Page 5 of A Very Oceanport Christmas
David smiled. "I know. I already told my dad to fix you a plate."
"Really? Thanks!"
"Yeah, sure."
I took a sip of my hot chocolate and licked whipped cream off my lips before wiping the spot between my nose and my mouth. When I looked back at David I found him... staring at my lips? Wait, what? No, that couldn't be right.
David averted his gaze and cleared his throat and the moment passed. "So, uh..." he started, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms in front of his chair. "You still with Nigel?"
"Nigel?" My eyebrows shot up. "Hell no." The bastard had broken up with me half a year ago. Honestly, that whole relationship had been a disaster from the start. “The long-distance thing really wasn’t for me.”
"So that isn't..." David's eyes went to my belly, and even though he didn't finish the question, I knew what he wanted to ask. If the baby was Nigel's. I sighed. Was everyone in Oceanport gonna jump to that conclusion?
"It's not Nigel's," I confirmed, even though I really didn't want to talk about my pregnancy.
"So you're with someone else now?"
I looked around the ice cream parlor as if my eyes might land on something that would allow me to swiftly and permanently change the topic, but I didn't spot anything that would have been useful. "I'm not with anyone," I said finally, focusing my attention on my mug of hot chocolate. I didn'tneedanyone, did I? I was a grown up, independent omega and I was going to handle this. One of my hands came to rest on my belly as if moving of its own accord. The baby wasn't kicking now, but I could still feel him move every now and then, reminding me that there was a little life growing inside of me.
And if I could grow this baby by myself, I could raise him by myself.
"You're single?" David asked as if to reconfirm.
I nodded.
"And yet you're saying I can’t get laid." David scoffed, and just like that, the tension fell off me. David wasn't gonna judge me. Of course not. He never had. I exhaled, feeling myself relax. No matter how badly the rest of the day had gone, it was good to have David back.
"I still have a better chance at getting laid than you do," I joked. At least, I was pretty sure there were some alphas out there with a thing for pregnant omegas, as weird as that was. Not that I was gonna seek them out.
"Whatever you say." David stood from his chair. "I'll go check on your waffles."
"Thanks." I drank more of my hot chocolate while I waited for David to come back, letting it warm me from the inside. "I'll pay for the waffles," I said when David set the plate in front of me.
He waved me off. "Don't worry about it."
I nodded, determined to find some way to pay him back anyway.
"So you're already on winter break?" he asked.
"Not really. I dropped out."
David's eyes went wide.
I laughed. "Yeah, that's exactly the look my dad gave me too."
"Is that why you were standing out in the cold?"
"Kinda, yeah." I cut into my waffle. "Got into a fight with my folks and needed to cool off."
"I get it," David said. "You know if you need to you can always crash in our guest room for a night or two."
"Really? I feel like... I don't know. I don't want to impose, man."
David snorted. "Don't sweat it. Not like you haven't stayed over at my place a thousand times."
That was true. Still, it felt different now. Or maybe it wasn't different at all and I was just overthinking things. "Only if you let me help out here tomorrow," I said, trying to reach a compromise.
David shook his head at me. "You still can't just accept help, can you?"
