“Let me see.” Lucy grabbed Alyssa’s margarita across the table and took a sip. “Tastes all right to me. Maybe your tastes are all jacked up from Costa Rica.”

  “What does that even mean?” Alyssa asked.

  “Did you eat anything weird while you were there?” Lucy asked.

  “Only that seafood that made me sick.”

  “Gross. Is salt in the guacamole okay? They never add enough here.”

  “Yeah.” Alyssa took a third and careful sip of her drink, and this time, it came with consequences. Her stomach rolled in an awful and familiar way. Nausea rising in her chest, she stood up so fast her chair teetered.

  Lucy looked up in surprise. “You okay?”

  “Be right back,” Alyssa gasped, covering her mouth and rushing for the ladies’ room.

  She made it just in time. After a good couple heaves, her stomach was emptied and the nausea was gone. Alyssa closed her eyes and leaned against the stall, waiting to see if the sickness would return. After a couple minutes of feeling all right, she went to wash her hands and splash water on her face.

  “Sorry,” she said when she got back to the table.

  Lucy made a sympathetic face. “You’re still sick?”

  “I guess so. I feel all right now, though. Like, really good.” Alyssa looked around the restaurant, hoping their burritos were on the way soon.

  “That much better?” Lucy asked, like it was the greatest mystery in the universe.

  Alyssa shrugged. “Yeah. Weird, right?”

  “I think you should go to the doctor.”

  “What? No.”

  Lucy stirred her margarita and looked at Alyssa intently. “If this was any other time, I’d say you probably have some kind of stomach bug, but that’s not the case. You just came back from another country. I think you should go.”

  Alyssa thought about that, the feeling of worry now worse than any nausea gnawing at her stomach. What if Lucy was right? What if she’d contracted some horrible disease in Costa Rica? Something she’d never even heard about? Something that only, like, one in a million people ever got? Something that would end up with her in the hospital hooked up to every kind of tube possible, her mother crying next to her bedside and Ali standing there saying, “I never even got to make her my wife.”

  Alyssa let out a whimper.

  “I’ll go with you,” Lucy said. “And don’t argue.” Lucy raised her arm, catching the waitress’s attention. “Can we get our burritos to go?”

  While the waitress boxed up their order, Alyssa called her general practitioner and tried to make a last-minute appointment. Since they couldn't fit her in, Lucy suggested they hop on the subway anyway and head to a nearby walk-in clinic.

  With her boxed lunch in her lap, Alyssa breathed in deep. The smell of the burrito made her so hungry her stomach cramped, but she held off on eating for fear of it making her sick again.

  “You should be studying,” Alyssa said.

  “Don’t even,” Lucy warned. “You need someone to take you. You can’t go by yourself.”

  Alyssa thought about pointing out that she technically could…but, yeah, she didn’t want to.

  “Ali could take me,” she said.

  “Isn’t he working?”

  “He’d leave,” Alyssa said.

  The subway slid to a stop, and its doors opened. “We’re here now, anyway,” Lucy said, standing up.

  At the walk-in clinic, the waiting room was only partially filled. After thirty minutes of flipping through a magazine and not seeing any of the pictures and trying to decide whether or not to text Ali and tell him where she was, the door opened and a nurse called Alyssa’s name.

  “Can I bring my friend with me?” Alyssa asked.

  The female nurse’s gaze slid over to Lucy. “Sure.”

  In a small examination room, the nurse checked Alyssa’s vitals, drew a blood sample, and asked her some basic questions. Alyssa answered to the best of her ability, describing her symptoms and everything she did and ate in Costa Rica—the last part being pretty hard to do.

  “We’re going to take a urine sample,” the nurse announced, after leaving for some time and then coming back in. She handed Alyssa a cup. “The bathroom is right across the hall.”

  Alyssa caught Lucy’s gaze. Her friend gave her an encouraging smile.

  Going across the hall, Alyssa took care of business and returned the sample cup to the nurse. Once she left, Alyssa spoke up.

  “Okay, now I’m getting a little freaked. What if I do have some kind of jungle virus?”

  Lucy stood from where she’d been reading class notes on her phone and put her hands on Alyssa’s shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay. You probably just have a bug or something.”

  “But I haven’t thrown up since the restaurant,” Alyssa said. Her gaze strayed to the plastic bag with the boxed food in it. “And, holy crap, Lucy, I’ve never been this hungry.”

  Her stomach growled as if on cue.

  “If you want to eat in here…” Lucy trailed off.

  Alyssa looked at the sterile exam table and the trash can filled with latex gloves. “I’ll wait,” she decided.

  The door opened, and the nurse came back in, her laptop in hand. Setting the computer on the counter, she turned to face Alyssa.

  “There’s nothing abnormal in your blood or urine samples,” the nurse said.

  Alyssa looked at Lucy, not sure how to react to that.

  “Is it a flu, then?” Lucy asked.

  “No,” the nurse slowly said. Her lashes fluttered and she looked at Alyssa. “Miss Cambridge, were you aware that you’re pregnant?”

  That last word rung through the room, bumping again and again into Alyssa’s skull as she tried to absorb its meaning. Pregnant.

  “Um,” was all she could say.

  “No,” Lucy answered for her. She looked at Alyssa with big eyes. “You weren’t aware, right?”

  “Are you sure?” Alyssa asked the nurse, her heart racing and her tongue heavy. “I’m on birth control. I take the pill.”

  The nurse nodded in confirmation. “Typically, there’s an extremely low chance of pregnancy when the pill is taken correctly. Could you have missed a day?”

  “I…I don’t know.” Alyssa tried to think back over the last week. The last month. No way could she remember every morning and whether or not she’d neglected to take her pill once. She usually took it every morning with her breakfast, but had she set it down once and misplaced it?

  “The results from the urine test were conclusive,” the nurse said.

  Alyssa’s gaze dropped to the floor. Pregnant. A baby.

  When Alyssa looked up, a smile stretched across her face. “Do you know how far along I am?”

  “No, but that can be easily determined. Do you have a regular doctor you would like us to send your information to?”

  Alyssa gave the nurse the name of her midtown doctor, and then that was that. Five minutes later, she and Lucy were out on the street, the blustery wind kicking up the ends of their unzipped jackets and pushing hair into their faces.

  “Holy guacamole,” Alyssa breathed.

  “Crap!”

  Alyssa looked at Lucy.

  “I forgot to ask the waitress to box up the guacamole.”

  Alyssa’s surprise turned into a deep laughter. “You are ridiculous.”

  “And you’re pregnant.” Lucy spread her palms in a gesture of amazement. “What…I mean…wow.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  Lucy looked around the street. “Let’s go somewhere, eat these bad-boy burritos, and talk.”

  “You have studying to do.”

  “And you’re pregnant,” Lucy said yet again. “I’ll get to the studying later.”

  “Let’s go to my place,” Alyssa said. “It’s only about a ten-minute walk from here.”

  The apartment she shared with Ali, for the most part, still felt like his place. He’d lived there before he’d met Alyssa, and she still felt slightly weird living in such opulence. As she and Lucy walked to it, though, something changed.

  Her home. The place she shared with Ali and that they would soon share with a child…Suddenly, the apartment felt a lot more like the spot she had been headed to her whole life.

  In the quiet apartment, Lucy set the food on the table and Alyssa got two glasses of water.

  “You’re pregnant,” Lucy murmured. “With a child.”

  “Hopefully a child,” Alyssa joked. “And not some kind of alien creature that was implanted in the middle of the night.”

  Lucy shook her head. “How do you feel?”

  Tears filled Alyssa’s eyes. A baby!

  “Amazing,” she said. “Oh my God, I can’t believe it.”

  Lucy got up from her chair to give Alyssa a big hug. “You’re gonna be a great mom.”

  Without any warning, Alyssa’s stomach sank. “Will I?”

  “Yeah.” Lucy sat back in her seat with a look of confusion. “Why do you sound so uncertain?”

  “Because…” Alyssa bit into her lip, finding it hard to explain the discomfort rolling through her. “I wasn’t planning on this, Lucy. Ali and I talked about kids just the other day.”

  “And what did he say?” Lucy asked slowly.

  “That he wants them.”

  “That’s good.” Lucy raised her eyebrows. “But I’m still getting this ‘freaking out’ vibe.”

  “Maybe because I am freaking out.” Alyssa’s breathing became ragged and irregular. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to take a long breath in.

  “It’s okay to be scared,” Lucy said. “But if you’re not ready for kids, you should be honest about that as well.”

  “I want this baby,” Alyssa said fiercely.

  They silently looked at each other, and after a long moment, Lucy nodded. “Okay.”

  “But…”

  “But?” Lucy prompted.

  “I don’t know if I’m ready.” Alyssa twisted her hands in her lap. “I thought I’d have a few more years. We’re not even married yet.”

  “You don’t have to be, girl. This is the twenty-first century.”

  “I know, but…” Alyssa struggled to explain. “I don’t know anything about babies, Lu. In Costa Rica, I held this baby at the hotel restaurant, and she started crying and I almost lost it. I was so freaked out.”

  “Hey, that might be a good sign. It could mean your maternal instincts are kicking in already.”

  Alyssa smiled sadly. “Is this normal?”

  “To be afraid? Oh my God, yes.”

  Alyssa nodded and exhaled, her cheeks puffing. “Okay. Thank you for talking with me.”

  “Anytime.” Lucy got to work opening up the boxes, but by then, the burritos were stone cold and had to be heated up in the microwave. By the time Alyssa finally had some food in front of her, she felt like she was about to pass out from hunger.

  “You know what one good thing about pregnancy is?” Lucy asked.

  Alyssa swallowed a bite of food. “What’s that?”

  “You get to eat as much of anything as you want, and it just looks totally normal.”

  Alyssa snorted. “Maybe I’ll take up stress eating again,” she joked.

  “Seriously, though. This is amazing. You’re on birth control.”

  “Yeah,” Alyssa agreed.

  “Do you think you missed a pill?”

  Again, Alyssa considered that. The possibility seemed low. “I take it at the same time every day,” she said, “and the pack has the days of the week on it. I think I would have noticed if I missed a day.”

  “There you have it.”

  “Have what?” Alyssa asked.

  “Alyssa.” Lucy’s face grew serious. “The nurse said there’s almost zero chance of pregnancy when the pill is taken properly. I think this baby is supposed to be here. At that’s coming from me, the logical lawyer, telling you it’s fate.”

  A swell of emotion rose in Alyssa’s chest, and she felt warm from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

  This baby is supposed to be here.

  Alyssa didn’t need to think about it twice. She already agreed with Lucy.

  CHAPTER 5

  ALYSSA

  Later, after Lucy had left and Alyssa had scoured every pregnancy and baby message board on the internet, she lay in the living room looking at the ceiling.

  It was Saturday, which meant no work for her. Ali had gone to do his rounds of the Manhattan businesses, though, and he’d texted saying he would be home in time for dinner.

  With a sigh, Alyssa sat up. The cats sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out at the dusk. In the fridge, vegetables and tempeh waited to be made into a stir-fry, but Alyssa felt too tired to move.

  After moving in with Ali, she’d picked up cooking on the regular. Before her, Ali had subsisted primarily on delivery and the meals that his chef, who came by three times a week, prepared and stuck in the fridge.

  Alyssa liked cooking, though, and she loved cooking for Ali. Sitting there on the couch, she imagined a baby at a high chair in the kitchen, all rosy cheeks and fat rolls. Alyssa smiled. The image didn’t need to grow on her; she was in love with it already. Now all she needed was a little energy.

  She’d learned from her poring over message boards that exhaustion was a common symptom of pregnancy, especially in the first trimester. She just hoped that it—along with the morning sickness she’d mistaken for some kind of illness—wouldn’t last too long.

  Covering her belly with her palm, Alyssa tried to imagine what her baby currently looked like. She'd received a callback from the OB/GYN her doctor was connected with that afternoon, and she had an appointment in a few days. There, she'd hopefully find out how far along she was. She had her own guesses, for sure, based on symptoms. Her best bet was somewhere around two months.

  The door opened, and Alyssa’s heart beat frantically. Ali was home.

  She hadn’t prepared anything to say to him, figuring that when she saw him, the words would naturally come. As he entered the living room, though, and looked at her, her brain went numb.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  Alyssa worked her heavy tongue around. “Better. I’ve mostly just been tired.”

  “Do you have a fever?” Without waiting for an answer, Ali crossed to the couch and placed his hand on her forehead.

  Alyssa smiled. Would he be this attentive with their child? She imagined the answer had to be yes. Ali was a good man, and he’d given Alyssa his whole heart. Why wouldn’t he want to share some of it with their baby?

  “Did you meet Lucy?” Ali asked.

  “Yeah, I did.” Alyssa hesitated. She wasn’t quite ready to launch into her big news. “How was your day?”

  “Good.” Ali sat down next to her and pulled her legs so they were stretched out across his lap. “Long.”

  “Enjoyable?”

  Ali smiled, looking as if he mulled over a memory. “Yes. It was.”

  “Good. Oh, hey. Sorry I don’t have dinner ready, it’s just that I’m feeling so beat—”

  “No, my love, that’s okay.”

  Ali pushed the hair out of Alyssa’s face in the way she loved so much. Alyssa’s heart warmed. This was the man she'd chosen to spend the rest of her life with. The man who would be the father to her children. He'd blown in out of nowhere, taking her by storm. It was so easy to say their meeting on the street that evening was chance, but Alyssa knew deep down in her heart that it wasn't. She and Ali were meant to be together.

  And they were meant to be parents.

  I'm pregnant.

  It was on the tip of her tongue, but Ali was standing, moving away from her.

  “I'll call in delivery,” he said. “What would you like? Pizza? Cuban?”

  “Cuban sounds good.” Alyssa got off the couch and followed him into the kitchen.

  Ali got busy pulling a beer out of the fridge and popping its top. “Kurt invited us to dinner at his apartment on Wednesday.”

  “Will you be back by then?” Alyssa asked.

  “I hope so.” Grabbing a menu from the drawer where they kept a whole collection of them, Ali phoned the little Cuban restaurant down the street and placed an order, making sure to get the black bean empanadas Alyssa loved so much.

  Although…the thought of empanadas—which usually made her salivate—had her feeling queasy inside. She didn't know if her sensitive stomach could handle fried food.

  Just as Ali hung his phone up, it rang. For a second, he held the phone flat in his hand and stared at the screen.

  “What?” Sensing the charge in the room, Alyssa sat up straighter on the island stool she’d perched on.

  Sliding the answer button, Ali turned for the freezer and took out a chilled pint glass. “Hello, Father.”

  Fakhir said something on the other end, and then Ali switched to Arabic. Alyssa listened intently, doing her best to glean clues about the conversation. She’d picked up a few Arabic phrases over the last few months, and so she recognized “why?” and “ask him”.

  The inflections rose and dropped in Ali’s voice. He put his pint glass down and turned away from Alyssa, then ran his fingers through his hair.

  “It's that necessary?” he asked in English.

  Alyssa's gut twisted. Was something wrong?

  She looked down at her laced hands. Her gaze dropped further, to her belly. Just knowing she was pregnant made her feel different in a way that couldn't be explained. Despite being sick and exhausted, she felt more…alive.

  She wanted to share that experience with Ali, to tell him about every last little thought and emotion running through her… but he was currently nodding as his father talked, one arm crossed tight over his chest.

  Alyssa pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, a sickly feeling rising in her core. Was it morning sickness? Hunger?

  Saying goodbye, Ali hung up the phone. Alyssa felt his gaze on her before she saw it.

  “Is something the matter?” she asked.

  Ali hesitated. “Not exactly.”

  Alyssa raised her eyebrows. “You don’t sound so sure of that, Ali.”

  His face pinched. “There are some complications with the merger. My father wants me to depart for Baqar tonight, and it looks as if I may be gone for longer than I expected.”