Unlucky in Love

"So, what? You think I overreacted?"

"No, not at all." he replied dryly. Dominic sighed and bent down to kiss me. "I mean, you make me bum a ride from Daveigh and Logan, but I guess that doesn't matter to you."

I sighed. "Don't be mad at me," I told him, making it sound like an order.

"I'm not mad. Your reasons were totally justifiable. I just wish we would've stayed home and been together for today, or just hang out. You and me."

"I wish we could've done that, too."

* * *

"Okay, Emma, strawberry or peppermint?" I asked my daughter, who was weighing down the left side of my body. I set her down and realized quickly that it was a mistake when she started throwing toys and little boxes of candy canes. I took the toy from her before she could ingest it or destroy it, which resulted in a hysterical fit of a fourteen-month-old toddler.

I picked her up, ignoring her cries of complaint, and set her in the cart and buckled her in.

Emma did not like that.

I grabbed her little hands in mine. "Emma, there is nothing wrong with you," I told her, trying to keep my voice from rising. She was causing a scene, and it made me want to walk away and say, "she's not mine!"

She started to get louder, and I rubbed my forehead tiredly. "Emma, baby, please!" I whined, hoping she'd see what kind of hell she was putting me through.

"For your sake, I hope her father is the disciplinarian." someone chastised me.

I whipped around in an instant and saw a woman in her late thirties with a set of toddler twins and an infant in the car seat. "Excuse me?" I asked incredulously. "She's a baby! She's tired and yesterday we got thrown off our schedule, so she's cranky."

"That's no excuse for bad parenting."

Just when I was about to tell her to go take a flying fuck, her friend showed up with my little sister.

"Ember, what a surprise!" Margeaux said delightedly.

"You know this girl?" the bitch asked.

"Yes, of course! This is Ashton's daughter, Ember."

The bitch turned to me. Emma had calmed down enough to investigate why Mommy was about to explode. "Ashton's daughter? She must get her personality from her mother."

"Don't talk about my mother," I told her warningly. "And, no, I get my personality from my father. You just haven't known him for twenty years like I have."

And with that, I took my cart to the checkout line and grabbed a box of strawberry candy canes, which Emma couldn't wait to get her hands on.

* * *

"Just tell me what to do!" I cried, throwing down my school bag.

Andrea sighed and pulled me down to the couch with her, her arm around me to pull me tighter to her. "Just ignore them,"

I sniffled. "I can't! They all think I'm some kind of slut because I dumped Noah for Chase, and I feel so bad about it!"

"Ember, you're going to be just fine. One day, you're going to find the right boy, and you'll get married and start a family."

"I don't deserve that," I whispered. "I don't deserve to be a wife and have kids and I don't deserve to be happy."

My mother grabbed my face, forcing me to look at her. "Ember Devereux, you of all people deserve to be happy. Don't ever make yourself feel like you don't deserve it, because you deserve everything."

"I do?" I asked skeptically.

"Would I lie to you?"

I shook my head quickly. "No," I started tearing up again. "It just feels like everything is going wrong."

She nodded sympathetically. "I know it does. But it won't for long. And, Ember, I'm not always going to be here. Soon you're going to have to pick yourself up without any help from me."

"Ember!"

My eyes opened and I realized I was in my house, in the bed that I shared with Dominic. I sniffled and rubbed my eyes, discovering that I had been crying.

"Em," Dominic said pleadingly.

I looked back at him, and he looked absolutely terrified. "What?" I asked frantically. I shifted, and then I felt what had made him so freaked. I reached my hand down underneath my leg, and it immediately came into contact with the blood that was pooling around the lower half of my body.

There wasn't a time to think clearly; I just doubled over and cried until I felt sick.

* * *

"Did I lose it?" I asked, my voice broken.

The doctor and nurse looked at each other. "Yes, and no." the doctor started. She sighed and put her hand on my shoulder. "It appears you had been pregnant with twins, but one wasn't strong enough." she saw my confusion. "Sometimes both twins don't make it, but one is able to. It's more common than most people think."

"But there's still a baby?" Dominic asked quickly.

"Yes, you have a baby." she promised, and Dominic looked relieved.

I've heard the phrase that God doesn't give with both hands, but I never thought it would apply to me.