Page 18 of Finding Jacob
“And the father...?”
I sighed. “He doesn’t know yet, but I will tell him.” I sat myself up straight. “Right. No more tears or feeling sorry for myself. Things to do!”
I slid from the stool and kissed Monica on the cheek. “I’m going to head for a shower. I’ve stripped the bed and it’s all in the wash.” Although Monica was my cleaner, I wouldn’t expect her to clean up sick after me.
As I stood under the jets of water, I allowed myself one more round of tears and then that was it. I was an adult and I’d have to get on with this.
CHAPTERFIVE
“Are you sure he never received my previous text message?” I asked Nathan.
“Positive. He isn’t someone to play games, Anna.”
We were sitting in the courtyard garden at my office. I had been extremely fortunate to buy a derelict building in a part of London before it became fashionable. Now it was all the rage, the property was worth a fortune and was ripe for conversion to luxury flats.
“Why didn’t he just text me, though?”
My sister’s wedding was three weeks away, it had been two months since I’d met Jacob, I could have texted him, I knew that, and I felt stupid for not, but as time went on, so it became more and more embarrassing, especially since I’d discovered I was pregnant.
“Listen to me. He. Doesn’t. Have. Your. Number.”
He had told me that before, but my brain was already turning to mush.
“What about when I called him first?”
“Your number comes upwithheld.”
“He could have replied to my text.” I was aware I was pouting.
“The one he didn’t receive?”
I picked up my phone from the table between us and scrolled through my text messages.
“Aha, there, see?”
I rammed the phone into his chest.
Nathan stared at the text, then frowned. He picked up his own phone.
“That’s not his number, Anna,” he said quietly.
“What? That’s the number he gave me. That’s the number I called...isn’t it?” I began to doubt myself.
“That’s not his number,” he replied. I snatched the phone back from him and retrieved the small white card that I’d slipped in a pocket in the case. I closed my eyes after I’d compared. “Shit. That’s not his number,” I echoed.
Nathan stared at me; his eyebrows raised. “Now, fucking text him!”
“I can’t bloody text him now, can I? He’ll think I just want him for the wedding.”
Nathan shook his head. “Anna, this isn’t you,” he said quietly.
“I know. I don’t bloody know who me is right now. He...” I waved the phone around until I could find the words. “He knocked me off my feet, I insulted him, now I’m pregnant with his child. This should be a bloody book, not my life!”
“Maybe you should pick up that book and see what happens next. This is your life, Anna. This is real, right now. He asks after you. He’s upset that you ghosted on him. I think that means he’d love to hear from you. If you don’t text him, I will, and I don’t fucking care if you fire me. I don’t need a job anyway.”
It was Nathan’s turn to pout. He crossed his arms over his chest. Nathan regularly threatened to leave, he never did. He loved me, he told me. Not in a girlfriend/boyfriend way, but as a best friend, I thought. He was older than me by twenty years, a similar age I thought to Jacob.
“You won’t leave me,” I said, tilting my head to the side and smiling at him. “I need you too much.”
