Pete nodded towards Felicity.
‘I’m sorry, Felicity, I am. I just saw the test and, well, I knew about Pete’s vasectomy, and I thought about my son first.I didn’t want to see him get hurt.’
Felicity cleared her throat. ‘I can understand that.’
Sue turned to leave.
‘Talking to me first …’
Sue paused, unspeaking.
Felicity continued, ‘that would have been the way to stop anyone being hurt. I would have explained if you’d asked me.’
Sue nodded and pulled the door shut behind her.
Felicity let out a long steadying breathand smiled at Pete before he pulled her into a hug.
‘You never thought I’d cheat on you, did you?’
‘No. Not really. But I was scared. I mean, I was confused why you wouldn’t tell me you were taking a pregnancy test.’
Felicity sank further into Pete’s arms, wondering how to explain her feelings about the possibility of being pregnant. She fought back the tears that wanted to flow andtook a breath. ‘Sorry I didn’t tell you. It’s just … well … I needed a bit of time to get my head round the idea. I mean, we have four beautiful children. But another one? Seriously, Pete, what if I am pregnant … then what—’
‘Then we’re calling it Thor.’
‘What?’ Felicity sat up and looked at Pete’s excited face. ‘Are you mad? Why?’
‘Because he’s got superpowers. We thought we’d killedthem all off—’
‘All who off?’
‘My swimmers, but no, Thor there’ – Pete gestured to Felicity’s stomach – ‘he’s made it through, against the odds.’
‘Wouldn’t that make him Aquaman?’ The words came out of Felicity’s mouth before she could stop them. She had no idea why she was being drawn in to this conversation.
Pete looked at her as if she were mad. ‘You can’t call a baby Aquaman,and you can’t have an adult called Aquababy – see, it makes no sense.’
‘But calling a baby Thor does?’ Felicity wanted to point out that this whole conversation wasn’t making any sense; she might not even be pregnant.Please don’t let me be pregnant.
‘Yes, because it works no matter what the age, and imagine how cool the others would think having a brother called Thor would be.’
‘Meganwould be mortified. Why am I being drawn into this? Pete, I might not even be pregnant.’
‘But you think you could be?’
‘Well, I’ve missed a period and I felt dizzy and, oh, I don’t know, maybe I am imagining it all because of the missed period.’
‘So let’s do a test, then. One that isn’t out of date.’ He offered her a reassuring smile.
‘Yes, we have to, I guess.’ Felicity thoughtabout all the cases she had scrolled through online. She had even ventured onto mums’ forums – something she usually avoided due to never really feeling part of the clique and not knowing the meaning of all of the in-house abbreviations. On there she found threads where people were posing the same question. Too many of those who replied seemed to know someone who knew someone it had happened to.She felt an ache in her chest. Doing a test might put her mind at rest, and then she could put all of the fear and anxiety behind her. But what if it didn’t? What if it confirmed a pregnancy?
‘I’ll go to Tesco, then.’
‘Pete, it’s almost ten o’clock.’
‘It will still be open. Wouldn’t you rather know for sure?’
Yes, no, arghh, maybe.‘Yes.’
