“You’resomething.” He turns his back on me and strides from the bullpen, calling over his shoulder, “Come on!”
???
Twenty minutes later we’re seated in a quiet booth in the back of the diner on Queens. The waitress has just placed two bottles of beer in front of us.
“Can I get you guys anything else?” she asks.
Aidan smiles at her and shakes his head. “We’re good for now, Shelley, thanks.”
She nods and moves away. I glance around the diner. Even though it’s small we have plenty of privacy what with it being 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. There are a few tourists near the front noisily chatting about the boat tour they took of the luxury cottages–if you can even call them that, they’re more like mansions–on Gryf Lake.
Aidan tips his bottle back, eyeing me suspiciously while taking a large gulp. I take a swig of my own, then slap the bottle on the table and proceed to peel at the label, happy to have something to do with my hands. He sits forward and narrows his eyes at me.
“Let me have it. What could you possibly have done to upset Lucy so much and to the point that italsohasyouso spun out?”
Spun out is an accurate description. My head is spinning from the news of Lucy’s decision–and my new reality–even if itisultimately the outcome I’d hoped for. The whole situation is still such a shock … so I decide to just come right out and say it, spread that shock around a little bit.
“Seriously,” he asks again. “What did you do?”
“Ohhh I don’t know, how about get black-out drunk, have sex with her on the beach, and then immediately forget it even happened?” I say casually in a voice that belies the turbulent inner workings of my mind.
There. Bomb dropped.
Aidan–who had been mid-drink when I responded–starts choking on his beer. It spews out on the table in front of him and dribbles down his chin and onto his shirt.
I pass him a napkin from the nearby holder and take one myself to wipe up the table.
He swipes roughly at his chin and pats the wet spot on his chest, sucking in rough breaths. Once his coughing has subsided he wheezes out, “What the fuck?”
“Yep,” I continue, sighing. And then I detonate the next bomb. “Oh yeah, aaaaand, turns out I impregnated her.”
Aidan coughs again and then his jaw drops. “Wha…?” he gasps.
All I can do is give a fierce nod.
After a moment of staring, he reaches again for his beer, chugging the remainder of it down. When he’s done, he slams it loudly on the table.
“Well, no shit you’re so messed up.”
I’m too shell-shocked to even flinch at all of his cursing.
I’m going to be a dad.
Aidan clears his throat. “I hate to even ask this–you know how much I love and respect Lucy, but …” he trails off.
I meet his eyes. “Am I sure it’s mine?”
He nods gravely.
An irrational wave of anger spikes my blood at the question. I hate that people judge Lucy for being sexually liberated even if I know that’s not really what Aidan’s doing.
“She says yes, and I believe her. She says … she says she hasn’t been with anyone since the wedding.”
Aidan’s eyebrows draw together but he doesn’t say anything. I imagine he’s as surprised to hear that as I was.
“So … that phone call you ducked out to take earlier?”
“Yep. That was her telling me she’s decided to keep it.”
