I’m somewhat of a creature of habit, so almost every morning I stop at Circle K and grab something to drink in place of my occasional coffee.  Usually I grab fruit juice or bottled water but with Christmas a few days away I decided to treat myself to a nice hot chocolate. I was standing there in line, waiting for my turn at the register,  enjoying the smell of hot chocolate and when I stepped up to pay, Ms Casey smiled at me.

“The man in line before you, he paid for your hot chocolate.” she told me.

“What?” I asked, completely confused.

“He told me to wish you a Merry Christmas,” she said smiling sweetly.

There was no one in line behind me for me to “pay forward” this nice gesture too, so I tried to get out of the door in time to thank the mystery man. I saw him from behind his steering wheel, he was obviously in the Navy – he was wearing a flight suit and his brown hair was cropped into a short military hair cut. He smiled when he saw me, and returning his smile I waved and mouthed “thank you.”

I was shocked that a handsome man had just smiled at me, I was pregnant. Bring pregnant was already becoming such a part of how I thought about myself that it wasn’t until I was pulling into the office that I realized that though I saw myself as pregnant, to the untrained eye I didn’t look pregnant. I hadn’t gained much weight yet, what with all the throwing up, and the small bump that was there was easily hidden under the bulk of winter clothes.

I walked into the office ready to tie up any loose holiday ends. Ken was standing there talking to the receptionist and he looked at me and smiled brightly.

“Today, you’re glowing, ” he said.

I blushed, and made my way to my office, but I thought that today was the first day I was hopeful that there might be more to my life than just being pregnant.

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