Begin Again novel Chapter 15

After weeks of constant puking and generally feeling miserable, Eden plucked up the nerve to make a doctor's appointment.

The receptionist was super nice, and she pencilled her in for 12:30 PM.

Eden was happy with her time slot, even more grateful that the doctor was on the 4th floor of Van Holt Industries, her new place of employment where she’s been working as a junior Personal Assistant to the Marketing Director for almost three months.

Her employer’s owned the building since the dawn of time, but only occupied the top fifteen floors. The bottom five were rented out to various businesses, with the ground floor serving as a mini shopping mall with all the different stores, coffee shops and restaurants. The wide choice of food was Eden's only comfort about the job she hated.

There was nothing wrong with being an assistant to be fair, but it wasn't a job Eden saw herself doing for the rest of her life.

The constant running of errands, typing up of minutes and reports and setting up meeting rooms killed her a little every day. It was a skivvy role, as her friends had rightfully pointed out when she first told them, but it paid the bills.

Eden figured while she waited for some miracle to happen with her illustrations, she had to eat. Now that things were so strained with her parents, she would die first before she asked them for help.

They hadn't talked much since Simon. When she went home for the mandatory dinners and lunches, she never stayed longer than two hours. Sometimes three was her maximum. Anything beyond that was World War III waiting to happen.

At 12:25 PM, Eden set off for her appointment.

The receptionist, a cute chubby woman with spiky pink hair and multiple nose rings, was as friendly in person as she was on the phone. She handed Eden a file to complete before a nurse ushered her inside the examination room to take all her vitals.

Eden cringed, her cheeks burning with mortification when she jumped on the scale, and it cranked out a number she didn't like but wasn't totally unexpected considering the insane calories she'd been consuming after Simon.

Her life was now permanently divided into two parts, before and after the breakup.

It's the 'before the breakup' timeline she was struggling with. All those happy memories, their shattered dreams, and missed opportunities made her reach for the cookies and potato chips without feeling any shame. Until now, of course. Until the numbers on the scale.

"The doctor will see you now,” Nurse Rhodes smiled and showed her to the doctor's office after she confirmed her vitals were okay.

Dr Waylon was an elderly gentleman, with the warmest brown eyes Eden had ever seen. He insisted she should call him by his first name, which happened to be Simon.

Eden laughed, shaking her head incredulously.

"Did I say something funny?" The doctor asked, a befuddled frown on his face.

Eden explained about Simon, the ex who dumped her one month before their wedding.

"He’s giving all of us a bad name," Dr Waylon said. “What a dirtbag!”

Eden couldn't agree more. She'd even said as much on Simon's lifestyle blog, anonymously of course.

It was bad enough she was stalking all his pages, the last thing she wanted was to get a restraining order from him, and adding crazy to the long list of adjectives to describe her actions over the past several weeks.

"No," Eden shook her head.

What the hell is this, she thought manically. Is she Mary, Baby Jesus' mother or something? No way she’s pregnant. It’s impossible; she only had sex once in her life, and they used protection. She didn't make up the foil wrappers she saw on Liam's bedroom floor when she ran from his house.

Dr Waylon showed her the pregnancy test and explained what the two lines meant. "We can also do a scan to be doubly sure."

Eden liked that plan very much.

Ten minutes later, as she lay on the examination table, she saw her baby for the first time on the screen and heard his determined heartbeat.

"Congratulations, you're twelve weeks along,” Dr Waylon said. "The baby's growing nicely and the heartbeat is strong."

Eden laughed tearfully. "I'm going to be a mom!"

"Yes, you are!"

"But I don't know how to be a mom," she bawled, a thin stream of snot pooling on her upper lip. She wiped it off with the back of her hand. "I share an apartment with my three friends. I hate my job, what do I know about being a mom?"

"You'll be amazing; the fact that you're already questioning yourself means you want what's best for your baby,” Dr Waylon beamed and returned to his place behind the desk while Eden cleaned herself up and buttoned up her blouse again.