very short…but says so much.

The next morning I crawled out of bed at 5:30 and grabbed the pregnancy test from under the sink where I’d hid it. I read and followed the directions trying to be as quiet as possible. The box said it’d take about 10 minutes to read the results, one pink line would mean negative, and two positive. Thankfully Eric hadn’t seen my arm last night; as soon as we got home I got into bed keeping the sweatshirt and fell asleep. I went to check the test again when I heard a knock on the door, “Britta?” Eric sleepily mumbled from the other side of the door. “Shit,” I whispered under my breath, “I’ll be out in a minute.” “Can I open the door?” Eric asked. I grabbed the test and placed it on the toilet behind me and sat down on the lid, Eric opened the door before I could respond. He had my phone up to his ear and rubbed my eyes, “babe,” he began, “you’re managers on the phone, he says he’s got some big news.” My heart raced, he was probably calling about my record, it was scheduled to come out next month. “What kinda news?” my voice faded out as I asked. Eric still clutching the phone looked me up and down, “you alright?” he asked. I shook my head and tried to smile, Eric looked concerned but he kept talking, “they want you to come out to California, they want you to record some more stuff and put the final touches on your album.” Eric stopped talking as the voice on the other line droned in his ear, “what? A month? But, but we’re leaving for another tour in two weeks.” I looked up at Eric, “a month?” The voice continued to speak, “they have an apartment set up for you in LA, and they’re going to need you there for at least a month to get everything done.” My head started to spin, “a month? Why a whole month?” Eric cleared his throat, “you have to record two more songs before they can close the record, and they want to plan a duet. And a photo shoot for the album cover,” he explained, “and when the albums released they need you there for the release party and plus a mini radio tour.” All this was so exciting and my dreams coming true, but it all felt so wrong. I didn’t want to leave Eric for a month and go to California, and…I still didn’t know the results of the test.

“They said they’ll need to know by the end of the day when you can get to LA,” Eric explained halfheartedly. “Eric,” I whispered, “tell them you have to go okay.” “What why?” Eric shook the hair out of his face. I reached behind me and carefully grabbed the test; the results should be clear by now. As soon as Eric saw what I was holding he knew why I’d asked him to hang up, “she’ll call you back okay,” he said into the phone before pressing end. I held the test facing down in my hand and felt my stomach flip flop. Eric placed my phone on the counter and kneeled down next to me, “why didn’t you tell me?” he murmured. “I didn’t think I was until last night, and I didn’t want to make anyone even more worried,” I explained. Eric kissed my forehead and closed his eyes, leaning his forehead on mine he softly said, “Whatever that test says, we can handle anything as long as we have each other okay.” Quietly sobbing I flipped the test over, we both looked anxiously. Two pink bars. Positive.