CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: ALL THE PIECES FELL INTO PLACE
June 21st, 2020
It was difficult for Marcie to keep her eyes open when she clocked into her 6AM shift at Dunkin'. As soon as she walked in, the line for the drive thru was already nearing the street. She groaned loudly, loud enough for her coworkers to hear. They had the same energy as Marcie when it came to the morning rush. As she made at least thirty coffees within the first ten minutes of her shift, Marcie wished she was working in fashion instead of serving coffee to angry boomers at this time of morning.
The morning rush usually lasted a few hours, with no break in between. Today somehow, was different, when the drive thru line was empty by 6:58AM. Marcie wiped the sweat from her forehead, forgetting her hands were covered in caramel swirl. "Shit," she mumbled, feeling the sticky coffee flavor on her skin.
Just as she was about to wash her hands and wipe the caramel from her forehead, the front door to the building chimed, signaling that a customer had walked into the building. Marcie hoped it wasn't another middle aged man, coming in to complain about his coffee order -- that Marcie most likely made correctly.
To her surprise, though, it was not a middle aged man who walked into the building at approximately seven o'clock in the morning. Instead, it was Avery Nelson.
"Marceline," Marcie's boss, Debbie, who couldn't bother to learn Marcie's nickname, called from the donut case. "Take this order."
Marcie rolled her eyes. Debbie was standing right there; she could have easily taken Avery's order. Instead of responding, she just walked over to the register. Marcie quickly punched in her employee number, wanting to get this over with.
"Hey, Marcie." Avery yawned. She wasn't her typical, chipper self this morning. Instead, she looked sick. Avery's face was pale; her hair barely brushed and thrown into a messy bun on the top of her head. She wore an oversized tee shirt and shorts so short, the tee shirt covered them.
"What can I get for you?"
"Can I get a large hot caramel macchiato with whipped cream?" Avery yawned again.
Marcie typed Avery's basic drink into the system, without making eye contact. "That'll be four seventy-nine." she said flatly.
As Avery pulled her card out of her wallet, Marcie looked up and took in the bride to be's appearance once more. Avery actually looked physically ill, as if she was about to pass out.
"Are you okay?" Marcie couldn't help herself from asking.
"Perfectly fine," Avery nodded, though it was obvious that she was lying. She inserted her card into the chip reader, holding onto the counter with a tight grip. When she took her card out, Marcie walked away to make the macchiato.
While the milk was steaming, Marcie watched as Avery slid her finger across her phone screen, and placed the device to her ear.
"Doctor Brewer?" Avery spoke quietly into the phone. Marcie slowly mixed the contents of the drink, though quickly realized she messed up -- since a macchiato is not supposed to be mixed. She hoped Avery would not notice. Though as she mixed the espresso, milk, and caramel, she nosily listened to Avery's phone call.
"Thank you for returning my call. It's been really bad,"
Marcie's curiosity grew. She hoped the drive thru line would stay at a steady pace like it was now, so that she would not have to jump in and help her coworkers. She wanted to stay at the front counter, so she could listen to Avery's phone call. As bad as that was, Marcie didn't care. She was a naturally nosey person.
"Mostly just nausea. Really bad nausea. I can't eat meat like I once used to,"
Marcie finished stirring the drink, though she took her time putting the lid on. She slowly walked over to the counter where Avery was standing, placing it on the marble countertop. Avery did not notice right away, so Marcie pretended to look busy so her coworkers, nor Avery, would question why she was just standing there.
"Just about nine weeks. No, I've mostly been wearing looser clothing."
Marcie's eyes widened. She almost knocked over a bottle of hazelnut swirl when the realization hit her.
It's been bad. Nausea. Nine weeks. Looser clothing.
Marcie lifted her head from the bottle of hazelnut swirl. She eyed Avery, who now had the messed up drink in her hand. The phone was placed in between Avery's ear and shoulder, while her free hand that wasn't holding the macchiato was placed on her stomach.
Marcie's jaw almost dropped at the realization.
Avery was pregnant.
As she watched Avery rub her stomach, more realizations clouded Marcie's brain.
Avery was marrying Rowan, after dating for barely a year. The wedding was in two months -- and based on the wedding invitation Gemma and Marcie received in the mail at their New York apartment, it was clear that the two had not been engaged for long. They were planning a last minute wedding in the span of only a few months, which never made sense to neither Gemma nor Marcie. The two of them figured that maybe, the two actually were in love. Though now that Marcie watched Avery rub her stomach, all the pieces fell into place. It all started to click.
They were only getting married because Avery was pregnant.
Maybe they were in love. But as Marcie listened to Avery talk about her pregnancy symptoms, the only thought that made sense in the moment, was that the two were only getting married because they were having a baby.
"Thanks, Marcie." Avery's voice disrupted Marcie from her rambling thoughts.
"No problem," Marcie forced a smile on her face, trying her hardest not to look at Avery's stomach. She would have never known Avery was pregnant. For being nine weeks pregnant, she was barely showing. Or maybe she was, and the loose clothing she always wore was covering it.
Without saying goodbye, Avery walked out of the building with her phone still pressed to her ear, and her messed up drink in hand.
The morning rush continued once Avery was out of the building. Though Marcie had a hard time focusing on making coffee for the next few hours, because all she could think about was how her shift needed to end -- because she needed to tell Gemma what she just found out.
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Gemma finally had a day off from Target, after working so many days in a row. She wasn't one to sleep in, but after waking up at nine o'clock with no alarm, Gemma forced her body to go back to sleep. She opened her eyes to see her phone screen read 11:48AM. Though she wanted to keep sleeping, she knew she wouldn't be able to. So, she just laid in bed, watching American Horror Story to pass the time.
Just as an intense scene was playing on the screen, Marcie busted through Gemma's bedroom door. Gemma jumped, considering she wasn't expecting her best friend to barge in like that.
"Gemma," Marcie whisper yelled.
"Why are you whispering?" Gemma sat up in bed, pausing her show.
"Because Avery is here," Marcie spoke quietly, shutting the door to drown out the voices of Avery and Gayle coming from downstairs.
"Okay?"
"I have something to tell you," Marcie sat down next to Gemma, who was still immersed under the blankets. "Something huge."
Gemma started growing curious. "Okay..."
"Avery - " Marcie took a deep breath before telling Gemma the shocking, newfound information. "She's pregnant."
Gemma's eyed widened. She didn't believe what she was hearing.
"What?" she asked in disbelief. "That can't be right. She doesn't even look pregnant,"
"She always wears loose clothing; have you noticed that?"
Gemma shook her head. She never paid attention to what Avery wore, because why would she?
"How do you even know this?" Gemma asked, still not believing what her best friend was saying. Marcie loved drama -- not starting drama, but being involved in drama. It was a quality of her nosey personality. This was just speculation, Gemma figured. Just something that Marcie was making up.
"Avery came in to Dunkin' this morning. She was on the phone with a doctor - "
"You listened to her conversation?" Gemma asked, though she was not surprised. Marcie was always wanting to know others' business; it was just apart of her personality.
"You know how I am!" her best friend laughed in defense. "I obviously only heard her end of the conversation, but she said something along the lines of her nausea being really bad, nine weeks, and loose clothing. Oh, and not being able to eat meat."
Gemma felt her face pale. As she processed Marcie's news, a lot of small details she noticed about Avery over the last few weeks started to make sense. Strange instances that she could not quite figure out, started clicking in her brain.
When she agreed to be apart of the wedding, and Avery invited her to a party at an Airbnb â everyone was drinking. Gemma watched Avery take shots, though her face did not scrunch up at all when downing the clear liquid. She did not even seem drunk as the night went on, which didn't make sense to Gemma. But it did now.
There wasn't vodka in those shot glasses. It was water.
That same night, when Gemma ran to the bathroom to vomit and she caught up with Wesley, he explained that he didn't like Avery. "I especially don't like her now that she's â " but he didn't finish his sentence. And even though she was drunk, Gemma's curiosity was eating away at her. She wanted to know what he was going to say, but it made sense now. Wesley especially did not like Avery, now that she was pregnant.
Then there was Olivia's birthday cookout. Gemma's dad made burgers and hotdogs, which everyone ate. And all of a sudden, Avery had food poisoning. From meat. A food Gemma remembered her being able to eat, very clearly. If Avery wanted to, she could devour multiple burgers from Clementine's. Gemma recalled many memories over the years of Avery ordering a bacon cheeseburger from Clementine's. But she could not now, because she was pregnant.
Avery was pregnant, with Rowan's baby.
"Gemma?" Marcie waved her hand in front of Gems' face, who had spaced out from trying to process the news. "Are you okay?"
Gemma nodded, though she wasn't necessarily telling the truth. She wasn't sure how to feel, though one thing she couldn't figure out, was why she felt bothered by this unexpected information.
While trying to process these bizarre feelings, there was one thought that would not stop circling Gemma's mind.
Did Rowan even love Avery? Or was he just marrying her, after barely dating for a year and rushing to get married in August, because she was carrying his child?
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a/n: shorter chapter BUT I feel like I had to end it here ... AHHH what do we THINK
also. I used to work at Dunkin so I had to explain the process of making the macchiato... I used to mess those up ALL the time lol oops