Page 28 of Seven Minutes In Heaven
She shook her head. “No, thanks.” Fatigue overcame her. That was happening much more often lately. “Can I sit down?”
“Of course.” He gestured to his couch by the window. “Are you all right? You don’t have much color in your cheeks.”
Claire slumped onto the far corner of the couch. Her jacket crinkled around her. Her shoes slipped off her swelling feet. Sweat beaded her brow.Don’t be sick. Come on.
She didn’t know why she would be. Jake smelled great. Like a spring breeze in this polluted city. He wasn’t even wearing the aftershave from a month ago. He was…good.
“I’m not okay.” Claire rubbed her knuckles against her aching forehead. “Things aren’t okay, Jake.”
He sat down next to her. “What’s wrong? Is it because of what I was doing? I’m sorry. I’ve stopped.”
“That’s not it.” Claire couldn’t bear to look at him. The expectant look on his face… the hopeful aura welcoming her into his arms, and all she had to do was accept it. “I’m pregnant.”
He was silent. A clock ticked above them. The oven beeped that it had finished preheating. The air conditioner renewed itself with little vigor. Such mundane sounds that made the blood rushing in Claire’s head even louder.
“How long?”
“Excuse me?”
Jake rubbed his cheeks with twitching fingers. “How far along is it?”
“Oh. Ten weeks, I guess.”
Surely, he did the math in his head. Or at least those widening eyes must have meant he was semi-decent with numbers.
“Does my dad know about it yet?”
“Hell, no.” Claire turned toward him. “You’re the first person I’ve told at all.”
“What? Why?”
“You can’t figure it out?”
His visage implied that he’d rather not know the real reason.
“It’s yours, Jake. This baby’s yours.”
“But…”
“I’ve never slept with your father.” Claire stood up. “I told him I wanted to wait until we were married, because honestly, the thought of sleeping with Arthur makes me ill. That’s not the morning sickness talking.”
“So that day at the audition…”
“I was already pregnant, but didn’t know it yet. It must’ve been from when we hooked up at the party.”
“Jesus… I…”
“You knocked me up, Jake. You knocked up your stepmother. Congrats.”
“You’resureit’s mine?”
Claire snorted. “You’re the only man I’ve fucked in the past few months. If it’s not yours, then you better get on your knees and start making peace with God, because the Second Coming is about to happen.”
She grabbed her purse and prepared to leave again. She had done what she came to do. There was no reason to hang around and wait for him to catch up with her.
“Besides,” she said anyway, “I thought you’d be happy, in a way. You’re the one who wants me so much. Well, there it is. Our eternal connections, ‘til death do we part.”
Claire couldn’t take one step toward the door without Jake taking her by the hand and pulling her into his arms.
