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Sadie
The waiting room is stifling. Some relaxing piano music is playing overhead, and the women around me have various stages of round stomachs and excited smiles or expressions of discomfort.
When I start biting at the corner of my thumbnail, Luke reaches over and pulls my hand away from my mouth, so I hold it in my lap, picking at the nail where he can’t see.
I hum along to the music, and he glances sideways at me.
“Relax,” he says lowly. It’s meant as a command, not a comfort.
“Easy for you to say,” I reply in a whisper.
“One step at a time, Miss Green,” he replies.
There’s a couple sitting across from us. Their hands are linked between them, and they keep looking at me and Luke, the woman smiling tightly. I want to tell her to stop. We’re not the same. But she has no clue. Luke isn’t my boyfriend or husband, and this isn’t even his baby.
I should tell him he can go. He doesn’t need to be here.
But I can’t bring myself to do it.
I don’t even catch myself chewing on my thumbnail again until he stops me. This time, he holds my hand in place, squeezing my palm between his fingers. He’s scolding me, and something about it grounds me.
“Sadie,” the nurse calls with a clipboard and a grin.
My eyes widen, but instead of standing up, I freeze in place.
Luke squeezes my hand again. “Stand up.”
I swallow and do as he says, but my hand doesn’t release his. When I glance down at him, my eyes are pleading. I don’t want to go in there by myself.
And he can tell.
Everyone in the waiting room is staring at us, even the nurse.
God, what am I doing? Am I seriously expecting him to go to my doctor’s appointment? Why? We’re not friends or lovers. He’s my teacher. And something else I can’t explain. This is ridiculous.
So I pry my fingers from his hold and walk away.
“That’s me,” I say to the nurse. She holds the door open for me and I walk through, but before it closes, Luke slips through.
I glance back at him in shock.
“Right this way,” the nurse says as Luke and I have a silent conversation with only our eyes.
My body is tense as I follow her into the room and take a seat on the paper-lined table. Luke looks so uncomfortable as he sits in the chair. Regret washes over me that I’m forcing him in here with me. The minute this nurse leaves, I’m telling him to go.
What a disaster I am.
“Okay,” the nurse says as she sits on the stool in front of the computer. “What was the first day of your last period?”
I cover half my face with my hand, blocking Luke from view. “August seventh,” I reply.
She types that in. “And you’ve had a positive at-home pregnancy test?”
I wince. “Yep.”
Her eyes track over to Luke in his chair. I can’t even bear to look at him at the moment. “Well, we’ll need a urine sample, and then the doctor will come in and do an exam.”
“Okay,” I groan.
