Getting lost

After getting lost on her way over to Noah's parents and not being able to find her way by herself, Laila decided to call for some help. Though she knew it would pain her to hear the gloating, she had wasted too much time already and she didn't want to worry her in-laws any more than they probably already were.

While biting her nails and fighting the urge to bite them off, Laila listened as the phone rang. After just two rings the phone was picked up and a smooth, low voice answered. "Hello?" From the way the phone had been answered it became immediately clear that they had not looked at the display before answering. Laila just answered with, "It's me."

Over the phone she could hear how a pen was dropped and the person on the other side of the phone leaned back into their chair. "Well, well, well, if it isn't my lovely wife. I thought you had forgotten about me. I sent you a message but I wasn't lucky enough to receive a reply. Nor did I get a call yesterday to see how my day was, not even a message to wish me a good night. So tell me, how did I manage to get the pleasure of your call today? Did my replacement not work out?"

On the other side of the phone Laila rolled her eyes as she listened to Noah's exaggerations. She knew this would come when she fell asleep yesterday without calling him back. Laila thought he had forgotten about it when she saw his message pop-up while she was driving but she had celebrated too early. When his questions came and were followed by a silence, Laila finally found a moment to respond. "Are you finished?"

Though Laila had opened with a question, it was not one she wanted him to respond as it was immediately followed by a single word. "Good." From her tone her annoyance was clear. Despite Noah mostly joking, Laila was a bit on edge from her being lost and not being able to find her way by herself. So, while Noah's sulking was fake, Laila's irritation certainly wasn't and she went off on a little rant. "Your message was only two hours ago and I was driving. How was I supposed to reply, hmm? Or should I text while driving next time and get myself in an accident. You can't make me promise to be careful and look after myself but then also expect me to drop everything as soon as you ask for my attention."

Noah was quite surprised by Laila's reaction and he was about to ask if she was alright, when she broke down on her own. With each word that followed after her words of frustration, Laila's voice started cracking and soon she felt herself fighting back the tears that had formed in her eyes. "Geez, I am already lost, tired and hungry, only to have you going off on me like that when I call to ask for help." Immediately Noah became worried and he felt stupid for playing that stupid joke on Laila without knowing the reason for her call. He had assumed it was in reaction to his message but it seemed he had thought wrong.

If he had heard her words correctly, he had no trouble understanding why she reacted the way she did. Even one of those things would make a normal person crabby, let alone all three at once to a pregnant woman. Suffering from mood swings is normal without any of those factors. So, he certainly couldn't blame her for having one with all of that going on. Besides, he had been lucky as it was that Laila had barely had any of those so far. But even if she didn't have them often, that didn't mean she was immune to them. Through her sobbing Laila continued to defy herself, while Noah tried to calm her down and comfort her as well as he could through the phone.

"I'm stuck here by the side of the road and you accuse me of things that aren't even true. You know perfectly well that I did send you a good night message but I fell asleep immediately after. Growing a child isn't easy you know?"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything."

"Regular things get me exhausted and yesterday had been filled with them, so I fell asleep. Did even me sleeping turn into a reason for you to go pouting and sulking? If you were so anxious to tell me about your day, you could have called me yourself. I have enough to do and worry about for these two days so, do I now also have to worry about you?"

"No. You don't. I was just joking. I didn't mean to get you upset like this."

Once Laila had said all she needed to say, she calmed down a bit and finally remembered why she had called Noah in the first place.

She took a deep breath through her nose and let the air back out steadily through her mouth. Once she was back to herself, she realized that she had overreacted quite a bit and apologized. "I'm sorry. I think the stress and irritation from being lost and getting late to lunch with your parents, made me lose myself for a moment."

Noah chuckled and said, "That's alright. You are doing the hard part. I can bear a few mood swings every now and then. So tell me, what did you call me for? You said something about getting lost?"

As she wiped the tears from her face Laila replied, "Yes. I am so close to your grandmother's house. According to my navigation I am just half an hour away but it seems they are working on the road. So, I can't follow the route that the navigation has planned out for me but no matter what I do, it refuses to redirect me. Since you know these roads by heart, I was hoping you could be my navigation for me."

Noah let out another chuckle. If Laila hadn't been so distressed about being lost, he would have loved to tease her for it but for this one time he would take it easy on her and leave the teasing for when she came back.