Page 53 of Unexpecting

To say the whole scene was not what I ever imagined is kind of like saying Canadian winters can be a mite bit chilly at times.

″Really?” Morgan goggled at me. “J.B.?”

″I never intended—yes, I wanted to get pregnant, but I know you don’t and I would never, ever, in a million years do that to you,” I pleaded to J.B., who headed stiffly to the bed to sit down, with a stunned expression on his face. Morgan stared at both of us like she was watching a tennismatch. “I never even thought that was the time I could get pregnant, so how could I—I mean, I know it was now, but then, when we, you know, did it, I had no idea and I—”

″Are you sure it’s mine?”

J.B.’s cold words cut cleanly through my heart like a surgeon’s blade. They set me back so much I didn’t even have time to get pissed. I was sure I’d be pissed later, though.

″Yes. There hasn’t been anyone else.”

″She never slept with Mike, did you, Casey?” Morgan asked helpfully. She threw an arm protectively around my shoulders.

Now whenever I think back to this little scenario, I have a wave of love and devotion for Morgan. Not two minutes ago, I was unfairly accusing her of having sex with J.B., but instead of holding that against me—like I might in the same circumstance—she jumped in and prepared to defend me and my honour, without even knowing the whole story.

″And David?” she prompted. I shook my head. “You say it’s J.B.’s?”

″But how?” he asked with more than a touch of anger. “We used—”

″They’re not always 100 percent,” Morgan said, sounding not unlike how my grade ten sex education teacher used to lecture the class. I didn’t think J.B. appreciated the tone, however.

″But you’re on the pill,” he added.

″Casey’s never been too consistent taking that thing, have you?” Morgan smiled indulgently at me and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. She’d been privy of the many times I’d scrambled to remember what birth control pills I’d missed.

″I think it’s yours,” I told J.B. tearfully. “I mean, I know it is. I’m sorry.”

″I don’t see how—” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

″It was an accident, okay? I never thought—I never meant to… with you. I never meant to with you.”

″I wouldn’t have gone near you if I’d known.” J.B. looked at me in time to see the flash of pain cross my face. “Sorry, but you know… Jesus, Casey, what do you want me to say?”

″I don’t think either of you should say anything more, in case you say something you’ll regret,” Morgan warned, still with her arm around me. “Come on, Casey, let’s go down to your place.”

I looked at J.B., hoping he’d say something positive. He was just sitting on the edge of the bed, rubbing his face with those big hands, thosehands that touched me, caressed me—we made a baby together. J.B. and I made a baby. We—

″Fuck!”

He obviously wasn’t happy about it.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Reactions to pregnancy announcements can be varied, to say the least.”

A Young Woman’s Guide to the Joy of Impending Motherhood

Dr. Francine Pascal Reid (1941)

“What the hell?” Morganbreathed as soon as she ushered me downstairs. “You’ve been holding out on me, Case.”

″It was just that one time,” I muttered, sinking into the couch. I felt sick, really, truly, physically sick. That did not go as I’d planned, in fact, how could I have possibly planned something like that—me getting pregnant by J.B., of all people? Who could have ever expected that to happen?

Obviously not J.B. or myself.

″When?” Morgan goggled at me. She sat down beside me, and before I could say anything, gave me a sharp slap on the arm. “That’s for not telling me earlier.”

″Ow. You can’t hit me—I’m pregnant,” I complained.

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