The Love We Choose

Chapter 30

Lynne woke with a tight feeling of unease in her stomach that had become all too familiar. Shaking the grogginess of sleep from her head she tried to get her bearings. It was still relatively early in the morning, as the faintest hint of lilac sky was filtering through her bedroom window. Taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm her body, she rolled herself out of bed as she played her stomach's new favorite game "beat the clock to the bathroom." She hurried to her bathroom, not bothering to shut the door behind her, before a final lurch in her stomach brought up its contents into the toilet. Luckily, she had perched herself in front of her toilet in time to avoid having to clean the floor, which she has had to do several times in the past couple months.

Once the waves of nausea had passed, she flushed the evidence away and rested her back against her tub. "Thanks for the wakeup, kiddo. I guess this your way of telling mommy it's time for yoga." When she felt stable enough, she got up, rinsed out her mouth and washed her face before starting her morning routine.

An hour later she was sweaty, but refreshed as she rolled up her yoga mat and put it away. On her way into the shower, she caught a glimpse of herself in her mirror as she went to pick out clothes for the day, she noticed the small pudgy swell to her abdomen. She had finally retired her pre-pregnancy pants and had started to work the items she had purchased when she went shopping with Julissa into her daily wardrobe. Thankful that the winter months were approaching she was able to layer her clothing under the guise of keeping warm instead of keeping a secret. However, the peplums, skirts, dresses, tunics, long cardigans, and strategically placed scarves would only work for so much longer.

Mentally, she cursed herself for being the one to come up with the plan to not tell anyone until after Lunar New Year. In theory, waiting until her fifth month made sense. The reality of the situation was that she probably should have researched what women who were five months pregnant looked like. Daily she sent up prayers that her belly wouldn't 'pop' and make its presence known until after the holidays which would help keep her plan in motion.

A glance at the clock kicked her into overdrive. If she didn't hurry up and get in the shower she would be late for work and that was unacceptable. The countdown was on to Winter Break. And with one more week to go, she didn't want tardiness on a Friday to be the way she started her weekend.

Luckily, the ghosts of Christmas Break seemed to be on her side as she made it on time and the day progressed rather smoothly. It wasn't until she was having lunch with Ava at the nearby diner that her plans for that weekend changed.

When the first few text messages chimed on her phone with the tone for her family group chat, Lynne dismissed them as someone probably sharing a funny meme. Once it kept up and eventually turned into a video chat invite from her sister Elisa, Lynne regretted not looking at them earlier.

Angling the phone so her sister could see her face and signs easily she answered with a smile on her face, 'what's up?'

'Are you free this weekend?' Elisa looked stressed, biting her bottom lip, a foreign look on her usually bright and sunny features.

'Yea...what do you need?'

'Can you come over and watch the kids? Or I can drop them at your place? Javi's conference is this weekend and our babysitter just called to say she has strep so she can't come anymore. Please tell me you'll do it?' Elisa's big green eyes were pleading as she implored her sister.

Lynne quickly did a run-down of what she had planned for the weekend and realized she could move things around and still be done with everything pre-Christmas. 'Sure. I'd love to hang out with your brood. When do I need to be there?'