She came up behind her mother and hugged her. “You know, you don’t have to make breakfast every morning,” she said.
“Don’t be silly,” her mother said. “You have to eat.”
Elise was surprised that her appetite hadn’t suffered, given everything that was going on. Usually she found it more difficult to eat in times of stress. But that wasn’t the case right now.
“I could have cereal,” she told her mother.
“Do you want cereal?”
“I wouldn’t mind it.”
“But you’d rather have pancakes,” her mother said. “Of course you would.”
Elise grinned. “I just feel bad that you’re having to cook for me every day.”
“Well, don’t feel bad,” her mother said. “You help with the supper, so really I’m doing less cooking than I would if you weren’t here. And besides…” She smiled at Elise. “I like cooking for you.”
“Fair enough,” Elise said. “Can I at least set the table?”
“You can. It’s just you and me.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“At the hardware store getting new tile for the downstairs bathroom.”
Elise shook her head. “Didn’t you just remodel that bathroom last year?”
“That was the half bath. Now we’re doing the bathroom at the back of the house. Do you want to help us paint in a few days?”
“Sure,” Elise agreed. “But I won’t have that much free time over the next couple of days, so let me know when you’re going to want to do it.”
“Why won’t you have free time?” her mother asked.
“Well, I started applying for jobs today,” Elise said. “So, fingers crossed, I’ll be going on some interviews soon. And then, once I have a new job in place, I’ll have to start apartment hunting.”
“Wow.” Her mother looked impressed. “You really got moving quickly. I expected you to take a little more downtime before you started looking for work again.”
Elise felt as though she had dragged her feet, so she was surprised to hear her mother describe her actions as quick.
“I just don’t want to impose on you and Dad,” she said. “I want to get out of your hair as soon as I can.”
“You’re not in our hair, honey. Take all the time you need.”
“Thanks, Mom.” But Elise knew that, despite her parents’ generosity, she needed to keep her nose to the grindstone. She needed to get back on her feet. The longer she languished, the easier it would become to put off finding work and a new place to live.
But at least, in the meantime, there would be plenty of pancakes.
Chapter 6
Elise
She expected to hear back from potential employers quickly. She expected that once she started trying to find work, the opportunities would be prevalent.
But weeks went by without a single response.
She did hear from the employment agency. They took her information, had her complete a few skill assessments, and promised to call her with something soon. That had been two weeks ago now, and she’d heard nothing else.
Her parents had been nothing but gracious and welcoming about Elise’s prolonged stay. And Elise knew that she was lucky to have family who were willing to look out for her while she was out of work. She was lucky that she had a place to stay rent-free, and that she got along with her parents well enough that being around them all the time wasn’t a trial for her.
In fact, it had been sort of nice to have this extra time with her parents. She had taken to playing chess with her father every night, and although Howard usually won, it was a good opportunity to talk and catch up on one another’s lives.
She was also helping as much as she could with the bathroom remodel. Although more often than not, her parents pushed her out of the room while they worked, saying that she had enough on her plate and didn’t need to be bothering with sink installations.
Tonight she lay on her bed scrolling through apartment complexes in the area and looking for a new place to live. She saw plenty that she liked, but it was impossible to make a decision. She had no idea what kind of job she would eventually get, or what it would pay her, so she didn’t know what kind of place she would be able to afford.
To stave off the hopelessness that had begun to swallow her days, she was making a list of potential apartments in order of personal preference. Now she opened a web browser window and navigated to her number-one choice, Sapphire Streams Apartments. The complex was made up of a bunch of smallish buildings, each of which contained two to three private apartments. They were all clustered around a lake. Elise thought it was beautiful.
The only problem was that she couldn’t have afforded it on her old salary. Was it likely that she would get a pay increase when she found a new job? She couldn’t be sure, but that seemed like a long shot.
She pulled up her online bank account, intent on checking her savings—she hadn’t spent much money at all over the past month—but as the account appeared on the screen, Elise caught sight of the date.
Her period was late.
How could I have missed that?
Her last period had been the week before she’d left for Rome. She’d even thought about it at the time, relieved that that was one thing she wouldn’t have to deal with on her vacation.
But so much had happened since she’d been back home. She hadn’t been thinking. Really, it was no surprise that she had overlooked something so mundane.
Except—God.
It wasn’t mundane at all.
Because she might be pregnant.
She felt numb. She got to her feet slowly and went out to the living room. Her parents were sitting in their chairs reading novels.
“I’m going out for a minute,” she said.
Her father looked up. “Where? Want me to come with you?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Just going to the drugstore.”
“What do you need?” her mother asked. “Maybe I have it.”
Elise felt as if she was going to melt into the floor. “Candy craving,” she muttered. She grabbed her keys and hurried out the door before they could press the issue any further.
Once at the grocery store, she had to actually buy some candy to justify her fib. She tossed a few chocolate bars onto the counter beside the pregnancy test, feeling like a teenager buying condoms for the first time and trying to act nonchalant about it. After she’d made her purchase, she hurried back out to her car and drove home.
She took the test in the upstairs bathroom, where her parents wouldn’t disturb her. As she waited for the results, she paced back and forth in front of the sink, forcing herself not to look. She clutched her phone in her hand as its timer counted down the requisite five minutes.
Five minutes had never seemed so long in all of Elise’s life.
When the phone vibrated in her hand, she turned toward the test stick on the sink. But then she paused.
She had been on autopilot since realizing that her period was late. She had been going through the motions, doing what needed to be done. It hadn’t even occurred to her to examine her feelings about the matter.