…and all of a sudden it occurred to me everything might not be fine.
I called Amber on my way home that day, and she was already sitting at the kitchen table and waiting for me with a drugstore bag on the table when I walked in. She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head toward the bag, and I snatched it up with a grateful, awkward smile. She caught my wrist before I could pull it away, and I stared at her with wide eyes.
She cleared her throat.
“Haven Marie Sinclair,” she said. “In all my years, Ineverthought you would be the one with an oopsie baby.”
I bit my lip. “I didn’t plan for it?—”
“Obviously,” she drawled. “But…shame on you for making me be the responsible one here. Rude.”
I laughed despite everything. "You're going to be somebody's wife someday and they're going to be so confused about how you got there."
"Rudeandaccurate." She let go of my wrist and pointed at the hallway. "Go pee on the stick. I'll be here."
"You're not going to come hold my hand?"
"I will absolutely come hold your hand."
She was already up, following me down the hall. She leaned against the doorframe while I opened the box, watching me with her arms crossed and her chin tilted up. "Okay so walk me through the math. You said you were on the pill?—"
"I said I was on the pill in January."
"Haven."
"I know."
"That's not—Haven, that's not how pill coverage works."
"Iknow, Amber."
She pressed her lips together. Watched me read the instructions I didn't need to read. "Does he use condoms?"
"Usually."
"Usually."
"Always, basically.”
I winced. She judged.
“Almostalways."
She stared at the ceiling like she was asking God for patience.
"Okay," she said finally. "Okay. So we have: no pill, inconsistent condom usage, and a man who apparently has the fertility of—" she gestured broadly— "a Holt."
"You're not helping."
"I'm absolutely helping. I'm standing in this bathroom with you at—" she checked her phone— "eight A.M. on a Tuesday, and I’vealreadybeen to the drugstore on your behalf. That’s love, Haven. That's what love looks like."
I set the test on the back of the toilet, pulled up my pants, then straightened up. We both stared at it like it was a thing that could be reasoned with. The little test strip was already showing up with one blue line, with?—
“So say it’s positive, hypothetically,” Amber started. “What do you?—”
I gasped and my hand flew up to cover my mouth.
Amber’s eyes widened.
