Page 33 of Just Like the Brontë Sisters

Chapter 19: Skylar

Skylar,

Being pregnant sucks. I thought the nausea would go away, but after three months it’s only gotten worse. I try to keep my eyes on the prize, tell myself that soon I’ll have a BABY and all the puking, mood swings, and exhaustion will have been worth it. Because eventually I’ll have an amazing family of my own.

Mitch is adorable. He can’t stop talking about baby names, and how he’s going to teach it baby sign language, and how he’s going to order a pair of baby skis. Great, right? I probably shouldn’t admit this, even to you, but his excitement annoys me. Sometimes I look at him and wonder who he is. Do I even know the guy that I’m having a baby with?

I suppose it’s natural to have this sort of anxiety?

Ski season must be underway in Colorado by now. I get mixed up sometimes, being south of the equator. Here in Santiago, Mitch is taking his summer classes and I’m back to running adventure tours with Magda. I don’t go zip-lining or climbing like I did last summer, but I do whatever I can, whenever I’m feeling up to it.

Win some tournaments for me!

Love always,

Jo Beth.

It was morning when I read Jo Beth’s email. I had a full day ahead: class, ski practice, and my literary club meeting that evening. But now I had bigger things to think about. In a way, this email was worse than the paranoid, Mitch and Magda want to hurt me sort of email that Jo Beth had been sending lately. Jo Beth’s departure into subtlety made her sound bad, like Daisy Buchanan bad, like next she’d start insisting that the best thing a girl can be in this world is a beautiful little fool. And I was too far away to help.

I typed out a quick reply:

Jo Beth,

Have you seen a doctor about the nausea? Maybe there’s a remedy.

Please don’t push yourself with the adventure tours, and don’t worry so much about Mitch. You don’t have to stay with him, you know. You can come home any time. We could live together in your condo like the old days, and I’d help you with the baby.

Think about it.

Love you…

Sky

“You want Jo Beth to move back home?” Gavin stood over my shoulder, reading my email. I slapped my laptop shut.

“It’s rude to spy on people.”

“Sorry.” He yawned and headed for the kitchen, where he started to brew a pot of coffee. I got up and stood in the doorway.

“How’d you sleep?” I asked.

“Oh, you know. I closed my eyes, tried to relax, let my mind drift a little…”

“Ha ha. Very funny.” This wasn’t the first time Gavin had made this joke, and I had never found it very clever.

“Okay, okay,” he said, smiling. Gavin ran his hand through his hair, making it stick up slightly. “Fine. Your old bed is really comfortable…”

“That’s good.”

“… and I don’t want to seem ungrateful, because I appreciate your letting me sleep here, but that bed would have been even better with you in it.”

I wasn’t sure whether to smile or to scowl. Gavin was always around; he’d come over nearly every evening and we’d watch TV or he’d read while I studied or wrote. Lots of times he would cook me dinner, but usually he left by nine because he had to be up at four. He kept a baker’s hours, after all.

Today was his day off, so last night was different. We watched Twilight and agreed that Kristen Stewart was way too twitchy. Yet the romantic movie must have affected us both, because when it ended, Gavin used the remote to click it off and immediately lunged forward, pinning me down on the couch and pressing into me. We made out for a while, removing clothing that had always remained intact during our previous make out sessions.

I was panting when I pushed him away. “It’s late,” I said. “You should probably go.”

Gavin smiled in his subtle, gentle way. His voice was subtle and gentle too. “Or, I could stay.”