My bladder felt like it had the stamina of a ninety-five-year-old woman instead of a girl in her twenties. I could barely make it through the trailers at a movie before having to waddle for the bathrooms.
I nodded. “The highlight of my day. Peeing into a cup and passing it between a double door.”
Forced smile number two. Man, either I was off my game or Mrs. Stiff Lip wouldn’t even find Taylor Swift rapping while tap-dancing in a straitjacket funny.
“Ben will make sure you get to a patient room when your ultrasound’s complete.” The nurse hustled through the door, closing it, and went on to spread her merriment through the rest of the office.
“Hey, Ben,” I said, already peeling my oversized band shirt over my head. I’d been through the ultrasound-slash-examine routine enough to have it memorized. “How’s it going?”
When the room stayed quiet, after tossing my shirt onto the empty chair in the corner, I glanced around. First at Jesse. Then at Ben. Both had varying shades of discomfort coloring their faces.
“Oh, right. Sorry.” I snagged the thin cotton dress from the exam table and unfolded it. “Exhibitionism is a tough habit to break.”
Ben was a special shade of pink as he hopped off his stool and powered toward the door, his eyes cast down. “I’ll give you a few minutes to change and then I’ll be back.”
When the door closed, I finished peeling off what was left, ignoring Jesse waiting for me to look at him. The last time Dr. Stuart had been out sick and a different doctor, a male one, had to do my exam, I thought I would have to duct tape Jesse into the corner when the doctor did the internal pelvic exam. Jesse had never been a jealous man who was threatened by other guys in my life, but I supposed that ended when someone started touching me down there. Even if that someone was an M.D. and touched so many “down theres” on a daily basis he was totally desensitized about the whole thing.
“Stop looking at me like I just committed murder.” When I slid out of my panties, I sling-shotted them in his direction. They hit his stomach. Bull’s-eye.
Jesse caught my underwear before they fell to the floor, and he watched me as I tied the gown. “Maybe next time you could refrain from stripping until the just-earned-the-right-to-order-a-beer-in-a-bar male is out of the room?” He folded the rest of my clothes and placed them on the counter.
“Oh, please. He works in an OB-GYN office. He’s seen more naked ladies and had his magic wand up more women’s hoo-haws than the lead singer of the boy band I refuse to name out loud.”
Jesse slid the chair across the room, shaking his head. “You’re probably right, but he hasn’t seen my wife’s naked body or . . .” Jesse’s gaze shifted to the ultrasound machine, where the torture-looking device also known as an intra-uterine ultrasound device was hanging. The first couple of ultrasounds had been way less pleasant. “That other part, so sorry if I’m a little uncomfortable with you exposing yourself in front of some other guy.”
“Exposing myself? I think we’ve got a rather large difference in the definition of that term.”
After sliding the chair up beside the exam table, he headed to the sink. “You took off your shirt.”
I could tell from his tone and expression that he wasn’t really upset. When Jesse was really upset, I could see the ridge running down his jaw pop to the surface of his skin. “I was wearing a bra, in case you didn’t notice.”
He filled one of those tiny paper cups with water and emptied it before looking back. Half of his mouth was turned up. “Yeah, but it’s my favorite bra. I don’t want to share it with some other guy.”
If I’d had another pair of panties in my hand, I would have flung them at him too. But the bull’s-eye would have been his face. “Are you done acting like a crazy person for the day?”
That was when the tech knocked on the door before opening it a hair. “All set in here?”
Jesse’s face went two shades paler.
“Okay, so not quite done acting like a crazy person,” I muttered before throwing the door open and waving the tech inside. “Ready, and sorry for the earlier strip tease. Everyone tells me I don’t have much of a filter, and I guess that also applies to changing into an exam dress.”
The tech still looked a shade red, but he went another one at the term “strip tease.” After muttering a quick, “No problem,” he hustled around the table toward the machine. He couldn’t make eye contact with me.
I moved onto the exam table and got into position, not waiting for an invitation. The sooner we got it started, the sooner we could have it finished. I didn’t have to press my fingers to Jesse’s pulse to know his heart was close to exploding out of his chest. As he moved up beside me and settled into the chair, I almost reminded him to take a breath when it looked like he was turning blue. But when I grabbed his hand, he sucked in a heavy breath of air.
“Would you grab the lights for me please?” Ben asked Jesse, who didn’t let go of my hand as he stretched toward the wall behind us and flicked them off.
Ben pointed a remote at the big television screen hanging across from us, then he gingerly scooted the folds of my dress aside to expose my stomach. He was careful to make sure his skin didn’t touch mine, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Jesse watching him as if he was ready to throw down if Ben got a little fresh with me. Men.
Jesse’s hand in mine was twisting and squeezing as if my fingers and palm were his personal stress ball. It wasn’t quite painful, but close. However, I didn’t say anything because I knew, based on the anxiety ripping through him right now, this little bit of hand-wringing was nothing. At every ultrasound we’d had, Jesse had acted as if he was sitting in the stands while my verdict of guilty or innocent was read in court. He had everything and was terrified he could lose it all with one appointment.