“Well, tough shit. You knew I would. I’m your next of kin in all but blood, remember?” Her voice cracked. “Of course I came.”
I sniffed and sat back. She passed me a tissue from the bathroom counter, and I wiped my face with shaking hands. Gwen had seen me like this before. She’d held me tight the night I foundhimand fled toLondon. She’d cried with me as I packed up the boxes. But even then, she’d never seen methisbroken.
I opened my mouth to speak, but instead I lurched forward and threw up again. I couldn’t keep down the sheer agony of it all.
“Jesus, Kate…okay, that’s it.” Gwen knelt beside me, pulling my hair back with one hand and rubbing my back with the other. “How long has this been going on?”
“Since last night,” I croaked. “It’s the stress, jet lag, everything.”
She gave me that look, the one that could melt steel. I could see her studying me for a moment. Mulling something over.
“Right…And when was your last period?”
I blinked. “Gwen, don’t be ridiculous,” I said, shaking my head.
“Answer the question.”
I opened my mouth. Closed it again. My brain scrambled like it was trying to run through sand.
I reached for my phone to scroll through my tracker app that I barely filled in anymore.
“One a week before I came to Wimbledon. One a few days before I flew to D.C. One…Shit…I’m late.”
“How late?”
“…Almost a week.”
Gwen was already on her feet. “Right. That’s it. I’m going to Tesco. You’re staying here. Don’t you dare move, don’t think, and for the love of God, don’t google anything.”
I stayed sat upright on the rug, the cold of the tile seeping into my back now, while the spiral caught up to me.
There was no way I could be pregnant. I couldn’t be. I’d tried for three bloody years with Andrew, and nothing. And I’d been on the pill for months now since we split up, precautionary. How could it just…happen now?
And with him?
Okay, yes. I’d left my pill in Canada, and finding a pharmacy in Cincinnati had been a nightmare the day we landed. But I was only half a day late taking it. Well… maybe a couple more before that with the time zones.
Oh. Oh,fuck.
My stomach growled, cutting straight through the spiral. I’d basically been throwing up on an empty stomach.
Gwen was halfway down the stairs when I croaked after her, “Gwen?”
She paused. “Yeah?”
“…Get crisps, too.”
She turned, one eyebrow raised, arms folded. “Oh, now you want snacks. Anything else, Your Highness?”
“No, just salt and vinegar.”
She gave me a look. “Pregnant or not, you’re a fucking menace.”
And then she was gone, out the front door. My best friend, on a pregnancy test run like it was a regular Tuesday and I hadn’t just burned my whole fucking life to the ground.
I curled tighter on the floor. One hand on my stomach, the other gripping my phone like a lifeline. Everything hurt now, even my brain.
But she’d come, of course she had. There was never any doubt. But now I had to wait so see if my whole life was about to change for the second time in as many months.
