Page 84 of In This Together

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ANDREA

Rosalie hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true when she had called Andrea, yelling at her down the phone after Hannah had broken her silence about Andrea’s affair with Hunter.

Andrea was a liar, a terrible friend, a horrible person, a homewrecker. She was all those things and worse.

She could add to that a shitty boss and an awful example of a leader. Since firing Hannah, on the spot and in front of the entire secretary pool, no one in the office had spoken to her unless they absolutely had to, which she understood was entirely deserved. She’d let emails slip, lost documents and failed to show up to a meeting.

Not only was she alone and realising how hard work life was without Hannah, she also had zero motivation. Work was, for the first time since she could remember, pointless. Admin and accounts, meaningless crap that nobody gave a damn about.

She had fired her best friend, with three children. The fact Hannah outed her to Rosalie at all meant Andrea had lost her trust even before she’d fired her.

Worse, she had fired Hannah for exposing her relationship with herotherfriend’s father.

How had she gotten here? How had she put sex before friendships and people she’d cared about for years?

This wasn’t her. She was supposed to be the one who held other people together whentheywere broken.

She had promised herself as an eight-year-old girl that she would never fall to pieces again. She would never be hurt the way her mother had hurt her by abandoning her.

There weren’t many people in a position to break Andrea’s heart and that was how she liked things. But of those who could, she had left her sister with Jay, forced Rosalie out of her life, and pushed Hannah away.

Now, there was a little person growing in her stomach and she had no idea who the father was.

Was it Hunter’s? Who was probably having affairs with multiple other women and still lying to his wife. A self-obsessed A-hole.

Was it Tommy’s? A rock star turning over a new leaf, who could head out on tour with his band at any time and get back to sleeping with another groupie every night.

Did it matter whose child it was? Because Andrea was no better than either Hunter or Tommy. She had lied to those closest to her, just like Hunter. She had run out on Tommy countless times because… because…

She squeezed her eyes shut as she sat in the waiting area for her obstetrician, trying not to scream or stomp her feet in frustration or cry a thousand tears.

She had run out on Tommy countless times because deep down, she cared for him. They had so much in common. They loved music and, more, they loved making music, together. Hehadchanged, she knew that. But what would happen when he left her? Because that was what people did when you loved them; they left or they died or they turned to drink and shut you out.

‘Andrea Williams?’ the doctor called as she stepped out of her consultation room and into the waiting area.

Andrea held her breath, staring at the doctor with what felt like steel legs, unable to stand. She managed to nod her head, to which the doctor responded by saying, ‘Come on in. Take a seat, Andrea. I’m Doctor Stead but please call me Maria.’ She smiled from her seat behind the desk as she gestured to the blue chair opposite for Andrea to take. ‘I can see you’re nervous. There’s no need to be.’

Andrea said nothing. What was the correct response?Doctor, I am nervous but I’m fairly certain I’m pregnant. When what the doctor would surely be expecting was,Doctor, I’m nervous in case my home test kits showed a false positive.

‘I assume you’ve taken a test?’ Maria asked.

Andrea nodded. ‘Yes. Three.’

Maria smiled. ‘They were all positive?’

Andrea nodded again.

‘Well then, I think it’s safe to say you’re pregnant, Andrea. Congratulations.’

‘W-wait. Don’t you need to do something… a test? To verify.’

Andrea’s panic was replaced with shame as the smile Maria had been wearing changed to something that looked very much like disappointment. ‘Sure, we can, yes.’

As Maria moved around the room, Andrea’s nerves built. This was it. After today, if the doctor confirmed she was pregnant, she could no longer think about that slither of doubt before trying to sleep at night.

‘There’s a restroom at the end of the corridor,’ Maria said, handing Andrea a sample pot.

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