Is it love?

The Call

Ring ring. I’m waiting anxiously for him to pick up.

“Dammit.” I mumble. There’s no answer and I hope he doesn’t already suspect what I know. I decide to send him a text to feel out the situation.

M: hey..call me when u get a chance :)

Ten minutes later I get a text back. Ding ding. I swipe it open.

D: hey babe, sry I was out with Carlo. I’m gonna take a shower and call u back. Luv u.

I breathe a breath of relief. He doesn’t know anything yet, and I still have time to figure out how I’m going to break the news. About an hour goes by before my phone rings. Sure enough, it’s Dom. My heart is beating frantically, I answer.

“H..hey baby” I sound like I’m borderline sad, not my usual excited, upbeat tone when he calls.

Without missing a beat, he says, “Hey baby, everything alright? You sound off.”

I take another breath, “Im alright, I just wanted to talk to you about something is all..” I pause for a moment.

“Okay, what’s up?” He asks me, so nonchalantly like im not about to drop a life changing bomb on him.

“My period was late, and you know like, im always the same day every month so I figured I’d take a pregnancy test just to see..”

I pause waiting for him to say something but he doesn’t, he’s just listening on the other end.

“It came back positive..” I trail off and wait for his response.

“Are you okay?” He asks.

Im relieved that was his first gut reaction and not hanging up the phone on me. “Yeah, I’m fine, I just..I don’t know, what do you think?”

He starts out, “Well, what do YOU want to do? I mean you’re in school and If we have a baby, you would probably have to give that up at least for now. I’d hate to see you not pursue your goals.”

I’m relieved this is the direction this is going “I know, but now that this baby is in my belly, I want it. I don’t think I could go through with an abortion. And I love you, I want to have this baby with you but I don’t know how you feel about it.”

“Masha I love you, if you want to have this baby, I’ll support you to the end. I do love you, I just don’t know what we’re going to do. You’re going to have to tell you’re family, leave school and then come home and figure out the plan.” Dom always sounds like he has the answer to everything, sounding so confident event if maybe he doesn’t.

I tell him, “I know, I have to figure out how I’m going to break the news to them, but for now, I’m just glad we’re a team..on the same page.”

We talk for 3 more hours. Not all about the baby or the potential for how the future will pan out for us, and in the parts where we get back to talking about how our days went, what’s going on for the upcoming week, I forget about the stress of the current situation. Just for a little while I can forget about how my life is about to drastically change, forever.

It’s now getting late and I’m tired. I take a shower and climb into bed. I have a full day of classes tomorrow and even though I know I won’t be staying, there’s no reason to slack. I want to finish off strong regardless. I drift asleep with positive thoughts for our little family, and I’m happy.

I awake in the morning fully rested but not feeling so great. I’m not getting sick but something is definitely off.

“Morning sickness perhaps?” I think to myself

I’m not sure, I’ve never been pregnant before but I’m not physically ill so I head off to class, not feeling sick enough to take the day off. I struggle through my first two classes, the nauseated feeling is getting worse. Thankfully I have a two hour break before my next class so I can go back to my dorm and lay down for a bit.

As soon as I get to my bed, I lay down and start googling things about morning sickness.

Does morning sickness mean you’re having a boy or a girl? I type in the search bar. A bunch of wives tales come up and I fall down the rabbit hole of all of them trying to guess what this baby might turn out to be. I download a baby app on my phone, which tells me the size fruits the baby is supposed to be right now. It’s the size of a poppy seed.

The time passes by and I’m feeling better, so I head to my following classes for the day. Two weeks pass by and I still haven’t told anyone in my family. Dom hasn’t told his family yet either but obviously I’m the one on the clock.

It’s about eight o’clock at night, and my phone rings. It’s my grandmother and I panic a little bit. I’m going to break the news, but I don’t know how. I pick up the phone.

“Hey grandma..”