As the weeks went by, Ginger's situation improved. She got paid, paid her brother back, and the first thing she bought with her not-so-hard-earned money was a bed. She kept working using the money to buy furniture for her apartment. As time went on, her stomach got larger.
The first time she noticed her stomach showing was on Kristina's birthday. She turned sideways and was amazed how she didn't notice it before. She was definitely getting big. Pretty soon she'd had to get some new clothes. Ginger hadn't spoken to or seen her best friend and sister since she left Tulsa. She knew she should call and say happy birthday at least, but she wasn't sure if she should. She sat in front of the phone, one hand on her stomach, and thought about it.
"I should," she said to herself and picked up the phone. The phone rang but nobody picked up. The answering machine went off and she closed her eyes, thinking of what to say. What was there to say? I'm sorry I fooled around with your boyfriend? Please forgive me? The beep sounded. "Hey Kris, it's Rosemary. I know it's been forever and I'm sure you don't want to talk to me, but�happy birthday. I'm in town and I have my own apartment. Um�that's about it." She left her number just in case Kris didn't hold a grudge and hung up the phone.
There was a knock at the door and Ginger got up to answer it. She opened the door to find her friend Jane on the other side. "Janey!" Ginger said. "Hey, come in. Don't let me forget your air mattress this time." Jane came in and looked around. There was definitely a lot more furniture than when she first saw it. Ginger had a television, a couch, a table for the living room, more places to sit and even had a stereo. In the kitchen there was a microwave, stools at the island in the middle of the room, and hidden away in the cabinets were dishes and pots and pans. Ginger was still far away from a completely furnished apartment, but she wasn't sleeping on the floor any longer.
"I won't. So how are you doing?" Ginger shrugged. "Oh my gosh! Look at you! You're starting to show�" Ginger looked down and immediately put her hands over her stomach. "Oh, honey, don't hide it! It's a beautiful thing."
"Not when you're a single mother without any plans to get married, or even a boyfriend. Then it's just 'too bad,' " Ginger said.
"It's still a beautiful thing. People don't have to know you're not getting married!"
"People ask questions, Janey."
"You can lie! It's not like you're friends with everyone and they deserve to know the truth! When I was pregnant with Dylan, Austin and I weren't married and I said we were anyway. That's what made him propose. I was telling so many people we were married he just figured we should!"
"Yeah, that's great."
"Have you been to your ob-gyn yet?"
"I don't even have one yet," Ginger said. "I'm a horrible mother."
"Oh, honey, you're not horrible! I'll give you the number to mine," Jane said. She wrote a number down on the pad of paper Ginger had on her fridge. "I had this lady for Dylan and she was just wonderful I had to go to her again. You may want to call today and get an appointment as soon as possible. I know it may seem like all she's doing is telling you the sex but she's checking out the baby's health and everything."
"I'm so lucky to have you, Janey," Ginger said. "I have no idea what I'm doing."
"That's why I'm here," Jane said. "It's your first baby and you have no one to guide you through this. I know you need someone to go baby shopping with and pick names and everything�"
"I already have a name," Ginger said, taking the number and placing it by the phone.
"Really? What?"
"Well, if it's a girl, Jennifer Kristina." Jane nodded. "And if it's a boy, Christopher Joshua."
"Those are wonderful! And that's one of the perks of not having the father around. He can't tell you he wants a different name!"
"I know!" Ginger said, smiling. "I'm going to call this place now before they close. Take your air mattress, it's in the bedroom there." Jane went into the bedroom and got her mattress before leaving, giving Ginger a wave. Ginger called up the number right away. "Um, hello. I'd like to schedule an appointment to see the doctor."
"Sure. What's your name?"
"Rosemary Stevens."
"Well, Rosemary, we just had a cancellation so we could actually fit you in tomorrow at eleven," the receptionist said. Ginger smiled, taken aback.
"That would be great!"
"Is this an ultrasound?"
"Um�I think so."
"Well are you pregnant?"
"Yes I am."
"Then it's an ultrasound. Great. I'll see you tomorrow at eleven. If you can, try and get here a little earlier so we can fill out all the paperwork and such."
"All right. Where are you located? I just heard about you from a friend about five minutes ago," Ginger admitted.
"We're at 4202 North Habana Avenue, a bit south of MLK Boulevard," the woman said.
"Oh, so you're not far at all. Great. I'll be there."
"Wonderful. See you then." Ginger smiled, gave the woman a few more tidbits of information, then hung up the phone. That worked out perfectly. Ginger walked towards the bedroom, holding her back. She wasn't comfortable at all and frankly, she was horny. This was why people who are pregnant are supposed to be married. They have husbands who can take care of that problem. The phone rang and she groaned, walking back to the phone.
"Hello?" she said.
"Taylor's a manipulative slutty bastard and I don't blame you for anything." It was Kristina. Ginger grabbed the stool in front of her and sat down as quickly as she could. The last thing she expected was for Kris to call her back. She immediately started to cry.
"Oh my God," she said. "I didn't expect you to call me back!"
"Of course I'm calling you back! You're my sister!"
"Kris�Kris you don't know how much that means to me." Ginger's voice was soaked in tears and she was close to bawling.
"Rose! Rosemary, calm down," Kris said. "Are you all right?"
"No," Ginger said. "Not really."
"What have you been doing since New Year's? I haven't spoken to you in forever!" Ginger nodded.
"I know," she whispered. "I know how long it's been."
"Where are you?"
"I'm in a shitty apartment complex on Armenia Avenue. You would not believe the two months I've had since Zac kicked me out of the house," Ginger said. "It was terrible."
"Tell me all about it, sis."
"Well, Zac kicked me out two days before Valentines, and that night I called up Alex�"
"You didn't!"
"I did."
"Why didn't you call here?"
"Because I was afraid you'd be mad at me! I knew Zac was going to tell you and I didn't want to say anything to you. I couldn't get kicked out of two houses in one day."
"Honey�I never would have done that."
"Well I never thought Zac would do that and he did." Ginger sighed. "Anyway, Alex wired me the money for bus fare and I came back into town. I got here in the morning and in the afternoon Alex put the first payment on this apartment for me. I got a job working for Bob, my ex-boyfriend's lawyer brother and he gave me a job. I had nothing for a really long time but now I'm getting along rather well."
"At least you're doing okay now. Can I see you?"
"Now?" she asked.
"Well I would invite you over but I don't think that would be a very good idea," Kris said, her voice trailing off. Ginger's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
"Because Taylor's over right now," she whispered. "And I don't think it would be good if you two were seen together."
"Taylor? Taylor's there?"
"Well after I heard what happened I was really upset and I blamed it all on him, because I knew he was after you since the first day I met him, but�I don't know. I really love this guy, Rose."
"I want to be happy for you but I can't be," Ginger said. "I hope you understand that."
"I completely understand! I didn't even want to mention it, but I figured I should. But I still want to see you. How about lunch? What are you doing tomorrow?" Ginger sighed.
"I have an appointment at eleven. I don't know when I'll be done but we can have a late lunch. Do you work or do you have classes or something?"
"No, I have tomorrow afternoon off. We could do something afterwards. Late lunch sounds good. Call me and tell me when you're done and we can pick a place to meet."
"Great." Ginger smiled. It felt good.
"The doctor will be in shortly, change into the gown and sit down in the chair."
Ginger walked into an examination room quite stupefied. She had just filled about ten pages of paperwork, which just confused the hell out of her. She gave a smile to the nurse, who smiled back and left the room. She quickly changed into the paper gown and sat down in the chair. She looked around. There were tons of pictures and charts about babies, babies, babies. It freaked her out. She knew she was pregnant and she knew she was going to keep her baby, but that had been the extent of it. She had no idea what she was doing and maybe being here would help her out.
"Rosemary?"
A short Hispanic woman walked into the room holding Ginger's chart. Ginger looked over and smiled. "That's me," she said.
"I'm Dr. Amoroso. How are the two of you doing?" the woman asked, placing a hand on Ginger's stomach.
"A bit nervous."
"So this is your first ultrasound?" Ginger nodded. "Why so long? If you don't mind me asking."
"Well," Ginger said. "This is my first baby and I'm doing it all by myself. I really don't know exactly what I'm doing here. I had a friend across the hall in my apartment building who's pregnant and she told me to make an appointment. I was like OB what?" Dr. Amoroso laughed.
"Who's your friend?" she asked.
"Janey Pyle," Ginger said.
"Oh, yeah! I just saw her a couple of days ago. She's going to have a girl in about two months." Ginger nodded.
"Yeah. Angie, she says."
"So they decided on Angie?"
"Yeah."
"Great. Do you know how far along you are?" Ginger shrugged.
"I conceived January first so it's�however many weeks it's been."
"It should be seventeen, I believe," the woman said. "Well at least you're here now. That's a good thing. Let me check you out first and then we'll do an ultrasound." Ginger nodded. She waited while the doctor checked her out and a couple of minutes later, the woman nodded. "Well, you're definitely pregnant and you're definitely seventeen weeks. Great. Everything feels right up there." Ginger crinkled her nose. "I'm sure the nurse asked you about anything and everything about you and she did you blood test, but I'm going to ask again. Do you have any hereditary diseases in your family?"
"Um, cancer," Ginger said, scratching the back of her head .The doctor wheeled away from her and went to her chart. "I had cancer."
"All right. You do know your baby will have a much greater risk of getting cancer." Ginger nodded. "What about the father? Any diseases in his family?"
"No. He's got the perfect family," she said, trying to hide the sarcastic tone in her voice. The doctor picked up on it.
"Are you in touch with him?" Ginger shook her head. "Well that's all right. Who needs him anyway?" Ginger smiled. "I'll turn off the light and we can start your ultrasound." The woman walked to the wall and clicked off the light, then lifted Ginger's gown, putting a blanket over her legs so Ginger wouldn't feel so exposed, and spread out some kind of liquid jelly on her stomach. Ginger stiffened. "You all right?"
"It's just cold," she said. "I'm fine."
"Sorry about that." Ginger waited and in a moment a picture came on the screen of a little television-like set next to the chair she was sitting in. "There it is. Right there." The woman pointed to the screen and Ginger froze. "Can you hear that? It's got a strong heartbeat." Ginger nodded, tears coming to her eyes. "Do you want to know the sex? I can tell you right now." Ginger nodded again. "It's a girl."
"Oh my God," Ginger said, putting her hands over her mouth. Tears fell out of her eyes. "Oh my God I'm having a girl." Dr. Amoroso nodded. "Is she okay? She's not�messed up or anything, is she?"
"She's just fine." Ginger let a sob out into her hands. "Are you all right there, Mom?"
"Mom�" Ginger said, shaking her head. "I'm a mom�" The doctor handed Ginger a box of tissues and allowed her to cry. "I wish Zac were here. He would have loved this."
"I'm sure he would."