This Wasn't Suppose to Happen

I struggled with the shopping bags as I waddled through the packed mall, cursing myself for waiting until the weekend to go buy clothes that would actually fit me. I was midway through my pregnancy and I already had people asking me if I was due soon. We had made sure that there was in fact, just one baby in there but it seemed like all my weight gain went straight to the stomach area.

Throwing the bags into the back of my car, I headed towards home, thankful that it was the weekend and I had 2 days off from work. It was getting harder and harder to do therapy on my clients and demonstrating different exercises, but I was determined to stay until I couldn’t do it any longer. My due date was for the end of February and I was finally starting to get excited to see my little bundle of joy.

As I drove back to the apartment, I thought back to my ultrasound appointment 2 weeks earlier. I had texted Sid to let him know about the appointment, giving him a date and time but didn’t hear back from him. Not that I expected a reply. I arrived at the doctor’s office and was put into the ultrasound room and was just covered with gel when the door opened and a nurse appeared. Apologizing, she said that the baby’s father was here and I half expected to see Nate’s face appear. What I wasn’t ready for was Sid stepping into the room and taking a seat next to my head.

He gave me a small smile and watched the monitor with me as the ultrasound technician took measurements and made sure the baby’s heart and lungs were developing normally. After the ‘formal’ pictures, she moved the wand around and pointed out the spine, the baby’s fingers and toes and did a 3-d image of the face. Sid and I were captivated, neither one of us saying a word, just watching the monitor with our eyes wide open.

“Do you want to know what you’re having”, the tech asked and Sid looked at me and gave me a shrug.

“No, I think it’s better to keep it a surprise, I’m traditional like that”, I explained as I saw Sid’s face drop. For a moment, I almost changed my mind, but I wanted to wait. Sid reached over and grabbed my hand. “Good choice”, he said softly as he looked back at the screen. There it was, our baby. It might not have been created out of love, but one thing was for sure, this baby was going to be loved more than anything else in this world.

I smiled as I remembered the look on Sid’s face and how excited he was when the technician printed off two sets of pictures so we could each have one. For the past two weeks, he had been a model citizen, texting and wanting to know of any upcoming appointments. It was definitely a welcomed change to how he acted for the first half of my pregnancy.

Pulling into my parking space, I was surprised to find Sid standing by the elevators. It was almost as if he was reading my mind and knew I was thinking of him. He came over when he saw me struggling with the bags and took all of them into his hands and followed me onto the elevator.

“Surprised to see you here, don’t you have a game tonight?” I asked as the elevator doors closed and I pushed the button for my floor.

“Ya, just a quick stop. I’m leaving after the game and heading out West for a week and just wanted to check in on you”, he said as we got off of my floor and I unlocked the door. He dropped the bags onto the couch and looked at me. “You’re looking good”, he said with a smile and glanced down at his watch. The same thing could be said about him, he was in his suit with his hair gelled and looking like he stepped out of an issue of GQ.

“Thanks”, I said as I flopped into a chair. “Anything I can get you?” I asked as I propped my feet up on the ottoman.

“No, I’m leaving again. Just wanted to make sure you’re okay. You are okay, aren’t you?” he asked as he stood by the door.

“Yup, no problems”, I replied and shifted so I could see him better.

“You’d let me know if there was?”

“Yes, I would text you if anything happened”, I reassured him. Sid nodded and put his hand on the door knob. “Take care Janelle”, he said as he started to open the door. “You too Sid. Good luck out West”.

He was almost out the door when he turned around. “I almost forgot, this is for you”, he said as he took a small box out of his pocket.

I glared at him, “What is that? Why are you giving me something?” I said as I stood up and walked over to where he was.

“I kinda had no other choice”, he replied as I opened the box and saw a key on a keychain. Okay, there went the jewellery theory. For a split second I thought he might propose or do something else stupid, I said a silent thank you.

Noticing my confused look, he motioned for me to follow him. We got on the elevator and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was up to. I was never one for surprises. “Now, you can’t get mad”, he said as the elevator doors opened and we found ourselves in the parking garage. “This isn’t just for you, it’s for the baby”, he explained as he led me over to a parking spot not too far from mine.

“Here you go”, he said as we stopped next to a black BMW SUV. “Huh?” I asked in surprise as Sid took the key from me and hit a button on it. The vehicle’s lights blinked and he walked over to the driver’s door and opened it. “Go on, check it out”.

I climbed in and looked around. “I don’t get it, is this your new ride?” I asked as I climbed back out. Sid looked at me in surprise. “No, it’s your new vehicle”.

“I don’t need a new car, I have one”, I said and pointed to my Ford to make my point. “Janelle, that thing you call your car is a death trap. Its falling apart, its old and you’re pregnant. You need something better than that to drive, winter is coming and I’m not risking the baby’s life in that car”.

I knew it, I just knew it. One test and all of a sudden he thinks he can call all the shots. “The car is fine, I had her in the garage a few weeks ago, she was deemed roadworthy”, I explained as I tried to hand him back the key.

“No, I’m not swaying from this. You can keep your car if it means that much to you, but I fully expect to see you driving this from now on. I mean it Janelle”. His eyes had that dark look to them again and to save myself from listening to him go on and on about safety for the next 10 minutes, I stopped trying to give him the key back and nodded.

“Good, I got a game to get to”, he said as he gave me a smirk and walked over to the visitors parking spaces and climbed into his Rover. As he passed where I stood, he put down the window. “See you later”, he said as he pulled out of the parking garage.

I glanced at the Beemer, “Fine, I’ll drive you, but I don’t have to fucking like it “, I said as I pushed the button to lock the doors and stomped towards the elevator. I was fairly certain that Sidney Crosby could make a Nun swear, he definitely was not easy on a person’s nerves.