Page 36 of Together

“Kind of. I don’t know, really. I called him last night when I was panicking and, don’t take this the wrong way, but I just didn’t feel comfortable calling you yet. I really don’t know why I chose him, though. I have friends. I have sisters. I guess I wanted to make sure that whatever the two of us had was for sure over. Which, by the way, it is. Way, way over. He’s not even in my rearview mirror at this point.”

I’m a little perturbed that she chose to call him when she was panicking but I’m planning to hide it from her. There’s absolutely no way I’m going to admit I’m an unreasonable asshole. For fuck’s sake, we barely know each other so of course she would call him, someone she’s comfortable with. Besides, she said she wasn’t going to lie to me, and that it’s over between her and the dickhead ex. I believe her and for the sake of all our mental health, it’s probably best that we both just push forward.

With the toe of my shoe, I kick a little mound of fluffy snow and it topples over. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Putting you in this position.”

She groans an incredibly aggravated noise. “No. We are not doing this again, do you understand me? We’re moving forward. Together. Or, nottogethertogether, but you know what I mean.” Yeah, I do. The night we spent together we were nursing broken hearts. I don’t know about her, but even though I want nothing to do with my ex, Stacia, I’m still not ready to jump into a new relationship. Especially one as complicated as ours began. “Besides, this little guy that’s growing is not a mistake. He’s nothing to be sorry about, either.”

Wait, did she say… “He?”

I imagine she shrugs when she says, “I don’t know. Seems right to me. Obviously I don’t know for sure yet. I just called my doctor to make my first appointment today and it’s way too early to know the sex.”

“But you think it’s a boy?”

“I’m sure I’ll change that opinion several times. Until we find out the sex of the baby, anyway.”

“You want to find out?”

“Maybe? What do you think?”

Shaking my head, I scrunch my nose when I admit, “I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest. It all happened so fast.”

“And unplanned.”

Unplanned. Hmm. It’s not untrue, however, I really don’t like the way that sounds. “Do me a favor?”

“What’s that?”

“Let’s not call the baby unplanned. A surprise, sure, but I feel like we need to set the tone now and if we tell a baby that he or she is unplanned, they might think unwanted and that’s not okay.”

She’s quiet for so long I pull the phone away and look at the screen to make sure the call wasn’t dropped. The timer is still going on the screen. “Ashley?”

“Did that happen to you?” she asks softly.

“A friend of mine. And by a friend of mine, I literally mean a friend, not me who’s talking about myself but calling myself a friend,” I explain.

She laughs on the other end of the line. “Glad you cleared that up.”

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“Of course.”

“I’m a little nervous,” I confess.

“It’s just little old me. That’s all.”

Ha! Little old her. Right. The woman who’s going to give birth to my child in about eight months or less. The woman who made me feel more in the two days I spent with her than any other woman before. I’ve known she’s pregnant for less than twenty-four hours and it’s turned me inside out. Everything she says, I’m sensitive to, overreacting like a prepubescent teenager. It’s annoying.

“You’re feeling okay?” I ask, changing the subject. If I focus on her and what’s going on, I’ll get over myself.

“Yes?” she hedges, probably confused.

“No morning sickness?”

The smile in her voice is evident when she replies with a cute little, “Not yet.”

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