Before You

Chapter 50

Eli and I laid around on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. Eli sighs. "Baby, I need to call Gracie. She's been at the hotel by herself."
"I don't mind." I smile and say "you can invite her over too, if you'd like." He nods his head and smiles at me.
He begins searching in his phone for her number. "Before you call her, can we keep our baby news between us for now? I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly with the pregnancy before we tell anyone."
Eli looks at me with empathy. "Baby, I won't say a word until you're ready to. Everything is going to be just fine throughout your pregnancy."
I smile and kiss him.
Eli goes back to searching his contacts and calls Gracie and puts her on speaker phone.
"Eli where the hell have you been?"
"Chill, mom" he looks at me and rolls his eyes and I giggle.
"Wait... are you with Emma?" I can hear the happiness in her voice.
"Yeah, he is." I interject. Eli smiles.
"Oh my God! It's about time!" Her enthusiasm is contagious.
"Yeah, yeah." Eli tries to roll it off nonchalantly and I kiss his cheek.
"Emma, I need all the details! It's what I live for!!"
I giggle and Eli responds for me. "Gracie you're acting like a kid on a sugar high. Calm down." He's getting irritated with her.
"Sheesh mr. sour puss." Hearing siblings banter makes me smile because I never got to experience that. Eli puts his hand on my knee.
"Anyway, so the reason I called you is to tell you, you can swing by Emma's apartment for a little while."
"Ahhh! Yes, yes, yes! But why only a little while?"
"If you must know, it's getting late and I'll be staying here the rest of our trip."
Then it hits me, he's only here for another week. Eli senses me getting upset and tries to pull me close to him, but instead I get up from the couch and go to the bathroom. Eli watches me. My hand is over my mouth from my nausea.
"Gracie, I'll text you the address." And hangs up the phone.
I'm currently emptying my stomach when the door opens. Ugh. I hate morning sickness. "Go away." As I heave more. I don't want Eli seeing me like this.
Eli doesn't listen to what I say and comes behind me and holds my hair and rubs my back in slow circles.
"I'm staying right here." I hear the confidence in his voice.
As soon as I'm finished getting sick, I flush the toilet and wash my hands and brush my teeth.
"Why are you upset?" He asks.
"You're only here for another week. Then what? You're gone. I'm here all alone." I start to cry.
"Hey, hey, hey. You stop that tear shedding. I thought we would talk about you either coming with me back to Chicago or if I moved here. I'm not leaving you, Emma. I told you this earlier. I promise." I hear the seriousness in his voice. I look at him in relief and still don't say anything.
"Baby, we don't have to make a decision tonight on where we will live, but we will need to before the end of the trip."
"Okay." I say and try to wipe away my tears.
"Damn these hormones. Are you sure you're wanting to stick around?" Trying to lighten the mood I just dampened with another meltdown. Thank you, peanut.
He chuckled. "There's no where else I would rather be." And kissed my nose and hugged me.