She stood motionless in the bathroom. She wanted to wait for him to get home, knew she should have, but her nerves got the best of her and he was supposed to be stuck at work for another couple hours. She had to know.
She wished she would have waited.
She couldn't move.
She was never gladder to hear that front door open. He must have gotten off early.
"Hey Linds," she heard him call down the hall.
She heard noises that sounded like shoes coming off on the doormat, a coat hitting the wobbly coat rack, an umbrella falling to the floor of the closet. Just like she liked. He was too perfect.
Why couldn't she be?
"Linds, baby. Where are you? I got supper for us." And she heard the take-out sack gently hit the counter top.
He was a provider, a gentleman, a good man, and most importantly, he loved her.
She took a deep breath. Stepping out of the bathroom and slowly into the hall, she met his eyes.
"Hey, how was your day off babe?" he smiled when he saw her, making steps in her direction.
That's when he saw that she was holding onto something.
"Lindsay?" his face looked hopeful.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the words refused to come. Instead, she dropped her shoulders and let her hands fall to her sides. She blinked hard, feeling the anger and frustration and intense sadness crawling up through her body. A heavy, fat tear fell from her eye and slid down her cheek, all the way to the floor, splashing in a dramatically irregular pattern like the blood she had seen so many times at crime scenes. That's what this felt like – a crime.
She was sobbing and shaking her head by the time Don rand down the hall and wrapped his arms tight around her.
"Shh, baby its okay," he tried to soothe her. Taking the pregnancy test from her hand, he threw it back into the bathroom. "Just another bump in the road. We won't stop trying." He stroked her hair and held her even tighter. "I promise."