“Mmm-hmm. And did you use protection?”
I nodded enthusiastically. “Sure did. I always carry around a couple of condoms, just in case. I mean, it’s not like I use them on a regular basis, except for this time, I guess.”
More jotting down.
“You think I have an STD or something?” I asked. “Please don’t tell me that – the last thing I need right now is to have herpes.”
Noah hardly seemed like the kind of guy who’d be walking around with a bad case of crabs. Then again, it wasn’t like I hadn’t fallen for guys who’d seemed one way but ended up being totally different.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket, and I quickly slipped it out to see that it was a message from Cammy asking if I’d found out anything at the appointment. I’d told her about what had happened on the way over, and she was eager to hear that I was OK.
I tucked my phone back in. For now, she’d have to wait.
“I doubt it’s that. But I do want you to take a pregnancy test while you’re here.”
“A what? You’re kidding, right?”
“You were last sexually active around six weeks ago. And now you’re experiencing nausea, fatigue, and a little weight gain. And according to what you said earlier, you should’ve started your period about two weeks ago.”
She was right about all of that. I’d put on five pounds over the last few weeks, weight that I’d chalked up to stress-eating from the Davidson project.
“But I used a condom,” I said, panic seeping into my voice. “You can’t get pregnant if you use a condom, right?” My hands shaking, I shoved my hand into my purse and fished out the other condom I still had in there. “This is what I used. See?”
The nurse took it and looked it over. “And how long have you had this in your purse?”
I sighed. “That’s a good question.”
The nurse smiled slightly. “I can answer that for you – probably for about three years. Look.” She turned the condom around and placed her finger on the expiration date, which read 3/19.
I grabbed the condom from her hands and looked it over with frantic eyes. “There’s no way. Three years?”
The condom fell from my hand. I was suddenly lightheaded, the room spinning around me. My breaths became short, and I tried to focus, but couldn’t.
The nurse rushed toward me and placed her hand on my shoulder.
“You’re going to be fine,” she said. “Just breathe, OK? Like this – in, out; in, out.”
It felt a little silly, but all the same, I did as she asked – in, out; in, out. After a few repetitions of that, the spinning slowed down and I felt a hell of a lot better. But the worry was still there, along with the single word in my head – pregnant.
“I can’t be…that,” I couldn’t even bring myself to say the word. “There’s just no way.”
“Well, maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. We’ll need to do some blood work and run a couple of tests to be one hundred percent certain, but in the meantime, we can take a simple urine test.”
“Yeah. Let’s do that.”
The next twenty minutes went by in a total blur. The nurse finished up the questions, then showed me to the bathroom so I could pee in a cup.
I did my business, and by the time I got back to the examination room, we had an answer.
Positive.
Well, shit.