Guess What?

I can tell this story now. I'd meant to write it down a long time ago, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

After work one evening this past June, I went outside to enjoy our new deck and wait for Amy to get home. When she did get home, we decided to grill something for dinner. We were both getting the food and place settings ready, bringing everything out to the table, hustling past each other through the sliding glass door. Unfortunately, we were both irritating each other, too. She seemed to be critical of my every move. Nothing I did, from turning the grill on to handling the meat was correct. At least that's how I perceived things. Because of this, I decided that I wasn't going to pay much attention to her suggestions which then rubbed her the wrong way. By the time the meat was finished cooking, we were full on mad at each other. It was turning out to be quite a party.

Neither of us take very long to start talking when we have our little tiffs so I started by asking her if anything happened during the day that had upset her. She said that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But then she didn't say anything in return, didn't ask me why I also seemed irritable. All she did was start to cry a little bit as she broke down, "I've been keeping this in all week and I don't know how to tell you because I'm afraid of your reaction."

"What could possibly be so bad?", I asked tentatively.

Then she dropped it: "I've been feeling ill all week and my boobs hurt just walking up and down the stairs. I think I'm pregnant."

I paused and took another swig of my beer, swishing it around in my mouth before I swallowed. "Really?". Another pause. "I think I'm going to need another beer."

In retrospect, I wish I'd said something more, I don't know, intelligent, profound, non-dopey, but it's too late now to take it back. Regardless, I understood why she'd been acting a little strange and that I'd noticed that sort of behavior all week and was starting to wonder if this announcement would be forthcoming. We made up. I told her how happy I was at the news and that she hadn't needed to be nervous at all about telling me. We hugged, gave each other a kiss, and then proceeded to have a long conversation.