Leslie told me she was pregnant. Pregnant. With child. A mother-to-be. That made me, Josh DeLain, a father-to-be. After six years of frequent fornication, my seed finally penetrated the two forms of contraception we'd agreed to use to avoid this very scenario.
She was sitting next to me on the old couch I got from my brother. What was once a plush cream microfiber was now a tanned hide. Her socked feet rested on top of my coffee table. She was rubbing one of them with both hands and spoke more to her aching toes than me. How many weeks do you have to be pregnant before your feet begin swelling?
"It's still too early to say anything to anyone," she said, "just in case of complications."
Leslie came to my apartment after her waitressing job at the Comfy Spot, a small neighborhood diner where the décor is outdated and the menu conceived before the health food industry really took off. The thighs of her black pants were smeared with dribbles from the bottoms of plates. Her pants, her pink polo with Comfy Spot embroidered above the left breast, her hair--even after being tied in a pony tail all evening--reeked of salty fried diner foods.
"You smell like french fries," I said. She looked at me hard. Those chocolate eyes of hers attempting to chisel away at my brain. Trying to chip away all that she didn't want me to be. It was a look she'd taken up recently. The creases under her eyes and around her mouth had deepened over the previous months.
Leslie's real job was at a swanky art gallery consulting with customers looking to score some statement pieces for their high-rise condos. Waitressing was her side job on account of me walking out on a delivery company a few months back. Loading boxes onto the back of trucks every night was not my idea of a good time. If we were going to get a place together, we'd have to "pick up the slack for one another." After all the glaring, she slipped her shoes on and walked out of my apartment without saying another word.
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Electrical Disturbance
Short StoryJosh DeLain is going to be a father. Before he and his girlfriend Leslie can start a happy home together, Josh must find a way to confront his fears--and the talking kitchen appliances that antagonize him. Votes and comments welcome!
