Chapter 27

Sebastien skidded to a halt behind his future wife, just as she had finished the phone conversation.



He had been in the pool, just relaxing and swimming around when the distant, yet loud ring of the phone reached his ears. It could only be one thing! Without loosing a moment, he had jumped on the ladder and ran all the way inside, leaving small puddles on his way there.

‘Well?’ he asked excitedly, waiting for Shadee to respond ‘What did they say?’



The young woman was with the back to him, facing the wall and still holding the receiver in her hand. He couldn’t see her face, but he was sure he knew what the result was, until she turned around.

Shadee’s eyes were filled with tears, yet they hadn’t made their way down her cheeks yet. A distinct sad expression was on her face, but she tried to smile.



‘Honey, is everything alright?’ Sebastien just couldn’t shake off the feeling that something must have been wrong ‘Were the results okay?’

‘Yes, yes…’ she nodded and discreetly rubbed the tears from her eyes ‘Everything is fine. I’m not dieing or anything!’ she gave a small laugh that didn’t seem too genuine though ‘The results were negative. I’m not pregnant.’



The words seemed to hang in the air, creating a brick wall between the two. A few moments of silence followed in which they looked at each other. Then, at the same time, they spoke again.



‘Well, umm…I’m gonna go back to swimming…’

‘I think I’m gonna go upstairs and lie down a little…’



Shadee started to walk up the stairs and everything felt like in a dream, the daze and uncertainty surrounded her, her brain seemed foggy and the tears she had rubbed away from her eyes a few minutes before, came back flooding her whole face.



Sebastien still remained at the foot of the stairs for a while, watching her leave. He wanted to move, return to the pool filled with cool water. But he felt as though his feet had been tied up together, like a huge block of concrete kept him rooted on the spot.



Having reached her bedroom, the young woman let herself fall on the soft bed and buried her head in the pillow. Why was she feeling that way? She knew perfectly well that she wasn’t yet ready for a baby, she didn’t feel mature enough to take care of a small creature that depended wholly on her. And still, at the sound of the news she had felt her heart sink well below sea level. In only one day she had gone from panic to refusal to acceptance and then to sheer excitement. Who was she trying to kid? She really wanted to have a baby, she had already started to make plans inside her mind, how she would decorate one of the upstairs rooms of her new house into a lovely nursery, she had thought of names for the baby, she had imagined sunny Sundays spent in the park with Sebastien and a stroller, she had pictured holding a tiny infant in her arms and knowing it’s hers. And there was also Seb. He had been so excited at the thought he might become a father, how disappointed he must have felt. Who would have thought that a temporary stress induced sickness could wreck such emotional havoc in the small family…

It took only a few more days for Shadee to get better from her illness and almost a month for the couple to get over the disappointment. They succeeded to keep their mind off of things while working on their beautiful new house: painting the walls, choosing the parquet or carpet, buying the suitable furniture and arranging it as to fit into the rooms. But sure enough, everything was ready at the end of September. They simply couldn’t recognise the house with its beautiful finishing. They had also built a garage for their pretty car and planted some bushes, flowers and trees in their garden.



The back yard had been transformed into a vast terrace with a big, nice pool, a Jacuzzi and a grill.

Surprisingly enough, there were no tears when Shadee and Seb finally moved out of Gypsy’s house.



She was just happy to see them happy and it wasn’t like they were moving to another part of the world. They were just a few streets away and both the old lady and Caleb were welcome any time they wanted to pay them a visit.

Yet another few weeks and the couple had settled into their new house. The fact that Sebastien got promoted was an even bigger achievement for both of them and, on the career part, Shadee was considering opening up an art gallery of her own. But it was too soon after having spent a huge amount of money for their home.

It was a mild autumn afternoon and Shadee was just about to start working on a new painting in her “art room”.



Sebastien was in his office going through some important work for the hospital.



Exactly when the young woman wanted to put the brush on the pure white canvas, the doorbell rang loud and distinct. Shadee sighed deeply and rubbed off the paint of her hands, looking at the hour on her cd-player. Half past four it couldn’t have been Caleb and Gypsy, they hadn’t announced them about anything and they never came without calling first.

‘Coming!’ she shouted, starting to descend the stairs.



Finally getting to the door, she had the most pleasant shock in a while, at the sight of her visitors.



Hope you enjoyed and weren't too disappointed about the results, everything at its own time I just wanted to create a little twist. Please share your thoughts!