by J. O Mantel
“Shit,” she whispered.
Sienna went to her room and quickly unpacked. After a few minutes the water stopped and she heard Jake walk through the living room to the laundry. This was it, she couldn’t avoid him or the situation any longer. She walked out of her room and into the living room, just as Jake walked out of the laundry wrapped in only a towel.
“Si-Sienna?” He stuttered.
“Hi, Jake,” she replied, trying to smile.
Jake felt slightly awkward. He quickly crossed his arms and stood by the laundry door.
“Sorry.”
“Jake, it’s okay, really.”
“So.” Jake spoke, unsure of what to say.
“So.” Sienna replied, clearly unsure of what to say herself.
“How are you?” He asked.
“I’m ok. You?”
“Good. Just ok?” He asked.
Sienna nodded.
This is fucking stupid, Sienna thought, as they stood there staring at one another, like they were both complete strangers.
There was silence for what felt like an eternity.
Water dripped down Jake’s face and chest, it was hard for Sienna to look away. Jake walked to his room, closed the door slightly and quickly changed. He returned a few minutes later wearing track pants and a tee.
“Sienna, what the hell is going on?” He suddenly asked.
“What do you mean?” She replied.
“Don’t play dumb, Sienna. You’ve been off for weeks now. You leave without any explanation, don’t return any of my calls or texts and now you stand here acting like everything’s all right. What gives?”
His tone was loud, he wasn’t shouting but Sienna knew that he wasn’t happy. Not that she was really surprised, she did owe him an explanation, but she just couldn’t bring herself to tell him.
“Well?” Jake asked.
“Jake, please. Can we not do this right now?”
“If not now Sienna, when? Something’s going on and I think I have a right to know.”
“Jake, you’re not my father.”
“No, Sienna. But in case you’ve forgotten, we live together and believe it or not, I actually do care.”
Sienna could feel the tears building up in her eyes, she tried desperately to hold them back.
“What’s happened? You haven’t been yourself since you got back from London.”
“I’ve just got a lot of stuff on my mind, Jake.”
“So rather than sit here and talk about it, you run off to Ivy’s?”
“I told you, Ivy needed help with wedding stuff.”
“Sienna, I’m no female, and I may not have any experience with weddings, but you honestly don’t expect me to believe that you spent an entire week with Ivy looking through bridal magazines, do you?”
“Quite frankly Jake, I don’t care what you believe. It’s the truth.”
She was about to lose her nerve, she took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.
“What is it that you’re not telling me, Sienna, what are you afraid of?”
“Nothing,” fuck, if only, she thought.
The two of them continued to stare at each other. Sienna hated this, she knew it was too soon to come back home. She thought about picking up the phone and making reservations at the local hotel, but that would just open more questions for Jake.
“Fine! If you’re not going to tell me what’s going on, then that’s your choice. But maybe next time you might want to think about other people’s feelings instead of your own.”
He stormed passed her and headed for his bedroom.
“I’m pregnant,” she suddenly blurted out.
Jake froze. Slowly he turned around and stared at Sienna.
“What did you just say?” He asked.
“I’m pregnant, Jake.”
He didn’t move from his position, he eyed Sienna from head to toe, trying to find the words to say.
“Jake? Did you hear what I said?” She asked.
“You-you’re pregnant?” He said.
Sienna nodded.
Jake still hadn’t moved, he went pale and looked like he was about to be sick.
“Jake? Jake are you all right?” Sienna asked.
“How far?” Jake replied.
“About six to seven weeks.”
He stood there taking in what she had just said, calculating her date of conception.
“That was around the night we… ”
Sienna nodded.
“It’s mine? I’m the father?” Jake said, his eyes lighting up.
“I-I don’t know,” Sienna said.
“What?” Jake asked.
“Jake, I don’t know if you’re the father.”
“But you just said you were six to seven weeks.”
“I am,” she replied.
Jake looked at her all confused, “Sienna, I don’t understand.”
She swallowed.
“Jake, after you and I… I went straight over to Lukas’s and told him what had happened, but not before we had sex.”
“So, wait a minute. You fucked me and then ran straight over to Lukas’s and fucked him too?”
“Oh, that’s charming, Jake. Thanks!”
“What? Well, it’s true. So what are you saying?”
“What I’m saying is, this baby could be yours but it could also be Lukas’s.”
“What does Lukas have to say about all this?”
“I haven’t told him yet.”
Jake took a few steps toward her, he was beside himself, not with anger, but with the lack of certainty.
“So you’re telling me, that there’s two possible fathers in this equation and you haven’t told Lukas yet?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.”
“Well, Sienna, I think you have a little… big problem on your hands.”
“Yeah, no shit,” she replied.
She could feel her eyes tearing up, she took a deep breath and calmed herself down. The last thing she wanted was to give Jake the waterworks performance.
“So this is why you spent the week at Ivy’s, isn’t it? This is why you haven’t returned any of my calls or texts.”
“What did you expect, Jake? I had no choice.”
“Oh you had a choice, Sienna, you always have a choice, and you just made the wrong one. Instead of staying here and dealing with the problem like an adult, you ran away and avoided it. That just shows how much of a coward you are.”
He didn’t mean for that last part to come out, and before he was able to make an apology, Sienna’s hand collided with his cheek.
“You son of a bitch,” she said loudly.
“Sienna, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”
“Jake, you can’t call someone a coward and then take it back when you realize you’ve been a prick.”
“Ok, I deserved that. But you need to look at this from my point of view.”
“Your point of view? Jake are you fucking kidding me right now?”
There was awkward tension in the room. Neither of them said anything for a few seconds, they just stared at one another.
“So are you going to tell Lukas?” Jake asked.
“Of course I’m going to tell him, this could very well turn out to be his baby.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jake said, now starting to get slightly angry.
“This might not be your baby, Jake. It could be Lukas’s.”
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Now he was fuming
“Excuse me?”
“You’d love for this baby to be Lukas’s. I bet you’re praying it turns out to be his.”
“Jake I didn’t say that-”
“No! But you’re thinking it. If this does turn out to be his baby it’ll seal the deal and be the perfect happy ending for both of you.”
“Jake-”
“Just forget it, Sienna. Go and have a nice life with Lukas, it’s what you want after all.” He turned and went to his room, slamming the door be
hind him.
“Fuck!” Sienna said, loudly.
Several hours had passed and Sienna couldn’t hear any noise from Jake’s room, so she figured he must have fallen asleep. With her head still full of thoughts and anger, she grabbed her keys, switched off the lights and went for a drive.
After driving around for hours, Sienna decided that she couldn’t hide from Lukas much longer. Even though Jake didn’t approve of Lukas, there was no telling what he’d do now that he had received this news. Sienna had to be the one to tell Lukas, he had to hear it from her, not Jake.
She pulled over, grabbed her phone out of her bag and text Lukas;
Sienna: Hey, babe. Just thought I’d let you know that I’m back home. I’d really like to come over and see you.
She sat there for a few minutes and awaited his reply. She hadn’t slept in days and she could slowly feel herself starting to drift off to sleep, she was exhausted.
Just as she shut her eyes, her phone alerted her of a message.
Lukas: Hey, babe. I’ll be home in ten minutes. Just finishing up at the studio.
She rested her head against the window and sighed, she was about to have the hardest conversation of her life.
After sitting there and thinking for about ten minutes, she started the car again and headed toward Lukas’s.
When she arrived she noticed a shiny black Harley Davidson parked in Lukas’s spare parking bay.
“He must have visitors,” she whispered.
She parked her car beside it, turned off the engine and sat there for a few minutes. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel and stared up toward Lukas’s apartment. The lights were turned on but she was unsure if Lukas was home alone. If he had visitors, this wasn’t the best time for them to be discussing parenthood.
She continued to sit there, trying to find an excuse to ignore him a little longer, then suddenly her phone rang; it was Lukas.
“Hello?”
“Hey. Why are you sitting in the car?”
“I saw the Harley Davidson and figured you’ve got visitors. I didn’t want to interrupt. Hang on, how did you know I was sitting in my car?”
“There’s nobody here except me. I’m outside on the balcony, taking in the view, I happened to see your car pull up, and I noticed you still haven’t gotten out of it.”
“Then whose bike is that?”
“It’s mine.”
“Huh?” Sienna asked, confused.
“I’ll explain when you get up here,” he said and hung up the phone. Sienna grabbed her purse and headed for the elevator.
Once arriving at Lukas’s floor, she slowly made her way to his door. After hesitating, she finally pressed the doorbell. She heard Lukas’s footsteps approaching, and then the door was opened.
“Hi,” he said, leaning in to kiss her.
“Hi,” Sienna replied, kissing him.
She stepped inside and Lukas closed the door. The two of them made their way to the living room and they sat down on the sofa.
“Did you do something to your hair?” Sienna asked, looking at his golden locks.
“No. Why?”
“I don’t know, it just looks kind of different.”
“Hmm,” Lukas muttered. “Are you all right? You seem kind of flat.”
“I’ve been better,” Sienna replied.
“Why don’t I make us a coffee and you can tell me all about it.”
He stood up and went into the kitchen. He turned on the coffee machine and quickly went into the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror, his hair did look different. He wet his hands with some water and brushed them through his hair, styling it the way Sienna loved it, slightly parted in the middle and spiked. When he finished, he returned to the kitchen, poured their coffees and sat back down on the sofa.
“Thank you,” Sienna said, as Lukas handed her the coffee.
“So, when did you get the Harley?” Sienna asked.
“Oh, I bought it about two years ago, before you and I even met.”
“And you’ve never mentioned it to me?”
“I didn’t think it was necessary. I mean, you never asked me and I assumed you’d be too scared to ride on the back of one. Not to mention, I knew how you would react if I told you. You’d give me a lecture about being careful and how you would be worried every time I rode on it.”
“Well, you’re right about one thing, I would be worried. But, I have actually ridden on the back of one before.”
“You have?” Lukas asked, confused.
“Yeah. Jesse, the guy I was seeing before you, he had one. He took me for a ride on it once.”
Lukas smiled, “you know, I can see you on the back of a bike, arms holding tightly around my waist, hair flowing behind you, so sexy.”
For the first time in days, Sienna smiled. Lukas always managed to put a smile on her face no matter how difficult things were.
“So! You wanted to talk to me?” Lukas finally asked.
Sienna’s heart sunk.
“Um… yeah,” she replied, drinking her coffee.
She looked at him but remained silent, there was no way out of this. This was it, Lukas’s life, and hers, were about to change. She remembered the conversation they had in L.A. Lukas didn’t care for marriage, he told her that he didn’t want to screw things up. If he was afraid of marriage screwing things up, how the fuck was she going to tell him that he could potentially be this baby’s father?
“Babe?” He asked.
“Huh?” Sienna replied, snapping out of her thoughts.
“You were saying?” Lukas said.
She took a deep breath, put her coffee on the table and stood up. She began pacing the room before stopping by the fireplace. She looked on the mantelpiece and noticed the photo of her and Lukas in Banff. It was the day they went rock climbing.
“Sienna? What’s wrong?” He asked.
“Lukas, you and I have been through a lot the last year or so, right?”
He nodded.
“No matter where we are, where we’re going, it’s always you and me.”
Again, he nodded in acknowledgment.
She paused for a moment and moved away from the mantelpiece, this time heading for the nearby window.
“Lukas, I love you, very much, more than any words could ever explain.”
“And I love you too. Babe, what is going on? You’re really starting to scare me.”
She walked back over to the sofa and finally sat back down beside him.
“Lukas. Is our love strong enough to get us through anything?”
Lukas stared into her eyes, Sienna could see that he was scared, they weren’t the usual brown color she was used to.
“Sienna? What have you done?” He asked.
She gulped, and felt herself swallow her tongue.
“Oh man! There’s no easier way to say this… I’m pregnant Lukas,” she said.
“What?” He responded.
“I’m pregnant.”
The brief look of fear on his face seemed to change to a look of shock.
“You’re pregnant?” He asked.
“Yep! Almost seven weeks now.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” He asked, sliding closer toward her.
“Because. Lukas there’s something else you-”
“So this is why you weren’t feeling well in London?”
She nodded. “When I got home, I wasn’t getting any better so I took myself to the doctor and he confirmed my pregnancy.”
Lukas sat there in silence for a moment and smiled at her.
“Well, I must admit the timing isn’t great. We’re going to be doing a lot of traveling over the next few months. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure I’m there when the baby’s born.”
To Sienna’s surprise, she could see how happy he was. He leaned forward and kissed her.
Fuck! She thought. How the hell do I tell him now?
Lukas pulled the hair out of her face, he could see that her eyes were filli
ng with tears.
“Babe, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” He asked.
Sienna wept, tears streamed down her face as she looked at Lukas.
“Sienna, what’s going on?”
“Lukas, there’s something else you need to know.”
“Well, whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not that bad,” he replied.
She managed to calm herself down and stop crying. She sniffed and turned her eyes to his chest.
“Lukas. When Dr. Hughes did my ultrasound, he performed a dating scan.”
“Yeah? You said you were around seven weeks, right?”
She nodded again.
Lukas looked at her confused, trying to recall the event.
“Yes. Lukas, do you remember what happened seven weeks ago?”
Once again, Lukas tried to recall the event, but his mind was clueless.
“Babe, a lots happened since then. What difference does it make anyway? This is the most wonderful thing I could ever ask for.”
He leaned forward and kissed her again, only this time Sienna pulled away.
“Am I missing something here?” He asked, confused.
“Lukas, there’s a chance that you might not be this baby’s father,” she said. She couldn’t even look him in the eye.
“What?” He asked, his tone was serious.
Sienna remained silent, Lukas slowly pulled away and looked at her.
“What did you just say to me?” He asked, slightly louder.
“Seven weeks ago, Lukas, that was the night Jake and I… ”
His eyes widened, it was all starting to make sense.
“So you’re telling me that this baby could be mine, but it could also be Jake’s?” He said, getting off the sofa.
“Yes,” Sienna whispered. She suddenly felt like Bridget Jones.
“Does Jake know about this?”
“Yeah. I told him as soon as I got home, then I headed straight over here.”
Lukas was processing all the information. He was full of emotions, he didn’t know if he wanted to be upset or angry.
“What does he have to say about it?” He asked.
“Well, he kind of reacted the same way you did. He just wants answers, he wants to know if it’s his baby.”
“Well, for once, Jake and I finally agree on something!” His tone was getting louder with each word.
“Lukas, I-”
