Chapter Seven-
As is the case with most disasters, it happened very suddenly.
One day everything is going fine—well, as fine as things can be when you're living with the guy you're beginning to have strong feelings for, and his mean, obnoxious, ever-present wife.
Julie was making lunch, and part of Anna's lunch was macaroni and cheese. Anna sat patiently in her seat making little babbling noises and playing with her cup while Julie chopped up the mac and cheese into smaller pieces so Anna didn't choke on it.
All of a sudden the odor of the macaroni and cheese assaulted Julie's nose and she felt bile rising at the back of her throat, so she covered her mouth and ran over to the garbage can.
"Ah!" Anna screamed from her chair, pointing at Julie. "Oh, Nana!"
Julie dry-heaved for almost a full minute, then she collapsed down in a chair, grabbing the glass of water she had on the counter and chugging it.
"I'm okay," Julie murmured reassuringly at Anna, forcing a smile for the baby.
Anna watched Julie with an appraising look, but after a few seconds she accidentally knocked her cup over, so that stole her attention and she began banging the cup around.
"What the hell was that?" Julie muttered to herself doubtfully as she slowly rose from the chair and made her way back over to the mac and cheese, hesitating before picking up the bowl and carrying it over to Anna, putting it down in front of her.
"Ooh!" Anna said happily. "Yeah!"
Julie produced a smile. "You eat that up, ok?"
Anna just grinned at Julie and took a spoon full of macaroni, shoving half of it into her mouth and the other half on her chin.
"Let me get you a napkin, sweetie," Julie said, turning to walk over to the other side of the counter where the napkins where.
Suddenly Julie gasped as she realized there was a figure in the doorway, her thin arms crossed, her blonde hair as perfect as always, and her perfectly lined and shadowed blue eyes narrowed as she gazed in Julie's direction.
"Hi," Julie said disjointedly. "I…didn't know you were home."
"My lunch got cancelled, I thought I'd stop in and check on my precious girl," Emma said, making a cutesy face at Anna. "Hello, darling."
Anna smiled at her mother a little bit, then resumed stuffing the macaroni and cheese in her face.
Emma's gaze returned sharply to Julie. "Are you ill?"
Julie opened her mouth, but no words came out, so she just kind of stood there awkwardly. "Um…I…Maybe."
Making some sort of condescending noise, Emma moved past Julie and walked over to retrieve the napkin Julie had been after, walking over and handing it to Anna. Then she spun around, folding her arms across her chest and looked at Julie appraisingly, but didn't utter a word.
The wave of nausea that hit her when she smelled the macaroni and cheese was back, and Julie knew without a doubt that she was about to throw up.
"Excuse me," she called, turning and running to the bathroom just in time to empty the contents of her stomach
Emma didn't say anything to Julie –literally, she spoke to Anna while she was home and then she left—but Emma didn't return home until right after Matt.
But when she got home, boy did she look pissed off.
Julie didn't even get a chance to talk to Matt before Wifezilla came swooping in and took Matt to the study, leaving Julie to stand there stupidly with Anna on her hip as she tried not to listen to Emma's raised voice in the next room.
It had been a little over three weeks since Emma's trip to New York, but with all the studying Julie was doing to prepare for her upcoming comprehensive finals and then her nanny position of keeping Anna and Matt entertained, she had somehow completely missed the fact that she was about a week late.
You know, late.
Emma didn't come out of the study, bu
t about a minute after Emma took him in there, Matt came out, a slightly determined look on his face as he grabbed Julie lightly by the arm and dragged her into the kitchen.