Page 10 of Last Minute Fiancé

Working eighty hours a week in a job that I loved with people that I hated. A job where being a woman was more than a mark against you, it was something you had to overcome.

And now I was gestating.

I was single. Alone, standing next to my best friend.

And pregnant.

This day couldn’t possibly get any worse.

And with that thought, I whirled to the toilet and emptied my stomach—my best friend holding back my hair, and the father of my unborn baby as pale as I was.

ChapterThree

Luca

There was an odd sense of panic running through my system. One that screamed that I should be reacting, that I should be fighting or fleeing. Could someone flee and fight at the same time? Because that felt like the correct response.

I looked down at the test in her hand, and heard the words coming out of her mouth, but they didn’t quite register.

We hadn’t gone for one of those tests that were hard to read. Not one where you had to see if the little rattle was pink or blue or purple or polka dot. Not one you had to count the lines or decide if the lines were dotted or straight or diagonal. No, we got the one that said pregnant or not pregnant. And if you looked at the screen you realized that the word “pregnant” would always be there and it was just the word “not” that might show up on the readout. Meaning there was still potential for the “not” to show up. I stared at it, willing the word “not” to slowly fade into reality.

But it never did. The “not” did not show up. Instead, all that remained was a single word—pregnant.

As in the woman that had quickly become my best friend, my confidant, the woman that I enjoyed hanging out with, that I had slept with one time while a little too drunk and a little too happy, who was now carrying my child.

She hadn’t said she hadn’t slept with anyone else, and had invited me here because she needed me by her side. Not as her friend, no, as the dickhead who had impregnated her.

I ran my hands over my face, trying not to panic and yet all I was doing was freaking the fuck out.

“Oh my God.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Addison screeched, then set the test gently down on the counter and picked up the other box. “We’re going to do this one more time. Or maybe eight more times, until it comes up with the right answer.”

“I’m going to go get you some water, or Gatorade. You need to pee.”

“Yes.” She snapped her fingers twice and pointed at me. “Get me hydrated and then I’m going to pee over everything.”

“I’m so glad that we’re not freaking out and we’re acting rational,” I said, as we both burst out laughing, but I knew each of us were on the verge of tears.

I ran to the kitchen and got two bottles of water and a Gatorade.

I swayed a bit, realizing that the nausea I was feeling had nothing to do with the nausea she was feeling. Because she had needed the Gatorade because she had been having morning sickness.

Because Addison was pregnant.

I dry heaved for a minute, bent over at the waist, my full hands on my knees. My God. Addison was pregnant. No. These tests were going to come up with the correct answer soon. Because false positives totally happened all the time, didn’t they?

Okay. I was a vet. A veterinarian who dealt with pregnant animals, not people, though I knew the stats behind false positives when it came to at-home pregnancy tests.

The stats were not in my favor, but fuck it. I had been a child genius according to my family. I had graduated early, ended up in college far too early, made some terrible decisions and some great ones. I owned a veterinary clinic with another person who was great at the business side of things, not so much at the people side of things, and I had done all of this before I was thirty. I was smart. I knew statistics. And I knew we were fucked because we had fucked.

That was going to be my new tagline. I was going to put it on shirts and let everyone know that I was a fucking idiot who just impregnated my best friend.

I was so glad that I wasn’t panicking. I was handling this like a complete professional and not having an actual meltdown.

Everything was going to be fine, but I needed to calm down. Because Addison needed me to be strong. She needed me to be calm and collected.

The bathroom door was closed, so I waited until she opened it again, another test in her hand. I handed over the electrolyte drink, and she shook her head before taking the water bottle.

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