HAPPILY EVER BEFORE by Aimee Pitta, Melissa Peterman Page A

mushrooms, left over brown rice from Ben Pao’s Chinese Restaurant, an egg, two pieces of raisin bread, half a container of low fat milk, and a bar of semi-sweet dark chocolate. This would be a relatively easy meal to make and there were a few variations she could try. Fried egg sandwich with grilled veggies, veggie omelet, egg fried rice, and if she wanted she could dip the raisin bread into the milk, make it really soggy, melt the chocolate, pour it on the bread and make a poor man’s bread pudding. Grace was suddenly very hungry when her cell phone rang.  “I want a drink.”
     “Well, you can’t have a drink. Where are you?”
    “Home. I had some stupid business thing and we ended up at a bar. I drank club soda all night and now I’m jonesing for drink. Maybe just a glass of wine?”
    “You’ve been clean for three weeks. Why would you screw it up?”
    George sighed. “Because I can. Isn’t that what I do?”
    “Did you call your sponsor?”
    “Grace, how long have you known me? Am I the type of person who is going to confess my deep dark fears to a virtual stranger and then call said stranger whenever I get the urge to drink? No. This is just like the time I taught myself how to build a boat. I have to do it my way on my terms.”
    “For the record, you didn’t build a boat, you built a toy sailboat.”
    “Semantics.”
    Grace laughed. “I’m off in forty five minutes meet me at my place.”
    Do you have any milk? I went to Swirlz’s Cupcakes and bought a dozen.”
    “Yummy, see you in an hour.”
    “Can I stay all day, eat crap, and watch old movies?” George sounded like she didn’t want to be left alone.
    “Of course you can, stay strong. Later.” As soon as Grace hung up with George, her sister called. “Why aren’t you asleep?”
    “I can’t sleep and you’re the only one I know who is up at this hour. I think you should move in with us.”
    Grace nearly dropped her phone. “Excuse me?”
    “It just makes sense. Then I could be part of every stage.”
    “Huh? It’s your kid; you’re part of every stage.”
    “No, you’ll, you know, have private moments with the baby. When you go to sleep at night or you eat something spicy and it kicks.” Clair tried not to cry. “I’m never going to know what it feels like to have my baby inside my body. I don’t have to stop drinking, or eating cheese, or be careful of artificial sweeteners, or stop running. It’s just not… I can’t help… fuck it.”
    “Whoa.” Grace tried to take it all in. “Okay, first of all, I’m not moving in with you. There’s just no way that’s even a possibility. Now, what happened?”
    Clair can no longer hold back her tears, “I got my period.”
    “Oh, wow.” Grace had no idea what else to say.
    “Of course, good old inhospitable Clair lived up to her reputation!”
    “Well, somebody’s got too. I’m tired of living down mine.”
    “I’m scared,” Clair sniffled on the other end of the phone.
    “You’re scared? Sweetie, try being me.”
    “I did--that’s what got us in this mess in the first place!”
    Grace felt like an idiot. “You’re right. Sorry. Hey, how about if I’m actually knocked up, you give up everything with me? We’ll have sleepovers, so you can feel the baby at night. This way you’ll be a part of almost every single second.”
    Clair sniffled on the other end of the phone. “I can live with that.”
    “Get some sleep okay?” Grace hung up and looked down at her stomach, “wow,” she thought, “and I’m the one getting the hormone shots.”
     

Chapter 12
     
    After figuring out, addressing, and finalizing the--you’re having my baby-- financial situation, they found themselves back with The Frigidaire who informed them that the first round of in vitro didn’t take. Now, in an odd turn of events Grace was disappointed, Clair was relieved, and Henry thought it was his fault.  Eventually, Grace got over her disappointment, her surprise at her