“That you were going to get the family fairy tale after all?” asked Addison.
“They’d traveled all that way, and then they came to the hospital in the middle of the night, and I thought it was becausethey cared about me. And not because they wanted something from me.”
“Relationships shouldn’t be like high-pressure sales meetings. You shouldn’t feel obligated to say yes to a time-share just because they gave you free champagne flutes. Except in this case, a time-share is literally giving up your baby, and the free champagne is the bare fucking minimum.” Addison slurped her juice and then set it down emphatically. “But! You refused their hideous offer, and now you’re here! With Aunt Addy where you belong! So what next, boo bear?”
What next, indeed. “I guess I’m back to where I started before reshoots. Steph thinks I’ll be able to find plenty of work, especially leaning into thegood girl gone badnarrative. And as for the baby and me, we’ll figure it out.”
“You know you can move into the main house anytime,” Addison said, suddenly serious. “I’ve decided I don’t care if people know you’re living here. It was shitty of me to care about that in the beginning, and I’m sorry for it.”
“But I need you to subsidize my single parenthood with that immaculate Wishes of Addison brand,” I said with a smile. And then to show her I meant it, I curled my hand over her wrist and squeezed gently. “I understand, Addy, and I understood it then. I wasn’t hurt by it. There are no good variables to work with when the answer to the equation is other peoples’ idea of perfection.”
“Still,” she said with a little sniffle. “I want you and the baby to be where you feel best, and there’s definitely more room in the main house.”
“But it’s cozy in here,” I said, meaning it. “Plus I still don’t know what coparenting with Kallum will look like. I might need to be in Kansas City quite a bit.”
Even just saying his name made my chest hurt. Aside from Addison, Kallum was the only person who would understand all the webbed and tangled feelings I’d had about today. How hard it was to let go of wanting my family to be what I needed, and yet how freeing it was to know that I was strong enough to.
“Okay, but what’s next for you, right now?” Addison asked. “What do you want right now?”
I only felt like I knew what Ididn’twant, and that wasn’t very helpful for figuring out what came next in the immediate future. I sifted through all my feelings, about my parents, about Kallum, about the little baby currently growing organs and bones just below my belly button.
“I think I want to know for sure that my parents can’t try again to woo me over to their side of things. I trust myself to say no, but—”
“But you’ve already said no once and you shouldn’t have to again,” Addison said sagely.
“Right.”
“You know,” Addison said, her voice pitched in a slow drawl that I knew from experience either spelled trouble, vodka, or both, “I know a way we can make that happen.”
“Stopping my parents? Really?”
“It’s as easy as an Instagram post, pickle pie. Do you have an ultrasound picture?”
My eyes grew round as I absorbed her meaning. “Are you saying I should just... announce that I’m pregnant?”
“Yeah, girl. Drop that baby news like Taylor drops an album. People will go ba-na-nas!”
And so forty minutes, four filter attempts, and one newly delivered red juice later, the deed was done. I had a post with a very cute picture of me in Christmas Notch dressed as Mrs.Claus with a swipe over to my latest ultrasound.
This year, Mrs.Claus will be hanging up an extra stocking! Thank you to the Hope Channel, @officialgretchenyoung and @stephdarezzo for making Santa, Baby a safe place for this expecting momma, and thank you to my costar @pizzapartykallum and the whole crew for making this wacky movie a blast to film! More updates on my mini-Winnie coming soon!
I hit Share and then set my phone on the table. Addison and I watched as the first notification popped up on my screen, and then the second and the third, and then more and more until my phone was merrily vibrating its way across the glass.
There was no taking it back now. The world knew that Winnie Baker, former wholesome sweetheart, had not only divorced her husband amid cheating rumors, but now was pregnant without her husband anywhere in the picture. The scandalous descent was now complete.
I was so relieved.
Amid the incessant bubbling of the social media messages came a text message from Steph. It was a thumbs-up emoji and nothing else, but that was basically a five-minute-long hug with boob presses and everything when it came to Steph D’Arezzo.
And then a second text message popped up right after it.
From Kallum.
“Oh shit,” Addison said with wide eyes. “Do you think he’s upset?”
I grabbed my phone. “I’m not sure,” I admitted. He’d wanted to shout it from the rooftops while we were back in Christmas Notch, but now that things between us were murkier, he might not be as excited. I’d taken care not to name him as the father or anything, but maybe mentioning him at all in the caption was bound to raise eyebrows?
“Ohhh, it’s a voice memo,” Addison said, leaning over to look down at the screen. “Do you want me to listen to it first for you?”
