Chapter 26

Several days later, Steffi was about to get her lunch out of the workshop refrigerator when Tina called her into the office.

"I got a visit from Dr. McCoy," she said. "Your test results are in."

Steffi sucked in her breath. "Did she way what they were?"

Tina broke into a wide smile. "You can have one less thing off your mind now. They were negative."

Steffi brightened. "Does that mean….."

Tina nodded. "Whatever the reason your period is late, you aren't pregnant."

"Oh, thank goodness! I should have known something was up, because I finally did start this morning. But I've heard of people having them right before they get pregnant, so I still wasn't sure."

"Like I said before, Steffi, it was probably stress from the changes in your life, and now at least there's one less thing to worry about. But have you ever considered birth control?"

Steffi shook her head. "I never knew how to use it and he says he can't find rubbers big enough."

Tina was speechless for a moment before regaining her composure. "In any event, Dr. McCoy left me this to give to you."

Steffi took the small slip of paper. "What's this?"

"It's a prescription for pills to help prevent another possible scare like this one. You may not be so lucky next time. Just follow the instructions and you should be fine."

"Okay. This may be a good idea. I'm not really ready for kids, so just as well that things turned out the way they did." She gave Tina a hug. "Thank you."

That evening:

Steffi had been working on her computer journal when an instant message popped up. She had been talking to another friend from the workshop and realized she'd forgotten to sign out.

"Whatever it is, Stef, we need to talk about it now," Brian had written. "This shit of avoiding me and being evasive has to stop. Cut to the chase."

She nodded to herself; it was indeed time. "Not on here," she responded. "Could you call me?"

He hadn't been expecting such an answer, considering the way she'd been acting over the last several weeks. "Sure," he said. "Give me five minutes to get the Mexican Idiot out of the room. He can jack off to lesbian porn somewhere else."

Five minutes passed before Steffi's TTY beeped and she answered, knowing it was Brian.

"So what's going on? Did I do something wrong to upset you?" he asked without premable.

Steffi sighed, thinking he should know the truth of her recent concerns, especially now that she had confirmation that it all had been a false alarm. "I had something really bad on my mind," she finally said.

"It had to be bad the way you'd acted weird around me the last few weeks. Come on, Stef, spill it."

Steffi cut to the chase. "I thought I was pregnant."

"What?" He was incredulous.

"See, I knew you'd act like this," she sighed, "but it was a false alarm anyway."

"Stef, why didn't you say something?"

"I didn't want you to think you would be trapped with someone like me and a child neither of us were ready for," she replied. "I didn't want your career ruined because of me."

"Sweetheart, why would you even think that? Okay, maybe I was freaking out every time someone mentioned kids in the past, but if you had been pregnant, we'd found some way to work it out. And ruin my career? That's the biggest line of bullshit I've heard; as I always said, people I date have nothing to do with my ring ability, and if they don't like whom I'm hanging out with, fuck them. This is Brian, baby."

"The Brian," Steffi giggled, relieved.

"Right," he replied. "Listen, I should be more receptive to the idea of having kids, but I've been kind of hesitant about it not only because I want to be a bit more financially stable first, but also the fact my own dad was an asshole and I don't want to end up like him. I also shouldn't have made you feel like you couldn't tell me what was going on."

"It's okay, at least things turned out for the best anyway," Steffi reassured him.

"So does this mean you'll stick around this funny-looking short thing after all?"

"Stop it!" she laughed. "You are not funny looking or that short! Even if you were, I'd still stay with you."

"In that case, I love you and I want to marry you…if you'll have me."