Page 53 of With Conditions

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sophie

Eight weeks later

Drake sauntered from the elevator into the place where new renovations were happening, the area we chose for my new corporate offices. Looking around the place, I stressed, “We need to find a location for the board meeting in a week. This place will not be suitable.”

Putting on my hardhat, I approached the tall site manager leading the renovation project. I questioned him, “how are you looking on time?” Apparently that was a topic of our conversation every week.

He replied in his hard accent, “We have about four weeks left, I would say.”

Before he could finish, my mouth filled with clear liquid, and my skin felt cold. Drake’s forehead pulled a frown getting worried. Within seconds puke flew from my mouth onto the concrete floor. Bending over, Drake held my hair back. “Everything okay? Do we need to take you to the hospital?”

Not being able to speak with the puke flowing out, I simply shook my head. I hated nothing more than getting sick. Waving my hand, I denied but he called for Tibby. I hobbled as I stood up but not before seeing my new Louie Boutiuns filled with vomit. “I’m fine. I think I’m coming down with a stomach bug. Drake, cancel my meetings for today. I need some rest.”

A few hours later, I was in the bathtub feeling disgusted. My head felt heavy and I still felt the need to puke but the worst part was, it was just nausea. Tibby came inside with a brown bag that she set on the counter. “I’m fine Tibby, take the day off.”

She moved over to the toilet and sat down. “Did I ever tell you about the time when I was sick like this?”

My eyes looked at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“It was in high school. I was 17, and it was my grandma who first noticed me not waking up on time and not finishing my dinners.” Thinking back to every morning this week, I remembered that Tibby did have to wake me up, and I did skip dinner a few nights.My face went deadpan before laughing. “Tibby, I’m not pregnant. You have to be sexually active to have a baby.”

She pulled out the test and held it up. “Yeah, look, I’m not a doctor, but babies take about 4 to 8 weeks to affect the body.” Picking up my phone to see the date, I noticed that it had been precisely that timeline. Tibby turned around just as I flew out from the wet soapy water and grabbed the test. Opening it up quickly, I sat on the toilet and peed on the stick.

“Don’t ever talk to me about boundaries again.” Tibby said which made me laugh.

“You don’t have to stand here.” She turned to face the door as I finished.

“If you are pregnant my real name is a unisex name, and I wouldn’t be ashamed if you used it.”

Tibby always knew the right things to say, and I needed that now. My mind was going off a thousand miles a minute and I couldn’t even grasp that this could be true.

Wrapping myself in a towel, I waited. Tibby finally turned around and grabbed the stick. My stomach twisted into knots as she looked at the test, and I waited for what felt like an eternity. This cannot be happening.What horrible timing!

Looking intently in her direction, I waited for her to say something. Tibby just stared back blinking a few times. “Looks like my Grandma passed something down to me.”

Reaching for the stick, clear as day, the word ‘Pregnant’ appeared. Putting on my robe, I stormed into my bedroom and curled up on the bed. Tibby fell next to me and started wiggling on the bed. “Well, we now know the reason you are pregnant. This bed is amazing.”

Laughing through the tears that filled my eyes, I felt grateful she was my friend. “Hey, Tibby?” Her face turned to meet mine. My voice was soft this time, “What did you do when you found out?”

Her face went dark, and I realized it was a pretty personal question. She took a deep breath, sighing, “when I made it to the first appointment, I had already miscarried.”

Grabbing her hand, I leaned in to hug her. She patted my head. “So, who do you think is the father?”

Sadness fell back into my heart. “Hopefully neither.”

Not understanding how this could happen I started to think exactly that. My birth control was good for another three years. With Miles we always used protection outside of the one time in the kitchen. It was a very heated moment and I truly was not thinking. With Cole, he made it clear that he had not had sex in a while and I trusted him. I needed to wait until my appointment to confirm. Those at home test had a chance of being a false positive. I decided I was not going to soak in the results until a doctor confirmed.

***

Striding into the temporary office the following day, I saw Drake sitting at the desk outside my office. He ran around fast before grabbing me and pulling me into the conference room. I stared at him, “Drake, what’s going on?”

His face looked almost scared. “Miles is in your office, and he has an attorney or something with him. They have been here for over an hour.”

Looking out the window into my office, I could see his pant leg sitting in the chair. “Well, did he say why?”

“No, but he said he can’t reschedule.”

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