“How flattering,” I drawled.
She cleared her throat. “I am sick.” She cleared it again. Sighed. My shoulders stiffened, that band around my chest tightening. “But not because of any disease or virus or anything. I… I’m… well, I guess I’m… I’m pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” A choking sound escaped my throat. The band around my chest pulled tight to snapping, though it didn’t make much sense. I knew she had been with a lot of guys. When someone tells you they won’t sleep with you more than once, that that’s a rule of theirs, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they could end up pregnant. Her sleeping with someone else after me, being tied to someone else in such a permanent way, stung. Which also didn’t make sense.
“Well… yes.” She sighed. “I was on birth control. Before. Before I found out, obviously. I told you as much. But it doesn’t work 100 percent of the time. At least that’s what the doctor said.”
“Right” came out on a strangled breath. Why was she still talking to me about it? Why had she told me in the first place? Was she trying to rub it in that things wouldn’t work out between us?
“Oh. And it’s yours.” She chuckled darkly. My stomach rolled, the band snapping completely. “I guess I forgot to mention that part.”
I gripped the phone tightly, right before the most dick thing I’d ever said fell from my mouth. “How the hell could you know that for sure?”
There was a hollow gasp on the other end before the line went dead.
I stared at the phone, my heart pounding in my ears, my bones vibrating. After muttering multiple expletives, I called her again. And again. And again. But she didn’t answer.
Pregnant. She was pregnant. And she thought it was mine. Which it very well could be. We hadn’t used a condom. It hadn’t been planned. I hadn’t even known she would be there for Thanksgiving, so I didn’t think to bring anything with me. And even after she was there, I hadn’t planned on getting with her. It had just… happened.
Now she was pregnant. With my kid.
My head swam. There was no way. No way I could be a dad. But I had to be if it was mine. I tried calling her again, but she still didn’t answer, and I didn’t know what to do. From another continent, I couldn’t very well drive over there and apologize for what I said. I couldn’t make it up to her in person.
Instead of trying to call again, I smoked the rest of my pack of cigarettes, then went out to a bar with my roommate and got shit-faced.
3
Kate
Once my crying jag was over—pregnancy hormones were the bane of my existence—I snuck to the bathroom to take a shower. The hot water felt amazing on my clammy skin. With the constant nausea that never ceased, the shower was my new absolute favorite place to be.
The doctor had said I was nine weeks when I went in, so that made me ten now. She said most women’s morning sickness subsided by the twelfth week. But mine wasn’t just morning sickness—it was all-day sickness. And it had made school and work nearly impossible. But I had to work.
Tim was the first person I told about my situation. Only because he had to know why I was sick, and that he couldn’t not let me work just because I was pregnant. The doctor had prescribed something to take the edge off the nausea, but it made me dead tired. So I was still a pretty lousy waitress and not quite to the point where people could tell I was pregnant and therefore tip me well.
When I opened the door, there Ava was. Again. Like she had mastered the art of cornering me. “I just need to get ready for work,” she pointed out, apparently having become a mind reader as well.
“I’m pregnant,” I blurted, unsure as to why.
Eyes almost popping out of her head, her hand went to her stomach as her mouth formed an O. Then she whispered, “That’s why you won’t talk to Kai. You didn’t want to lead him on,” like she had cracked the latest conspiracy.
My heart sank further than it already had. Of all the things, all the things in the freaking world she could have responded with, she came back with that. Her poor douchebag brother would have his feelings spared, because the girl he wanted to get with was pregnant and avoiding him. I had thought it was common knowledge not to be a dick to a pregnant woman, but now that was two for two.
I about told her to fuck off but settled for biting out, “Sure.” Her brow creased. The severing of our roommate-ship/almost-friendship was underway, and she was none the wiser. “I’m only telling you because, obviously, you would have noticed when I started growing a bump and never stopped puking.”
“That’s the only reason you told me?” Her eyebrows shot up. And I almost felt bad, almost felt a twinge of regret when I whipped the bitch out of my pocket.
“We don’t have to be friends, Ava. We’re just roommates is all.”
“Ouch.” She jerked back as if I’d struck her before crossing her arms over her chest. Tilting her head with a glare in place, she pursed her lips. I was pretty sure I’d witnessed that look on her mom—who would be the grandmother of my baby—while we were in Oregon. There wasn’t the right meanness behind it. I could see the hurt in her eyes but felt absolutely no remorse. So maybe I was utterly pissed at her brother and taking it out on her. Though I may have treated her very differently if she’d responded to my announcement in any other fashion. “Let me do you one better, sweetheart. I’ll move out. Today.
