Meant to Be

The clock on the opposite wall ticked away slowly. Brendon eyed it intently as he watched the smaller hand rapidly inch away around the circle. He had agreed to come, but was starting to feel uneasy in the waiting room. Everywhere he looked he saw more pregnant women and more kept piling in as soon as another were called into the back of the office. His hands were clamped together and moved up and down with the rhythm of his shaky leg. Why was he so nervous?

Kayla placed a comforting grip on his hands. “Brendon, calm down. There’s no need to be nervous.”

He looked to his side and saw Kayla smiling back at him. “Yeah I know. I don’t know why I’m feeling this way. I guess I’m more excited to see the baby,” he admitted, still shaking his leg.

“I’m glad to hear you’re excited. I’m pretty excited too. We finally get to see what the baby looks like right now,” she said continuing to smile at Brendon.

He looked at her confused. “You’ve never had an ultrasound before? Then how did you know you were pregnant?”

She chuckled at his naivety in pregnancy. “I went to my gynecologist when I figured something wasn’t right and she told me I was pregnant. We figured I was about a month and to see an OB/GYN when I was twelve weeks. So here we are.”

Brendon nodded understandably. “Oh. So this is the first time seeing the baby for the both of us huh?” he asked.

“You would be correct. I’m sure it doesn’t look too much like either of us, but I can’t wait to see it,” Kayla said looking down at her stomach and rubbing her belly.

“Anderson. Kayla Anderson,” a woman called.

They both looked up from their seats and saw a nurse searching around the room. They stood up and made their way to the front of the waiting room, meeting the nurse calling Kayla.

“Kayla Anderson?” the nurse asked. Kayla nodded. “Right this way,” the nurse said allowing them to enter the hallway.

After recording her weight, the nurse led them to an examine room to wait for the ultrasound technician and OB/GYN. Kayla lay on the examine table, while Brendon sat next to her, holding her hand.

“Your hand’s all sweaty,” Kayla commented as she squeezed Brendon’s hand.

Brendon smirked. “Sorry. My hands get kinda sweaty when I’m nervous. When we first starting doing shows, I was always scared the microphone would slip right outta my hands,” he admitted.

“Well honestly, I like your sweaty hands. And I love you.”

“I love you too.”

A few more minutes passed before the ultrasound technician came in. “Hi, I’m Jenny and I’ll be doing the ultrasound today. How are we doing today?” Jenny asked cheerfully.

“Um…doing good so far,” Kayla answered.

“That’s great. I’m guessing you’re not too far along since you barely have a baby bump,” the technician commented as she raised Kayla's shirt up.

“Yeah, I’m only twelve weeks. The nurse said I need to gain more weight and in a couple more months the baby bump should show more,” Kayla said looking at the screen next to her.

As the two women gabbed about pregnancy, Brendon sat there in an almost dazed and confused state. He knew this whole situation was real, but being there, about to see a sonogram of his baby just confirmed how real it was. And when the time would come for him to actually hold his child in his hands would be the time he’d really know if he was ready to become a parent, because at the moment, he wasn’t too confident about the idea.

“All right, are you ready to see your baby?” Jenny asked the couple, but Brendon felt the question was more directed towards him.

Kayla nodded her head excitedly, while Brendon nodded his absent mindedly. Jenny smiled at the two of them before applying the gooey substance on Kayla’s small baby bump and taking another device to roam over her belly. As soon as it made contact the screen lit up and there, in its tiny form was their baby, with a heartbeat as fasts as Brendon’s.



Olivia walked back to the front desk of the nurse’s station with energy draining from each step she took. She pulled her jacket tighter around herself as she took a seat next to the head nurse in charge that morning.

“How’s your patient?” the older woman asked.

“Just complaining about the pain, but can’t give him anything for another hour. He’ll be fine,” Olivia responded letting out an exhausted sigh.

“What’s wrong with you? You’ve been looking progressively tired every time you come to work. You’re not pregnant are you?” the woman asked, looking up from her clipboard, eyeing Olivia carefully.

Olivia laughed off the latter comment. “No I’m not. I’ve just been stressed and tired from all this wedding stuff and I’ve been feeling sick for a while, but I think I’ve finally shaken it off.”

The older woman just nodded and looked at her watch. “Hmm, looks like your shift is over. Maybe you should go make sure you don’t have a bun in the oven,” she suggested.

Olivia got up and shook her head. “I’m not pregnant,” she laughed.

But as she continued to make her way to her car, the thoughts of being pregnant trickled in slowly. She started to gather any evidence in her head that would lead up to this conclusion. She had been throwing up a lot lately, she was always exhausted, even after doing the effortless task, and she couldn’t remember her last period. By the time she could think of any other clues, she was already in the parking lot of Wal-Mart. She didn’t even remember telling her brain to drive there, but with the daunting realization that she could possibly be pregnant, she headed inside to buy a couple of pregnancy tests.

“Hello?” she heard Charlotte answer on the other end.

“Hey Char,” she responded back.

“What’s wrong? You sound scared.”

Olivia didn’t even know how a simple “hey” could possibly give away fright, but Charlotte could sense any emotion Olivia was feeling from the tone of her voice.

“I think I’m pregnant,” Olivia said hurriedly.

“What did you say? Because I swear I just heard you say that you’re pregnant,” Charlotte said.

“Well, I didn’t say I was…I said I think I am,” she whispered.

“Oh. Well you don’t sound terribly excited about it. I’m guessing it wasn’t planned and Jason doesn’t know?”

“No he doesn’t know, I kinda just figured it out today, but if it were Jason’s I probably would be a little more excited,” Olivia admitted as she grabbed a couple of tests and heading for the self-checkout.

“What! It’s not Jason’s? Well whose is…” Charlotte’s voice trailed off. Olivia knew she had thought of a name. “Oh no, please tell me it’s not Brendon’s.”

“I am ninety-eight percent sure it’s his, but I’m not going to tell him,” she said getting into her car.

“You’re not? Don’t you think he has a right to know?” Charlotte asked, not agreeing with Olivia’s decision.

“I would’ve thought you of all people would be okay with me not telling him.”

“Yeah I know, especially since he’s an asshole, but still, not knowing you have a kid out in the world, I’m just saying I’d like to know.”

“I just figured he already has enough on his plate with Kayla and their baby and Panic! I just don’t want to add on to that stress. Plus, I can just tell Jason’s it’s his. He’s been so preoccupied with work he won’t even figure the timing’s a little off.”

“If you say so. Are you home already?” Charlotte asked.

“Yeah, I just got here,” Olivia said placing the bag on the table.

“Okay well call me back when you get the results.”

“All right. Bye.”

When Olivia was done, she gently set the test on her vanity and began the timer for five minutes. Each passing second was torture for her as she stared down at the stick. Not enjoying this feeling, Olivia walked into her bedroom and sat at her desk, turning on her laptop and going straight to her email. There was nothing like getting rid of unwanted emails to pass the time. But instead, she found an unlikely email address stored in her contacts and hesitantly composed an email to them.

Hey Brendon.

I don’t know if you still use this email address or why I still have it or why I’m even writing this to you. But I am, so here it goes. I’m sorry for the way I acted the last time we saw each other. I’m not as angry as I was with you then, but I am still mad. And I hope you know and understand why. I mean, why would you lie to me? Why would say Kayla was pregnant when she wasn’t? If you didn’t want to be with me anymore, you should’ve just told me. But anyways, I hope you’re happy and I hope everything is going great with you and Kayla. More importantly, I hope the baby is born healthy. I know you’re gonna make a great dad. And I hope Kayla is the one for you. Finding that special someone is difficult. I don’t think I have that one who’s meant for me. I’m starting to think Jason and I weren’t meant to be together. I’m regretting ever agreeing to marry him; he’s not the man I fell in love with and I don’t think I’m the woman he fell in love with. Well…I guess I’m done. I don’t expect you to read this and if you do, please, don’t respond.

Liv

As soon as she clicked send, the buzzer to the timer went off as well as the sound of the doorbell. Olivia looked towards the hallway and then back to the restroom and decided to check the test before answering the door. Olivia picked up the test without looking at it. She stared long and hard at herself in the mirror and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and looked down to see the word pregnant staring right back at her.

Olivia cupped one hand over her mouth while looking back and forth from the test result to her reflection in the mirror. It confirmed all that she hoped wasn’t true. She was pregnant. With Brendon’s baby. The ring of the doorbell snapped her out of her realization and she quickly disposed of the pregnancy test. As she opened the door, she was greeted by a young woman who looked not so much younger than herself.

The girl gasped when she saw Olivia standing in the doorway and took a fearful gulp before speaking. “Is Jason here?”



“So when do we get to find out the sex?” Brendon asked as he stared down at the sonogram of his son or daughter.

He heard Kayla laugh a little. “Weren’t you paying attention at the appointment?” she asked.

Brendon looked up at her smiling and shook his head. “I was a little distracted,” he said waving the sonogram in his hand.

“I suppose you were. Well, lucky for us I was paying attention and in two months at our next appointment we can find out if it’s a boy or a girl.”

“Awesome,” he said before noticing Kayla phone on the table lighting up from a call. “Mmm some guy name Kyle is calling you.”

Kayla picked up her phone and pressed the ignore button. “Oh he’s just a client. Probably just trying to schedule an appointment. I’ll call him later,” she said putting her phone back in her purse. “You have an email,” she pointed out to Brendon.

Brendon picked up his phone and tapped the email app, revealing it to be someone he thought would never talk to him again. But there her name was next to the subject title: To my first love and he wasted no time opening it up to read it. His eyes glazed over every single word she typed, lingering over the unhappiness she confessed in it. It took everything in him not to respond. It hurt him to know she wasn’t happy anymore, that her world seemed to be falling apart and he was partially responsible for it.

“What’s wrong?” Kayla asked, concerned about the worried look on Brendon’s face.

“Oh um…it’s my cousin. I think something’s wrong between him and Olivia. I think I’m gonna go visit him and see what’s up,” he said exiting out of his email.

“Visit him?”

“Yeah, well not today, maybe in a couple of days. I think he really needs someone to talk to. I don’t want to see him do something he’ll regret. And I like Olivia, she’s good for him.”

Kayla shrugged her shoulders. “Okay, if you feel you need to.”



Olivia held her stomach feeling a sudden urge to vomit. “I’m so sorry. I-I was hoping to avoid you and just tell Jason and be on my way,” the girl, who was sitting across from Olivia, said.

Olivia looked back at the girl. She looked terrified, apologetic, and on the verge of tears. The girl reminded Olivia of herself from five years ago when she was in a similar situation. And she couldn’t blame the girl for her actions, because five years ago, she believed telling Brendon she was pregnant was the right thing to do.

“It’s okay. I’m not angry at you. I just can’t believe Jason would do this to me. He’s been going behind my back for three years, when I think he’s off on a business trip.”

“If I had known about you sooner, I would’ve been done with him the second I knew. I didn’t want to come here to ruin your relationship with him and I really hope this doesn’t affect you two getting married. I promise I’m not going to ask him for anything. Once I tell and leave, you can pretend I and this baby don’t exist,” the girl pleaded.

Olivia gave the girl a feeble smile. “I wish it were that easy. But I can’t just pretend or forget that Jason got another girl pregnant and his baby is out there somewhere. And this relationship between me and Jason was long over before I even knew about you. Now I just have a really good reason to leave him. Don’t for one second think that you had anything to do with breaking us up okay?” The girl nodded while wiping away her tears. “Look, I’m sure you're tired, why don’t you go into the guest room and take a nap. Jason should be getting home soon. You can tell him then.”

The girl nodded and got up, walking toward the hallway, then turned around. “But what will you do?” she asked.

“I’ll be packing. It’s time I went back home. I think I need a fresh start,” Olivia responded, getting up to go to her bedroom.

As she was, her phone vibrated and Brendon’s name appeared next to a message: Liv, are you okay? Please talk to me. What’s going on with you and Jason?

After she finished reading it, she deleted the message. That fresh start did not include Brendon.