You’re too Sweet| Part 3
Image via Zodiac Reads

The sauce boils over as I sat at the kitchen table staring at the one wedding photo on the wall. About two in the morning, I take the frame off the wall, bring it outside, and run over it with the lawnmower.

A week later, I’m on the couch, recovering from food poisoning. I throw up multiple times before calling Becky. She comes over to try to soothe me, bringing me saltines and sparkling water. Becky calls the restaurants I had been to in the past week to ask about other food poisonings but comes up empty-handed.

Lying on the couch with a cool washcloth on my forehead, Becky rubs my feet. We discuss movies, one of my favorite subjects, when she asked, “When was your last period?”

“Um. Well, I think should have got it four days ago.”

“Four days ago.”

“Yeah, it’s the seventh right? I should have got it about the third. I must be late.”

“Four days ago.”

I laugh, “Are you broken? Why do you keep-“ I gasp.

“We have to go to the drug store!” Becky barks as she throws my feet off the couch.

She runs to get my shoes and twenty minutes later we sit on the floor of the drug store bathroom, both staring relentlessly at the pregnancy test. As the lines began to form, I throw up again. I flash into a stall and let go of my saltines.

Becky screams, “Pregnant!”

I broke into a cold sweat. “I, but I…”

Becky holds my hands and jumps up and down. I think I’m going to hurl on her. She talks a million miles an hour. About cribs and colors and names. She wants to be the godparent.

I start to cry.

Then Becky stops talking and she wraps her arms around me, gently putting my head on her shoulder. She starts to hum. I cry into her shoulder for a long time.

“Marne, you have to tell him.”

“I don’t know if I can.” I manage.

“But you have to tell him.”

I sniff. “I sent him divorce papers.”

And I start crying all over again. Becky holds me more fiercely now as if to protect me. This time she begins to sing, Great is Thy Faithfulness, an old hymn. When she is done, I hurl in the toilet one more time and the manager knocks on the door, saying the store is closing in fifteen minutes.

Two weeks later, I sit in a doctor’s office and the doctor tells me that I am pregnant.

Two more weeks later, I sit in a law office and the lawyer tells me he has the papers ready.

Two more weeks later, I sit in the same law office and sign those divorce papers. Jace sits on the other side of the huge conference table, with no emotion as he also signs.

Seven months later, I give birth to a healthy little boy, whom I named after my grandfather, Marvin. His last name is my maiden name and no one argues with me.

Image via Author

Part 4 Coming December 23!
['Renae Nicole']
['Flash Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Storytelling', 'Series', 'Romance']