by Liza Kline
“I just want the best for you.”
“I know mom.”
The rest of our meal passed peacefully with my mom filling me in on the details of my sister’s wedding and gossip about various family members and friends in her bridge club. I loved my mother and when she wasn’t trying to force her choices down my throat she was the best mom a girl could ask for. After promising to call her on Friday night instead of Saturday morning to discuss my date I was free to escape to the pharmacy.
I waited until my mother was in her car and driving away before I crossed the street. Once inside the pharmacy it took me a few minutes to find where they kept the pregnancy tests hidden. I’d never had a need to buy one before and the number of choices were slightly overwhelming. Deciding I didn’t want to have to come back, I bought three tests from different companies and then made my way back to my apartment.
I locked myself in my bathroom with the tests. I’m not sure who I thought would be spying on me but I didn’t want anyone to know what I was doing. I opened the first package and read over the instructions. Simple enough pee on the stick then wait three minutes. I decided to take all three tests at once. A quick glance at the instructions from the other two boxes confirmed that they worked the same way. Now all I had to do was pee. I could do it. Okay maybe not. I got off the toilet and filled the glass I kept on the counter with tap water. After drinking three glasses I was ready to try again.
This time I was successful. There were three test strips laying on the counter in my bathroom and I needed to wash my hands. They should include a notice that peeing on a stick was messy business. After washing and drying my hands I still had two minutes until the first test reached the three minute mark. I rearranged my shower curtain, another thirty seconds down. Screw this I was going to look. The first test had two pink lines, positive. The second test read “Pregnant” and so did the third test. That was not the answer I was expecting at all. Now what the hell was I going to do?
I pulled my phone from my pocket and fired off one last text to Grant.
We need to talk!!!!
Chapter 5
“How’s it going?” I asked David as I took my seat across from him at the Italian place he had picked for our “date”, startling him from his thoughts. I briefly wondered what he had been thinking about but I had enough on my plate right now. Tuesday my doctor had confirmed that the three pregnancy tests I had taken were correct and I’d be expecting a “little bundle of joy” her words, not mine, the week before Christmas. Not exactly the top gift on my wish list but the idea of being a mother was starting to grow on me. This morning I had caught myself talking to my stomach, which was totally odd.
“Good. The week’s almost over and I actually have the weekend free. How about you?” David asked passing me the drink menu.
“Same thing, different day. My mother is still hounding me about finding a date for Amber’s wedding. I have to call her tomorrow because I told her that I was going on a date tonight. I’ll have to come up with a plausible reason for my imaginary date to not be a good candidate for my wedding date, not to mention my future fiancé. Oh yes,” I rambled on. “My mother totally went there during brunch on Sunday. Apparently I should also be throwing myself into the marriage trap with the first male that’s interested.” David laughed at the horror tinging my words.
“I hope you don’t mind but I ordered the family size spaghetti and meatballs for us to share while I waited.” David said as the waiter approached to take my drink order.
“Works for me. You know I’m not picky.” My stomach grumbling in agreement at the thought of meatballs.
“So you’re going to tell your mom that I’m a dud of a date, huh?” David asked pouting slightly. “That’s going to ruin my reputation with the ladies.”
“What ladies?” I laughed, teasing my friend. He had a habit of only going on three dates with the same woman before moving on to the next one. His type tended to be more barfly than lady.
“Ouch, that really hurts MacKenzie.”
“The truth hurts.” I fired back feeling better than I had all week.
The waiter returned with my water followed by a server carrying a large tray with our meal on it, cutting off whatever silly comment David was about to make. A plate was placed before each of us and the spaghetti and meatballs were placed in the middle of the table followed by a basket of garlic bread. As soon as the pungent aroma of garlic hit me my stomach started to gurgle unpleasantly and my throat began to burn as stomach acid tried to escape. I shoved back my chair and took off at a faced paced walk to the back of the restaurant where the restrooms were located.
Safely inside the stall I burped a few times but luckily that was all that happened. The overpowering scent of garlic was gone and my stomach had settled down. My doctor had warned me that I would probably start to get morning sickness over the next couple weeks but I hadn’t expected it to happen already. I slumped against the side of the stall dejectedly, this was not how I envisioned my life; pregnant from a one night stand with my best friend who was no longer talking to me. Right now my life pretty much sounded like one of those cheesy movies on the women’s cable channel, except I knew there was no happy ending waiting for me at the end of two hours of drama. I didn’t know why I was feeling sorry for myself in the ladies room of a restaurant. I was a strong, independent woman. I’d made it this far in life without a man, I didn’t need one now that I was pregnant either. All this emotional nonsense I’d been experiencing over the last month had to be due to the pregnancy hormones.
Feeling better after my mini pep talk I exited the stall, washed my hands and left the restroom, running straight into David, literally right into him. I would have fallen on my ass if he hadn’t grabbed my arm. He was standing just outside the door holding a glass of water which he offered to me once he was sure I was steady on my feet.
“Thanks.” I mumbled accepting the glass and taking a drink suddenly thirsty.
“Welcome.” He kept his hand at the center of my back as he walked next to me. “I had them take the bread away.” He commented as we approached our table. I gave a smile of thanks as I retook my seat.
“How did you know it was the bread?”
“Same thing happened to my sister.”
The scent of meatballs distracted me from wondering too long at how he knew that it was the garlic bread that had made me sick. My stomach growled in protest of being denied food for so long and I remained silent as I remedied the situation, helping myself to a spoonful of spaghetti and three large meatballs. We were nearly finished eating when David broke the silence that had descended when we started to eat.
“When did you find out?”
“Find out what?” I was genuinely confused by his question.
“That you were pregnant.” I contemplated lying to him but it really would be easier if I had someone else to share things with while I figured out when to make the announcement. When I had asked my doctor how long it would be before I started to show she said that with my larger size it probably wouldn’t be obvious until my fifth or sixth month, which suited me just fine. I wasn’t sure I could keep it a secret that long though, but if I had someone else to share the secret with I might be able to pull it off if I needed to.
“Sunday… well the doctor confirmed it Tuesday.” I finally admitted.
“How far along are you?” This was the tricky question. If he did the math and added it to the fact that Grant and I weren’t speaking he might figure out my secret. But David had no reason to suspect that Grant was the father of my child.
“Seven weeks.” Well, a few days shy, but David didn’t need to know everything.
“Have you told the father?”
“I tried.” I answered honestly. It wasn’t my fault that Grant was ignoring me. “He’s not interested. We’ll be fine though. I can take care of us both.”
“Does Grant know?”
“Does Grant know what?” I practically demanded, panic filling my c
hest. David couldn’t have figured things out that easily.
“That some asshole knocked you up and now doesn’t want to take care of his responsibilities. Grant will make sure he at least pays support when he gets home. Hell I’ll do it if he won’t.” My heart stopped racing as he talked. He didn’t know. He just wanted to reassure me that my best friend would look out for me like he had in high school, fat chance of that happening this time. Not when my best friend was the asshole that needed a beat down. I couldn’t prevent the laugh that escaped at the thought of Grant beating himself up.
“No. I’m not telling him. I don’t need him to take care of me anymore. And,” I continued drawing out the word, “you’re not going to tell him either. Promise me. This guy is not worth anyone’s time or effort. It’s his loss not mine or my child’s.” Even though we were speaking normally I felt like everyone in the dimly lit restaurant could hear our conversation and was judging me for being pregnant and unwed.
“Calm down Kenzie, I won’t tell him if you don’t want me to.”
“I don’t.” This was the one thing about the entire situation I was sure about. I would be the one to tell Grant I was pregnant.
“Then I won’t tell him, but you will have to tell him at some point. You know he won’t like being left in the dark for long.” That’s what I was afraid of, but it wasn’t my fault he wasn’t returning my text messages.
“Thanks. Oh!” I exclaimed thinking of something else. “You can’t tell Alex either.”
“Again, not my place.”
“Look at that, you might not be a dud of a date after all.” I laughed.
“Speaking of that… I was thinking while you were in the bathroom. Maybe I should be your date to your sister’s wedding. Just hear me out.” He continued when I opened my mouth to disagree. I didn’t want anyone to think that I had a pity date. “You have enough going on right now with the whole baby situation. You don’t need to add to it by going out with losers. We can start fake dating so that people won’t think that you conned me into going with you. By the time the wedding rolls around no one will think it’s odd that we’re together. We can “break up” a few weeks after the wedding.” He actually used air quotes around the words break up, which caused me to giggle. I’d never seen my firefighting friend use air quotes before. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want people to think the baby is yours.”
“There are worse things that I could be accused of. When the truth comes out think of all the ladies that will be swarming around me trying to get the attention of the guy that was there for his pregnant friend in her time of need.”
“Oh brother. Can you even last eight weeks without sex?” I was suddenly contemplating the logistics of how this fake relationship could work.
“Not a problem.” David answered quietly no longer meeting my gaze. Had I made him uncomfortable or was he not telling me something?
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to do it.”
“And no one will know about our arrangement except the two of us?”
“If that’s the way you want it, yes.”
“Then I accept. Thank you. I’m sure the ladies will be devastated without you for two months.”
“I know, I know, but my sacrifice is for the greater good.” He responded with a grin.
“I guess tomorrow I’ll have to tell my mom that I had an awesome date. I can’t wait to hear her response when she hears I found a keeper. Oh hell, how am I going to tell her that it’s you?” I groaned.
“Tell her you couldn’t resist my charms.” David said wiggling an eyebrow at me and I couldn’t help but laugh.
Chapter 6
“What the hell do you mean you’re dating?” Alex yelled looking back and forth between me and David as we sat across from him at my dining room table, cards and poker chips now scattered across the surface from his outburst.
“What part of dating don’t you understand?” David answered calmly, crossing his arms across his chest.
“The part where you two think it’s acceptable to do so. You’re going to ruin years of friendship for a few weeks of sex. What the hell is wrong with you, both of you?” Alex gave me a hard look before returning his attention back to David. “I’m not going to let you two destroy everything because you can’t find anyone else to scratch your itch.”
“Watch your mouth!” David fired back heatedly.
“What are you going to do? Go crying to Grant that I hurt your feelings like every other time you run into trouble?” He laughed then, “Grant’s going to kill you when he finds out.”
“Fuck you.” David said standing up so fast his chair tipped back and fell to the floor. Alex followed suit and rounded the table, fists clenched. Shit, this was not going to end well if I didn’t do something fast.
“It’s only until after the wedding.” I blurted out before my brain could catch up.
“What?” Both men turned to me in shock.
“I thought we were keeping this a secret.” David hissed angrily at me.
“Not if you two morons are going to kill one another over it. Christ Alex, you’re acting like it would be a crime if we were actually interested in one another. Drama queen much?”
“So you’re not actually dating?” Alex said sitting back down.
“Just pretending until after the wedding to keep my mom off my back.”
“Why didn’t you ask me?” Was he serious right now? He was going to act like it hurt his feelings that I didn’t want him to be my fake boyfriend.
“It was my idea.” David admitted, calmer now that I had told the truth, well most of the truth. “It will be good for me to be off the market for a while. The ladies always want what they can’t have and when it’s over I’ll have my choice of who I let console me over my loss.”
“Now that is an awesome idea dude.” Alex exclaimed gathering up the cards to continue our game. “Do you think that blonde from last weekend will go for it?”
“If you two are over wanting to beat one another into a bloody mess I’m going to grab something to drink. Don’t peek at my cards if you deal before I get back.” I interrupted before David could respond.
When I returned to the room things were back to normal Alex and David were discussing a baseball game they had watched the night before, something I had zero interest in so I tuned out their conversation and attempted to focus on the cards in my hand. But the three fives I was holding didn’t keep my attention for long. I still had a hard time believing that Grant was still ignoring me. It wasn’t like him to avoid situations. For as long as I’d known him he’d always faced things head on. Maybe he was cutting me out of his life completely. Maybe this mystery woman of his didn’t like that he was friends with another female and that’s why he wasn’t responding to my messages. No matter what his reason he was acting like a dick and he was going to miss out on knowing his child.
Ugh now I sounded like one of those talk show skanks that couldn’t keep her legs closed and only wanted her children for the money they would bring her. I was better than this. There had to be a perfectly logical reason for Grant not being able to answer me. We had been friends for too long for me to be petty and jealous. It was his child too. I wouldn’t deny him his rights. It would be up to him to decide if he wanted to be a part of our child’s life or not.
“You going to fold Kenzie?” David teased drawing me from my thoughts. I threw some chips in the center of the table when my phone started to ring.
My heart sped up at the thought of Grant finally calling me. It was only Kerri. I turned the volume off and let her go to voicemail. I’d talk to her in the morning. She probably just wanted to bitch about the date she’d been on and I wasn’t in the mood for anyone else’s drama tonight.
An hour later our game finally started to wind down with Alex proclaiming himself the week’s champion. I wasn’t going to argue. I could barely keep my eyes op
en, stupid pregnancy hormones. The guys helped me clean up before taking off and I managed to crawl into bed still fully clothed before succumbing to the lethargy that had taken over my body.
Chapter 7
With my sister’s wedding only days away it was looking like David and I would be able to successfully pull off our fake relationship. My mother had been as pleased as punch when I announced to her that David and I were a couple.
“I knew one of those boys you hung around with wanted more than friendship.” She had declared with a chuckle before turning the conversation back to Amber’s wedding.
Now that I had a boyfriend, and therefore a date for the wedding, I was no longer a cause for concern, at least for the time being. I’m sure that she would be hounding me about my own wedding hours after the ceremony but I could handle that. My current concern was finding a dress that would camouflage the slight roundness my body had started to develop. David was still the only other person that knew about the baby. Alex and Kerri both thought that I had gained some weight from stress eating, and my mother hadn’t seen me since the morning of our brunch.
All week Kerri had been accompanying me to a different store on our lunch breaks in hopes of finding a dress. After today the only store left to search was the thrift store. I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to resort to that. If I could guarantee that the sizing would be accurate I would buy a dress online but the last time I had done that the dress I had ordered had ended up being more like a shirt on me.
“What about this one?” Kerri asked holding up a fire engine red sleeveless dress with a plunging neckline that consisted of layers of sheer fabric draped on top of one another.
“I said wedding Kerri, not nightclub.” I responded shaking my head as I went back to inspecting the rack in front of me.
