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“What?” Tonya prodded, putting her hand over Sandra’s. “Honey, what’s wrong?”
“We did just the one time, but it was months ago, and we’ve been so careful since.”
Her best friend offered her a sympathetic smile. “That’s all it takes.”
“But I can’t. We’re not ready!” Sandra respected the choices other women made, but she’d been raised Catholic. If she was pregnant, for her, there was no way to do anything but have the baby and hope for the best. Even if that scared Xavier away and stopped her perfect life in its tracks. “God, I’ve lied to everyone.”
Tonya frowned and squeezed her hand. “Okay, you need to breathe before getting all Scarlet Letter on yourself. I’ve seen you and Xav together. First, you’re so one of those couples who make everyone nauseated with how perfect you are for each other. Second, I’ve seen him with his brother’s kids. Xav would be a great dad.”
“I know,” she said, thinking of how sweet and adorable Xavier was with Teresa and Juan Carlos. “He’s really amazing with them. I don’t deserve hi
m.”
“You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. I don’t see how that’s true.”
She sighed and looked up at the altar, at the white candles so like the ones she’d lit months ago with Xavier. Sandra needed to remember to light one again. Maybe that would help her get some absolution since she surely needed it.
“I know Xavier.”
“Duh.” Tonya said, quirking her head at Sandra. “And?”
“No, I mean he came into Atlantis about sixteen months ago. Do you remember that night we eventually went to see The Grilled Lincolns, but I had a guy I was dancing with first?”
“Yeah, you were getting your Dirty Dancing on in a big way and…that was Xavier?”
Sandra nodded and gripped the pew front before her so tightly that her knuckles went white. “He said his name was ‘Clifton,’ so I didn’t know when Estelle was interviewing me that it was the same guy. I knew once I showed up at his place, but I needed the money and I didn’t know we’d get so close.”
“Okay,” Tonya said, taking a deep breath and pushing a strand of hair behind her shoulder. “That doesn’t mean anything. Life has lots of coincidences, and he gave you a fake name too.”
“But it has to look bad, has to look really terrible. I find a way into his company, charm him, get my movie funded, and now because I was behind in my birth control…”
“And I have to remind you that it takes two to tango. You didn’t know.”
“Yet here I am getting some funding from him already and turning up maybe pregnant. It looks like I did some weird Glenn Close thing and wouldn’t stop following him, or that I had an angle.”
“Honey, it’s okay. He loves you, and he knows who you are.”
Sandra wanted to put her head in her hands and cry. No, Xavier knew Jules, the valet and the writer. He didn’t know Sandra the waitress at an overpriced club. Not really. She had lied, and now she didn’t know how to ever come clean. Standing, she tried to ease her way out of the pew. Her vision started to blur and grow dark.
Then she fell.
***
She came to with leads settled over her chest and a breathing tube in her nose. As Sandra sat up in bed, she was greeted by the sight of an older man with salt-and-pepper hair and a bushy mustache. Off to her right, Tonya loomed over her with worry wide in her eyes.
“Hey, Sandra, how you feeling?”
“I think I need the license plate number of the truck that hit me.”
“Señorita, you need to rest. I’m Doctor Díaz. You’ve been so dehydrated that you fainted, and that’s not good for the babies.”
She frowned. “Babies?”
Tonya’s eyes widened. “I…yeah. You fainted and they needed permission, so first they took bloodwork and found out you were pregnant, and then I said they needed to do the ultrasound—well that they could do it—to make sure that the fall didn’t hurt the baby. While you were out they did and… oh boy.”
“What?”
Tonya’s phone rang. “Oh, it’s your mom. I need to update her. Is that okay?”
