The plane lands, but not soon enough. I do manage to avoid soiling myself, and rush off the plane, sending a text to my sister to let her know I landed.
Me: I’m here. Hurry.
Bethany: Welcome to Denver!
Me: Just get here! I only have carry-on luggage.
Bethany: Chillax, I’m parking.
Me: Thank God. I’ll be out in a second.
Bethany: Great! So glad you’re here!
Me: You may not feel that way in a minute.
Bethany: Why? What’s wrong?
Me: Long story. Btw I’m dehydrated.
I lock my phone screen and look for the exit closest to the short-term parking garage. On my way out, I stop in the ladies’ restroom and get rid of the diaper. I feel like a winner because it’s clean. As soon as Bethany texts me the parking spot number, I drag my suitcase along, feeling so weak.
The first thing I notice is her naturally bright red hair. Her hair is like Mom’s, and mine is dark like Dad’s. She has the trunk open when I arrive, and puts my suitcase inside before pulling me into her arms.
“Oh my gosh, I missed you so much, little sis! Jeez, have you lost weight? All I feel is bone on your back and ribs on your chest. Please don’t tell me you’re dieting.” She pulls back and studies my face. “Damn girl, you look like shit!”
I nod. “Nice to see you too, Beth. Can we go home now?”
“Of course. I have a few bottles of water in case you haven’t had anything to drink.”
“Great. It’s probably best if I have it when we get to your place,” I say, refusing to risk having to stop on a Colorado freeway to take a dump and throw up at the same time.
After I give her the run down on how horribly wrong my flight went, she has a puzzled look on her face.
“Sounds like the twenty-four-hour flu bug,” she says. “Either that, or you’re pregnant.”
All the air leaves my lungs.
“Don’t joke around like that, Beth. The way I’ve been feeling for the last two weeks. It’s been awful. Please don’t jinx me.”
She glances over at me. “Okay, but when was your last period?”
“Oh that’s easy. It was on...” I grab my phone, unlocking the screen, then open up my electronic notepad. I log the start and end date in here every month like clockwork. “It was on...”
“Go on,” she presses. “When was it?”
I look at the note and scratch my head.
“Hmmm. Today is July seventh, so that means...”
Oh God. The last entry in my notepad is May fifteenth to eighteenth.
“I don’t know how this happened.” I look over at her, already weak, and now, in a fit of panic. “I’m over three weeks late.”
“Oh. Wow.” Bethany check her mirrors and flicks on her right indicator lights. She makes a couple of lane changes, getting off the next exit ramp. A few minutes after, she parks at a big retail superstore. “Give me a few minutes.”
She goes inside and returns within minutes. “Here you go,” she says, then thrusts a plastic bag onto my lap and starts her car.
I don’t need to look inside the thin, flimsy white bag. There are seven or eight pregnancy tests in there, each one a different brand.
“Oh God,” I moan, my body weak.
“The birth control clinic in town is open today, but as you don’t feel well, I’ll set up an appointment for tomorrow morning. You’re going to need some rest after all these tests come back positive.”
“Gee, I’m so glad you have such faith in me, sis.”
“I’m going on instinct. My gut tells me you’re carrying that asshole’s baby. Let’s just get the results and we’ll go from there. Everything will be fine. I’ll take care of it.”
If I’m pregnant, I also don’t have a job, the father isn’t talking to me, Mom and Dad are going to go nuts when they find out, and I’m nowhere close to being ready to be a single mother.
Somehow, I don’t feel so sure of anything.
20
Knox
I lean back in my swivel chair a few days after my underground fight, looking at Foster across my office desk. He’s been here for twenty minutes. He’s just sitting there, distracting my attempts to catch up with work after an extended long weekend.
“Don’t the guys over at that hedge fund company give you real work to do?” I ask as he walks over to the small bar area in one corner of the office.
He opens the built-in minibar and bends forward, checking out what’s inside. “A six-pack of beer, dude? That’s all you put in this deep, big-ass fridge? You can fit a whole case in here.” As he stands he reveals the two beers in his hand with the lids off, and brings one over to me. “I bring in business over there. Investor relations and shit. You know what that means?”
“No.” I take a swig of beer and swallow the perfectly cold liquid, then set the bottle on a coaster at the edge of my desk. “But I’m sure you’re gonna tell me.”
“It means that right this second, I’m working.”
“Doing what? Depleting my alcohol stash?”
He shakes his head. “No. But that reminds me. Do you remember that summer Pops cut off your allowance and made you take on a paper route as punishment for disrespecting him?”
I roll my eyes and return my gaze to the emails all waiting for my response. “I remember. I don’t have time to walk down memory lane with your lazy ass.”
“I seem to recall you were the lazy one. You got in so much
