Room 702 Read Free

comforts of home, friends, and family.
    “It was nice tonight,” Chelsea Pearson comments, removing delicate silver earrings, a gift from Shaun on their wedding day.
    “Yesh,” Shaun agrees, more than a little tipsy from the unlimited champagne the waiters were pouring.   His wife, hesitant in case this is the month she sees the plus sign on the pregnancy test, refrained from drinking much past a celebratory glass at midnight.   Slipping his already untied bowtie off, he continues, “I can’t wait to put the picturesh online.”
    Chelsea smiles indulgently at her spouse.   Since moving to Los Angeles from London, Shaun has been constantly posting pictures, videos, celebrity sightings and all of their latest updates.   Although they both came from humble beginnings, taking the risk to move thousands of kilometers from friends and family has paid off.   After a short time, Shaun, a talented real estate agent, pulled an excellent commission check – making nights like tonight possible.   Chelsea is optimistic that by the time they ring in the next New Year there will be three in their family.   Having been so careful for years, Chelsea went off birth control four long months ago.   She worries there is some issue why she hasn’t fallen pregnant yet, but Shaun assures her they will conceive when they are supposed to and that they should enjoy their time alone together while they still can.   In fact, using the concept of the ‘babymoon’ as an excuse, they’ve shared some romantic weekends exploring their new surroundings: Santa Barbara, Catalina Island, Palm Springs, and a few days trying to get lucky in Las Vegas.
      Amazed at how far technology has come, earlier in the day, Chelsea took an ovulation test to determine if tonight was, indeed, one of her more fertile occasions.   While these tests take some of the fun and mystery out of the experience, Chelsea’s New Year’s resolution is to get pregnant, and she’ll use whatever means necessary to ensure she accomplishes this goal.
    “The Yanks were nice, don’t you think?” Shaun asks.
    “Yes, they certainly know how to party.”  
      Shaun checks his phone – still beeping with texts from friends around the world celebrating the New Year.   Placing the device on the table, he asks, “Mind if I take shower quickly?”
    “Be my guest.”
    As usual when he’s had too much to drink, Shaun quickly shucks off all of his clothes, leaving them stranded on various pieces of furniture and walks into the bathroom.   Steam heats up the adjacent room and Chelsea hears her husband humming an off-key version of one of the last songs played during the evening.   On a whim, they decided to join some of his work mates at the hotel.   Having only flown in the day before from the U.K., Chelsea loves the spontaneity of her new home city.   Her level of comfort is part of the reason she has moved up her personal life plan.   Unexpectedly, she finds Los Angeles as the type of place she wants to raise children.   Chelsea loves the different and wonderful people you can meet at a sushi restaurant on Ventura or while shopping at Gelson’s – so different from the village she was brought up in.   She enjoys the nearly always pleasant weather and casual lifestyle.     Taking off her high silver heels, Chelsea luxuriates on the soft duvet, before rising to go through her nightly retinue.   Entering the bathroom, as she washes her face and removes her eye make up, she thinks back over the night.   The only issue from making the evening altogether perfect was the rather difficult scene Chelsea had to witness in the ladies room downstairs.   Prior to the countdown, Chelsea had excused herself to freshen her makeup and use the loo.   With the music too loud to have any sort of conversation, Chelsea had accidentally met another woman’s glance in the mirror and had immediately taken notice.   The young woman with sad blue eyes clearly appeared to be maudlin,