Who: Jesse and Rahul When: late afternoon Where: The Lucky Bean What: trying to play nice and failing Rating: Some cursing, plenty of arguing Status: Complete
19 weeks along and Jesse felt huge. It didn’t matter that her mirror and the baby books told her otherwise. Her reflection looked like a woman not yet to the middle of her pregnancy, but she felt plenty large right now. This was all going too fast. She wasn’t ready for the appointment next week, but ready or not, it was going to happen. She’d called Rahul to try and attempt a trial run. She’d regretted inviting him almost immediately. This time it wasn’t even because of him per se. She didn’t know if she was ready to know the sex of her baby. Once she knew that, everything changed. She wouldn’t just be pregnant. She’d be the future mommy of a little boy or a little girl. As much as she loved her Jellybean, she wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t want the djinn to see that. She didn’t know how he’d react to her insecurities. The last thing she needed was Rahul threatening, provoking, or manipulating her during the doctor’s visit, so she’d decided to try to see if they could make nice for as brief amount of time as coffee. Or herbal tea, in her case.
Jesse was 5 minutes early. She would have been 10 minutes, but she’d spent 5 around the corner trying to convince herself not to overreact this time. Or had she reacted just the right amount? Rahul still scared her when she wasn’t feeling sorry for him. In her mind, he’d made it clear that he had more money, a farther reach, and could get around the law. She didn’t know what she would do if he’d lied when he’d said he wouldn’t tear a baby away from her mother. Everything else he’d ever told her she dismissed as a lie because of Tracey. What if this time he was lying for himself? She didn’t know and she couldn’t walk in to this conversation thinking that.
It had been quite a while since she’d stepped foot at a coffee shop. There hadn’t been much need with her working at the diner. Besides, she’d given up coffee. Caffeine was bad for the baby. But it seemed like fair neutral ground. Nothing too serious. They could meet, talk, and she’d be free to leave as soon as she needed to.