“Well, shit.” I’m looking at two pink lines on the third pregnancy test I’ve taken since Alex came back from the drugstore. “I really am knocked up,” I whisper to myself.
“Can I come in?” Alex says at the bathroom door. I peed on the last stick and then just waited for my result instead of going back to the kitchen like I did with the first two. Now Alex is just as nervous about the result of this last test as I am. It’s no surprise she’s here at exactly the right time to see the result.
“Yeah, come in.”
“So?”
“You were right.” I look at her, my eyes already filling with tears. “I’m going to have a baby.”
“Oh,” she says and sits down on the floor and puts an arm around me. “So now what?”
“I have no idea,” I say. This changes everything. “I have to tell Andrew.”
“Yeah.”
“And I probably should give him another chance?”
“Is that what you want?”
“I want my baby to have a dad. Andrew deserves to be involved in the kid’s life. We just broke up. Maybe I was too hasty? He never really tried to change me. And he came to family dinners at your place even though he’s not a big fan. So he tried, right?”
Alex takes a deep breath and leans back against the bathtub. “I can’t make this decision for you. And I can’t even give you much advice. I had both of my parents until I was 16. Connor grew up with only his mom, but she is a whole different type of person than you. If anyone would know about being raised by a good single parent, it’s Ryder. Maybe you can talk to him?”
I laugh through my tears. “Yeah, that would go over well. ‘I know you just told me you had feelings for me, but can you give me some advice now that I’m having someone else’s baby?’ I don’t want him to know about this yet.”
“Well, he’s going to find out eventually, you know. He’s not blind. And if he keeps paying as much attention to you as I know he has been, he’s going to know well before you start to really show.”
“Life really is a bitch. I thought Andrew was the one who could finally make me forget about Ryder. And he turned out to be so different from what I thought. Although I should have seen this coming, considering it was my parents who introduced us in the first place. And now Ryder says he has feelings for me and, boom, I’m pregnant with Andrew’s kid. I feel like someone somewhere is laughing at me. I must have done something bad in a past life for this one to be so fucked up.”
Alex laughs at me. “I know it seems like a lot right now, but I have a feeling this is probably going to turn out better than you could have hoped. From what the guys say, you are really great at controlling everything around you, but I suspect maybe you need to just let go of that control a little in this situation. You’re going to need to find your inner flexibility for this to go smoothly.”
“Ugh, you don’t know me at all.” I smile at her. “I don’t have any inner flexibility.”
She gives me a sad smile. “I’m pretty sure having a baby will change that real quick.”
She wraps an arm around me, and I lean into the hug. I need the comfort right now.
What the hell am I going to do?
