Page 46 of That Wedding (That Boy 2)
We get outside of room 416. Lori's room.
I'm scared. I don't know what to do. Should we just stand out here?
Phillip knocks gently on the door.
Danny opens it. There's a wide grin on his face, and he immediately pulls Phillip into a hug.
"Look at this, Mac!" he says as he excitedly shoves an ultrasound photo in front of Phillip's face.
When I see Lori alive and laying in the hospital bed, I let out a cry of relief. She looks scared, but there's a smile on her face. I rush to her side. "Are you okay? Is the baby okay? What happened?"
"I'm fine. The baby's fine. I was bleeding this morning, and it was enough that the doctor sent us straight here. I was sure I was having a miscarriage. I think I panicked everyone for nothing. Everything is okay now, and the bleeding has stopped."
I let out a huge cleansing breath of air, bend down, and hug her tightly. "I was so worried."
She says, "Stop crying. You're making me cry." She wipes her tears then shakes her head at me. "I really didn't think you'd come. Here. To the hospital. I thought you'd make up some excuse."
"I don't have the best of luck with hospitals, Lori, so I try to avoid them."
"Babies are born in hospitals. They're good things."
"That's true, I guess. I was really worried." I give her another big hug. "I love you."
Danny interrupts my hug by shoving the ultrasound photo in front of my face.
I see a very teeny baby. I'm amazed at how small it is but how much it looks like a baby. Like I guess I thought it would still sorta look like a squid or something. I look closer because I'm dying to know if it's a boy or a girl.
"Danny, they covered up its boy or girl parts!"
"I know! We don't wanna find out. The little monkey is gonna be loved either way, and we're gonna have lots more kids."
"Lots more kids?" Lori says. "Um, let's see if I can do one right. Then we can talk about more."
Danny snatches the pic away from me and shoves it back in Phillip's face. "So look at this, Mac. What's it look like the baby's doing?"
Phillip studies the photo closely. "Sleeping?"
"No, look at this. Look at its arm. Doesn't it look like he's throwing a pass?"
Phillip grins. "Yeah, sorta. Must be a boy then, huh?"
"Hey, girls can throw passes!" I say.
"Whatever," Danny says. "My guess is that it's a boy."
"That's my guess too," Lori says.
I look at the ultrasound closer. It looks to me like the baby is either sleeping with its arm up in the air or throwing its arm up in a cheer, but I decide not to mention that. "So everything's okay then? Like why were you bleeding? I thought all bleeding was bad."
"Not always," Lori says. Then she glances at Danny, who has a very satisfied look on his face.
"What?" I say.
Lori rolls her eyes and hands me a book on things to expect when you're pregnant. I read the passage that she's highlighted.
During pregnancy, it's not unusual to bleed after sex. Your cervix is tender and sensitive. If this happens to you, you shouldn't have intercourse again until you've seen your doctor. Having normal intercourse won't cause you to have a miscarriage.
I read it once and then read it again. "I don't get it. What's that got to do with, ohhhhhh, so you had sex, and IT caused the bleeding?"
Lori laughs self consciously and nods her head.
Danny puffs his chest out and flexes a big bicep at us. "What it doesn't mention in that book is that I'm huge. Like extremely well endowed."
I laugh and look back down at the book. "You're right. It doesn't mention that. Oh, wait. It does. It's scribbled here in the margin. A little disclaimer. Danny Diamond is so huge this does not apply. Danny Diamond should proceed with caution."
Phillip raises his eyebrows at me. "So what does it say about me?"
"Huh?"
"Well, I am bigger than Danny."
"What? How would you even know that, Phillip?"
He grins at me. "Well aside from years of locker rooms, we measured."
"You measured? As in you got naked together, got them hard, and compared? How did I miss out on all the good stuff?"
Danny chimes in. "Jay, we're not gay. We measured separately and told each other our numbers, but I think Phillip's fibbing."
"Phillip never lies."
"Whatever. So the bleeding happened because I'm amazing, and pregnant women are super horny."
Phillip and I look at each other with wide eyes.
Danny shrugs his broad shoulders and grins. "It's not my fault she kept saying harder."
Lori blushes down to her toes. "Danny!"
Danny just laughs. He's quite proud of himself. "We're among friends here."
Lori says, "Well, you and your friend can go get me some fried chicken. I'm starving. I want extra crispy, mashed potatoes, and biscuits. And make sure you get those honey packets."
"I swear, I'm gonna start a pregnancy delivery service. You know how many times I've had to run out and get whatever she's hungry for?"
The boys leave to go get chicken. I'm still sitting here with an amused smile on my face.
"Wipe that smirk off your face," she tells me.
"So pregnancy makes you horny?"
She looks at the door and makes sure the boys are gone. "Ohmigawd, Jade, yes. Here, read this."
I read a passage about increased blood flow to certain lady parts and think that's something I really did not need to know.
Pregnancy would freak me the hell out. I'm just saying.
When I set the book back down, she continues. "Seriously, sex with Danny has always been amazing. But yeah, this morning was like ecstasy." Then she changes the subject. "So Danny told me something about you seeing Richie Rich at the bar. Did he really ask you to marry him?"
"Lori, you need to be thinking about you and the baby and taking it easy, relaxing."
"All I've been doing is thinking about the baby. I wanna talk about your life. Tell me a story. Some gossip. Something. Distract me."
I lay on the bed next to her. "He did. I don't think he was serious though. Did Danny tell you the night of formal he was going to ask me to wear his fraternity pin?"
"Oh, Jade. You would've gotten to pass your candle!"
"I know. I'm kinda bummed by that. He also said something that's been bugging me. Do you think I'm settling by marrying Phillip?"
"Are you nuts? Phillip is fine. He's hot, he's sweet, and he adores you. Why would you ever say that?"
"Jason said it. I just, I don't know. Couple's counseling is not going well, Lori. I'm pretty sure we're failing."
"You're not failing. No one fails."
I grab her hand and try to change the subject by saying, "I hope not. I'm so happy the baby is okay."
"Me too. So, I know you. You have to have some gossip or some funny story. You always do."
"I have some kind of baddish news."
"Do I want to hear baddish news right now?"
"It's more baddish gossip. You know how Katie and Eric haven't like been doing that great, like in their marriage, right?"
"Yeah, I did hear that."
"Well did you hear that she's been talking to and going to lunch with Neil?"
"I didn't hear that! What's that all about?"
"I don't know. I don't think they know for sure, but it sounds like she's considering getting a divorce and dating Neil."
"Scandalous," she giggles. "Seriously though, it's really sad. It would suck to go through a divorce."
"You're lucky. You and Danny have a good relationship."
"He cried today, about the baby. I've never seen Danny cry. And I've been giving him a hard time. I just feel so, I can't even explain it, like I'm not even in control of my own body. Like I have this alien thing growing in me, changing my body, and kicking me. It's kinda freaky, but at the same time, it's so incredibly amazing. I've been sick and crabby and probably not very nice to him."
"He's wo
rried about being a good dad, but he really loves you, and he really loves the baby."
"Yeah, I know. I'm incredibly lucky. We decided that we really can't understand what each other is going though and to just focus on the baby."
"Good. You know Danny's going to be an amazing father."
"That's one of the reasons I wanted to marry him so bad. He's so much fun, so full of life and love. And speaking of that, when are you two gonna have kids?"
"Not for a very long time."
"You're going to be amazing parents too. And Danny's right, having our kids grow up together would be so cool. You know, you're more like my sister than my real sister."
"Really? You have no idea what that means to me. You know, because it's just me." Tears start leaking out of my eyes again. What is wrong with me? Why can't I push the tears back anymore?
Lori grabs my hand quick and puts my palm across her belly. "Feel that?"
"Oh my God! The baby kicks hard! Lori, that's so freaking weird! Does it feel like that all the time?"
