It's Never too Late

“You can’t quit until after the baby comes. We aren’t married yet and my insurance benefits won’t cover you until we are. Even then, they won’t cover pregnancy until after you’ve been on the policy for a year.” He’d been able to switch from his old plan to the jelly plant’s group insurance plan.

“It’s okay, Mark.” Her voice softened. “You don’t have to do all your worrying and planning up front. I’m not going to quit. Maybe later I will, but not now. I’ve got over a month’s vacation saved up and then I’ll check with HR to see about that leave thing.”

“FMLA is only for twelve weeks,” he said slowly, his mind coming out of its deep freeze. The Family Medical Leave Act. He’d had several employees take advantage of the government program.

“Bonnie took off almost her whole pregnancy and two months after, too, because she breast-fed.”

“HR approved the leave. I’m not saying you can’t get it. Just that the family leave you’re talking about only covers twelve weeks. So you can get more time off, if the company approves, but you probably would only get paid for the three months. The rest would be without pay.”

“But they’d hold my job, right? They did Bonnie’s.”

“If they approve the leave, then yes, they’ll hold your job. The family medical leave through the government is a given.”

“That’d be okay, then. Wouldn’t it? I mean, it’s not like I make a ton. Mom already said I should give up my apartment and move back in with her.”

The back of his neck throbbed. He’d worked a machine for most of the night, making up for production time lost by a new hire who was struggling. Mark saw potential in the older man and wanted to give him a little more time to catch on.

“Giving up the apartment’s probably a good idea,” he said now. As he remembered it, the lease specifically disallowed children. “And then we can talk about you coming out here.”

“You don’t sound angry.”

“I’m not angry.” How could he be? If she really was pregnant with his baby, he’d done this to himself.

“But you ain’t happy.”

“I... There’s a lot to think about, Ella.” More than she knew. Way more than she knew. “I’m just hearing about this for the first time. You’ve got to give me some time to let it sink in.”

“I just...I thought...I knew you’d be shocked, and all, but I thought, once you knew, you’d be happy. It’s our baby, Mark. Yours and mine. We made him.”

Him. She couldn’t know the sex yet, but that child could very well be male. A son.

He tried to picture it. To think about holding a child. There was nothing there. He should feel something.

“I have to be able to support a child, Ella,” he said. Finances were the only thoughts he could focus on. “I’ve already used up a full semester’s tuition and there are no refunds on that. I’ve paid the lease for the first semester and accepted a check for living expenses. If I quit school, I’d owe all of that back immediately. I just don’t have the money.” Not even if he cashed in his 401K retirement plan. Not after he took the hits for early withdrawal and taxes. They’d have some left, but not nearly enough to sustain him through an emergency with Nonnie...

He’d emptied his savings account getting him and Nonnie out here and settled in.

He wanted to sleep with another woman.

“I thought about what I said that night you asked me to marry you.” Her tone was back to the one she used at work now and he wondered what she was hiding. “About loving Bierly and never leaving. I was wrong. I can move there, Mark. For us. For the baby. As long as I know it’s only for the time you’re in school and then we can come back here.”

She hadn’t asked how Nonnie was. Still.

Nonnie. Oh, God in heaven, Nonnie. Ella said only her mother knew about the baby, but if that was even true, it wouldn’t be for long. Telephone. Telegraph. Tell Dot. He remembered the joke he’d heard around town more than once after he started dating Ella.

And once people in Bierly knew, Nonnie would find out. Between Facebook and email, Nonnie still knew everything there was to know about everyone in the town where she’d been born and raised. The woman and her computer were a dangerous combination.

“I need some time to think this through, Ella.” He tried to relax the tension radiating through him. “There’s a lot to consider.”

“You taking back that offer of marriage, Mark?”

“You turned me down.”

“Well, now I ain’t. Please, Mark. Don’t leave me in the lurch here.”

He’d told her he’d be back. No matter what. Even after she wouldn’t answer his texts, he’d told her he’d be back.

“It’s late there, Ella.” Almost midnight by his calculation. “Why don’t you get some rest and I’ll call you tomorrow. We can talk about everything then.” His own drawl sounded loudly in his ears. Did he always sound that way? Did Abby think he was some backward hick?