“They were very worried about you. Everyone is. Toby especially.”
Her insides knotted. “I miss him.”
“Well, he misses you, dahling! Shall I call him and tell him you’re here? End this amusing but highly distracting experiment in escapism?”
God, she made it sound so easy. So easy and so good. There was only one problem.
“I’m pregnant,” she told Maisy.
The older woman didn’t bat an eye. “Yes, I rather suspected that from your drawings. Two lines, like the tests.”
“Jesus,” Tabby said, beyond impressed. “You’re like James Bond!”
“Thank you, dahling. Well, if you’d like to make some arrangements before you see Toby again, I’d happily drive you to a clinic or anywhere else you’d like to go.”
Tabby started crying again, lowering her face between her knees. Maisy put a hand on her back and rubbed small circles, and while it wasn’t as good as having Toby do it, it was still pretty nice.
“I don’t want to… do that,” she gasped. “I know it’s nuts, but I think… I think I want to have the baby.”
“Very good, dahling,” Maisy said without the slightest change of tone. “But I still think you should reconsider vanishing without a trace. Your family doesn’t seem like they’ll calm down until you’re safely home, and Tobydefinitelywon’t calm down. And there are a lot of financial and social implications that come with being a missing woman. Let alone a missing woman with a baby.”
“I know,” Tabby said, wiping her running nose on her wrist. “But how am I supposed to tell Toby I’m pregnant?”
“I’d imagine you’ll just open your mouth and say so, dahling. Alternatively, you can wait for him to realise on his own. He’s a clever boy, so I assume it’ll only take six to nine months.”
Tabby laughed, and it felt so good that she almost started crying again.
“Thanks,” she said to Maisy. “But I feel like I fucked him over by getting knocked up. How can I tell him that I screwed him like this?”
Maisy’s eyebrows twitched, which Tabby guessed was the most they could do with whatever was keeping Maisy’s skin so smooth and wrinkle-free.
“Dahling, if a man wants to ejaculate inside you, he has consented to get you pregnant, and that’s that. You’re a bright girl, by all accounts. You understand.”
“But I wasn’t taking my pill properly…”
“Then Toby should have worn a condom,” Maisy said airily. “It takes two to tango, dahling. Women are not solely responsible for the genetic material men dump into us, willy nilly.”
“But—”
“If Toby had said he was more comfortable using condoms, would you have refused to sleep with him?”
“Fuck no!”
“Would you have poked holes in the condoms? Collected samples of his sperm and went to a clinic and tried to inseminate yourself?”
“No!”
“Then I don’t see a problem. Accidents happen, as they say.”
Tabby found herself laughing again. “You know what Maisy? I like you.”
“Thank you, dahling. I like you too. I see why Toby thinks you’re just the very thing.”
“I don’t deserve him.”
“Why don’t you let Toby decide what he deserves?” Maisy said lightly.
“Soon. Don’t call him yet? Please?”
