In Love With An Older Man 6: Baby Trouble

April 1991

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" To Gary, Cindy looked as if she might break down and cry any minute.

Cindy shrugged. "I'm all right." She tried to look busy pouring coffee and setting the table for breakfast. Gary, knowing that something was wrong but willing to wait until she was ready to talk about it, watched her silently for a few minutes.

Cindy glanced at him briefly. "My period just started." She wasn't able to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry." Gary gave her a comforting hug. "It'll happen next month. I know it will."

"That's what you said last month. And the month before that."

"Well, I think you just need to relax about it. If it was meant to be, it'll happen. No use stressing yourself out about it."

"Yeah, that's easy enough for you to say."

"What do you mean by that? I thought that we were in this together." Gary looked hurt.

"I'm sorry," Cindy mumbled guiltily. "I didn't mean to take it out on you."

"Look, don't you see the gynecologist soon anyway? Maybe he can check just to make sure nothing serious is wrong."

"They put Jane through all those tests and never found anything wrong with her or Philip. She just never got pregnant."

"But she and Philip are the happy parents of a beautiful little girl now. See, if one door closes, another will open."

"But I want my own so bad, Gary."

"I know you do, sweetie. I want a baby with you too. And maybe it will be different for us than it was for Jane and Philip."

"I sure do hope so." Cindy attempted a weak smile. Gary's heart ached for her. He knew how badly she wanted a baby, and he was sure that she would be an excellent mother. He had seen the way she interacted with Jake and Carly, and he thought that they could never have asked for a better stepmother. He greatly appreciated everything she had done for them, was still doing for them.

"I hope so too, Cindy."

Gary and Cindy were relaxing after dinner that night when the phone rang.

"Cindy, guess what!" Jane sounded more excited than she ever had before.

"What?" Cindy asked eagerly.

"I'm pregnant!"

"Wow! Really?"

"Yes! I just found out today. I took the home pregnancy test first, then just to make sure it wasn't a false positive, I went to the doctor. He told me that I'm about four weeks along. I just got off the phone with Mom. She's thrilled!"

"Well, that's great, Jane! congratulations! What does Penny think about it?"

"We haven't told her yet. We haven't decided how we should tell her. I sure hope she'll be happy about it."

"Well, I'm sure she will, Jane."

"Phil and I are worried that she might feel displaced."

"I just don't see that happening, Jane. Penny loves babies. I'm sure she'll be a wonderful big sister."

After Cindy hung up, she shared the news with Gary.

"Well, that's great, Cindy! I know she's been wanting a baby for a long time." He looked happy. "Bad timing for you, though, isn't it?" His voice was gentle as he took her hand.

"I'm okay with it." While Cindy was genuinely happy for her sister, Jane's happy news did seem to make her own situation more poignant.

"It sounds to me like you may not be ovulating," Dr. Young told Cindy at her next gynecological exam. "My advice is for you to take your temperature first thing in the morning every day and keep a record of your daily temperatures. Plot them on a graph. If you are ovulating, you will see a slight increase in your temperature over a period of a couple of days each month. That's your optimal time to conceive. Try that for several months, and if you still don't get pregnant, I'll prescribe fertility pills for you."

"So the most intimate part of our lives is now a science project," Gary commented when Cindy repeated the doctor's instructions to him.

"I'm sorry it has to be this way."

"So, no more spontaneity. Boy, talk about pressure to perform."

Cindy gave him a pleading look, and he rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Okay. Whatever."

July 1991

Cindy sat in Dr. Young's office, waiting while he looked over her completed graphs.

"I see no definite spike in your monthly temperature, and to me that indicates that you're probably not ovulating. I think it's time to consider fertility drugs." He scribbled something on a pad. "Here's your prescription. Be sure to take the medication exactly as directed. You should also keep charting your daily temperatures on a graph as you have been doing. Good luck to you."

"Thank you!" This has just got to work, Cindy told herself as she walked back out to her car.

September 1991

Cindy was choosing CD's for her afternoon play list when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her and a kiss on the top of her head. Startled, she dropped the list, and it landed on her desk.

"Gary! You scared me!"

He laughed. "You happen to be ever so much fun to scare, my love. How about hot dogs in the park? The weather's gorgeous!" It was true. The hot stickiness of summer was over, and the early morning autumn chill hadn't yet set it. The sky was a gorgeous blue, the clouds were puffy and white, and the leaves would soon start changing colors and dropping from the trees. Jake and Carly had returned to school only a couple of weeks previously. Carly was in her senior year of high school, and Jake was a freshman.

Cindy laughed. "All right."

A few minutes later, they were sitting on a bench in the park eating hot dogs.

"You know, this may well be the very same bench we were sitting on when it all started between us a couple of years ago," Cindy remarked.

Gary took another bite of his hot dog. "So tell me, ma'am, are you here to apply for the disc jockey position?"

Cindy giggled and played along. "Yes sir, I am."

"Do you have references?"

"The best."

"Let's see them, then."

Cindy glanced back at the radio station. "Left them in the office."

Gary embraced her. "Come here, you."

Cindy giggled again. "What makes you think this is appropriate behavior for a job interview?"

"All right, you've got the job. Interview over." He pulled her to him and kissed her passionately.

"We have to be back at the radio station in a few minutes," she reminded him a while later.

"Oh, I can think of much more enjoyable activities for this lovely afternoon than sitting at a desk playing CD's. Can't you?"

"But who will do our jobs?"

"I'll call in my assistant and one of the other DJ's as soon as we get home." Which he did, just before gathering Cindy into his arms and kissing her passionately once again. "I've got much more important business to attend to right here," he murmured, nibbling Cindy's ear.

"But it's not the right time of the month," Cindy protested.

Gary looked chagrined. "Oh, forget about your stupid graphs and charts. I'm tired of my love life being dictated by them." He had finished with her ear and was kissing her neck.

"You are awfully hard to resist," she laughingly admitted.

"Not as hard to resist as you are." He gazed lovingly into her eyes. "Please, Cindy."

Suddenly it didn't matter to her what time of month it was. All that mattered was that she wanted to be with Gary, right there and then.

"I want you, Gary. I want you so bad." She was almost crying.

"Hey, you've got me. You don't have to cry." He laughed and kissed her nose, and she relaxed and yielded to his gentle caresses.