Liz looked at her shopping list. It was two days before Thanksgiving and she was starting to become frantic. Her Holidays feature for the paper was taking up a lot of her time. She hadn't had dinner with Gordo in a week. They pretty much said good bye in the morning as they grabbed some orange juice and good night when they slept in the same bed. She almost didn't recognize him. And it had been almost two weeks since she had come down with the flu, and she still hadn't managed to shake it. She'd felt stressed lately, and her and Gordo weren't exactly on cloud 9 together, and she realized that this was a reason for it. She had forgotten all about getting pregnant and having a baby, she almost didn't see how her lifestyle could afford it right now. Issabelle found out she was pregnant and was 1 month along. She felt more happier for her and didn't feel jealous. She grabbed a package of rolls and tossed them in her
basket, as she was trying to finish up her grocery shopping for the Thanksgiving Feast that was of all places, being held at her's and Gordo's house this year, in just 2 short days. Today she was supposed to meet Gordo for lunch; She looked at her watch, 10 minutes ago! Oh well, she thought as she pushed her cart quickly to the check out line. If
she had forgotten anything she'd have to come back to the market and get it later. She attested her feeling a bit under the weather to the common flu and figured it wasn't going away because of all the stress she had with Thanksgiving on its way. She was also due to get her period pretty soon, and she knew that it factored in to the fatigue and the short temper and mood swings.
Gordo stood outside BJ's, where they were supposed to be meeting for lunch between Liz's shopping (she didn't have to go into work today) and Gordo's's lunch break. He checked his watch. She was 20- no, 23 minutes late. And anyone who knew Liz, especially him, knew that she was a
very punctual person. He was a little worried about her. She seemed to be running herself ragged. He knew it wasn't her choice, but still, for the past week and half, nearly two, between her job which seemed to be crazy right now, and getting ready for Thanksgiving, dealing with her twin's pregnancy, and as well as the flu, Liz was an extremely busy person. Gordo had been a little bit more busy than lately as well, since around this time of year there were numerous tournaments that popped up for all the schools sporting teams. So he had had a lot of stuff to deal with. Gordo saw Liz's car zip into the lot and he looked at his watch again- they were going to have to make this a very short lunch, nch, in order for him to get back to work on time. Gordo moved to the curb as he saw Liz dash through the cars in the parking lot and come up and meet him. She looked frazzled, "Liz you ok? You look kinda tired." he asked, as he gave her a quick peck on the lips.
"I'm fine," she said pecking his lips back, "I'm sorry I'm late Issabelle called me right when I was about to leave the house and asked what I thought of tube tops during pregnancy, which made me late for leaving the house to get the rest of the shopping done for Thanksgiving, then I had to run the groceries home really fast." She rolled her eyes and let out a breath. She and Gordo went up to the hostess and she showed them to their seats.
Gordo pulled out Liz's chair for her, then sat down himself. It was pretty busy- the lunch crowed was still there. They kinda had one of those tables in the center of the restaurant, where it was extra crazy and noisy. It figured, Gordo thought. With the way his and Liz's life had been going lately it was symbolic. They got their menus and Gordo said thanks. After the waitress gave the specials or the day she left leaving them alone. "Tell Issabelle she needs to leave you alone. Or at least stop pestering you with every little detail in her life" Gordo said, looking over the top of his menu at Liz. "You're busy enough right now, without needing her to make things even more crazy."
"You know that, and I know that, but try telling that to Issabelle, cause it's a whole different story," she said laughing She looked at the menu and bit her lip. She hadn't been able to eat anything in days thanks to her bout with the flu, and what she did eat, she couldn't keep it down. She really wasn't interested in anything. But chicken noodle soup sounded safe and would probably help her stomach flu. She was starting to feel drained and decided she was going to go home and nap after this.
Gordo studied Liz- really studied her. No matter what she said, she looked downright exhausted. It was weird too, it was so the opposite of what she normally looked like. "Liz you're not getting enough sleep or something" he said, deciding on the bbq chicken pizza. "I mean, ya I've noticed that you're going to bed really early, but maybe you're getting up way to early every morning. I mean, you've had to leave the house by 5 what, like 3 times this week." He shut his menu and reached for her hand, and smiled. For about the past month things had been different. For one thing, they hadn't been able to spend a whole lot of time together, because of their crazy schedules. But Gordo knew that would change back after the holidays, so he didn't press it. But secondly, on the whole baby making front- things had been drastically different. There had been no more talks about going to the doctors, no more taking her temperature, no more checking the schedule for ovulation patterns. No more forcing the issue of sex as a tool to make a child. No more sex period. Liz was always to tired or didn't feel well enough. They had both backed off the baby thing, and de-stressed in the process. They weren't allowing it to be the most pressing issue in their lives right now. They had taken a step back, and stopped pressing the issue. The best example of this was how that this month, Liz hadn't been in his face on the date she normally started her menstrual cycle, to tell him, yep indeed, she had started her period. Again. In other words, no baby. Unsuccessful. Again. Gordo, taking Liz not telling him this on that date this month, he could tell she wasn't letting this baby making stuff run her mind, and she had spared the melodramatic encounter of having to 'break the news to Gordo' in the process. For which he was deep down grateful.
Liz told the waitress what she wanted and turned back to Gordo once he had placed his own order, "Yes Gordo, I'm going home to take a nap, So chill!" she said. It seemed like for the past week she had been extremely testy. She almost assaulted the guy in the fruit section at the supermarket this afternoon when he had accidentally placed his bag of apples in her cart, thinking it was his. And yesterday she practically shoved Gordo out of the bed when he was "too close" to her. She definitely needed a break. She still couldn't believe that this year, of all years, Thanksgiving had to be at her place. Like she didn't have enough going already? This meant she and her mom would be preparing everything together, and Liz had to still clean the refrigerator out, and wash the kitchen floors. Once again she was mentally ticking off all the things she had to do. She had gone into another world once again.
Gordo let go of her hand, and sat back, to 'chill'. Oh yeah, she was definitely on her period all right, pms'ing and everything. Hopefully though she'd be through with it when Thanksgiving actually got here in just a few short days. He couldn't see Liz suddenly breaking down into tears as she prepared the fruit salad for the thanksgiving feast. Or snapping at her mom when Mrs. Wakefield casually commented on the state of the kitchen curtains. Or even worse- snapping at him in front of all their family. Because she'd done a lot of snapping at him lately. "So do you have everything for Thursday then?" he asked her, in reference to Turkey day.
"I don't know, but I hope so. I was in a rush to leave the store so most likely I forgot a few things." Liz sat back trying to enjoy the meal. She was able to get about half the soup down before she started to feel nauseas.
It was just as well, Gordo thought as he paid for the bill and they walked out. Because he wouldn't of had time to stay for the whole meal anyway.
Gordo went back to work while Liz went home and instead of relaxing like she would have liked to, she got out the mop and bucket and began washing the floors. That night she went to bed even earlier than usual.