“I dropped him at his stop on my way to the bakery.” He straightened and picked up a bag with the emblem from a local bakery from her nightstand.

“You bought me a chocolate croissant?” It was her favorite pastry.

“Of course. And a coffee.” He lifted the coffee and then set it back down on her nightstand. “I wanted your day to start right.”

“Aren’t you going to be late for work?”

“Not if I leave now. We have reservations at Fogo de Chao at seven thirty. I should be home by six.” He kissed her again before leaving.

Lina propped herself on her pillows and brought the coffee to her lips, taking a swallow of the warm liquid. Before she could bite into the croissant, her phone was ringing. Over the course of the next half hour she received calls from her mother-in-law, Megan, Diane and finally Adele.

“Happy forty-first! I hope that asshole husband of yours served you breakfast in bed.”

“He surprised me with a chocolate croissant.”

“Ah, he’s pulling out the big guns! Have you groped any handsome doctors in the past three weeks?”

Lina groaned, the memory of her last interaction with Nick still eliciting a myriad of emotions, including guilt, embarrassment and, most distressing, longing. “Please stop reminding me.”

“Like you could forget. Still nothing from him?”

“I’m not going to hear from him.”

Lina returned home from her annual birthday lunch with Alice to find a dozen red roses and a FedEx envelope on the front porch beside the door. She smelled the roses as she walked towards the kitchen, knowing without opening the card that they were from Phil. He gave her a dozen red roses every birthday.

She set down the vase and opened the FedEx envelope. Inside was a smaller purple envelope, which contained a store-bought card that read “Happy Birthday” across the front in colorful letters. As soon as she opened it, the color drained from her face, and the card, along with the several pictures it contained, slid to the floor. She fell to her knees, gathering them up, her eyes looking from image to image. She covered her mouth as she struggled to her feet, barely making it to the bathroom before losing her entire birthday lunch. She kneeled in front of the toilet for minutes, tears clouding her eyes as she vomited again and again, until there was no possibility of anything being left in her stomach.

Shakily coming to her feet, she rinsed her mouth out before making her way to the kitchen. She picked up the pictures and card from the floor and went up to her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She crossed to her bed and sat down, spreading the four photos and the sonogram image on top of the comforter.