A Dumb Question

About a year ago I was at my mom’s birthday party at Portland Pie Pizza in Portland Maine. My grandparents, sister, and mom’s friends were there. One of my mom’s friends, Becky, was there and I had not seen her in about 3 years. Becky is very nice and I have never seen her be rude or mean in any way before. Becky is the type of person to let things go and not bring things to a stupid argument.

When I first saw Becky at my mom’s birthday party I was confused because she was much bigger, she looked pregnant. Becky has always been a workout junkie and has been in great shape as long as I knew her. Becky has done countless marathons and even did the Boston Marathon. I would see Becky at my gym almost every time I went until about a year ago. So when I saw her I was dazed and confused because this wasn’t the way I knew so that is why I assumed she was pregnant.

When Becky was walking toward me I was questioning myself if I should ask her if she was pregnant because what if she was not pregnant and I was just basically calling her fat? I was nervous and was not ready for her to come up to me because I really thought she was pregnant but on the off chance she was not it would have been super rude and I would be asking why are you so fat. I thought there was no way she got this big without being pregnant, she always went to the gym and did cardio and lifted weights, and she always did these crazy marathons and Iron Man. Working out was her passion and that’s why I thought there is absolutely no way she was not pregnant and going to give birth soon.

Becky walked up to me and said hi, I was nervous. We started talking about hockey and school and how my life was going then it switched to her. She started talking about the vacation she and her husband went on a couple of months ago. She started talking about the amazing alcohol they had and all the nice food they ate. Once she mentioned alcohol I was confused because you are not supposed to drink while pregnant so that should have stopped me from thinking she is pregnant and realized she just got a lot bigger. But no it did not stop me. I was too stupid and I asked “So when are you due?” then she said “What do you mean?” then the fear sank in. My heart was racing and I was sweating. I panicked and asked, “When is your baby due?” I could have easily played it off and said like when are you due for your next vacation or When are you due for a raise at her job or something along the lines of that but no I panicked hard and just said what I was thinking before actually thinking about what I was saying. I ended up saying “You know when is your baby due” while sweating my butt off. She ended up saying “Are you being serious?” I said “Yeah” while sweating my butt off. She was super offended and started to yell at me and told me I was super inconsiderate and an awful person. I had never seen her like this and I was stunned. she ended up crying and she and her husband left and hasn’t talked to Mom since.

So yes there are such things as a stupid question, sometimes you need to keep your mouth shut like I should have. I should have taken the hints and not assumed. it could also be insensitive because she could have a miscarriage or give the baby away.

“That is the Question” by cogdogblog is licensed under CC BY 2.0.