Page 102 of The Trouble With Us
“What?”
“Yep, turns out drunken birthday sex 99.9% effectively leads to a baby.”
He narrows his eyes. “Are you ... is it mine?”
My jaw drops, and I have a hard time extracting my brows from my hairline. “Well, I haven’t had sex with anyone else, so yeah. It’s yours.”
“What about—”
“Mace?” I ask, kind of peeved at this point. Is he really so desperate for this baby to be anyone else’s but his? “It’s not Mace’s. That would be a miracle considering I’ve had my period since he left.”
He pales and sits down heavily on the floor, right in the entryway. “Holy shit.”
“Look, I know it’s a surprise. I mean, no one was more shocked than—”
“You’re keeping it?”
My heart hammers as I roll those words over. Am I keeping it? It hadn’t even occurred to me not to. I mean, I’m pro-choice all the way, women deserve autonomy over their bodies and the rest of their lives, but I hadn’t even thought about terminating this pregnancy. I hadn’t thought much beyond how I was going to make ends meet with a tiny human growing inside me, and then later how I’d pay for all of the expensive baby shit once they’re in the outside world. “I don’t ... I don’t know. Yeah. I guess so.”
“You guess?”
I sit on the edge of the couch and bury my head in my hands. “I think I am, yeah.”
“Shit.”
I raise my brows. “Did you not want me to say yes?”
“I don’t know. Fuck! I didn’t even know I was gonna be a dad until a second ago. Holy shit. I don’t know the first thing about kids. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel right now.”
“I think shocked is normal.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you ... have you been to a doctor?”
“No.”
“So, how do you know?”
“What, you think the thirty pregnancy tests I took weren’t accurate enough?”
“Sorry, you’re right. I just ... after Annie ... I ... Jesus, Lo. We’re going to be parents.”
Parents. As in plural. Together. Gabe and Me?Oh god. How did I get here? I mean, obviously having sex with my best friend was how we got here, but ... holy shit. I’m going to be a mother. I’m going to turnintomy mother.
“Gabe, I don’t expect anything. I mean, I know this is a lot to take in, and I’m just trying to deal with—”
“I’m not gonna let you do this alone. Whatever your decision is.”
“My decision?”
“Right. Sorry. You’re keeping it. I ... er—”
“Do you not think we should?”
“I don’t know. My family fucked me up, Lo. I don’t want to do that to my kid.”
