“Er, yeah sure.” She really doesn’t sound happy. Maybe this phone call was a bad idea. I don’t want to be dragged further down into this pit of terror. “I’m glad I can be here for you. How many tests did you buy?”
“You know me too well.” I count them all. “I have seven.”
“Well that’s a bit extreme, but let’s do this.”
“Hold on.” I open one of the boxes and pull out the endless stream of paper inside. “I just have to read the instructions first,”
“You don’t. Don’t bother reading it, just get out some of the tests, pee on the end. If there’s a plus sign, there’s a baby in you.”
“Sounds so simple,” I say weakly. “Pee on it, your life might be changed forever. Awesome.”
“Don’t panic so much. Just do it.”
“I’ll put the phone outside the door, I’m sure you don’t want to hear me peeing. Just.. don’t hang up okay? I need you.”
With Jenny’s promise to wait for me I do as she said. I take three of the tests, leaving some for another try if I think I need it, and I sit on the toilet. My heart races as pee flows from my body. This is terrifying, I don’t know what the outcome is going to be, and I don’t know how I feel about it either. I mean, can I even see myself with a baby in my arms? Ben’s baby at that?
A smile spread across my cheeks, almost as if I can’t help it. That image in my brain, it isn’t as bad as I thought it might be after all...
Chapter Nineteen – Ben
I’m fucking pissed off. Furious, actually. That was the worst meeting with my accountant that I’ve ever had. I can see now that putting it off all day long and turning it into a late night meeting with drinks and dinner was a terrible idea. I cannot go to sleep with all that bad news circling my brain.
Things are going downhill. We’re losing clients and money rapidly and I know what the reason is. It’s me, I’m the key to the success of the company. Without me, everything falls apart. I’ve been delegating to others because I’ve been distracted with everything Serena, and if I carry on down this route I’m going to lose everything. I need to tell her, once she gets home from work at the bar tonight I need to sit her down and tell her that I cannot spend so much time with her, I can’t keep getting distracted. We need to take a step back from one another and start focusing on our lives around one another.
I’m starting to think now that things have been moving too fast after all. All this racing to move in together, all this rush to say I love you.... it’s crazy. I can’t believe I’ve gotten so out of control. I’ve allowed myself to get sucked in by the romance of it all, the heady excitement of brand new romance. I’ve acted foolish and now it’s time to get back to what’s important. I need to keep my company on track because that’s been my life for far too long. Serena has gotten under my skin, even more so than Ally did, and now I need to step away from that.
I won’t make her move out, I know she still needs somewhere to stay, but she needs to leave my bedroom, then we can live more separate lives for a while. We just need to take things slower.
As I push the door to my home open, I can see all the lights already on. Someone’s already here, and it has to be Serena. She must have left work early for some reason. Good, the sooner I can get this all out the better.
“Serena?” I yell angrily, slamming the door behind me. “Serena, are you here?”
“Coming.” Her tone is jovial and sweet which makes me feel terrible for the fact that I’m about to shatter it, but I have to do this for the good of my work. “Hold on.”
She floats down the stairs in a nightdress and a lovely smile on her face. Her flushed cheeks and bright sparkly eyes are already getting to me. I can feel my resolve weakening.
“Hi, Ben.” She pulls herself up towards me and presses a kiss on my lips. “I’m glad you’re home. I have something that I need to speak to you about actually.”
“Oh right. Yeah, me too.” I follow her into the living room with my head spinning. Maybe I should just let her get her stuff out first because once I start speaking I have no idea what direction things will take.
We both sit down, her on the couch and me on the chair, and we stare at each other. I don’t know what’s going on behind her eyes, there’s something a bit manic in her expression. It’s so much that I actually forget about my thing for a moment.
“What’s going on, Serena?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this,” she admits coyly. “I know it’s a bit of a weird one but I just need to get it out.” As she takes in a deep breath my heart constricts. I panic about what she’s going to say. “I haven’t been feeling great recently, so I decided to check just in case. I brought a test, and well... I...” She pulls out something from her pocket, five things actually, and she flashes them at me as if I’m supposed to know what that means.
“What are you showing me?” I ask breathlessly. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s a pregnancy test. Well, a few actually, it seems that we’re having a baby!”
The world falls out from u
nderneath me. I feel my head spinning and my butt sliding off the seat. This is utterly insane, the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me. One minute I’m planning to tell Serena that we need to take time apart from one another and the next minute she’s ripping the rug out from underneath my feet. How can I focus on the business? How can I make things better if I’m a father? It’s just not possible.
“Are you sure?” I hear myself rasp. As I look at her she’s blurry, fear has me semi blind.
She points to the tests. “Yeah, pretty sure, I had to take a few tests to be certain, but yeah I’m definitely pregnant. We’re having a baby, which I suppose makes sense because we weren’t always careful.”