Pregnant Without a Cause

Chapter Seven, Episode 19

 1116 words

Michelle sat with Edouard, Jock, and Donna in blue canvas chairs on the terrace overlooking the hotel pool.

"At night," Jock chuckled, "you can't tell if this is the Comfort Suites or the Phoenician." Another hot day had cooled off nicely when the sun went down, and the still pool, deserted by swimmers and lit from within, cast a placid aqua glow over the area. But the setting did not ease Michelle's anxiety. Two little spotlights shown in her face, and a wireless microphone hung on her collar. A crew member named Javier stood behind a camera on a tripod, mutteringcomments Michelle couldn't hear to a woman next to him who fiddled with another small camera. A new man sat behind Donna, sort of off her elbow. Tall and serious and silent.

"I didn't know there would be cameras," said Michelle. "Aren't we just talking about what we're going to do on theshow?"

"I told you, darling," Edouard cut in, with a slightly exaggerated drawl that to Michelle signaled his anxiety. Yes, he had told her. This was their face time with Jock and Donna, a chance to boost their chances by being interesting, or weird, or pushy, or funny, or sexy, or something. Michelle understood this, but she was deeply ambivalent about playingthe fool, or the bitch.

"Yep, just us talking." Jock ran fingers over the iron-gray spikes of his hair. He turned to a man sitting at a nearby table wearing headphones and looking at a laptop. The man nodded. "But we need video and audio on you two. It's standard stuff. Don't know if we'll use any of it." He crossed a leg over his knee. He wore good-fitting knee length shorts. His legs were tan and trim, just like every other part of him you could see. "I just thought it was nicer out here tonight. Get out of that cracker-box meeting room."

In her mail the previous evening, Michelle had received another medical bill, from the anesthesiologist. Nine hundred bucks, and all Michelle could remember him doing was telling the nurse to give her some pain pills.

So she had to get her mind right. "No, it's nicer out here."

"You'll get used to it," Donna assured Michelle. Always the supportive one, looking out for her flock of contestants.

Jock smiled at Michelle. "This is an important decision. If you don't want to do weight loss, what are some options?"

What was he talking about? Michelle's anxiety spiked, and she glanced at Edouard.

Jock seemed to have almost no idea who they were.

Edouard's eyebrows waggled in surprise. "Actually..."

Michelle cut in. "We want to do the weight loss now. That was before when I didn't want to."

Edouard continued. "Last April. You know, before the hiatus."

Jock's expression did not change. "So you do want to do the weight loss? That makes it easier. Weight loss is bedrock reality TV. No matter what else is happening, it's good to have someone fighting that good fight, and winning."

"I'm sure now that we can do it." In April, losing weight would have been impossible. Now she knew she would lose at least some pregnancy weight. Was that cheating? "Still, it's not easy."

"Course not. But we'll see you through it. We've got a guy coming in tomorrow, a super motivator." Jock glanced at the man sitting behind Donna. "That's comped, Fletcher."

The TV light glinted off the new man's geometric glasses, hiding his eyes. He produced a grim twitch of a smile.

Jock turned back to Michelle. "And we've got spa sessions." 

"Great!" Michelle nodded at Edouard.

"Great!" he said.

"So we're losing weight." Jock clapped his hands. "What else you got?" 

Michelle did not understand. "What else?"

"Yeah." Jock leaned back. "What's your special story? Why should people care?" 

"Something to give us a little more depth on you two." Donna gave her that warm, open smile.

Donna had beautiful hair, a great figure, flawless skin. She seemed to be in her mid- thirties. Michelle wondered if she herself had looked like that five years ago. Or ever.

"You've looked stressed," Donna continued. 

"I've been stressed."

"Is it something at home? Money?"

Michelle tried to calm her breath. "The weekend before we started filming... the weekend before last—God, is that all it's been? We had a baby in our house." No, she had to be clear. "My daughter had a baby. Only fifteen."

No one gasped in horror. No background music swelled. The cameras did not zoom in on her, as far as she could tell.

Donna nodded. That warm smile. "Congrats. You're a g-ma." 

"Yeah. I wasn't ready for that."

"It can be such a blessing, I'm sure of that."

Michelle's voice kept getting thicker, and she had no control over it. "We were going to give him up, but we'll be raising him."

Edouard cleared his throat. "It'll teach Callie to be more responsible."

Michelle stared at him. He needed to learn that on this subject he was not allowed to say anything. "She's not irresponsible. She's, she's just caught in a confusing situation. In life."

Edouard snorted. "Her father gets some of the..." 

Michelle quashed him. "We're not getting into that." 

"Yes." Donna jumped in. "These years can be tough."

"It's not the years, it's the miles." The statement hung there a moment over the four of them like a little soap bubble until Michelle chuckled softly. "I have no idea what that means."

Edouard said, "He's the cutest little guy."

Michelle thought that was enough. She'd admitted what she had to admit, but she didn't want to plant the idea that the baby would be on the show. "He's about average," she said. "Now Edouard was a cute baby. You should see the picture. It's hanging in his hallway."

Jock chuckled. "Well, if it's very cute, maybe. We have high standards."

"I want to make sure," Michelle made a little lasso in the air with her finger. "That the show focuses on Edouard and me."

"Sure," said Jock. "That's your call."

Michelle glanced at Edouard. "We could do Edoo's idea." 

Jock nodded. "The, uh, animal preserve, uh..."

"Destination weddings," Edouard reminded him. "As a startup business by us. At natural settings where wild animals—there's a place the Nature Conservancy has over at Aravaipa. There's some others down south, and up around Flagstaff there's a private elk reserve."

Jock shook his head, glancing at Fletcher again. "That's really not going to work. It's an idea, and probably a good one. But it sounds like it needs a lot of work to make it happen. We need something we can film, like, tomorrow.