Short Fiction
“I’m sure everything will be fine,” she said. “These things just take time.” “We’ve been trying for almost a year,” the young woman said, biting her bottom lip absently. “Some people struggle for years before it happens. We had a patient last month who got pregnant after six.” Denise began to feel as if she was speaking to the door as much as to the client standing next to her checking her watch. “You know the worst part?” the young woman asked, her hand pressed against the wall. “I hope it’s his fault. I really hope he is the reason. It sounds terrible, but if it’s him I can find someone else.” Tears inched down her soft cheeks quietly. “I’ve found matches you know, from restaurants we’ve never been to. I’ve still got the matches.” The young woman pulled matchbooks from her purse and held them up for Denise to see. “I still have them.” Denise took a tissue out of her smock and led the woman back to the waiting room, inside hoping that the husband was the reason as well. She thought about how men don’t have the same aching for children that women do, and she envied them for that. After a few minutes passed, the young man returned to the waiting room and sat down next to his wife. She whispered questions to him, her hands motioning for details he couldn’t supply as if he could judge the quality of his sample by holding it up to the light. Denise watched quietly as they worked out their positions on where they were together, and when the mood cooled she scheduled a follow up appointment with a polite smile. As the couple walked toward the door, she passed pamphlets to the young woman covering in-vitro fertilization and adoption services. Damir Denise returned to the room to retrieve the young man’s sample. She walked quickly down the hallway leading to the lab, and hoped no one would stop her to make small-talk since the fresher the sample, the higher the count. In the lab she thumbed a label onto the plastic cup, and handed it to a lab tech named Damir who had once asked to kiss her. He had asked so Atticus Review│Get Lit: Round 1
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