“Off?” Josie asked. “Sixteen weeks. Seventeen weeks. That’s… four months. That’s almost halfway there.”
“This isn’t all that uncommon,” Dr. Klen said in a soft voice.
As she turned to deal with Josie, Josie realized that she was starting to freak out a little and was starting to embarrass herself and Steph.
Screw that. Seventeen weeks pregnant?
“Some people know right away,” Dr. Klen says. “Some don’t. I know the first thing some will say is ‘what about having a period?’ but it’s not always that simple. Some women have irregular cycles and they don’t realize anything has changed until they feel bloated. They start showing. Everyone is different.”
Josie put her hands to her hips. “This is really happening?”
“What did you think was going to happen today?” Dr. Klen asked.
Josie opened her mouth, but didn’t speak. She just shook her head.
“Well, let’s talk good news here,” Dr. Klen said. “The baby is healthy. The baby is a good size. I’m confident about the due date. We’ll keep monitoring and see. As for you, Stephanie, you need to get on a prenatal vitamin right away… we’ll get you in again…”
Dr. Klen spoke and Josie turned. She covered her mouth. Here she thought they had a lot of time. She expected the doctor to say four weeks. Five. Six. Seven at the most, maybe. But seventeen weeks? That meant this situation began four months ago.
Now there were two choices.
Josie could be the supportive Josie… take care of Steph and figure out how to get through this and help Steph become a mom. Or, Josie could be the version of herself like back at the club with Starla. When she heard Starla call her a bitch, something had snapped. She wanted to tear her apart.
But that meant nothing now. Drugs? That wasn’t Josie’s business. That was Reese’s business. The MC’s business. But that put Reese’s life right back on the line, which was the one thing that messed everything up years ago.
“You take good care of yourself, Stephanie,” Dr. Klen said. “You too, Josie.”
Dr. Klen touched Josie’s shoulder and offered a sympathetic grin and nod. Meaning she understood what Josie was going through.
When they were alone in the room, Steph sat up and swung her legs off the table as she started to clean herself up from the ultrasound.
“Please don’t,” Steph whispered.
“Don’t? We’re beyond don’t, Steph. The clock is ticking, and we just lost ten weeks.”
“We?” Steph asked.
“Yeah,we. Unless you have some grand plan here, I’m stuck with this. There’s no room for a baby in my apartment. There’s barely room for you. Seventeen weeks? Are you fucking kidding me? You couldn’t have said something sooner? Why not just wait until you went to use the bathroom and just had the baby? Huh?”
Steph got dressed and stood facing Josie, tears in her eyes. “You done?”
“No. I’m not done. Do you even know who the father is? Honestly. Can you even make a top five list?”
“Right,” Steph whispered. “Because you think that some guy is going to be rich and have all the money to take care of me.”
“So that means you got knocked up by some guy at a bar. How fucking fitting.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing, Steph. How about you look around for a second. Where do you think you’re going here? I’ve let you slip for so long and I blame myself for this.”
“Right,” Steph said again.
That was her go to move. When she was cornered and knew she was guilty. She would just repeat the same thing over and over.
“Seventeen weeks,” Josie whispered. “I can’t even imagine that. And what to do next here. How to make this work.”
“You know what?… I’m just going to go to the car,” Steph said.