“I don’t think you have anything to be nervous about,” I say after a moment. “You two are going to be very happy together; I can feel it.”
“So you don’t think we are rushing into it?” he asks.
“Oh, I never said that,” I tell him, and he laughs again. “I just mean that I think she’s the right girl for you.”
“Thanks, Charlotte. I really hope that for you. That you find the right guy for you, I mean.”
I take in a deep breath and let it out. “Yeah, well…I have met someone.”
“Really?” he perks up. “That’s great! Isn’t it? Your face says it isn’t.”
“I don’t know. It’s…complicated,” I tell him, leaning against the wall too.
“Really? More complicated than all of this?” he asks, pointing between me and him.
“Oh, trust me, my love life compared to yours right now is like comparing an afternoon shower and a hurricane,” I tell him. “Category three at least.”
“Okay, you’re going to have to tell me more than that,” he says. “Because now I am curious.”
I don’t know what makes me say it. Maybe because, like his father, he is easy to open up to. Or maybe because, other than Josie, I haven’t admitted it to anyone yet. Even if I've never said those words out loud, saying them now feels like having a strip of duct tape over my mouth removed.
“I’m pregnant,” I say, and for a split second, I feel the most overwhelming relief.
“You’re pregnant?” he asks, and right before I nod, I hear the words again. But this time, the voice is not his.
“You’re pregnant?”
I look up and see Gavin and Holly standing a couple of feet away.
Oh god…
Chapter 34
Charlotte
“You’re pregnant.”
The words pierce the cold, stale air for the fourth time. First, it was me saying it, then Ben, Gavin, and now Ben again. I guess he finally gets his brain to wrap around it.
I am pregnant, and everyone knows.
My worst nightmare has come true. As much as I wish this was all just a bad dream, it’s not. It’s real and everyone is staring at me.
“Hey what’s going on?” Jordan and Josie show up out of the blue. Now I have even more people standing in front of me waiting for answers.
“Charlotte is pregnant,” Holly says, confirming the information she already knows.
“She is?” Josie says, and I shoot her a look. The gig is up, clearly.
Then Holly’s expression changes. Probably because both Gavin and Ben look utterly shocked. Her eyes flash between me and Ben.
“Wait…is Charlotte short for…Charlie?” she asks, and all she has to do is look at Ben to know the answer to that. “Oh, my God.”
“Holly, I can explain,” I say, absolutely mortified by all of this.
“Can you, though?” she asks.
“Wait,” Gavins shakes his head. “Charlotte is Charlie?” he asks. Ben doesn’t understand the significance of it, and he still looks ashamed.
