Before Janelle had the child that Steven surrendered, he had to travel out of town for a few days on a work-related issue. Since there was no way he could or would take his heavily pregnant wife with him, and because they had recently repainted part of their place, leaving an unpleasant smell that Janelle was paranoid could harm her unborn mistake, he managed to convince Deanne and Spencer to let her stay with them during this time. This way, he would at least have the peace of mind knowing she wasn't getting into trouble with the neighbors or doing anything else she shouldn't be doing. They agreed, if only to help Steven out and to get a good laugh at what the "idiot" looked like all knocked up.
"If things get that bad, you can always kick her out and bring her back here," Steven had told them.
"Oh, we will," Deanne reassured him. "But we're not going to feed her more than usual. We're going to do what we always try to do and make sure she doesn’t have more food than she should for one her size, minus the kid, of course. It may sound horrible to most people, but we’re not feeding that thing."
"I understand."
"At least she's been eating healthier but still. She's going to have to eat what she's served and the amount she's served. Although, I don’t suppose that’s anything you’d want to tell her."
"No," Steven said. "Better to let her think you agreed to get the healthy stuff she wants to cook for everyone."
Deanne, who had always hated vegetables, asked, "Oh, so she wants to cook us healthy stuff, huh?"
Steven laughed. "Yeah, she wants me to give you a whole list of stuff to get for her to make up."
Deanne snorted on the other end of the line.
"She wants to make chicken one night and fish the other."
"Yuck, fish!"
"Oh, but then there are also the yummy sides," Steven said with a chuckle, glancing at the living room doorway to make sure his wife wasn’t about to overhear his side of the conversation.
"Ooh, tell me, tell me!" Deanne said in mock anticipation.
"Veggies, potatoes, and rice."
"Eh, potatoes aren’t bad."
"And she's got to have fruits and nuts to snack on, of course."
Now it was his sister’s turn to laugh because she knew her hateful sister-in-law wasn’t getting any of those things. She and her husband had their way of eating, whether people liked it or not. She knew the heavily processed diet they consumed wasn’t the healthiest, especially for a pregnant woman, but that was for them to worry about and no one else’s business. Go out and buy a bunch of crap for the woman who cheated on her brother so she could finally have the kid he didn’t want them to have? Over her dead body! She wasn’t stupid either; she knew Janelle wanted to do it for herself and not to show off her newfound culinary skills.
In the other room, Janelle was apprehensive about staying with her sister and brother-in-law as she reached the final trimester of her pregnancy. "Are you sure you told them about the things I want to cook for us and what to get?" she asked Steven later on.
"I mentioned it to them."
"But did they agree to it?"
"I told them what you wanted."
"Yeah, but you didn’t tell me if they agreed to it."
"We’ll just have to wait and see," said Steven.
"No, that’s not good enough. I need to eat healthy, not just because we don’t want to feed our kid crap, but because of my medical conditions."
"It will be alright," Steven insisted, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. "If you really don’t like what they’re eating, they can bring you home."
With much reluctance, hoping she wouldn’t regret not staying home and dealing with the fumes, which were actually beginning to fade, she allowed herself to be dropped off at her sister and brother-in-law’s place. It was mid-afternoon on Wednesday, and Janelle wasn’t due to be picked up until Friday afternoon. When she wasn’t looking, Steven gave his sister twenty dollars.
Janelle tried to ignore the fact that she wasn’t greeted with a smile or asked how she was feeling. Determined to put the charm on, Janelle greeted her hosts, which included her mother-in-law, and wasted no time pointing out that she needed to eat healthy pregnant or not and avoid carbs as much as possible, particularly bread. "I’ll do all the cooking and cleaning, and you won’t have to lift a finger."
Spencer, with his usual sense of humor, lifted a hand and then his pinky finger and said, "But I just lifted a finger."
Janelle laughed and then kissed her husband, who didn’t warmly return the kiss. "We’ll be looking forward to seeing you in a few days," Janelle said, rubbing her tummy with a dreamy smile.
Behind her, Spencer rolled his eyes, and Deanne bore a look of disgust.
Steven left, and Deanne curtly told Janelle to put her stuff in the guest room. "If you need to rest a lot, don’t worry about it. You’re not being rude or anything if you spend a lot of time holed up in there."
"Oh, good. I do need to rest at times. I brought a book and a notebook to keep me busy, too," said Janelle, missing the fact that this was a tactic to keep her out of sight.
Deanne said nothing. And when Janelle was out of earshot, Spencer whispered in her ear with a laugh, "I can just imagine all the nasty stuff she’s gonna write in her journal."
"I’ll just be glad when Friday comes," Deanne said.
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