“That was incredible,” he says, letting out a heavy breath, rolling onto his side to face me.
“Yeah...” was all I could muster out.
I’m glad one of us thought it was incredible. That was the worst fuck of my life.
Sitting up with only my bra on I move down the bed and onto my feet. Scanning the floor for my thong that he threw minutes ago. Spotting it, I pull it back on, along with my dress back over my head.
“You don’t want to stay?” Austin asks, and I hear the disappointment in his voice.
I shake my head. “Sorry, got an early start.” I smile back at him, pulling on my boots.
“No problem, we’re heading out early anyway.” he shrugs.
I grab my bag that’s fallen off my shoulder next to my dress and pull it over my head.
“Well, it was nice to meet you,” I say, pulling on the handle of the door and slipping out before Austin could say anything else to me.
I walk down the long corridor before looking at the time.
Quarter past midnight.
Wow, I thought I’d imagined that not taking long. If that’s how one-nightstands go, remind me never to do it again.
I race towards the front door and out onto the street where I spot Jimmy on the street with his truck.
Did he follow me?
No, surely, he wouldn’t. I shake the thought from my head.
He’s harmless and also my dad’s employee.
And right now, he’s my best option to get home.
I walk in his direction in the hopes that he will take me home as I am far too drunk to drive myself. I’ll get my truck tomorrow…
****
Nine months and four days after that night, I lay in a hospital bed in the most agonising pain I’d ever experienced.
The condom we used broke, and we were none the wiser until the pregnancy test I held in my hands said positive three months later.
Holding onto my mom’s hand, stuck in the bed at the hospital with no way to go back.
Screaming and crying out for the man who should have been there to hold my hand in this moment. Mama trying her best to comfort me, that Maverick wasn’t coming,in my delirious state.
I never saw Austin again, I tried looking him up, but it was harder than I thought it might have been. I didn’t know where to start, we didn’t even exchange surnames.
Looking down at the baby that was placed in my arms when it was finally over, wrapped in a beautiful pink blanket, I did the only thing that I still had any control of.
“Welcome to the world, Ellie Jane,” I smile down at the bundle whose eyes shined brighter that the Tennessee stars.
I named her the name we picked out all those years ago, in our field. Planning our future that wouldn’t happen. I named my daughter the only name I had ever wanted too. Even ifit wasn’t with the man, I wanted to do it with.
Sixteen
Maverick
The realisation that Mabel became a mom shakes me to my core. Shattering my already broken heart with the realisation that I’m not the man she has a baby with.
