“Order a pizza and I’ll pick it up on the way. I’m starving.”
“I can cook something.”
“Let’s just chill tonight.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, Josie, I’m sure. Now, hang tight and I’ll be there.”
“Love you.”
“Love you, too,” I tell her and slide my phone into my pocket.
I know why she’s scared. Blizzards make her nervous. Even though my parents were killed because of a drunk driver, it was in the wintertime and they tried using slick roads as an excuse. But what they forgot was that just because it’s cold outside, that doesn’t mean the roads are automatically covered in ice. That night they were dry. Too bad the other driver wasn’t.
I round the corner to the aisle where I’m pretty sure the feminine products are located and I grin.
“Well, well, well, who do we have here?” I ask Ashley and she jumps about a foot off the floor, the box that was in her hand flying in the air and landing on the hard tile floor between our feet.
We both look down.
And that’s when our lives change forever.
Chapter Five
Ashley
“Sally? Care to explain?”
I bite back a laugh at the name Nik uses when he points down at the pregnancy test lying on the floor by our feet.
“I’m good.”
“Ashley.”
“I’m late,” I tell him in a whisper, irritated that he caught me, for one thing, and irritated that I was an idiot and became the biggest walking cliché known to man.
Antibiotics + Birth Control = Uh Oh.
“How late?”
“A week?”
“You think or you know?”
“I know.”
“Second question. You think or you know whose this baby could be?” he asks, bending to pick up the test and handing it over.
“I know.”
“And?”
“Can’t be his. Has to be yours.”
His jaw drops open and his eyes scan the aisle. Mine stay glued to the test that I’m now clutching with a death grip in my hand.
I’d been on antibiotics for a few weeks and I take my pill regularly, though the night in question I didn’t take it because I wasn’t home. So either that one night of missing it was enough to get me pregnant, or the antibiotics messed with the effectiveness, or, third and hopeful option here, I’m being paranoid and I’m not pregnant at all. Very possible, I guess.
“I’m so sorry.”
His head jerks in my direction. “Why are you sorry?”
“I told you I was on the pill.”
He lowers his voice and angles his face toward me. “And I was the one coming inside you. Multiple times.”
Just the reminder of it sends a rush of heat to my core. That was such a fun night and next two days. I’ve actually missed him over the last month and wished that we’d made plans to get together rather than the three months I told him I needed. Turns out, I didn’t do much thinking about anything other than him during that time, anyway.
His phone buzzes in his hand and he pulls it out, looks at the screen, shakes his head then looks at the shelf where the feminine products are. Pulls down a box and tosses a large package of maxi pads into his cart.
My stomach, which was already irpy to begin with, turns over and then settles into a large knot. Why is he buying maxi pads? Who still uses those things, anyway? Did his ex-girlfriend who had turned down his proposal that night go back to him? Here I could be pregnant with his baby and he has a wedding to plan with a new fiancée. I’m such a screw-up. How could I be so careless? How can I bring a baby into this world when I’m nothing but a mess myself?
Nik must sense the turmoil rolling through me — I’ve never been very good at hiding my feelings — because he reaches over and takes one of my hands in his.
“Hey. What’s wrong? Whatever that says, we’ll figure it out.”
Tears build behind my eyes. “No, we won’t. You don’t have to worry. This is my thing.”
“Your… thing?”
I nod. “Yeah. This is my problem. No, not a problem. Babies aren’t that. Issue? I don’t know what the right word is. But you don’t have to worry. I won’t get in the way for you and…” I point to the package of maxi pads, “Mrs. Maxi Pads. Oh my gosh. I don’t know your last name!”
“Think we need to have a talk and clear some shit up but there’s actually somewhere I need to be.”
“I see that,” I grumble.
“Maybe you should come with.”
“No thanks. Sounds like a great time would be had by all but I’ll pass on that.”
He grins with that cute grin that got me into this… issue. Mess. Yeah, that’s it. It’s a mess. Babies are a blessing and all but this? What a mess.
“It will be fun. I promise. You’ll love Josie.”
“Oh no. I can’t interrupt your evening. I’ll just… how about we exchange numbers and I’ll call you in nine months, hmm?”
“How about not. I won’t take no for an answer, Ashley.”
“That’s what got us here,” I tell him.
“Do you trust me?”
I scoff. “Hell no.”
He chuckles. “That’s fair. Think you could trust me?”
I look into his dark eyes. So mesmerizing. I wonder if our baby will have… nope. Not going to think about it. Can’t think about it. What is wrong with me? His eyes hold sincerity when he looks at me and I can’t help but feel like whatever he’s about to guide me into, isn’t bad at all. I might have only spent a day and a half with him, but I do know a good man when I see one. He’s one of the good ones.
Nik gets right up in my space and slides a hand from my elbow to hand. “Ashley. I would never, I mean never, do anything to hurt you. I wouldn’t put you in a position that I think you’ll be uncomfortable. I promise. Trust me?”
The feel of his hand on mine sends shivers through my spine and for whatever reason, I believe him. I find myself nodding in agreement and he smiles just a little bit, taking the pregnancy test from my hand and tossing it into his cart along with Mrs. Maxi Pads’s pads. Then he looks at the shelf where I was just contemplating which pregnancy test to get and proceeds to grab one of every other brand, throwing them in with the rest of his haul.
“Ready?”
“I have no idea.”
“Yeah, me either,” he admits. Then he’s shooting off a text to someone, probably Mrs. Pads to warn her that his potential baby mama is joining them for a night of fun and festivities. Oh lordy, if I ever say or think the term baby mama again, just slap me back to reality. When he’s finished, he slips his phone back into his pocket and places a hand on my lower back. The comfort it brings me is dangerous but I don’t want to step away and make him feel bad.
There’s absolutely no logic in me going with him wherever he is wanting me to go. But for the life of me, I can’t seem to say no to him. Obviously. Geesh, it’s not like my willpower is all that strong with this one anyway but this is ridiculous. I’m going to chalk it up to nerves. That’s the only explanation that could possibly make sense right now. I simply didn’t want to be alone when I took the test to find out if my life is forever changed so I accepted his offer slash demand to go along with him.