An Unconventional Happy Ending

Today’s post is my response to the Little Red Writing Hood prompt over at the The Red Dress Club. We were asked to write about a happy ending – I chose to follow-up on last week’s story…

She started thinking about fairy tales. You know the sort: the prince comes, gallant and handsome, and sweeps the hapless girl off her feet. Usually on a white horse. Sometimes she gets a palace. Sometimes in place of the palace, there is a loft on 5th avenue – depending on the production studio.

She wanted a happy ending of her own. The problem? She wasn’t quite sure of what she would consider to be a happy ending for herself.

The baby growing inside her; well, that changed things. It changed everything.

She lay in bed and considered it. What did she want? Did she want to be a single mom? In a perfect world, if she had exactly what she wanted, would it be to reconcile with him and raise this child together?

She was shaken from her reverie by the shrill cries of the telephone.

“Damn it.” She pulled herself up out of bed and made her way down the hall to the kitchen.

As she looked at the caller ID, her heart sank. It was him.

Him. She didn’t want to answer. Didn’t want to hear his whiny, whimpering voice, begging for forgiveness. Apologizing for tricking her into this pregnancy. She still couldn’t believe he had poked a hole in the condom!

“Are you insane?!” She had screamed at him, in utter disbelief that he could do something so desperate, so conniving. “I left you because you cheated on me. I gave you years to straighten yourself out, to learn how to control yourself! Now you think that I will take you back because you managed to cheat me again!?” She had lost all control at that point and began pummeling his chest with her balled up fists. Damn, she wished she knew how to throw a punch. Oh, how badly she had wanted to hurt him.

She let the phone ring. Fuck him. She didn’t need to answer anyone, let alone him.

After seeing her doctor, she found that she was only about 5 weeks along. early enough that not keeping the baby was an option. But was it really an option? Despite the circumstances, she felt the tiniest pangs of excitement as she heard the “whoosh whoosh whoosh” of the heartbeat fill the exam room…she had immediately began picturing nurseries, baby bonnets and tiny little toes.

“I want this.” She said to no one in particular. “I have always wanted this.” She realized in that moment that having a baby – whether she took her husband back or not – was what she had always wanted, ever since she was a little girl. She had been talking for years about having their first child, and her husband had always laughed it off, saying that they should get a puppy. She had approached the subject many times and quickly been shot down by excuses that they were too busy, they didn’t make enough money, their house was too small…and she had eventually given up.

With that realization, it was if a light bulb went on in her head. She began to see things a little more clearly. She wanted the baby. She wanted a family. For a moment, she felt that she even wanted her husband back. He was more than willing – he was desperate – to make things right, even if he didn’t understand that tricking her into an unplanned pregnancy wasn’t the best way to win her back.

She picked up the receiver and dialed his number. Thoughts raced through her head, what was she going to say?

“Are you still mad at me?” He answered on the first ring, she knew he must have been sitting there, waiting for her to make contact.

“Yes, but I want to talk about this.” She smiled to herself, realizing, she did know what her happy ending was after all.