Ride with Me by Chelsea Camaron, Ryan Michele

lot, but there were at least three times when I was sloshed.”
    “But not drinking every day?”
    “No.” Princess shakes her head. “Just at parties. Once or so a weekend. Do you think it hurt the baby?”
    I rub the area my hand rests on, feeling Princess’ tension through the fabric.
    “It happens sometimes, Harlow. I can see this is really worrying you.” The doctor rolls her stool closer to Princess. “Of course, there’s a risk. There’s a risk in everything. Chances are the baby is fine, but we’ll also run some blood work, and I’ll check to make sure nothing is wrong with those tests. It’ll take a couple of days to get the results, but the ultrasound will give us a good idea about the baby.”
    Princess nods and lets out a gush of air. I know she would never do anything to intentionally hurt the baby. She would hurt herself before she let anything happen to her kids. She’s proven that. I hate that she’s carrying this worry, but there isn’t much I can say to take it away.
    “If we have to run more tests later, I’ll have to do an amniocentesis and pull fluid from your sack for tests, but that has some serious risks to it, so we won’t do it unless it’s completely necessary.” Fuck, I don’t like the sound of that one at all. “Today, I’ll check you, and I’ll bring in my internal ultrasound so I can see how far along the baby is.”
    “Sounds good.” Princess turns to me and smiles, and I give her one back.
    We are going to see our baby today.
    Dr. Hernandez instructs Princess to lie down then gets to work with whatever in the hell she’s doing. Metal is clanking from beneath the sheet as she uses some wire brush thing on my woman. It’s as if she’s giving her a damn lube job or something. Within ten minutes, Princess is sitting back up.
    The doctor snaps off her rubber gloves and tosses them into the trash. “I’m going to get the nurse to bring in the machine,” she says as she steps out of the door.
    “It’ll be all right, babe,” I say, trying to give Princess some reassurance.
    “It has to be.” She doesn’t make eye contact with me; instead, she looks to the ground.
    I rise from my chair and move to her, placing my index finger under her chin and lifting her gaze to mine. “Whatever happens … happens. We deal. If there is something wrong, it’s not like we’re gonna love this kid any differently. Am I right?”
    Tears pool in her eyes, but she sucks them back. “Yeah, just being the cause of it is a little too much for me to take.”
    The real fear in her eyes has me wrapping my arms around her tightly. “You didn’t know you were pregnant. You can’t be beating yourself up about it. You have too much shit going on for that. You’ve gotta be strong for the baby, Coop, and me.” I kiss the top of her hair.
    “I know.” She sucks in a deep breath just as the door opens and a large machine gets rolled into the room. I step out of the way as it’s placed next to Princess’ exam table.
    “Hello,” the petite, blonde-haired nurse says, adjusting the machine and turning some knobs. “I’m just setting things up, and then the doctor will be back in.” She does just that and leaves without another glance.
    A few moments later, Dr. Hernandez steps into the room along with another woman. This one is tall and built sturdily with light brown hair and a smile on her face.
    “All right, this is our sonographer, Jill. She’s going to be performing the ultrasound, and I’m going to be looking at the sonogram on the monitor.”
    Princess nods.
    “All right, Harlow, I need you to lie back down.” Jill grabs a large wand that looks like a fucking dildo and rolls a condom down it. What the fuck? Then she grabs a bottle from the side of the machine and squirts some goo on it.
    “Uh, what are you doing with that?” I ask Jill, my eyes boring into her.
    Jill tenses then answers, “This is what I’ll be sticking inside the vagina. It has a camera in the tip that