11/30/2001 Entry: "It was shirt."

I was working yesterday when my boss came in my office and snickered.

"You looked pregnant!" she said. I sat up uncomfortably in my chair. "No, I mean, the way you were slumped down like that, with your shirt pooching out..."

I poked my tummy. "I don't think it was just shirt."

"No, I know what being pregnant really looks like," she said, patting her small 22-weeks-along stomach. "That was shirt."

I do believe that she said it innocently. But now I can't stop the mean echo in my head, the one who means it every time he repeats it.