“Six weeks.”
“Me too! Pregnancy buddies!” Marie held up her hand for a high five.
Elise slapped it. She welcomed the idea of a friend to go through all this with.
Marie gestured to the man with her. “This is my husband, James,” she said.
“Your first baby?” Elise asked.
“Yup. Yours?”
“Yes. Are you nervous?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Marie said with a little laugh. “We don’t have any idea what we’re doing! But everyone says that you learn as you go along. I hope that turns out to be the case.”
The pregnancy class teacher took her spot at the front of the room, and Elise turned her attention forward.
The day was spent on breathing exercises, with the majority of the attention paid toward the women who were close to giving birth. At the end of the class period, everyone gathered around a woman in her late thirties named Melissa, who was due to go into labor any day. They wished her luck and embraced her. Elise was surprised to find that even she, a newcomer, was included in that ritual.
Someday it will be my turn, she thought. Almost none of these women will be here then. But there will be a new group of women, many of whom will have gone through months of preparation with me, but some of whom will be brand new to all this, just like I am today.
Her parents had been right. She wasn’t going to be alone in this at all. She would have the support of this community in addition to her family.
Class came to an end, and Elise and Marie exchanged phone numbers and social media information as they rolled up their mats for the day. Elise was pleased. All things considered, the class had been much better than she had expected—and she had come away with a friend.
But as she drove home, the memory of that awkward moment when Marie had first spoken to her wedged its way into her thoughts.
Where’s Dad?
Asking Elise was one thing. She was certainly capable of deflecting awkward questions.
But she couldn’t help thinking about the years to come, when her child would probably be forced to answer that same question.
And that was a heartbreaking thought. No child deserved to have to explain the absence of a parent in his or her life.
I have to do something, Elise thought. I have to try to find a way to get in touch with Lucas, to let him know what’s happening.
She might not like for his reaction, but she could give him the news.
It was the best she could do for her child.
Back at her parents’ house, Elise went to her room and opened up her computer. She navigated to her social media account, accepted Marie’s friend request, and then typed in Lucas’s name and the term “pharmaceutical.”
Several results came up, but she could tell immediately that none of them was the man she was looking for. One was too old. One was too young. One was in California. None were in Boston, and none of their photos matched the man she had met.
But she was determined not to give up.
He was attending a conference in Rome, she reminded herself. Maybe that’s a place to start.
A quick search turned up the name of the conference. The dates matched the dates she and Lucas had been in Rome.
Elise felt a thrill of anticipation. This has to be it. She found the conference website, thanking her lucky stars that it was still active.
And there, at the bottom of the homepage, was the word ATTENDEES.
Elise clicked on it, hardly daring to breathe.
The list that came up was of businesses, not people. Dozens of pharmaceutical companies, all of them with similar-sounding names. Where was she going to start? She couldn’t possibly look into the employees of all of these companies.
She wondered if there was a way to tell which ones were headquartered in Boston. But even that sounded like a lot of work. There were so many of them.
But each of these companies had almost certainly sent only a handful of individuals to the conference. If she could get her hands on that list, the list of people who had attended, maybe she could figure out which company Lucas worked for. Then she would have a way to contact him.
Maybe.
She fired off a quick email to the conference organizers asking whether it would be possible to get a list of the attendees.
The response was surprisingly quick.
Unfortunately, we are unable to release any personal information about conference attendees. That information is protected by GDPR regulations.
Elise sighed. So much for finding Lucas that way. She wasn’t ready to give up, but she knew she would have to turn to some other method if she wanted to have any hope of finding him.
Another new message appeared in her email. Elise clicked it open before she realized who it had come from—the employment agency.
All thoughts of Lucas flew out of her mind as she read the message.
They had gotten her an interview.
A real job interview.
Elise had begun to feel as if she would never schedule a job interview. She had felt as if she might be stuck here at her parents’ house forever. And now here it was. Someone wanted to meet with her, and maybe to offer her a job.
She read the email three times, memorizing the details. Where she needed to go. Who she would be speaking to. It was a phone sales rep job at a company called Quadra-Well, and they wanted to meet with her tomorrow afternoon at two.
She could hardly wait.
She jumped out of bed and went to her closet, rifling through her clothes, trying to find the perfect professional outfit. If she could make a good impression in the interview tomorrow, her job search might be at an end.
I could be employed by this time next week, she thought. I could be bringing in a paycheck again.
And because her parents had been so determined that she should keep living with them until after the baby was born, Elise would be able to put away all of her earnings, saving up for the future. Preparing to provide for her child.
That was a big deal. The email hadn’t said how much Quadra-Well would be willing to pay, and sales jobs were always unpredictable when it came to salary. Elise might be making as much as she had made at her last job. She might be making more.
She might be making a whole lot less.
If that was the case, it would definitely help her to have a robust savings account in place.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, she thought firmly. You don’t have the job yet.
It would be a bad idea to start taking things for granted, to assume that she had this job locked up. That mindset could easily just lead to more disappointment, and Elise felt as though she had had enough disappointment in the past few weeks to last a lifetime.
But she didn’t want to allow herself to feel defeated either, after all, and it was possible that she would get this job. She was a good employee. She came with a lot of experience. And even though she had been laid off from her last job, she was pretty sure that her ex-employer would give her a good recommendation.
She emailed the employment agency to let them know that she would be at the interview. Then she laid back on the bed, one hand over her stomach, and smiled.
Finally, things are looking up.
Chapter 10
Elise
Quadra-Well’s offices were located in the heart of Albuquerque, in a low brick building with wide, gleaming windows. Elise parked and made her way inside.