An Act of Persuasion(24)

Looking at him now, she thought about how happy she was to see the color in his cheeks, even knowing she’d put it there by pissing him off. She was struck by the desire to cup his face in her hand and tell him how glad she was that he was still alive.

God, she’d missed him. Missed him like nothing she’d ever known in her life. More than she’d missed her own mother after she’d left. It had been pure hell waiting day to day to find out from the hospital if his status had changed. Spitefully, he’d removed her from the list of people allowed access to his health information. The only thing the hospital could confirm was his status.

Every day she called, every day the same answer. Stable. Until finally she knew that he wasn’t getting worse and his body wasn’t going to reject the new cells.

He’d won his battle. But she still had lost everything.

Until that little white stick turned bright pink.

“What do you want, then?”

“I want to have dinner with you. I’ve missed...eating with you.”

“That was a nice thing to say.”

“I didn’t say it to be nice. I said it because it’s the truth. We were together for six years and you just... You were gone. Was it easy for you? Was it easy to walk away?”

The intensity in his expression startled her. He was closer to her now, nearly pressing her against the car door until she felt the handle dig into her spine.

“How can you ask that?” she said, her heart suddenly beating in her throat. “How can you—” She put her hand against his chest. His heart was beating fast, too. “Oh, no, you don’t get to play the guilt game with me.”

“Don’t I? I was in the hospital and you didn’t come to see me. Not once.”

Because she couldn’t. She couldn’t pretend anymore that he cared about her. And being there as some disinterested employee/part-time nurse...it was just too painful.

Still, she hadn’t known that he would miss...eating with her.

“If you want to take me to dinner, we can talk. But it’s got to be about the future and this child and that’s it. I’m not talking about the past.”

He smirked. “The past? It was only three months ago. But fine, I’ll take it. We’ll leave your car in the garage and take mine.”

He pulled out his key fob and pressed a button unlocking the doors and Anna got in. Their only conversation was about where to eat and, ultimately, he drove them the few blocks to Market where he’d heard of a French BYOB restaurant that was supposed to be amazing. Since she couldn’t drink and he drank infrequently, they didn’t bother picking up wine to take with them.

When they were seated Anna eyed the menu in front of her with some reservations. French cuisine and pregnancy apparently didn’t mix, because most of the items—food that she would have fawned over a few months ago—were now making her queasy.

Snails were so not going to happen.

She ordered a ginger ale and dug into the bread when it came.

“I would like to go to your next doctor’s visit.”

She considered his request. She’d had her last appointment only a few days ago. She’d heard the heartbeat for the first time and had made her decision that it was time to tell him. “That’s fine. They are pretty routine.”

“When do I get to see the picture? You know, the grainy thing that no can really tell what it is but people make a big deal out of it anyway.”

She smiled. “That’s at eighteen weeks, I think.”

“Are you going to find out the gender?”

Hmm. She hadn’t thought about that. She hadn’t really thought about anything other than finally getting over the hurdle of telling him. Now she realized she would have to let him share in all these decisions. In a way it was like working with him again.

They had always worked together very well.

“Do you want to?” she asked him.

“I’m willing to compromise on that issue.”

“So noted. Let’s table it until we actually have the sonogram.”

They ordered. Just some pasta in a French cream sauce for her, while he’d opted for the rabbit.

“You’re normally more daring in your food selection.”

She rubbed her belly while she sipped on the ginger ale. “Yeah, well, junior has other ideas. I’ve been a nonstop vomit mobile for the past three months. It’s easing up a little but I don’t want to push it.”