continue like nothing ever happened? Must she forget what could have been a second child again? She turned to look over at the sofa where Rose had been sleeping,“my little Ros
Marianne was staring in the direction in which the sad man left and stopped to think about how he could be feeling, he didn’t look that old so his daughter could not have been in her teens yet unless otherwise.Just the thought of losing a child you already have memories with sent chills down her spine and made her feel even worse for the sad man. Greg mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and asked her what she had been thinking of cause it pretty much looked like she had zoned out for a moment.“Nothing, did you get the get the cake?”,Marianne asked him as she started to pick up her belongings and held Rose’s hand to get up.“All out can you believe that honey?”, he looked at Rose trying to show disappointment in his face.When what actually happened was...While Greg was on his way to the counter where he had spotted very attractive and delicious looking chocolate cakes through the glass counter, walking towards the counter he bumped into one o
The garage door closed behind them and Greg turned off the engine and told Rose to head in while he and Marianne took a minute to talk,“Hey sweetie go in and watch some TV, Mummy and I will only be a minute okay?”,He maneuvered his way to the back while still in his seat, helped her out of her seat belt and opened the door for her and she quickly ran to the entrance through the garage into the house and disappeared.Greg got comfortable and turned to Marianne,“I really did not find any cake, they must have-“,“you think I’m worried about that?”, Marianne cut him off with a question.“What was in that milkshake Greg?”, she went straight to the point.“What are you trying to say Marianne, I put nothing in it. How could you think of me like that?”, he answered so offended by her accusation then turned to the wind shield and placed his hands on the wheel to lay his head on them.Unmoved, Marianne’s feelings started changing by the minut
Greg hurriedly picked up his phone and sat back on his seat, Marianne came closer to see what was up with him and he pretended to reach for something in his pocket so he could hide the card.“What was that all about?”, she asked him about burst in laughter because it looked like he was about to sweat his hair off.“Nothing, you just startled me, a whistle would help you know”, he said so agitated yet trying to keep his cool.Marianne couldn’t help but laugh at the scene, he looked like a child trying to hide a piece of meat in his mouth while being interrogated by his mother. It was really amusing for her.“Anyway, sorry”, Marianne apologised as she exited the kitchen still chuckling.Greg let out a breath of relief thinking he had handled that well, most women would be on their man’s neck trying to get the truth out of him.“But she didn’t seem to care”, he thought to himself with eyes squinted and fingers pressed to his chin. He also wondered ho
Marianne still couldn’t believe what just happened, as she drove away she glanced into the side window to see if Greg was waiting for her to leave or running to the car to stop them.He just stood there, motionless, straight faced and blunt. She couldn’t make out what emotions he was showing from that distance but deep down she knew he was waiting for this day, but if she was frank with herself, so was she. 10 years of a lifeless meaningless relationship? What was she doing?Now all she had to think of was how to survive on her own with her little Rose, the first step was to find Nurse Lucy and see what happened from there. Only God knew what lay ahead.“You okay sweetie?”, she checked her mirror to see what Rose had been doing in the back so quiet.Marianne was shocked to see that she was flat asleep holding her favorite stuffed doll, the one she called princess Mickayla. Such a sweet site she could shed a tear, but that was not necessary especially since sh
"We really need to stop meeting like this sweetie", a faint voice echoed as Marianne was coming to.Disoriented, Marianne held her aching head and started to look around the room with squinted eyes for her daughter. But she wasn't in the room with her, she put her head back down and asked, "where's my baby?"Marianne asked with a horse voice and swallowed to wet her desert throat hoping they didn't give her bad news."She's okay, you're lucky those people called for paramedics fast. Any later and you both would've been dead by now", nurse Lucy replied.She checked Marianne's stability and did the usual mental test of 'what's your name?' and 'torch in the eyes'.Marianne could not just lay back not knowing where her daughter was and how she was doing. She attempted to get up with one hand but Lucy would not let her and she started to resist, after all all mothers would do the same until they knew their child was safe and sound."I'll take you