Spiralling Skywards: Fading (Contradictions, #2)(31)

Apart from what had been administered while I was in the hospital, I was still refusing to take any kind of anti-nausea medication, but the sickness had mostly worn off, although I had ended up back in the hospital twice more because my doctors were worried about dehydration.

I was thirty-two weeks into my pregnancy, and my nan had finally given us permission to go out and buy a pushchair. We had strict instructions to not bring it into the house until after the baby was born, though. All of this because of some long-held superstition of hers. Seeing as it was my grandparents that were paying and those things were not cheap, believe me, we didn’t bother to argue. I was actually blown away that most of what we’d looked at cost more than my first, second, and third car.

“Sixteen hundred quid. Does it come with a chauffeur?” Liam joked as we stood in the baby shop, looking at more pushchairs/buggies/strollers whatever the name of the day was, I learned that it seemed to vary from store to store.

“I could buy him a second-hand car for less than that.”

I turned and gave him the evil eye as the sales lady demonstrated the one hold, fast fold feature of the ugly looking three-wheeled device.

“Is this really what you want?” Liam asked.

“Why, don’t you like it?”

He shrugged his shoulders, obviously thinking carefully before he spoke. The upside of this pregnancy had been my insatiable appetite for sex, the downside, apart from the sickness, was that just about everything made me cry.

“It’s not really . . . I mean . . . if it’s what you really want then got for it, but don’t you think it’s a bit . . .”

“What? A bit what? It’s a baby buggy, how do you want it to look?” I snapped.

“We do have a range of colours available, and you can also request a custom design, but it would require twelve weeks’ notice. When did you say you were due, dear?” Irene, the saleswoman, asked.

“Seventh of July,” Liam stated with a proud smile lighting up his handsome face. I smiled back, feeling both horny and teary at the same time, especially when Liam pulled me into his side and kissed my temple

“Well that’s out of the window then, you’ve only got eight weeks left. Would you like to look on the computer at the selection of colour options?”

“Anything’s gotta be better than that grey,” Luke told the sales lady.

We decided on red with a black trim. Luke and Archie would be pissed off since it was Manchester United’s colours and not Arsenal’s, but it was our kid and United were the team that Liam had adopted since he’d been living here. It was also universal and not too boyish or too girly.

We stood at the till point and gave our delivery details and payment. Liam had his arm loosely across my lower back, rubbing his fingertips over the curve of my hip and arse through the fabric of the little summer dress I had on. It was only mid-May, but we’d had a few warm sunny days and as I seemed to be running at about ten degrees warmer than everyone else right then, I was happier when I was wearing next to nothing. Funnily enough, this seemed to make my husband happier, too.

I was halfway through giving the lady our address when a sharp cramp-like pain shot through my lower belly. I had to stop talking so I could catch my breath. I stood upright and tried to take in air through my nose. Both hands instinctively went to my belly, and I splayed them out, hoping to contain the pain.

“You okay, bub?” Liam had stilled beside me.

“Wow. That was . . . shit.” I turned and looked up at him, but all I could do was shake my head as another pain ripped through me.

“Babe?” he questioned nervously.

“Would you like a chair?” Irene asked.

My heart rate revved as adrenalin began to course through my system. Something wasn’t right.

“Sarah. Talk to me, you’re scaring me.”

Everything from there seemed to happen so quickly.

“Just a couple of really sharp pains that’s all.” I tried to reassure Liam.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m f—”

My mouth hung open, but I didn’t finish what I was about to say. Instead, I stepped back from the counter and looked down at the floor.

“My water just broke.”

“What?”

“Caroline, can you grab us a chair please?” Irene called out.

I started to feel a little wobbly and stepped back so I could lean against Liam. He guided me down onto the chair that Caroline swiftly appeared with.

“What do I do? Do I call the hospital, the obstetrician, what? Tell me what I need to do.” I knew he was trying to keep the panic out of his voice, but it was there, I could hear it.

The ever-efficient Caroline appeared with a plastic cup of water and offered it to me.

“Call the hospital and tell them what’s happened.”

He did as I asked and explained the details as quickly as he could. Not saying anything before he hung up the phone and turned to me.

“They want you to come in.” It was all I got before he was rushing out the door.

Liam left me in the store and went to bring the car to the loading bay around the back so I had less distance to walk. I used the time to draw in deep breaths and tried not to panic about what this could mean for our baby, if he or she ended up being born eight weeks early.