by Alyse Zaftig
I walked slowly back to my house. I wasn’t in a hurry, and I liked being surrounded by the beautiful landscape. It was like being inside of a painting. I went out back. There was a shed back there, and when I peeked into the windows, I could see ATVs in there. Jimmy must go off-roading.
"Who are you?"
I spun around.
Warm Wisconsin Welcome
Amelia
There was a six-foot-tall blonde supermodel behind me. She had blue eyes just a little lighter than Jimmy's. She had cheekbones to die for, the kind that I had to pretend to have with makeup. Despite wearing a practical coat, she still had the kind of look that you saw on the cover of magazines. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley from Transformers wished that she looked this good. She was like Rosie’s taller sister.
"I could ask you the same. Who are you?"
She looked me up and down. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I don't have to explain myself to you. You're the intruder."
I snorted. "Hardly. I live here." I straightened up. I hadn’t been very happy about being here, but now that someone else was questioning my right to be here, my hackles were getting up.
"You live here? What, are you the new maid or something? I didn't know they needed more help."
I crossed my arms. "I am not the maid." My voice was very quiet and carefully stripped of any emotion. "And I have never met you before."
"I live a quarter mile down the road." She pointed in the opposite direction of the farm house. "And I don't believe you. The only person who lives in this house is Jimmy Fox."
"That's my husband."
She looked like I had smacked her in the face with a frying pan. A big one. “Your husband?"
I enjoyed her discomfort, maybe more than I should have. Jimmy and I didn't have a perfect marriage, but I liked claiming him in front of this chick.
"Yeah. I'm pregnant."
Her eyes zoomed in on my stomach. "You're pregnant?"
I touched the tiny swell of my belly under my coat. "Yes."
"How do I know that you're not lying? You could just be a fat thief."
I held up my hand. I did not have gloves. She could see the fat rock sitting on it. It was too big, really, but I was definitely enjoying the way that the sunlight was glinting off of it. She looked like she had seen a headless, bloody ghost.
"I'm wearing Jimmy's coat. I live in his house. I'm married to him. I am carrying his child. Now who are you?"
"I am Mary Jo." She crossed her arms. "I had no idea that he got married. I've been friends with Jimmy since we were in preschool."
I relaxed a little bit. Just a childhood friend and neighbor. “Don’t feel bad. His mom didn't come to the wedding," I admitted.
Her eyes lit up. "Oh?" I wondered if I should have said that. She was too happy right now. Too late.
"Yeah. It was sort of a spontaneous thing. All my friends came. My dad was there. But I don't think that Jimmy really brought too many people."
Now interest was definitely sparking in her eyes. "How interesting." She closed her eyes. "I mean, that's a shame. I would have loved to go to your wedding." I could hear the clear lie in her voice, as clear as the skin on her flawless face. She looked like she never had a pimple in her entire life.
"Uh huh. So, if you don't mind, you can go home to your house a quarter mile up the road..." I hinted.
She shook her head. “But I came to talk to Jimmy. We are having a fundraiser at church, and I wanted him to help me run the table."
"I'll pass on the message. Mary Jo wants him to come help with the fundraising table. Gotcha. Why didn't you call before you came?"
"Jimmy and I don't have the kind of relationship where I need to call before I come over. He's always happy to see me."
Jimmy might always be happy to see Mary Jo, but I sure wasn't. He had a little explaining to do.
"Hm. Maybe you should call before you come over in the future."
She looked as if I had slapped her. Served her right for insinuating that she and Jimmy had a close relationship. I had taken his virginity, and I wanted this chick off of my land. Funny how it was ‘my land’ when this morning it had been Jimmy’s.
"I'll call Jimmy," she threatened.
"Do it." My posture was relaxed. My hands were loose by my sides. My head was up, looking straight at her. In the battle between his wife and his childhood friend and neighbor, I was pretty sure that I could win. He was my husband, after all. I was having his child.
She took her cell out of her pocket, and I realized two things. One, I didn't have Jimmy's cell number. Two, there was no reception out here.
She stared at her phone. "It's searching for signal."
I smirked. "Looks like you'll have to go home and call his landline, then. Oh wait. Jimmy's car is gone. I don't know when he'll be back."
If she could kill me with a glare, she would have done so at that moment. "I'll be back." She walked away with long strides. Her hair swished quickly behind her, lashing around like a very angry golden kitten's tail.
Facebook Life
Amelia
I had everything that I needed from the outside, and a little more than that, besides. I went inside, and I uploaded the pictures from my phone to my computer. I uploaded them in an album called Wisconsin on my Facebook. Immediately, a bunch of likes and comments came flooding in.
"Wow, that looks beautiful."
"I'm so jealous! When can I come visit?"
"You moved?"
I smiled. It was funny how the reality of my life contrasted with the pictures that everyone else was able to see. In reality, I was someone who had gotten pregnant and stolen away to America's Dairyland. In their heads, I had walked into a fairytale. Only the richest people could afford to have this much space in DC, and they paid millions for the privilege. My house in DC would have cost $3 million at least, and I knew that it could be higher, given the housing market.
I closed my laptop when I got tired of talking to my old friends with their old perspective. Yeah, I guessed that it was interesting that I had moved so far away, but it was not like I had really had a great choice. I had no idea what the schooling options were like out here, but at least for the first few years of life, my baby was going to have the freshest air and lots of room to run around.
I opened up my laptop again. I poked around to look at Wisconsin's public school ratings. I wrinkled my nose at what I could find about Verona's public school system. I looked up homeschooling. They just had to have 850 hours of instruction per year. That sounded good to me. I was pretty sure I could swing it. You could buy lots of homeschooling materials from online, and we would be able to snuggle at home.
Homeschooling, I read, was becoming rapidly adopted by the middle class. The upper class could easily afford private school. I had gone to private school my entire life. There had to be some in Madison.
But it would be such a hassle to drive my kid in and out of the city that often. It took us a little while to get into Verona, and driving all the way to downtown or the East Side made me wince. I didn't even have a baby yet. She would get the best. He would get the best that I could give my baby. I touched my stomach again. I would do anything for this little collection of cells inside of my body, even if it meant giving up some of my own free time.
I went to take a shower. I didn't know where my steamer was, but there was an easy trick to steam your clothes. I took off my dress and a bunch of my clothes and brought them into my bathroom. They would be straight, just like they were steamed, after I took a shower.
I cleaned up, and I let the warm embrace of the water wash away the tension of trying to sleep away from my husband on our wedding night and meeting his mean neighbor outside of our home.
When I got out of the shower, I carefully blew out my hair. I put on makeup. Just meeting that girl outside of my house made my self-esteem take a hit. I wanted to be the prettiest version of myself, especially if girls like her were my competition.
When I looked in
the mirror, I saw my kohl-lined eyes and smiled. I was ready for battling anybody, even Valkyries.
I heard the door downstairs close. I went down. It took more time to get around the house when it was this much larger than the little house we had been in on my first visit. I guess those were the downsides of living in a mansion. It was the very definition of a first-world problem.
"Hey."
I went and hugged Jimmy. His body was stiff for a moment, then he hugged me back.
"What? Are you not mad at me anymore?"
"I woke up alone in your bed. I guess that meant something."
He stuck his hand in his pockets. "I didn't want my mom to find you in another room.”
My face fell a little bit. "Okay."
“And I didn’t want to sleep alone again. I missed you, you know. I’m not talking about sex, either.”
"What brought this on?" He gestured at the way that I was still hugging him, smelling the scent of his body. I wanted mine to be all over him, my lipstick on his collar, so that people knew that my husband belonged to me alone. "I met your neighbor, Mary Jo."
Stud
Amelia
He scrubbed his face with a hand. "What?"
"I was walking around the house. She came over. She said that she wasn't the kind of friend who needed to call. Your cell reception out here is extremely poor, you know that, right?"
"Yeah, we're pretty far away from the cell phone towers in Madison." He blinked. "What happened?"
"I don't know. She accused me of being a fat thief."
He blinked. "What?" He pinched his earlobe and tugged, like he couldn’t believe what his ears were telling him.
"Yeah. I told her that I was pregnant and lived here now, but she didn't really believe me at first. She tried to call you, but there's no reception out here. Also, can I have your cell number? It's not like I can call you from my cell, but if I need you, I'll call you on the landline."
"Oh yeah. Just give me your phone. I'll put it in your Contacts app."
I handed him my iPhone, and he tapped away at it.
"There. You have my number now."
He gave me back the phone.
"You named your contact information 'Stud'?" I held back a laugh. “I’m going to change it to Studly Husband.”
He flexed his arms. "I knocked you up, didn't I?" He leaned down and kissed me gently, making me lean back. "I'll be here for you."
"Where were you anyway?"
"This might come as a surprise, but I have a job."
"A job?" I raised an eyebrow. I smirked a little. "Hm."
"Yeah, I had a meeting in Madison. I think that we should have gone on a honeymoon after we got married, but I didn't want to miss this opportunity."
"Must have been a really good one."
"Yeah. Madison is a hub of technology, and nobody really realizes it. Dane County is one of the counties with the highest percentage of tech workers in the entire country. Madison is the third-ranked city in the United States for percentage of college-educated adults. If you throw a stick, you'll probably hit someone in the tech industry."
"So what did that have to do with today's meeting?"
His eyes lit up. "You want to know?"
I nodded.
"These guys have done something incredible. Quantified self is on the rise. FitBit is the prototypical example of that, but these guys have an integration app that can pull together all the medical devices."
"There are plenty of those on the market. Apple has HealthKit or whatever. What makes these guys special?"
"They've integrated it with the data sets from a bunch of different studies. If you have diabetes and you are a 40-year-old Chinese male, you'll get a different set of steps than a 25-year-old white girl. It's really amazing technology. Moving forward on genomics is the next frontier in healthcare."
I looked at his face. He was blazing almost as hot as when we had sex. "Sounds pretty good." I cleared my throat. "You know, your mom said that she was surprised that you had not taken me on a honeymoon. When are you going to have time in your schedule to handle that?"
He reached out and squeezed my hand. "I'll figure something out, I promise."
"You know, I have never been to Hawaii. Obama goes on vacation in Kauai. I would love to go over and visit it."
"There's this amazing brewpub that over there with a ton of little cabins that surround it. I know a place that would be great to..." He touched my arm and waggled his eyebrows. "Get to know each other better."
I smiled at him. "That sounds good to me." This time, we would literally be on an island, far away from this blonde chick.
"What do you want to do for dinner? I can take you to a restaurant. If you want simple Wisconsin food, I could just take you to Quivey's Grove."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. It's an old converted farmhouse. It's very local, for sure."
"Let's do that."
"Okay."
We went to his truck. When I looked at it again, I looked past the rust stains. The truck had a lot of character.
"Why is your car so rusty?"
"It's been exposed to a lot of rain and snow. I don't really keep it inside all that often, so it's just..." He shrugged. "Exposed to the elements a little more. I don't mind. The body underneath is still the same."
That was comforting to know. As I swelled up, at least he would feel the same way about the person underneath.
Quivey’s Grove
Amelia
We drove to Quivey's Grove, which was between Verona and Fitchburg. I got into their little parking lot. I liked the look of it. It was Americana at its finest. Unlike the little farmhouse, this farmhouse was well maintained. There was a lot of love in it.
When we got in, I saw fried fish on the menu. I ordered it, thinking about all the times I'd complained about Wisconsin fish fry and their foreign ways. I giggled.
"What's so funny?"
I blinked at him. "Nothing. I was just thinking that there must be a lot of fish out here."
"Do you fish?"
"Uh, not really. The Potomac isn't the best place to go fishing, for sure. I've been deep sea fishing with my dad, though. He likes to get far away from land when we are on vacations. We have a lot of fun on our yacht."
"Sounds like something that I should try out. I've only fished on land and in the lake. I can only imagine what it's like to deep sea fish. I am imagining something like Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea."
"It's exactly like that."
"See, I don't know if you are joking when you say that."
I shook my head. "Gotta learn. Gotta keep up. We’re married.“ I smiled at him. We had all the time in the world to spend together. My dad and mom weren’t the kind who believed in divorce, and his parents had stayed together, too. We were in this for the long haul.
"I can have my assistant to book us a trip to Hawaii in a few days. I have a few more meetings to get this deal nailed down."
"So you're a venture capitalist."
"Among other things, but yeah. There are serious state government tax incentives for people who invest in qualified Wisconsin businesses, mostly involving tax breaks. When you are moving as much revenue as we do, then you definitely have to look out for opportunities. When I invest in the local economy, I feel like I am helping my neighbors. That kind of ethos is how we do it here on the prairie."
"Silicon Prairie?" I raised my eyebrow.
"You joke, but Iowa already stole that. Dwolla and a bunch of other financial startups are all going in Des Moines. It's a quiet thing, but it's growing a lot. People, when they think of tech, think of San Francisco. There are smaller hubs in Los Angeles and New York. But we've got plenty of college kids out here. I'm involved with one of the incubators, MadWorks."
"Oh yeah?"
"I help mentor the kids. A lot of them are still in school at UW-Madison. They have the kind of energy and fire that you find in adults who are old enough to make their own decisions but don't have t
o worry about paying their bills. It's really a great time to start a business. I arbitrage the businesses that I value at a million out here and are valued at 8 million in San Francisco. Easy.“
"Huh. Interesting stuff." I felt terrible that I had wasted my college years when he told me about the kids who were starting their own businesses while they were still in school. Heck, my whole life had been like that, and I knew that I could have definitely done more with my time. Instead, all these college children were outpacing me like crazy. And it was all my fault for not doing what I should have done in the first place...actually pay attention to what was going on around me.
He was texting. "How can you text? There's no cell service out here."
He said patiently, "There's Wi-Fi. iMessage only needs some kind of connection."
I looked down at my phone. Even though the top left corner said 'No Service', I did have my little Wi-Fi connection. I was not alone out here, even though I could not really call anybody.
"What do you have in mind for the rest of the day?"
"Well, I called a gynecologist early this morning."
"You did?" I blinked. "Oh. Oh."
"Yeah, she said that it would be fine. I have to be more careful in your third trimester, because you can induce labor that way."
"Noted. I haven't read that much about pregnancy, but I'll learn with you." I was committed to this relationship and making us work.
* * *
When dinner was over, we went home. I kissed him and tugged at his belt.
In response, he took off my dress.
"Jeez, you get straight to the point, don't you? How do you know I’ll even let you do this?“
"Why wait?"
He picked me up, putting me over his shoulder. He slapped one exposed cheek. I loved his confidence and sexual aggression. I felt like he was a tiger waiting to eat me up.
"I want to give you the wedding night that I didn't. I'm sorry, you know."
