Page 15 of A Baby for Christmas
"You wanted a baby," I remindedhim.
"I know. I still do. Too late to change my mind,anyway."
I went back to folding the paper in my hands. "You're not regretting your decision, areyou?"
"No. It's not like that. I think everyone who has their first baby feels at least a little bitanxious."
"You might be right about that." I licked my lips. "You got any more doctor's appointments comingup?"
"I do actually." Robin paused. "But you don't have to come with me again. I'll tell Aaron before then, and hopefully, he'll be able to driveme."
I suppressed a sigh. I couldn't say why, but I kind of wanted to drive Robin myself. I wanted to go to all the appointments with him, even if it was illogical, considering we weren't a couple and he wanted to raise the child by himself. "Just let me know if you need anyhelp."
"All right. I appreciate it. Really. Thank you for everything,Ben"
"You'rewelcome."
"We should hang out againsoon."
"Sure," I said, but on the inside, I couldn't help but wonder what Aaron would think about our hanging out together once he knew who'd fathered Robin's unborn child. Hanging up the phone, I slouched in my chair, staring at the piece of paper in my hand. Unwittingly, I'd folded anothercrane.
I threw it in thetrash.
10
Robin
Things were going wellfor me. My students were behaving, my boyfriend brought me flowers every other day and my pregnancy was progressing well. Nearly five months along and barely showing as long as I wore the right clothes. Sure, I’d had to keep encounters with my boyfriend to quickies with all the clothes left on and no belly contact for the past two weeks, but I was going to tell him soon. Maybe this weekend, and then that problem would go away too. All in all, I was feeling prettylucky.
Really, I should have known that disaster was coming. Life never left me alone for toolong.
Still, I was completely flabbergasted when I walked into the school one Monday morning and all the other teachers were exchanging looks when they sawme.
What was goingon?
Did they know? I thought I caught Mrs. Sanders and Mr. Douglas staring at my belly as they passed, but they couldn't know. It had to be coincidence. I was just making it up in my head because I was paranoid. Not even Aaron knew yet, so how would any of the other teachers? Furtively, I glanced down on myself. I wore baggy clothes these days. No bump visible. Subtly pulling my sweater even farther down, I stepped into my classroom to prepare for theday.
While I was giving my lessons, I forgot all about the day's drama. I was busy enough stopping Tommy Faulkner from throwing paper pellets at little SarahBeeman.
But then lunch came, and Mrs. Sanders found me in my classroom before I could even step out. The way she closed the door behind her let me know she had something serious to discuss. Or something that she thought was serious, anyway. Last year, she'd given me a lecture on the importance of keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in our classrooms. If I had to describe Mrs. Sanders in one word, I'd call her an antique. Something that didn't quite fit in with the rest of the furniture anymore, but that's still too valuable to put away, even when everyone knew we'd be finding it a nice corner in the atticsoon.
"Robin!" she started now, approaching me at mydesk.
"What is it, Mrs.Sanders?"
"Is it true what they're saying?" She said it in a hushed tone of voice, as if we were talking about something scandalous. But everything was scandalous to her, so I wasn't feeling alarmed yet. Honestly, even the fact that I wasn't a virgin anymore would have shockedher.
"That depends on what they're saying." I leaned back in my chair with a fakesmile.
"Are you..." She glanced at my belly again, shaking her head as if this simplycouldn'tbe, but she needed to ask anyway. "Are youpregnant?"
I felt all the color drain from my face. How could she know? Had someone seen me at that doctor's appointment after all? No, then I would have been confronted sooner. "Why would you think that?" Iasked.
"Oh, I don't want to assume anything." she said, waving her hand in front of her face. "But there's all theserumorsgoing around. You know how it is. I can'timaginethat it's true, seeing as you don't have amateand all... Surely you wouldn't let yourself become pregnant like that and flaunt this kind ofimmoralbehavior in front of thechildren."
"You think it would damage the children to see omegas acting as single dads?" I tried to distract her from the actualtopic.
"There's single dads intragic situationsand there's omegas who werenever even matedin the first place," she gave back. "Don't pretend like you don't knowthat."
