we're in it together

 

Hope and Tori hit it off at the Fourth while chatting at Caitlin and Megan's. After all, they did have a lot in common, both pregnant and of course Frankie.

"I'm a little worried about him," Hope had said then. Tori only gave her a nod but didn't go into saying much about him at the party since he was there.

Weeks later they met up at the yoga studio. Tori got a membership and it was good to be with so many expecting mothers. Of course, she didn't think she'd be much good at the class. After all, she looked farther along than most when she actually wasn't. She felt like an ugly duckling in a stream of swans.

"Oh, stop saying that about yourself," Hope told her after the first class.

"I could see it in Frankie's eyes. He thinks I'm fat," she was blunt but knew it to be the truth.

"He just hasn't gotten used to the new you," Hope told her she was certain he liked to keep her in a certain time frame of his life. "We aren't meant to be what is expected of us. We grow. We struggle. We have to be who we are. Not who people think we must be."

Tori understood, but she really did think she was fat. She felt as if her body was swelling in places she never imagined. She told Hope she'd cut back on salt and no burgers nor fries. Hardly a cracker these days. She'd been diagnosed with gestation diabetes. Honestly, she didn't want anyone to worry about it.

"You must be tired," Hope said, thinking of the finger test for her blood sugar and two shots of insulin every day. Tori even cut out caffeine, which was her guilty pleasure.

"But you are doing all the right things, I think more walking will help." But she knew Tori was an indoor kind of person. "You can do a lot of your steps at home." Honestly, Hope did want to help Tori. Still, she hoped Tori didn't think that she looked down on her. "I know you're stressed. It's summer, but think how far you've come. It'll get better."

It was a mantra that she told herself daily, but some days were better than others.