Karen ran her hand lightly along the pink tulle of the little dress, all fluffy and girly and princess-y. She couldn't believe how miniscule some these things were; were babies really that small? Her index finger traced the rhinestones of the pink hart glued a few centimeters above the hemline of the tiny frock.
"Karen? We're looking for newborn stuff, it's over here." Karen heard Will's voice but didn't see him until she whirled around and spotted him at the back of the chic baby store.
"Well what's the difference?" she asked, indifferent. "It's all so small."
"Karen, babies do a lot of growing, you know," Will told her, rolling his eyes as she joined him in front of a shelf of pink and yellow onesies. "The size difference between a newborn and a nine-month old is enormous."
"Yeah, well, I don't see anything enormous in here," she responded. Will took a step back from the stack he was digging through and looked at her.
"You really don't know anything about babies, do you?" His voice was honest and frank, not mocking or condescending in any way. Karen just shrugged and turned away from him, pretending to eye the decadent bonnets hanging on a display in front of her.
The truth was, she really didn't know anything about babies. Mason and Olivia were older by the time she had married Stan, and none of the few friends she had were parents. Or if they were, Karen certainly had not been a part of their children's infancy.
"What are you going to do when you have one of your own?" Will asked, turning back to the stack of pink garments. He had asked the question completely innocently, but it made Karen very uncomfortable. She turned back to him.
"When was it established that I'm going to have a baby?" she asked him. He pulled the size he was looking for out of the stack and faced her squarely.
"Well you said last year that you still wanted a baby, after…you know," Will's voice trailed off. Karen didn't say anything to address the issue of her miscarriage, which only he and Stan knew about, but let him continue. "And I thought things were ok now with you and Stan, so I figured you would be trying."
Karen nodded and absentmindedly took the tiny shirt from his hand.
"We are trying," she admitted, "But I don't think it's going to happen again."
Will immediately sensed the disappointment in her voice, although he could tell she was trying very hard to hide it on her face. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder and didn't say anything, letting his gesture do the comforting. Had they not been standing in the middle of a rather large and moderately crowded retail store, he would have done much more than that. He was also a little put off by the thought of what that meant; she and Stan were sleeping together again. He knew he shouldn't be surprised by this, he had been with Karen sexually, and who could blame Stan for wanting to take full advantage of their marital bed. And after all, he had been the one to remind Karen of how much she loved her husband. But still, somewhere dangerously close the surface of his psyche, Will was jealous.
"It will happen when it's meant to," he reassured her. She looked deep into his eyes.
"What if it's not meant to, Will?" her voice was soft, almost a whisper. "What if something's wrong with me? I already lost one…"
Will moved the hand that had been on her shoulder up to her face and with his thumb, gently wiped away the single tear that had just made an escape from her tearduct.
"Karen, I'm sorry…I wasn't even thinking about how hard this would be for you," Will apologized as she took a step closer to him and wrapped an arm around his waist, turning them both back towards the shelves of baby clothes and away from any curious faces of customers around them.
"No, no, I'm fine," she assured him, shaking her head slightly. "It happened a long time ago, but you know, it's just something you have to deal with for awhile." He squeezed his arm that was wrapped around her shoulder.
"How old is your daughter?" the thick British accent caught them off guard, and they quickly broke their stance to look at the sales associate who had approached them from behind, in an innocent attempt to sell them something. Karen felt herself blush as the meaning of his words sank in.
"Oh, uh…" Will sputtered, also caught off guard by this assumption that he and Karen were a couple shopping for their child.
"No, we're not -" Karen added. The sales associate looked back and forth between their embarrassed faces, confused.
"We're shopping for a gift," Will finally got out, reclaiming his cool. "She's six weeks."
"Ah! Well then let me show you our newest line of newborn sleepers," the associate piped up, guiding them towards another display in the corner of the room. Karen, still slightly embarrassed and amused at the thought of her and Will being parents, had yet to meet Will's gaze that was hot on her face.
But a subtle, unexplained happiness was overtaking Will as he studied Karen's rosy cheeks, the delicacy with which her hand was fidgeting with her hair. He wondered if, in some parallel universe, maybe they did have a child together. A beautiful little girl, perhaps, with Karen's soft, white skin and his heart-shaped face. Or maybe a little boy, with Karen's stubborn streak but Will's desire to help people.
He smiled as Karen looked up at him while he took her hand, guiding her to his side as the salesman blathered on about the newest trend in infant apparel.