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On to the story!
The August sun filtered through Kelly's curtains as she dressed for work. Or attempted to get dressed.
"Dammit!" Try as she might, she absolutely could not get her pants to button. Frustrated, she yanked them off. She had tried on six more pairs before she'd found a purple, stretchy, sequined skirt in the back.
She didn't even remember buying it. The skirt was hideous, disgusting, and a complete fashion faux pas. And it was the only thing that fit.
She pulled on a loose-fitting, fluttery pink top that skimmed her swelling stomach and a pair of black ballet flats. The skirt didn't look so bad now, and you couldn't really see the bump through the fabric of her shirt. It would have to do.
There was only one way to solve this clothing dilemma, of course: Shopping.
Kelly was super-excited until she realized that the only free time she had wouldn't be until this weekend. Dammit twice.
"Hey guys," Kelly sat down next to Jim and Pam in the break room, tipping a salad, a jar of raspberry jam, a bag of Doritos and a bottle of Dasani onto the table.
"Hey, Kel." Pam eyed her lunch. "What's with the jam?"
"You know, I never realized this before, but Doritos and raspberry jam are totally awesome together."
Jim cringed as she popped open the jar and dipped each Dorito in."That is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen."
"Whatever." Kelly laughed at the look on his face. "So, Pam, I'm going to have to leave around 1:30 for a doctor's appointment. Could you tell Michael for me?"
"Sure." Pam lowered her voice, even though no one else was around. "So how is it going so far?"
"Horrible. My back hurts all the time, I've fallen asleep at my desk twice in the last month and woken up to Angela eyeing me. And I've locked my keys in my car three times this week. And I'm starting to show, which is why I'm wearing this totally hideous purple skirt." Kelly spooned some of the jam onto her salad.
"I stand corrected. That is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. Ever." Jim excused himself from the table to get a drink of water. Pam shot him an amused look as he left.
"Are you ever going to tell him, Kelly? I mean, it's been over three months. Just…do you think he has a right to know?"
"Ryan's an asshole." Jim said from the sink. "I thought we'd established that."
"It's still his kid too," Pam countered. "I mean, I would want to know."
"But you probably wouldn't ditch your girlfriend the second you found a way out and then talk trash about her behind her back." Jim took a big gulp of water before dumping the rest in the sink and returning to his seat. Pam was silent for a moment.
"I just don't want to deal with his reaction," Kelly stirred her jam-covered salad. "I mean, he would totally freak out and probably would've told me to get an abortion anyway, and that's not what I want to do. Too late for that anyway." She rubbed her stomach absently. "I want to have her."
"Her? Did you already find out? I thought it was too early still." Pam said.
"I don't need a test," Kelly said. "I just know."
David Wallace looked over the report that Ryan had given him. He, along with the other members of corporate, had conducted a meeting that morning in regards to Ryan's plans to go online.
"Well, I know that this is still in the beginning stages and all, but I really like what you have so far, Ryan." David smiled at him over the report.
"Thank you, David. Like I said in our meeting earlier, I think that going online is really going to be the saving grace for this company. If we want to compete with the chains, we're going to have to bring out the 'big guns', so to speak."
"I agree," David stood and shook Ryan's hand with a smile. "Well, Ryan, it looks like I made the right choice. You just might be the one to save our company."
"Thank you," Ryan said as he grabbed his jacket and strode back to his office. Everything he'd wanted had come true. He was living in the Big Apple, the city of his dreams, working at a high-paying job doing something that mattered. And the CFO actually thought his ideas were worthwhile. It was still preliminary, David had said, but they would most likely be implementing Dunder-Mifflin Infinity within the next month.
He sat back in his office chair, feet up on his desk. Happy as he was, David's last words wouldn't stop echoing through his head. "It looks like I made the right choice."
Ryan was sure that he'd made the right choice as well. He had everything he'd worked so hard for, everything he'd ever wanted. Still, he felt like something was missing. Something…he wasn't sure what.
"Hello, Kelly," Dr. Thias motioned for her to have a seat on the table. "So how have you two been doing since our last visit? Have you been taking those pre-natal vitamins I gave you?"
"Yeah," Kelly said, wrinkling her nose. "They smell like old cheese. Totally gross."
"I know, they are 'gross'." She laughed. "But they will provide the necessary nutrients that your body and your baby need." Dr. Thias looked at Kelly's chart. "So, it looks like you're about three and a half months along now, aren't you? How are you feeling?"
Kelly mentioned all the things she'd told Pam earlier. "Oh, and I have these really weird cravings all the time. Like, I put ketchup on an apple the other day. I don't really know why. It just sounded really good."
"All these things are normal symptoms at this point in your pregnancy," Dr. Thias assured her. "In fact they're on that list I gave you."
"Even the apples with ketchup thing? Because that sounds totally weird, even to me, and I'm the one who did it."
"Yes, even the apples with ketchup thing." Dr. Thias said. "Now let's start your physical exam. We're also going to do an ultrasound and you'll be able to listen to your baby's heartbeat, if you'd like."
"That sounds great," Kelly said.
Seven hours and four beers later, Ryan was feeling good. Really good. He and Hunter had gone to a club after work, and now he was bobbing his head to the as Hunter yelled to him over the music.
"Your presentation was awesome," he shouted, taking another swig of his beer. Ryan nodded and tried to shout "thanks" but he wasn't sure that Hunter could hear him. Hunter was only an assistant (he couldn't remember to whom) but he was one of the few guys in the office besides Wallace that actually seemed to like him. He'd even asked him to join his band, but Ryan felt like 26 was a little old for that. Plus he'd failed band in 6th grade—not exactly a great track record.
"Hey, I'm gonna go grab something to eat," he yelled in Hunter's ear. "Shots when I get back?"
Hunter nodded and Ryan pushed through the crowd. He just made it through when someone bumped into him from behind, sloshing his martini all over his black dress shirt. He turned around to tell the guy off and realized he'd just been bumped into by Vince Vaughn .Vince glanced at him and his soaking shirt for just a second, and Ryan thought maybe he'd said sorry.
He was so thrilled. Vince Vaughn had bumped into him! He had to call…well he had to call somebody. But he couldn't think of anyone who would want to hear about his celebrity encounter. Not anyone who wanted to talk to him, at least. Food forgotten, he hurried back over to Hunter and shouted to him what had just happened.
Hunter gave him a shrug. "Cool." he said. Or at least that's what Ryan thought he said. He really couldn't hear over the damn music.
Dr. Thias made a few more adjustments on the machine next to Kelly and then rubbed some sort of cold gel all over her stomach. It was slimy and gross and Kelly really had to pee. She was getting a little impatient, and then Dr. Thias pointed the probe-thing at Kelly's slightly swollen stomach, and a black and white image flickered onto the screen.
"There we go," Dr. Thias smiled. "You can have a look."
Kelly stared at the flicker in the middle of the screen. She's so big already. She had to squint to make it out, but she thought she saw little fingers and toes. Her tiny, perfect baby floated on the screen, and she touched the image softly.
"Hello, sweetheart," she whispered.