I nod and happily reach for my drink.
While I might be grateful for her intercept, there’s a part of me that wishes she hadn’t, so I had to rip the Band-Aid off.
“Good, right?” Savvy asks once I’ve sipped my virgin pornstar martini.
“Mmm,” I mumble. I’m not lying. It is good. It’s just…well, it’s not a pornstar martini. Silently, I grieve for everything I’m missing out on right now. I’m not a big drinker, but I can’t deny that I do love a cocktail with my girls.
The conversation turns to the menu and what everyone is having. But despite looking at what they have, I don’t see any of it.
Instead, the words I need to say to those closest to me circle through my head until I can bear it no more.
“I’m pregnant,” I blurt, scaring myself in the process.
Silence descends on the table as Sienna’s foot finds my leg again, giving me a supportive nudge.
Time seems to stand still as I wait for their reactions.
Tears burn my eyes, my throat clogging with emotion that I wish would fuck off. But it doesn’t. In fact, it only gets worse when Rachel, Savvy, and Lessy all breathe a heavy sigh of relief.
“Oh, thank God, I wasn’t sure I could pretend we didn’t know any longer,” Rachel confesses. “Congratulations, Bea. We’re so excited for you.” She leans over and pulls me into a hug. And that’s it. The tears come.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you before. I just…don’t know what I’m doing,” I wail, reaching for my napkin to catch my tears before they totally ruin my makeup. Honestly, I don’t know why I bothered putting any on. I’m like a freaking water fountain these days.
“It’s okay,” Lessy says, reaching across the table for my hand. “You don’t have to apologize to us. We’re here for you, Bea. And as Rachel said, we’re excited.”
“That’s good, because I’m fucking terrified,” I confess brokenly. “I was just finding my feet again and?—”
“Someone swept you off them?” Savvy supplies.
Everyone bursts out laughing.
“Oh God,” I whimper, continuing to dab my eyes. “This is a disaster.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Lessy says.
“I’m not ready to be a mom. I can barely look after myself.”
“It might not be planned, but someone up there decided it was to be the next chapter of your life,” Savvy says. “It could be the best thing that has ever happened to you.”
“It’s certainly the most unexpected. Two types of protection. Two,” I say, holding up my fingers just in case they’ve forgotten how to count. “This shouldn’t have happened.”
“So…we might have figured it out. But we don’t know who the owner of the super sperm is.”
A giggle erupts as Rachel says those two words, my conversation with Everett coming back to me.
“Of course, we all know who we want it to be because…swoon…but we’re trying not to jump to conclusions.”
They might have left by the time I hooked up with Everett that night, but they know all about it. I didn’t have a reason to keep it a secret, other than it being a moment of madness that probably shouldn’t have happened. They were all beyond excited that I’d taken Everett Donnelly for a ride, and equally as jealous, wanting to know if all the stories about him were true. But the truth is, he’s even more talented than any news article has written about.
Lifting my drink from the table, I mumble, “I’ve only slept with one man this year,” behind it.
“I knew it,” Lessy shouts before immediately apologizing to the table next to us for her overexcitement. “Oh my god. You’re having Ever?—”
“Shush,” I hiss.
“Sorry, sorry. But you are, right? He’s your baby daddy.”
A smile finds its way onto my lips as I think about his contact in my cell.
