“Yes, I’m also certain of that. Could I get that water, please?” I could tell her ten times, over and over again, after she got me the water. I assumed Jay had passed out from the shock of my words, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t because of all of the alcohol he had consumed. Lord knows that Jay was good at drinking.
“Water. Got it,” Frankie mumbled. She moved through the crowd of people to the kitchen.
I pressed the back of my hand to Jay’s forehead and sighed. If this was how he reacted when he found out I was pregnant, then he wasn’t going to be any help when I actually went into labor.
I had known I was pregnant for two weeks, but I just had a chance to tell Jay because he hadn’t been in town before now. Perhaps I could have broken the news to him a little more gently, but that wasn't really my style.
Why delay the inevitable?
“Here ya go.” Frankie thrust the glass to me and crouched down on the other side of Jay. “Should we move him?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m certain he’s fine.” I flicked a couple of drops of water on his face, but he didn’t move.
“Shouldn’t he have woken up from that?”
I shrugged and poured a trickle of water on his face. Not the most professional thing to do, but I had to admit, it was fun.
Jay sputtered awake and jackknifed off the floor. He gasped, sucked in a huge breath of air, and swiped at his face. “What the hell?” he yelled.
“Dude, I thought you died,” Frankie laughed. I don’t think Jay was the only one who had been drinking.
“I’m not dead,” he insisted.
“Obviously,” she laughed. “Just having a baby,” she giggled.
“Baby?” he asked.
I guess he didn’t remember anything from before he passed out. “I’m Delaney.” Might as well as start from the beginning.
Jay weakly shook my hand. “Uh, hi.”
“Are you going to pass out on me again?” We were still on the side of the large living room, and no one really seemed to care that Jay had just passed out. You had to love the way people were at parties.
“I didn’t pass out.”
I rolled my eyes and stood. I held my hand out for him, but he brushed it aside and stood on his own. “Well, you must call having your eyes roll back in your head and hitting the floor something different than me.”
Frankie howled with laughter, and Jay scowled at me. “Remind me again why you’re here?” he growled.
Well, that was a bit of an asshole thing to say.
“I’ve been needing to talk to you, and I heard you were going to be at this party tonight.” The fact I had heard about it from my mother was something I wasn’t going to mention. Even I knew that was lame.
“I don’t think we know each other.”
Frankie snickered. “Pretty sure you know each other in the biblical sense.”
Jay glared at Frankie.
“Though that could be said about you and half of the girls here tonight,” she added.
I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. “Well, I’m not here to talk about that. I just wanted you to know I was pregnant and you’re the dad.” There. I had said it out loud for the second time.
“That’s not possible,” Jay insisted. “I don’t even know who you are.”
“She’s Delaney, and you boinked her.” Frankie busted out laughing again.
She wasn’t helping make this go any better.
“We met at a party on West Street about six weeks ago.”
“I’m pretty sure I would remember getting a chick pregnant.”
“You don’t know how any of this works, do you?” Frankie shook her head and clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s a good thing you’ve got a pretty face, Jay. I’m gonna go tell the rest of the guys we need to start calling you daddy.”
Frankie disappeared into the crowd, and Jay turned to look at me.
More like he glared at me.
He wasn’t happy. Not at all.
“We need to find a place to talk.”
I shrugged and looked around. “You tell me where.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the front door. “We can go to my place.”
I yanked on my arm and halted in my tracks. “You’re not driving.”
He rolled his eyes. “I know. I live two blocks away. We can walk.”
I pulled my keys out of my pocket. “I’ll drive us.”
He led me out of the house and down the front steps. “Where did you park?”
I took off down the sidewalk without a word. He was mad about having a baby, but that didn’t mean he needed to be a dick to me. I wasn’t exactly over the moon about this either, but it had happened, and now, we were going to be parents. End of story.
*
Jay
I had no idea who this chick was.
She wasn’t even my type.
She was smart.
Way smart.
Just from the way she talked, I knew she was way out of my league. She had a banging body on top of that. Not that she had any of it on display, but under her dark blue t-shirt and jeans, I knew she was stacked.
“Where are you going?” I had been admiring her ass in her jeans, and it didn’t dawn on me she was getting farther away.
She held up her keys and dangled them. “My car, Playboy.”
Playboy? That was one word I never expected to hear come out of her mouth. “My house is the other way. We might as well just walk.”
Lights flashed on a car in front of her. “No, because then I would have to walk back to get my car. In case it hasn’t sunk in yet, I’m pregnant, and walking in the dark by myself isn’t something I want to do.”
“You shouldn’t walk in the dark by yourself even if you weren’t pregnant.” Even my drunk brain knew that.
“I know. That’s why we’re going to take my car.”
Oh. “Good thinking.” My brain had finally caught up to what she was trying to tell me.
She rolled her eyes and opened the passenger door. “After you, Playboy.”
“I’m not sure I like your tune when you say that.”
She rolled her eyes again. “Pretty sure you mean tone.”
I pointed my finger at her. “That too.”
A small smile played on her lips, but she turned to the side before I could see the full-blown one. “Get in the car. It’s cold.”
“I have a coat in the house.” I hitched my thumb over my shoulder to where we had come from.
“I have heat in the car.” She rubbed her hands on her arms. “Get in so I can use it.”
“All right, fine,” I grumbled. I fell into the passenger seat, and she slammed the door. “What a piece of shit,” I mumbled. I was sitting in a nineteen ninety-two Cavalier that was obviously on its last leg. The seats were worn, the dash faded from the sun, and the headliner was saggy and hanging down.
“Buckle up,” Delaney ordered. She started the car and grabbed her own seatbelt.
“I can’t believe this thing started.”
She glared at me. “You have a problem with my car?”
I felt like I was about to walk through a minefield. Doing that drunk was not going to be good. “Uh, seems a little rough.” The car may have started, but it sure wasn’t smooth. The engine had a constant tick, and it idled real shitty.