Chapter 65 - Nineteen Weeks
At nineteen weeks I could no longer close my favorite gray coat without feeling as though I were arguing with the buttons. Elena declared it a fashion emergency and dragged me to a secondhand maternity shop in Brooklyn.
I tried on a soft navy dress and watched my reflection change beneath the fluorescent lights. For weeks I'd treated pregnancy as something to defend. Now there was a visible curve that made the future impossible to regard only as a legal problem.
“Do you want to know the sex?” the shop assistant asked after hearing us discuss the next scan.
“I don't know yet,” I said.
It felt wonderful not to know. Not everything required a decision before its time.
At home I sent Adrian a medical update. He replied with one question: Are you feeling well?
I answered honestly: Mostly. Tired. Hungry all the time.
Do you need anything?
May you like
No, thank you.
He let the conversation end there. It was such a small courtesy that I almost missed how unusual it had once been.
