Bex’s reply was a series of exclamation marks and aubergine emojis, so she’d clearly got the gist. My eyes flicked to her first reply, and I frowned. Almost every communication with Bex since I’d arrived here had been somewhat low energy; she’d had that flu bug, but she was still tired?
Elliot noticed my expression. “What’s up?”
“I think there’s something wrong with Bex,” I said.
“Your friend?”
“Yeah.” I explained about her recent illness. “I have a feeling something’s not right.”
“Call her,” Elliot said.
“Yeah, think I will. You okay if step out?” I jumped to my feet.
“Sure,” he said. “She’s important. Besides, you leaving the room might mean I finish typing quicker, and then I can steal you out of here.” He flashed me a wolfish grin that made my stomach flip. “Go on, I’ll send this to RJ.”
I stumbled out to the balcony. Evening was descending and New York buzzed below me, the horns and traffic a comfortinghum as I hit the videocall icon for Bex. Soon enough, her beautiful yet worryingly pale face filled the screen.
“I can’t believe you fucked Boner Rage!” she yelled by way of greeting. “Tell me EVERYTHING!”
“Hello to you too,” I choked through laughter. “And his name is Elliot.”
“I knew it,” she went on. “Knew it.”
“And we didn’t actually do anything yet,” I said. “Besides have the most incredible kiss.”
Bex arched an eyebrow. “Just a kiss? You texted me about a mere kiss?” Then she gaped. “You like him.”
“Obviously.” I tutted. “With the kissing and all.”
“No,” Bex scoffed. “Youlikehim. This is … you’re different. Your face kind of melts when you say his name. Elliot isn’t some one-time guy – he’s relationship material.”
“I haven’t … I don’t know,” I gabbled. “It’s only just happened. I haven’t thought about it much beyond being desperate to see him with no clothes on.”
“Oh, you are.” Bex grinned in self-satisfaction. “You’re imagining how your future babies will look and what car finance plan you’ll go in on. You just don’t know it.”
“That’s mental,” I said. She couldn’t possibly be right. True, Elliot had snared my attention from the moment I’d met him and, true, something about him caused my body and my brain to react in ways no man had achieved before. But that was irrelevant, because I was here on a temporary visa and Lin wanted me back in London as soon as physically possible, so why was I even contemplating Bex’s theory? “It’s far too soon to be saying any of this stuff.”
“I don’t think so.” Bex snorted. “I would like the record to show that I, Bex Martin, totally and one hundred per cent called it.”
I gritted my teeth. “Going to change the subject now. What’s going on, you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, but …” Bex’s voice wavered. A chill descended over me.
“Oh God, what is it?” My heart began to race. “Are you sick? Is everything okay? What is it?”
“Ahm.” Her face broke into a brilliant, tear-soaked smile. “I’m pregnant.”
Was she kidding? I waited for her to stick out her tongue, to laugh at my shock but she waited, eyes wide with expectation.
“Pregnant, as in, with a baby?”
“No, with a rare breed of llama. Yes, a baby, you beautiful idiot.” Bex laughed. “We weren’t trying, we didn’t mean for this to happen. I wasn’t even sure that I wanted kids, but it’s happened and now it’s sunk in, and I am really, really happy.”
“Bex.” My eyes filled with tears as pure joy flooded through me. “Oh my God, this is amazing.”
“I know.” She nodded so energetically that she almost dropped the phone. “And what’s crazy is, I’m over five months gone.”
“What?” Now it was my turn to almost drop the phone. “So you were pregnant at your birthday? You were drinking!”
