Page 41 of Love Me Forever

Travis: Hi Bonnie, it's Travis. I just saw your email. Call me back when you see this. I can't believe I finally have a way to contact you again.

She called me the next second. I answered right away. "Bonnie."

"Hey, hi."

"Thank fuck you found me," I said.

"Oh? I did try contacting you on your other phone."

"Some moron leaked my number, and I started getting a lot of spam calls, so I changed it as soon as I landed in Chicago."

"Right. You can just say that you didn't want to talk to me."

I frowned. She sounded sarcastic.

"But I just told you that I want to talk to you, that I'm glad you contacted me."

She cleared her throat but didn’t say anything.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"In Chicago. I came back last week."

"That's great." Her placement in Oceanwell Bay wasn't supposed to end for another two months. Why was she back early?

An awkward pause followed. I had a distinct feeling that I was missing something.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Jesus, Travis, I don't even know where to begin."

"We can pick up where we left off."

She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry to spring it on you like this, but I'm pregnant."

My shoulders went rigid. Every muscle in my body tensed up. I always liked to say that I was prepared for the unexpected. But I sure as hell wasn't prepared for this, even though Sam brought it up.

"Pregnant?"

"Yes. I don't expect anything from you. I just think it's right for you to know, and obviously for the baby to know his or her dad." She spoke quickly, as if she didn’t want to give me a chance to interrupt. “I just thought you should know.”

I paced the living room, trying to gather my wits. She didn't sound like my Bonnie. She sounded cold.

"Bonnie, it's me. What do you mean you don't expect anything from me?"

"I knew you for a few days, Travis, and I've spent the past weeks running around to get everything in place, so I’m prepared to raise my baby on my own. This is only to let you know, as I think that’s only fair. I’m not reaching out to you for your money or anything like that."

She sounded exhausted. It dawned on me that she'd been doing everything by herself, probably thinking I was the world's biggest asshole. Ihadbeen an asshole. It was true I'd lost her number, but I could've made more of an effort tracking her down. But I'd gotten wrapped up in setting up everything for the hotel, and I'd pushed everything else to the back burner. I needed to rectify that.

"Bonnie," I said, "let's meet and talk about this."

She didn’t reply right away. I racked my brain for a way to bring levity to the situation, but this wasn’t the time for joking or banter.

“Okay, let’s meet tomorrow evening for dinner. Do you know the Revival Food Hall?”

“Yes.”

“It’s close to the practice. I can meet you there at seven.”

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