Page 33 of Tempest

“Because you’re a hotshot jock with huge prospects. You’ll always have women throwing themselves at you. It won’t be the same for me, that’s all.”

“You don’t think I would be faithful?” While I understand what she’s saying, I don’t think I’ve done anything that would give her the impression that I wouldn’t, or couldn’t, stay true to her.

“Well, we’ve never actually defined that we’re a couple or anything, for one. Secondly, of course I think you would be faithful to me, if that’s what we decide we’re doing. I’m asking if that’s what we’re doing,” she says. “Are we?”

“I want that,” I say, resting my forehead on hers. “In my heart, we’re already there.”

“You’re sure?”

“Never been more sure of anything in my life.”

“We need to talk,” Caroline says when I answer the door.

We haven’t spoken much since our breakup, a stark departure from, well, really, our whole lives. She and I both thought it was best to try and sever the ties some. Of course, we still want to be friends. But we don’t need to be attached at the hip going into the next stage of our lives.

“Sure, come on in,” I say, examining her red, puffy eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Are your parents home?”

“No, not for another hour or so. What’s going on, Caroline?”

She walks past me into our living room and falls into the corner of the sofa. Immediately, she covers her face and starts sobbing.

“Caroline? What the fuck?” I kneel, trying to wrap my arms around her to console her. My first thought is that someone hurt her. My second is that I might get brought up on charges if they did.

“I’m so sorry, Gav. I don’t know how it happened,” she says through hiccupping cries.

“What’s happened?”

She wipes at her cheeks and eyes, eventually lowering her hands to her lap.

“You’ve been getting close to Odette. Spending a lot of time with her?”

“Yeah,” I hedge. I’m not sure what she could have to do with anything that would make Caroline cry like this. “Why?”

“Do you love her?”

“I’m not sure. It’s early still. I like her a lot, definitely.”

“I thought so. I could tell the last time we talked.”

“What does this have to do with me and Odette?”

“I don’t want to make things harder for you,” she says quietly, her fingers visibly shaking.

“Caroline, tell me.”

Sometimes, I think if we pay enough attention to what’s going on around us, we can see the world giving us warnings. Like, the air around you changes when you’re about to be thrown on your head. It’s not like a lightning strike, it’s quiet and subtle, but I believe it when people say they felt the sudden dread. I feel it now, like my whole life is going to change by whatever Caroline is about to say.

“I’m pregnant, Gav. And I’m keeping it.”

Surely, I didn’t hear that right. The blood pounding in my ears must have distorted her words. She can’t be pregnant since we’ve always been so careful.

“Repeat that,” I say.

“I’m pregnant. Four months along. And I’m sorry that this is happening right now.”

“It’s not your fault,” I say, my voice feeling far away. Or maybe it’s my voice here in the room with her, but my body and soul are somewhere else. Floating above us, watching as our lives change irrevocably. “It’s not something you could have done on your own.”

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