Eliza Starts a Rumor(14)
And he was.
Alison hid her pregnancy at work for as long as was physically possible, but when she entered her fifth month, she felt she had to come clean. She stood up at the weekly partners’ meeting and disclosed that she was pregnant. The other partners feigned happiness for her, but it was clear they had assumed that ship had sailed and were surprised by the news. Surprised was putting it kindly. They were most likely annoyed, as they’d always thought of her as one of them. She noticed the team’s underlying panic and addressed the elephant in the room.
“Gentlemen, don’t worry. This firm is my life. Nothing is going to change.”
They smiled as if they believed her.
Alison lay awake at night worrying about whether she was maternal enough to raise a child. She was afraid that she didn’t have that instinct everyone spoke of. When she saw a child cry, she would often have the urge to laugh: the way they threw themselves on the floor over a lost balloon as if the world were about to end. Then one day, at about thirty-two weeks, she was riding the subway when it came to a jolting stop. She felt the blood rush from her head as her hands slipped down the pole she’d been grasping. A minute later she found herself on the floor of the subway car—her head cradled in the lap of an intimidating-looking man with a string of barbed wire tattooed up his arm beneath the words Live Free or Die. The kind stranger, who quite possibly just escaped from jail, escorted her to the street and put her in a taxi to her obstetrician, who informed her that there was nothing wrong.
She said, “When the train jolted, your maternal instinct kicked in and sent all of the blood to your baby.”
Alison cried tears of joy. She had a maternal instinct.
A week before she was due, her water broke in a conference room full of partners and associates. She had already seen a difference in how she was being looked at. Creating a puddle on her chair that she later realized she had left for someone else to clean up as she waddled out of the room had to have sealed the deal.
* * *
—
The door to Wolf Realty swung open with a gust of wind and a young mother came in, baby in tow, courtesy of the all-coveted Thule Urban Glide jogging stroller.
“Hi,” Olivia York said to the air in general as she moved her hips from side to side in place to keep up her energy. Her baby looked to be around the same age as Zachary.
“Hi. What a cutie. How old is she?” Alison asked, noting the pink baby blanket tucked neatly under the baby’s dimpled chin.
Olivia moved the blanket down proudly so that Alison could get a good look.
“She’s four months today. Yours?”
“Three and a half. This is Zach,” she gushed, realizing it was the first time she had called him that.
“So sweet. This is Lily and I’m Olivia.”
Alison laughed at herself for just introducing her baby.
“I’m Alison.” She motioned to the baby adding, “She is so beautiful.”
“So is yours. I hope I have a little boy next.”
“Oh. This is it for me. For sure.”
“You can never be sure, right?”
“I can.” Alison laughed. “I don’t even know how this all happened. One day I was driving on the Taconic, trying to wrap my head around my maternity leave ending, and the next minute I was renting a two-hundred-year-old house on Main Street.”
“Ha. It sounds like the plot for a Hallmark movie.”
Alison laughed again. “You’re right, and my old life sounded like a plot from Law & Order.”
“Well, the Hallmark plot seems better, for the baby at least.”
“That’s what I was thinking when I decided to move.”
“Decided” wasn’t exactly the correct word. For Alison a decision usually involved hours of research and thoughtful comparisons. This felt more like it happened with no real thought whatsoever.
“Marilyn!” Olivia called out as Mrs. Wolf came out of her office.
“Olivia! How are you? You got the jogging stroller, I see.”
“Yes, I was actually jogging by to tell you. Great find. Thanks.”
“You have to join, too,” Marilyn motioned to Alison. “The Hudson Valley Ladies’ Bulletin Board, everything you need to know for living around here. Plus sometimes a good deal on someone’s barely used stroller.”
Alison noted it in her phone. She needed all the help she could get.
Olivia smiled at them both. “I gotta run. Have to get home in time to nurse. Nice meeting you!” She smiled at Alison before jogging off.
Alison handed the keys to Marilyn. “Here, before I forget. I’m so forgetful lately.”
“And impulsive.” Marilyn laughed while taking the keys. “Easiest transaction of my life!”
Alison knew that Marilyn wasn’t exaggerating. She thought back to the day she took the house. The wonderful nanny she had chosen, from the dozens she’d interviewed, was set to begin the following morning. Alison found herself driving farther and farther away from the city, questioning everything she thought she was sure about. Zachary had started to fuss, so she’d pulled off at the next exit. A right, a left, and a fork right later, she was driving down the main street of a Norman Rockwellian town. By that time the baby was hungry and screaming bloody murder. She pulled into the first spot she saw, sat herself down on the stoop of the house in front of it, and placed the bottle between his clamoring lips. She adjusted herself so that the sun was not causing his tiny eyes to squint and enjoyed the view of the pretty town while he drank his bottle. She had been lost in thought when Marilyn Wolf approached.