“Any spotting, vaginal discharge, anything like that?”
“Um…” Shit. Zoe huffed a breath and blushed, grateful she hadn’t attempted a video call so Ryder couldn’t see her awkwardness, just hear it. “Ryder, plug your ears,” she teased, “Or just… yeah.”
“You can mute or call me back,” he said gently. “But I’m not easily grossed out. I actually designed a vaginal health campaign for charity once. Long story.”
“Okay,” Zoe said, cringing a smile and shrugging for the nurse. “A little discharge, but nothing more than… um… it’s just productive down there.”
“A little increase is normal, just let us know if it gets to be odorous, uncomfortable, or unusual.”
Well, at least that one was over with. A few dozen more possible symptoms to check off, and at least she got some good tips on loosening the constipation a bit.
As Ryder stayed quiet through most of it, Zoe drifted and pictured the what if, of Raphe. He’d have disappeared at the first mention of discharge. Would he have laughed, or would he have been disgusted, over her acknowledgment of the constipation and her many attempts to get things moving? Ugh, he probably would have demanded why she hadn’t asked him for advice and then pretended to be an expert and give her a dozen hot tips.
“Your turn, Ryder,” Vanessa said, directing her voice toward the speaker phone.
“No vaginal discharge for me,” he said with a heavy sigh.
“Ha ha,” Zoe teased back.
“Recent STD testing?” Vanessa asked.
“Negative testing about two months ago, a few days after the night that got us into this… situation.”
“Hey, good job,” Zoe said, laughing and loving the awkward hesitance in his voice, but he was honest. “I got tested too.”
Vanessa looked back and forth between Zoe and the phone, and her dark eyebrows drew together. “I’ve gotten in the habit of starting with the easy questions, but while we’re on the subject… was this a planned pregnancy?”
Zoe and Ryder both laughed, and damn, she blushed and shook her head, and remembered Ryder couldn’t see her expressions. “No, no, no,” she said hoarsely. “We actually hadn’t seen each other in years, then bumped into each other—ha, like, bumped a little too hard—at our siblings’ wedding. He lives in Phoenix.”
A single dark eyebrow lifted and Vanessa’s eyes widened. “Um…” she said, pursing her lips together to hold the sound until she either worked up the nerve to ask about inbreeding or someone cleared the air.
“Whoa, no,” Ryder said, laughing fully and Zoe wished she could see his face. “My sister married Zoe’s brother. We are not related, not at all, not even a little.”
“Well, by marriage now,” Zoe added helpfully. “And a little peanut of our combined DNA in my belly.” She shrugged and said to Vanessa, “It was a very lovely wedding. We used a condom.” She was going to get a t-shirt—ha, a maternity shirt—that said they had used a condom. Although, well, she probably shouldn’t go around telling young impressionable individuals that condoms didn’t work. It usually did, just not this time… yeah. Maybe a wrinkled wallet condom had been a bad choice. Or the many position changes whilst trying to make the thin bit of latex last as long as possible.
“Well, that ship has sailed,” Vanessa joined in the teasing and laughed with them. She must hear so many stories. “So this appointment is like a fun get-to-know-you activity for you both. Like a little date.”
“Ha,” Zoe snorted, and covered her mouth and tried to speak again. “We’re not dating.”
“She’s got a boyfriend,” Ryder added with an excess of cheer, seeming to be enjoying increasing the awkwardness. “Who isn’t me.”
The force of her laugh sent her head tipping back, and Zoe’s feet came off the floor. “Stop making this worse,” she yelped. As soon as she calmed her mortified laughter enough, she cleared her throat and said, “I did not have a boyfriend when we slept together, and… but…” Zoe bit her tongue and stopped talking. Neither the time nor the place to mention the breakup. Not that it mattered… but it did… but it wasn’t supposed to. Dammit, this was weird.
“Fuck, my boss—” Ryder said, and quickly corrected. “Sorry for the f-bomb, forgot where we were. My boss is standing outside my office, waving at me. I should have closed the curtains. Do you mind if I see what he wants and call you right back?”
“No prob. Do what you gotta do,” Zoe answered, and shrugged for Vanessa.
“I’ll call right back,” he said again.
Good thing they weren’t dating, or Zoe suspected this would become a regular part of their relationship.
“So…” Vanessa said again, her eyes wide and smile halfway between confused and amused. “Let’s get some of the more personal questions out of the way, while it’s just the two of us.”
“Fire away,” Zoe said, and settled back in her seat. The vaginal discharge had been personal enough. By the time they’d gone through her complete medical history, Zoe glanced at Vanessa’s screen and realized she wasn’t nearly as perfectly healthy as she’d thought.
Vanessa snapped the laptop lid closed and rolled back. “We can update his end of things next time. Mostly from his side, we want to know if there are any genetic things to consider, birth defects, that sort of thing. You don’t happen to know…”
Zoe shook her head vaguely. “Nope. He’s pretty healthy though, and his half-sister is now my sister-in-law, and she’s healthy and having a pretty normal pregnancy.”
