Page 97 of More Than Words

“I’ve interacted with him enough to know he’s not really that bad. A lot of the gossips in this office have a habit of taking something small and blowing it out of proportion.”

Well, they were likely to have a field day when I started showing. At this point, it wouldn’t be hard to guess who my baby daddy was.

“I’ll let you get back to your schoolwork. Congratulations again. I know how hard you work around here, and I think you’ll do great.”

Would have been nice if I had gotten to her first, but clearly the timing was not on my side for anything lately.

Once I got to my office, I scanned through the emails that’d come through in my absence, noting ones I’d need to address in the next few days, and adding reminders in my calendar about upcoming deadlines or check-ins with my authors. I’d missed this part of my job while I was on the road.

Adrian: How was your appointment? We good to go?

If he only knew that he’d already accomplished our goal. He’d been in do-not-disturb mode with his alerts off when I’d tried to text him earlier, clearly finalizing the details of his new intern. Until I had answers, I hadn’t wanted to freak him out while I was at the clinic, but now that I did, I wasn’t sure how to go about telling him.

I’d thought we’d have a few months until this happened. Was I supposed to come up with some elaborate pregnancy reveal? Or could I just blurt it out in the car in the morning? I wasn’t sure what the protocol was for something like this. Especially since the last time I’d been pregnant, it’d been over before it had really sunk in.

Adrian: I’ve got some leftover Chinese food from having dinner with Pops. Want me to stop by? Have you eaten yet?

My stomach turned as I thought about eating anything, and now I knew why I’d been so exhausted lately. It was still early, but I should have noticed the signs. I chalked everything up to stress and hadn’t been worried when my cycle was light a few weeks ago. It was never particularly heavy with the IUD in anyway, but I hadn’t suspected a thing.

Dr. Charles said it’d probably dislodged during my previous cycle, and the last time I remembered checking my strings was a few days before it’d started.

Isobel: Still need to wrap up at the office and head home to finish packing. I’m exhausted. Rain check?

Adrian: Want me to bring you a chocolate croissant in the morning?

Isobel: Do you really need me to answer that question?

Adrian: I might even bring you two, so you don’t try to steal mine again.

Isobel: Probably best, since I don’t think I’d have room for three of them, but I can’t make any promises yours will be safe in the end.

Adrian: I thought you liked having two at once.

I laughed, finally letting a little bit of my anxiety go because I knew he wasn’t talking about chocolate croissants. Before I could respond, he texted me again.

Adrian: Go home and get some sleep, babe.

Isobel: So bossy.

Adrian: Just want to make sure my girl is taking care of herself.

And even more of my nerves melted away. I could do this. I would figure it out. We would figure it out.

“Your apartment better have burned down and you’re standing in the street homeless, looking at the smoking ashes.”

Laughing, I slid my toiletry case in my bag, eyeing the emergency tampon tucked in the side. Guess I wouldn’t be needing that for a while.

“Good morning to you too, Leila.”

“Seriously, it’s six in the morning. I’m not caffeinated enough for this. But I know you wouldn’t call before ten if you didn’t need me. What’s up? Aren’t you leaving today?”

“Yeah…” I sighed.

“Oh no, I recognize that sigh. What did Dickhead do?”

“He didn’t do any… Well, he didn’t do anything intentionally.” Cause his super sperm had clearly done something.

“Just tell me. Did I not mention the part about being under-caffeinated?”

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