She frowned at the conversational tone and texted back, "I just got off work."
There was no sound from her phone until she was back home, walking up the hall toward the apartment, then it chimed again.
The text read, "Are you doing anything tonight?"
Her heart dropped, although she couldn't properly identify why. She wasn't doing anything, but there was no good reason she could think of that he would ask that.
"Why?" she texted back.
She had just enough time to take her shoes off and hang up her coat, then he texted back, "I wanted to see if you wanted to go out to dinner."
Unbelievable. She didn't know why it still surprised her, but the gall of him never ceased to amaze her.
"Are you out of your mind? No."
"Why? Aaron won't let you?" he responded almost instantly.
Grinding her teeth, she texted back, "It has nothing to do with Aaron, I just see no reason why we should go to dinner together."
The response didn't come immediately, so she assumed maybe he wasn't going to text back. Unconcerned, she sat her phone down on the counter and rummaged through the cupboards for something to eat.
She still hadn't gained a single pound, but it was a mystery to her, because she was still as hungry as ever. She was forcing herself to control it by eating foods that were good for her, drinking more milk—she wasn't a fan of milk at all, but apparently the baby needed it—but she was still surprised that she hadn't gained weight at all. When she realized she wasn't gaining any weight she immediately went online to make sure it was normal, but she found that it was—in fact, in the very beginning some women actually lost weight because of the morning sickness. Apparently her morning sickness and abnormal appetite were cancelling each other out.
She had all but forgotten about Matt texting her, but then she heard her phone go off and she was reminded.
Sighing, she picked it up to read his response. "I can't believe you're with my brother."
Rolling her eyes in irritation, she texted back, "I never said that, you assumed. And you're married, so it doesn't matter. Bye."
She didn't expect a response after that one, so she sat her phone down on the counter again and fished a bag of nearly-flavorless rice cake snacks out of the cupboard, then she went in and sat down on the couch, turning the television on and munching for a little while.
Aaron decided to come home for his afternoon break that day, and as soon as she saw him walk in she smiled. "Hello."
"Hey," he said, balancing a bag of groceries in his arms as he closed the door behind him and slipped his shoes off, walking into the kitchen.
"Buy me anything good?" she asked jokingly.
He surprised her by peeking around the corner and holding up a box on Lucky Charms.
Gasping, she said, "I was just saying I wanted those the other day!"
"I know," he said, giving her a little smile and walking back into the kitchen. "They'll be in with the other cereals that you don't like."
Smiling, she folded up the bag of her tasteless treat and stood up, walking toward the kitchen and telling him, "You are the best."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. At the rate your appetite is growing, there better be two of them in there," he said, nodding toward her stomach.
Eyes widening, she said, "That is not funny unless you're giving birth to one of them."
He flashed her a smile, saying, "Sorry, I don't have a uterus."
"Details, details. You shouldn't even joke like that—my grandmother was a twin, it's possible that I could have twins, and I'm not even sure I'm up for one poppy seed, let alone two."
"Poppy seed?" he asked, giving her a funny look.
Nodding, she located the cans of soup he had brought home and put them away. "It's kind of my nickname for the baby. When I found out I was pregnant and I looked it up online, I found out that at that time my baby was roughly the size of a poppy seed. It just kind of stuck."
"You know they grow, right? Especially that one—it's always eating, it's probably the size of a bagel by now."