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“Ah, no, um, I do, uh,” Aiden said, looking around nervously.
“You sound disoriented after being in the fire. It’s ok. I guess you work at UPS, and this woman works here in the library? And you were making a delivery when the fire happened?”
“Yeah,” Aiden said. Maybe it was true. Maybe it wasn’t. Anyway, Aiden said it, and it seemed to be good enough for the fire department. The firefighter, sufficiently satisfied with the explanation, walked away, back to tallying the crowd of people who’d emerged from the library building.
Still lying on the cot, my hand now bandaged, I looked over at Aiden, who was still sitting on the pavement. “Were you really making a delivery?”
“No. Of course not. You guys always use USPS. You know that.” He grinned.
“So… how did you… I mean, you just showed up, like an angel, to rescue me?” I lay back on the cot, holding my stomach. Maybe Aiden would notice the visible pregnancy. Or maybe having just escaped from a fire wasn’t the time or place for discussing that.
“I was driving down 53rd, and I saw smoke from your building. I immediately thought of you, how you stay cooped up in that tiny room nobody knows about that’s not supposed to be used as an office. I thought of that right away, so I called in an emergency break to dispatch and came over here to find you. I knew the firefighters wouldn’t know to look in that room.”
“Claire had a day off today. She would’ve known where I was. But she was off today. And not like she could carry me —”
“Hey, don’t put down Claire. She’s a nice lady.” Aiden nodded. “She introduced us, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, she did, but—” I wanted to say that nothing came of it. That definitely wasn’t true. At least the pregnancy came of it.
“But…” Aiden sucked in his lower lip and shook his head. He looked into the dull New York sun. “But I wish you’d give us a second chance. I know I was a jerk that day you called—”
“Aiden.” I put my hands on my enlarged stomach again. “I’m pregnant. I’m really pregnant.”
“I am still not getting this.” Aiden didn’t seem to have caught the significance of where I was holding my hands. He didn’t know that I was showing him the very pregnancy I was talking about. “So, you wanted to know if I wanted kids…”
“Because I’m pregnant, yes,” I tried to sound as not-impatient as possible.
“So, you’re pregnant? Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously. I’ve always wanted to have a baby.” I patted my round pregnant belly again.
“Oh my God!” Aiden stared at my pregnant belly.
“Yeah, first time seeing a pregnancy, Aiden?”
“No. But. You. I had no idea. You’re pregnant. You’re really pregnant.” He shook his head. He smiled, or smirked, or just opened his mouth in incomprehension.
“I’m really pregnant, Aiden.”
“For real, you’re pregnant?”
“For real, I’m pregnant.”
“Wow.”
“There’s more, Aiden. The other thing—”
“Twins?” he asked, mouth wide open. Anything would’ve been possible in Aiden’s world now that he found out that I really, seriously was pregnant.
“No. I don’t think so. But the other thing I’m talking about is — you’re the father of my baby.”
“Oh my God. But we never—”
“We never?”
“Oh yeah. Just that once. The sofa. The library sofa.”
“I don’t know what you were doing during sex ed, but once is all it takes.”
“So, I’m a father?” Aiden’s undeveloped grimace-frown was definitely loosening into a smile. He was even showing his brilliant white teeth.
“If you want to be,” I said with a timid smile. “I mean, biologically, you’re definitely a father. As far as raising a child — I can’t make you. But I’d love to have you join me in the endeavor. I sound like a librarian, don’t I?”
“You do.” Aiden crouched up from the ground and walked to my cot. “And I do. I definitely do.”
He put his lips to mine. He smelled of smoke and chemical fumes and sweat, but it was the best smell and the best kiss I could imagine. His lips enveloped my lips, and Aiden’s full tongue entered my mouth.
I withdrew from him slightly. I stared into his brown eyes. “Aiden — you’ll, you’ll be with me to raise the baby?”
“I will. I definitely will help you raise him.” Aiden held me closely.
“Him or her,” I said with a smile.
“Yeah, him or her. So, you’re quitting your job for the pregnancy, right?”
“I think now’s a good time, after the fire. I guess I’ll go home and sleep, then email them my resignation.”
“I don’t think you should go home alone after what you’ve been through today. I mean, you still live alone, right?”
“Well. With the baby inside me.” I patted my pregnant belly. “Other than that, yeah, I still live alone.”
“Do you want to stay at my place? I mean, while you’re pregnant especially. You shouldn’t be alone.”
