Page 32 of Sebastian's Baby

After about ten seconds, she answers. “Hello?”

It’s strange hearing her voice after a month of imagining it when I’ve been pleasuring myself or fucking other women.

I steel my nerves and say, “Hey. I heard you’ve been trying to get hold of me.”

“Um, yeah, I have,” she says, sounding uncomfortable.

“Well, you’ve certainly got my attention, princess,” I assure her. “What can I help you with?”

There’s silence for a few seconds, and I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting to hear the words I was expecting Cooper to say, that I’m now expecting Lita to say.

Instead, she says, “One second, Sebastian.” Her voice sounds muffled when she speaks again, but I can hear everything she says. “This is kind of a private call. Could I possibly go into one of the meeting rooms or something?”

Someone says something unintelligible in the background before I hear Lita’s muffled voice again.

“Thanks.” Her voice is clear when she speaks next, and she says, “Are you still there?”

“Yes, princess, I’m here. Waiting for you to go into a meeting room to talk to me, apparently.”

I wonder where she is right now as she falls silent. There are sounds of maybe some kind of office and people talking in the background before it goes quiet, and I hear a door open, then close.

“Right, I can talk now.”

“Great. What was it you so desperately needed to tell me? I’m assured I will know what it’s about.”

I inhale a deep breath of air and blow it out slowly. If I’d thought I was on edge this morning, that was nothing compared to this. I’m sure that my heart is going to pound so hard in my chest that it might explode.

“I’m sure you can guess…” Lita says and then trails off.

I was right, and I’m fucking annoyed that Lita won’t just say the damn words to condemn me to a lifetime of regret for one stupid mistake.

“If I wanted to play games, princess, I’d be in front of a pool table. Tell me what it is that you wanted to tell me so badly you called my fucking manager about it,” I say more harshly than I intend to.

“Trust me, Sebastian Fox, I had zero desire to do that. Shit, I had zero desire to even speak to you again, but here we are.”

I’m stung by the reminder that Lita seems to have such a low opinion of me. Obviously, our encounter didn’t improve that much. Apparently, for the next eighteen years, I’m stuck with a woman who hates me.

“Wonderful. You don’t have to remind me how much you dislike me, Lolita. You’ve made it abundantly clear on multiple occasions. Somehow, we still don’t seem to have reached the reason you wanted to talk, though.”

She says quietly, “I’m pregnant, Seb.”

The words I’ve been waiting to hear since Cooper called me have finally been said. Lita is pregnant. She’s going to have a baby—we’regoing to have a baby. I feel sick, and I don’t know what to say.

“Are you there?” she asks.

It was my condom that broke, but clearly, Lita didn’t hold up her end of the bargain, so I snap at her, “I told you to get the fucking morning-after pill.”

“I did.” She laughs, but it sounds hollow and wrong, not at all like the melodic laugh from the night we met. “Fucking twice.”

“What do you mean, ‘twice’?” I ask in confusion because I don’t understand why she would need to take it twice, since I’m sure it’s just one pill.

“I got the first one at O’Hare. I took it before my flight, maybe an hour, I guess. Then I puked my guts up on take-off. I saw the doctor first thing on Monday, and he told me to take another dose, which I did.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you wait to take it until you got back to…” I trail off because I have no idea of where she would be flying.

“Aww, don’t know where your baby mama lives, Seb?” she asks sarcastically, and I’m aware that I sound as pissed off as I feel. “It’s Seattle, and I didn’t wait because it’s more effective the sooner you take it.”

“Clearly not,” I point out. “What are you planning to do?”

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