To be honest, I was too scared to. I had heard the rumors about Cassandra. My mother's version was so much kinder than the rumors I'd heard around town. Living in a small town, the only interesting thing that we could count on was gossip. And because humans love to gossip, things became a game of telephone that skewed all the information.
Last I heard at the supermarket, Cassandra was carrying twins from her secret lover in Kentucky and the grandparents were going to sue for adoption. Cassandra was apparently moving to Alaska and becoming a lesbian because of the stress.
None of that was true, but it was being repeated around town. Every whisper had it's own version of what the unwed mother was going to do.
Cassandra's mother had lost business to her store and Cassandra hadn't shown her face in town since the rumor broke. I didn't blame her. I knew exactly how that felt. I knew how it felt to enter the grocery store and suddenly have everyone watching exactly what you bought. I knew how it felt to have random people come up and ask inappropriate questions about my personal life.
I knew.
And I knew it was going to happen to me again.
I waved goodbye to a patient and went to clean and prep the room. I paused, putting a hand to my stomach. There was life there. There was someone amazing growing inside of me. I was going to shelter this baby from the worst of the world, even if it meant taking the rumors on myself.
I sighed. I could already hear the rumors that would spread about me. Despite the fact that it wasn't true, much of the town still blamed me for Jacob breaking up with Katie. I still heard the older women whisper “hussy” when I passed.
I could only imagine the gossip that would come about when they found out I was pregnant. Dr. Taggert had come close to firing Jacob and me. What would happen when he found out about the pregnancy?
Not only would I lose what little dignity in town I had left, but I lose my job too?
I closed my eyes and leaned against the exam table, suddenly very tired. I'd found that being pregnant took a lot of energy. I didn't know how something the size of a small bean could sap the energy from my body so quickly.
“Hey, beautiful,” Jacob said, stepping inside the exam room. The door shut quietly behind him. I looked at it, almost wanting to tell him to open it. I didn't need more rumors.
“Hi,” I greeted him. He kissed me gently and then opened the door back up. He was aware of what was being said and was looking out for me. “What's up?”
“I was hoping you'd come to lunch with me,” he said. His smile was slightly nervous, but it was probably because the two of us going to lunch in public was socially dangerous.
“You sure?” I asked, feeling my eyebrows come together. “I don't know if the town is ready yet.”
“This will help stop the rumors,” he replied. I wasn't sure how that was going to happen, but he put on the puppy-dog eyes. “Please?”
“Those eyes don't work on me,” I told him, turning away and crossing my arms.
“They work on everyone,” he assured me, chasing me so he could stand in front of me. He made sure I could see him and he made his eyes somehow bigger.
“Nope.” But my nerve was weakening. Those eyes. I could see how he managed to stay out of trouble when he was younger. Those eyes were potent.
He glanced out the door to make sure no one was in the hall before bringing his lips to my ear. His breath tickled the small hairs on my neck and made my stomach do twitterpated somersaults.
“Come to lunch,” he whispered. “I'll make it worth your while.”
My knees quivered as he nibbled on my ear. I was toast. There was no way I could say no now.
“Fine,” I said, trying to sound strong but instead sounding breathless.
He gave me one more kiss on the cheek before pulling away. He grinned and gave me a wink before sauntering out of the exam room with cocky confidence.
I checked my watch. I'd managed to resist him for a thirty seconds. I was getting better at it. Maybe in ten years I'd make it a whole five minutes.
I kept working until lunch time. We had a nice steady stream of patients, and for the first time in weeks, everyone managed to stay polite. No one mentioned Katie.
I almost had to think that something else was going on, but I didn't know what. Maybe saving Dr. Taggert from a heart attack was enough to turn the tide a little bit. Maybe, just maybe, the town was starting to see me as something other than a man-stealing trollop. Maybe, they now saw me as a man-stealing trollop who knows CPR.
CPR knowing people are good people to have around.
“Lunch time,” Donna called from the front desk. She sounded unusually chipper. She poked her head into my office where I was charting and smiled at me. “You ready for lunch?”
I shrugged. Instead of morning sickness, I just wasn't hungry. It took effort to convince me to eat anything, and even when I did eat, I had to really focus on finishing my food. I supposed no appetite was better than nausea, though.