Page 128 of A Puppy Love Christmas

She grinned happily. That was a lot of kisses to sign off with.

She fired off a text asking Arlo to give Jay her love. He sent back an emoji with a kissy face.

And then she heard nothing.

CHAPTER 57

VALENTINA, THEN

It seemed Arlo had disappeared off the face of the earth.

Days passed and he didn’t reply to any of her messages and Valentina had to force herself to stop checking her phone every few minutes on the off-chance he’d got in touch.

He’d ghosted her.

Valentina hit an all-time low of listlessness and misery. And then she got angry. With him for being a spineless arsehole and then with herself for falling so hard for someone so quickly.

* * *

There had been radio silence for weeks and she suspected she’d never hear from him again.

Then one night Arlo texted her.

Sorry I haven’t been in touch, long story. Can we meet? We need to talk. X

Valentina clutched the phone as her stomach. We need to talk. She’d used that line enough times to know what was coming. Probably a pick ’n’ mix of the tried and trusted “it’s not you, it’s me”, “different stages…”, “too busy”, “long-distance doesn’t work” excuses.

It all boiled down to Arlo wanting to call time on their fun.

Valentina sat for a moment before firing off a quick text.

Hi, sorry, but I won’t be able to meet you. V busy here. We’ve had great fun but I can’t see you again.

She thought it looked a little blunt so she added:

All the best, Valentina.

No kisses.

She sent it and quickly blocked his number before he could reply. Then deleted his number from her contact list for good measure.

At work, Valentina felt out of sorts and had no energy. She couldn’t think about Arlo without having a weight of depression settle on her.

A couple of weeks later, Valentina had to call in sick and spent most of the day with her head down the toilet.

For the next couple of days, Valentina could do nothing but lie on the sofa feeling nauseous if she as much as tried to stand.

The next morning, she rolled over in bed and yelped slightly at the soreness in her breasts. After she had to bolt to the bathroom to be sick, she returned to her bedroom and picked up her phone. With a deep breath, she opened her period tracker app. Her period was long overdue. She looked at the little blue circle which told her when she’d last ovulated; right in the middle of her lost weekend with Arlo.

But they’d been careful. Hadn’t they? Valentina was certain condoms had been used but could she, hand on heart, say they’d been used every time they’d had sex? And there really had been quite a lot of sex.

She drove to the big Tesco a few miles away and bought three pregnancy kits, returned home and drank a two-litre bottle of water and waited until she needed to pee on the sticks.

Pregnant.