Page 28 of Made for Us

“Wow, pregnancy has made you a liar,” she snaps out. “When the hell did you have time to have sex with him on family vacation?”

“The night before we left,” I tell her as my mouth becomes dry and my tongue feels like it’s getting thicker. “I went back to the room and went outside to just look at the stars.”

“And his dick fell into you?” she jokes with me.

“He asked me to have a drink with him, and then he kissed me.” I walk past her and to the fridge to grab a water bottle. Opening the stainless door, I grab a water bottle, hoping maybe she will give me space, but obviously, she doesn’t. In her defense, if the roles were reversed, there is no way I would leave her alone either.

“He kissed you?” she quizzes me softly, and I unscrew the white bottle cap and bring it to my lips, nodding instead of answering. “And then you had sex?” All I do is nod. I don’t tell her the next day I avoided him. I also don’t tell her he probably regrets doing it.

After swallowing half the bottle, I put it down, but my mouth still feels dry. “I need to take a test,” I announce. “Do you have one?”

“Yeah, sure.” She rolls her eyes at me. “I stock up on them with my deodorant.” She shakes her head. “I practice safe sex.”

“I’m on the pill,” I remind her, “and it just happened.”

“Ugh,” she grouses, walking up the stairs. “Let me go get dressed, and we’ll go out and get a test.” I lean back on the counter and hang my head, bringing both my hands up to rub my face.

“You aren’t pregnant,” I comfort myself. “It’s all in your head.”

It takes her less than three minutes to come back down wearing a pair of shorts and a top. I follow her out and get into the car and we make our way over to the pharmacy. Gabriella opted to drive, and it’s a good thing because I’m in a daze.

When she stops the car, I open the door and walk into the pharmacy with her right beside me, “What aisle has pregnancy tests?” I ask her, and she side-eyes me.

“Probably where they stock the condoms you should have worn.” She rolls her lips. I walk down two aisles before I come to the shelf with pregnancy tests. “Wow, there are so many choices,” she states, picking up a box that says First Response. “This one will tell you six days sooner.” She puts it back on the shelf, grabbing another one and the only thing I can do is watch her. My hands feel like they are filled with concrete. “This one is straightforward.” She holds it up to me. “Yes or no.”

“We should take one of each,” I suggest, and her eyebrows pinch together, “in case one is defective.”

“Good idea,” she agrees, grabbing about six boxes of tests. “We’ll have a backup for your backup.”

I nod at her as we walk to the counter to pay and then back to the car. Grabbing the plastic bag in my hand, I walk to the bathroom as soon as I walk into the house.

Opening two boxes up, I pour the contents onto the counter. Each comes with a long white foil-covered stick. I tear open both and then look down at them. One has a blue tip the other has a bright pink tip. I pull the tips off each before I sit down on the toilet and start to pee on the first stick. Holding my pee for a second, I grab the other one and look down between my legs, just like I did with the other one, to make sure I’m in my stream.

I look over at Gabriella, who is leaning against the doorjamb. “I can’t be pregnant,” I tell her, the tears coming on full force now. I swallow down the sob as I grab the tips, covering up the top of each test.

I press the round button on my Apple Watch. “Set timer for three minutes,” I direct Siri, putting the sticks down on the counter before getting up and pulling up my scrub pants.

I can hear the ticks of the seconds go by. The sound gets louder and louder as the seconds go on. Gabriella doesn’t say anything to me. Instead, she comes to stand next to me as I look down at both tests. The one with the blue cap has a screen that looks like it’s flashing, while the other one is showing the liquid is filling it as the white center answer turns a bit blue. I put my head back, trying to calm myself down. Gabriella puts her hand on mine when the timer goes off on my watch.

“Are you ready?” she asks. I open my eyes, and nothing could prepare me for what’s coming. Nothing and no one could prepare me.

On the blue test, the word Pregnant is written in big bold black letters, while the other test has two lines down the middle. “I’m no doctor,” Gabriella declares, “but I think you’re pregnant.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ONE MONTH LATER

TRISTAN

The alarm rings, and my hand slides out of the covers to smack it off, but the phone falls on the floor. “Fuck,” I mutter, leaning off the bed and grabbing the phone that is still going off.

“I’m up!” I hear Penelope yell from down the hall.

“Okay,” I yell back at her. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” she shouts back, and I can’t help but laugh as I throw the covers off me and get up to go to the bathroom. I close the bathroom door behind me as I walk over and go to the bathroom.

I slip on a pair of basketball shorts before walking downstairs and starting breakfast. “Pancakes or eggs?” I ask her when I get to the bottom step.

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