The Other Side

*****

“Aww.” Atalya took the scan photo and gave it an adoring look. “This is so sweet.”

“The sonographer said this was their little hand.” Charli leaned over and pointed at the small white stump with what looked like fingers on the end. “It looks like they’re waving.”

After the scan, Mark had dropped Charli off at a restaurant to meet Atalya for lunch, saying he had a few errands to run and would pick her up later. He had kissed her before he left, a kiss that Charli could still feel tingling on her lips an hour later.

“It does.” Atalya sighed, her eyes misting over. She sniffed and passed the photo back, retrieving a tissue from her sleeve and dabbing delicately at her eyes. “Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?”

“No idea.” Charli put the picture back in its folder and slid it into her purse. “Mark thinks it’s a boy but I’m guessing a girl. And the old wives tales about whether it’s a boy or a girl depending on sickness, where it’s lying and all that, says it could go either way.”

It had been a little nerve-wracking going in and lying on the bed, hitching her top up so the sonographer could put the gel over her belly before using her roll-on-type device to bring up the images on the screen. She had been worried that there would be something wrong and the baby would not have a heartbeat. But when she heard the heartbeat and her baby wriggling about on the screen, refusing to sit still as the sonographer did the measurements, Charli’s nerves disappeared and she fell in love. She had another six months to go before she actually met her baby but she was already in love.

Now she knew why being pregnant was an amazing experience. Once you got past the sickness and the aching joints.

“I didn’t want to know when I was pregnant with you.” Atalya sipped at her coffee. “I’d known with Matt but I wanted to have a surprise when it came to you.” She grinned. “Since you were a surprise pregnancy, we thought we’d carry on.”

“I was an accident?”

Atalya nodded.

“Our doctor at the time was terrible. Very disorganized. Matt didn’t have his six-week check until he was nearly ten weeks. And I couldn’t get an appointment to get a new prescription of the pill. So we had to use condoms and one split.”

“Too much information, Mom.” Charli didn’t want to think about her parents having s*x. That was too much to give her nightmares. She grunted. “But it does explain why there’s eleven months between me and Matt. I had wondered but never asked. I didn’t think it was possible to get pregnant that quickly again.”

“You’re surprisingly even more fertile shortly after giving birth. Usually most people are so sore down there they can’t think about having s*x for some weeks.”

“Good to know.”

Charli wondered how anyone who enjoyed s*x with their partner would be able to cope without having s*x. But she figured if they weren’t sore they were too tired to have s*x.

“What was Mark’s reaction?”

Charli smiled. Mark’s reaction to seeing his baby on the screen had been sweet.

“He had tears in his eyes. He tried to claim that he had something in his eye but we still gave him a ribbing.”

“Has he got a picture?”

“Yes, it’s in his wallet.” Charli paused. She knew Atalya wouldn’t like the next bit. “Andy and Kim tried to split us up earlier today.”

“How?”

“Kim told Mark I was cheating and Andy told me Mark was cheating. As it turned out they had taken pictures of me with Kyle…”

“Your colleague from work? The sweetheart with the Irish boyfriend?”

“That’s him. And the pictures of Mark were with his sister Kelly and his niece when they came to visit the other week.”

Atalya shook her head sadly. She had taken to Andy when they were first introduced and had taken her under her wing. But after Kimberly got involved, Atalya had said she was a bad one. And she had been right. Now Andy’s behavior had changed and he had turned into a violent bully. Charli wouldn’t put it past Kimberly to try Andy on drugs sooner or later.

“I never thought Andy would stoop to this.” Atalya said sadly. “Kim, yes, but not Andy. I’ll be glad when the restraining order comes into effect.”

Charli couldn’t agree more. At least it would stop Andy from contacting her. The order extended to Kimberly as well so at least Andy wouldn’t be able to contact her through Kimberly. Not that Charli had the Aryan bi*ches details.

“What’s going on with you and Mark?” Atalya asked.

Charli looked down at her glass of juice. She had already had a mug of coffee that morning, which was her limit. She was cutting down on her caffeine intake, although her love of chocolate was difficult to give up.

“I’ve fallen for him, Mom.” She said quietly. “I know I’ve always had a crush on him since I was younger but I really have fallen for him.” She bit her lip. “But I don’t know how to tell him. He might laugh and turn me away.”

“From what I’ve seen, that’s the last thing he wants to do.”

“How do you mean?”

Atalya chuckled.

“Come on, Charli, you’re not that naive. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He loves you, no doubt about that.”

Charli knew that Mark wanted her. The way they were in the bedroom and Mark’s devotion of her body was proof of that. And she saw the desire in his eyes. But she wasn’t sure if he loved her. She trusted her mother’s instincts better than her own and knowing that Mark loved her had a warm glow spreading through her belly.

He loved her.

A waitress arrived, pad in hand, and gave them a warm smile.

“Hey, ladies. Would you like to order some lunch?”

Charli opened her mouth to ask for the menu. That was when the window she was sitting next to exploded.