"Just a couple more," I said and took her hand, which she extended from under the covers.
"Good. I don't think I could stand another month of this. Seriously, I don't understand how evolution works if this is part of a healthy pregnancy. Who would choose to submit to this?"
"You have to keep thinking about the baby you're going to get at the end of the whole process."
"I know," Alexa said. "I do. It's just hard to deal with in the moment. When it passes, I feel great and happy. In the middle of it, I don't know if I can hack it."
"You can. It will be over soon. One day, you and I will sit together eating pancakes and bacon and eggs and hash browns for breakfast like old times and we'll look back at this day and be glad it's over."
"Oh, God, don't even talk about eggs and bacon," Alexa said with a groan.
"Okay, how about peppermint tea with honey and crackers?"
She smiled in spite of everything. "That sounds perfect."
"Good," I said and stood up. "I'll go and get you some. You can see how you feel and if you want, I can send the Three Amigos in to entertain you."
"Okay," she replied. "But the tea and crackers first. I don't want to have to run to the bathroom to heave while they're here. It'll turn them off towards pregnancy."
I bent down and kissed her once more and then left the room, closing the door softly behind me.
While she was suffering now, Alexa was strong and would get through it, with all of our support.
Chapter Nine
Alexa
I sat up in bed when Luke brought me a tray with the usual -- crackers, a pot of hot water for my tea, a peppermint tea bag and some honey. Even looking at it made me slightly nauseated, but I knew that to avoid the dry heaves, I had to get something into my stomach. Crackers and peppermint tea were about the only things I could tolerate that early in the day.
"Here goes nothing," I said and stirred some honey into the cup of tea. I took a cracker and crunched it, then took a sip of the hot tea. The scent of the mint seemed to soothe me, and soon, I had finished three crackers and half the cup. I lay back on the bed, propping myself up with an extra pillow.
"Send the girls up," I said. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
"Will do. Do you want me to leave the tray in case you need more?"
"Sure," I said and put an arm behind my head. "I might have more in a while."
Luke bent down and kissed me. "I'll send them right up."
I watched him leave the room, glad that he was such an attentive husband. While I waited for the girls to come upstairs for a visit, I turned on the flatscreen and switched through several channels. There was nothing I wanted to see, so I took my iPad and turned it on, checking my news feed for the latest.
There was a message to me from a number I didn't recognize.
I think you will want to see this.
Attached to the message was a link to a Reddit channel. I clicked the link and what I saw made my stomach clench and
not in a nauseated way.
In shock.
It was a gossip website called Tatters that posted anonymous gossip about local celebrities. I clicked that link, and was taken to another website for the gossip page.
Sex tape of local Manhattan socialite leaked to press...
On the page was a description of the video, and a link to another website.
That website hosted a video of me.