Page 3 of Mistaken Intention

“That’s okay.” I couldn’t blame him anymore. My anger was a thing of the past, if it had ever truly existed. I loved him. Nothing else mattered.

“Lexi and I have split up now.”

“I know. I heard.”

“Oh, I see. So, um… would you like to meet up for coffee?”

I wasn’t sure what he meant. Was he asking me on a date? Was that even relevant? I said ‘yes’. I wanted to see him again, and when I did, the following day, the spark was still there. It fanned into flames the moment he sat opposite me and our eyes met. Nothing had changed, and although all we did was talk – yet again – I knew a minute of talking with him would be more fulfilling than a lifetime of romance with anyone else.

Of course, I hoped for more. Especially when he asked if we could meet up again… and again.

After that third meeting, which I was still refusing to think of as a date, I allowed myself a glimmer of hope… just the tiniest of flickers, which I carried in my heart.

We didn’t arrange our next meeting, because Drew was going away to do some work in Hawaii and his schedule was a little unpredictable.

“If the weather’s bad, I might have to stay over an extra day or two. I don’t wanna make plans for Friday night and then let you down.”

I liked that, even though I was still trying not to overthink everything he said.

“I’m working all weekend, anyway,” I told him, and I struggled not to smile when I saw the disappointment in his eyes.

“Okay. Why don’t I call you when I get back? We can set something up then?”

I nodded my head. He sounded keen, so I wasn’t surprised when my phone rang late at night a few days later.

What did surprise me was that the call was from Lexi. I hadn’t seen her since Ingrid’s party, and she hadn’t called me in years. I’d even forgotten I still had her number on my phone and for a moment or two I wondered about ignoring her, mostly because I felt guilty about my feelings for her ex-boyfriend. In the end, though, I picked up… and immediately wished I hadn’t.

“I’m pregnant.”

Her words astonished me, blurted out like that. “I’m sorry?”

“I said I’m pregnant.”

“I didn’t realize you’d met someone, let alone…”

“I haven’t met anyone. At least, not anyone new. It’s Drew’s.”

I was standing in my kitchen at the time, fetching some water, but I sank to my knees, my heart fracturing in my chest, the pieces scattering, like the glass that shattered on the floor as I dropped it.

“D—Drew’s?”

“Yeah… remember? The guy I brought to Ingrid’s party.”

Of course I remembered him. I was in love with him. “Oh, yeah. But you broke up, didn’t you?” Surely Ingrid hadn’t been wrong, had she? Drew hadn’t been lying? He hadn’t beenmeeting up with me and sleeping with my sister? He couldn’t have been.

“We did, but… it’s complicated.” I wanted to tell her it was a darn sight more complicated than she knew, but I held my tongue, listening as she let out a long sigh, before she said, “I don’t think I told you about the assignment in the Caribbean earlier in the year.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Well, it was a disaster. I got sick the day we arrived… and I mean sick. It was horrible. Drew turned up a couple of days later, by which time I was better, but the other models were dropping like flies. There was a storm forecast, and he and I had nothing else to do, so we… we got together.”

“I see.” I wished I didn’t, but she’d painted a vivid enough picture for me.

“The problem was, because I’d been sick, my birth control pills didn’t work, so…” Her voice faded, my brain switching into neutral as I realized that, even if Drew hadn’t cheated – on either of us – any hopes I’d had of being with him had floundered in the aftermath of an affair neither party even cared about.

“It was an accident?” I said once she’d stopped talking.

“Yeah. Only now I don’t know what to do. I told Dad, and he’s fuming, and… oh, God, Josie… what am I gonna do?”

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