Love and Marriage
Chapter Sixty-Five
"Hey, are you ready to go to lunch?" Olivia asked as she approached Samantha's desk.
"Yeah." Sam nodded, grabbing her purse. "But would you mind if we stopped by the day care center downstairs before we left? I would like to go check on my daughter and make sure she's ok since it's her first day there."
"Oh of course!" Olivia obliged. "Actually I should probably check on my son too."
"How old is your son?" Sam asked as they entered the elevator.
"Nikolas is six and a half." Olivia replied. "And your daughter?"
"Five and a half." Sam answered.
"How is your daughter handling the move?" The elevator opened up to the day care center and they headed inside.
"So far she seems ok with it, but I can tell that she misses her father a lot."
"We should get our children together. Maybe they could be friends. It would probably help Claire to have some friends." Olivia suggested.
"That would be a good idea." Sam replied, scanning the room for Claire. She finally found her daughter engaged in a major fight with a boy over a box of crayons. They were both tugging at the box and it looked like the box was going to tear open at any moment. She was so focused on going over to Claire and helping her daughter that she didn't notice Olivia was following her over to that scene. "Claire, what's going on here?"
"He stole my crayons!" Claire exclaimed angrily, giving another tug on the crayon box.
"Is that true Nikolas?" Olivia asked the boy in a stern voice.
"No mom!" Nikolas replied. "I swear I didn't!"
"Yes you did!" Claire yelled, pulling at the crayon box.
"No I didn't!" Nikolas yelled back, giving another strong tug.
Sam looked over at Olivia, who was looking at her. "Looks like our children have already met."
Olivia laughed. "Yeah, looks like it."
Sam reached over and pulled the crayon box away from Claire and Nikolas, setting it down on a nearby table and eliciting a cry of protest from both children.
"Alright Nikolas, why did you steal Claire's crayons?" Olivia asked her son as she knelt down to his level.
"I didn't mom!" Nikolas defended himself.
"Nikolas, c'mon. Don't lie to me. I know you better than that. Just admit it." Olivia commanded in a softer tone.
He knew that he was caught and decided to give up. "Ok. I did it."
"I knew it!" Claire yelled.
"Claire, that's not very nice." Sam softly scolded her.
Nikolas continued on. "I stole her stupid crayons, but only because I needed a new green one for my drawing. I couldn't draw purple grass. It would look bad."
"Why didn't you just ask her to let you borrow a green crayon?" Olivia asked.
"I dunno." Nikolas shrugged.
"I think you should apologize to her." Olivia pushed him over towards Claire.
"I'm sorry." Nikolas reluctantly apologized.
After being gently nudged by her mother, Claire replied, "I forgive you."
"There we go." Sam smiled. "Problem solved. Now why don't you two just share the crayons and play nicely together?"
"I think that's a great idea." Olivia nodded.
"Ok." The kids replied in unison.
Before she let Claire go back to drawing, she pulled her daughter aside. "How are you doing sweetie?"
"Fine." Claire put on a small smile.
"You sure?" Sam asked.
"Yeah." Claire nodded. "I don't think I like Nikolas though."
Sam looked over at the boy and then back at Claire. "Why don't you give him a second chance before making any final decisions?"
"Ok." Claire relented.
"I'll be back to pick you up in a few hours to go home. I just wanted to see how you were and get a big hug." She gave her daughter a bright smile. "Can I have a big hug?"
Claire smiled and threw her arms around her mommy.
"Thank you sweetie!" Sam kissed her daughter's cheek. "That was just what I needed. Love you."
"Love you." Claire replied. "Can I go draw now?"
"Yes, go draw." Sam chuckled, releasing the grip she had on her daughter and watching as she headed straight to the table with the crayons.
"Sorry about Nikolas." Olivia apologized as she walked up to Samantha. "He can be quite a handful sometimes."
"Oh don't worry about it." Sam shrugged as they left the day care center. "So where are we going for lunch?"
"How about this nice little Italian place nearby called Cavatore's?" Olivia suggested.
"Sounds good." Sam replied with a nod.
About half-way through their lunch, Sam suddenly had the urge to throw up again. She hadn't been nauseous all day, but it hit her suddenly and without much warning. "Excuse me." She said to Olivia before bolting for the bathroom. Luckily the bathrooms weren't too far from their table and she managed to make it to the toilet in time. When she came out, she saw Olivia standing by the sink.
"So how far along are you?" Olivia asked with a smirk on her face.
Sam walked over to the sink and splashed some cold water on her face. "What makes you think that I'm pregnant?"
"We had the same thing for lunch so it wasn't the food. Besides, I've had morning sickness before. I know it when I see it, and I see it in you." Olivia reasoned. "Which brings me to my earlier question. How far along are you?"
Sam sighed and leaned up against the sink. "I don't know. I'm not even sure if I'm really pregnant."
"What do you mean by that?" Olivia asked, curious about her statement.
"I took one of those early pregnancy tests and it came back negative, even though I have all the symptoms of being pregnant." Sam explained.
"You can't really rely on those tests." Olivia advised her. "My sister-in-law took one of those a few months ago and it came back negative. But it was wrong because she really was pregnant. In fact, I'm going to her baby shower this weekend. Trust me, those things are flawed."
"I'm beginning to think that's true." Sam sighed.
"Have you gone to a doctor and had a blood test done?" Olivia didn't want to pry, but felt like she should ask.
"Didn't have time back in New York cause I was busy getting ready to move and now I don't have a doctor here so I'm gonna have try and find one." Sam explained.
"You should try my OB-GYN. He's the greatest and he's one of the nicest people in the world. I'm sure if you call him this afternoon tell him that I referred you, he'll fit you in for an appointment tomorrow."
"Are you sure?" It would be wonderful to get an appointment tomorrow.
"I'm sure." Olivia assured her. "When we get back to the office I'll give you his number."
"Thanks." Sam smiled. "I appreciate it."
"It's no problem." Olivia smiled back. "So would you be happy about having another child?" She knew from their earlier conversation that her husband was still back in New York and that they were on a short break. She couldn't help but wonder if Samantha would want to be pregnant right now.
Sam bit her lip. There was a part of her that was horribly disappointed when that test strip came back negative. It helped her realize that she really did want to have another child, but then there was the anxiety that came along with being pregnant. She wouldn't look forward to nine months of that. But maybe she needed to be pregnant in order to confront her fears once and for all. Maybe she needed to be pregnant and prove to herself that she could break the cycle. "I…I would love to have another child, but…"
"It would be a rather inopportune time for it, wouldn't it?" Olivia finished her sentence for her.
"Yeah, in more ways than one." Sam nodded.
"Well Grant is a wonderful boss and will support you 100 if it turns out that you are pregnant. So don't worry about your job. It's safe."
"Thanks." It helped to know that her job wasn't going to sudden evaporate if she was pregnant. That was one less thing to worry about.
"Are you feeling any better?" Olivia asked, concerned about her new friend.
"Yeah." Sam nodded. The nausea was gone and was feeling much better.
"Then maybe we should head back to the office." Olivia suggested.
"Ok." They headed out of the bathroom. "Olivia?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks." It was a general thank you for everything.
"You're welcome." Olivia smiled. "We're women stuck on a team full of men. We have to stick together."