Page 133 of Tell Me Something

I shook my head. “Um, four or five over the last few weeks.” I’d only taken them the last few Saturday nights after crying jags left me sleepless.

“I think that’s fine. If you were taking them nightly, I’d have been more concerned. You need to make an appointment soon, and they can get you on some prenatal vitamins. Now that you do know you’re having a baby, you need to start taking better care of yourself. No more sleeping pills, and you need to gain back the weight you’ve lost. It’s typical for women to lose some weight in their first trimester if they are throwing up, but I think in your case you’re not eating enough. Do you, ah, want me to call anyone?”

I shook my head. “No, thank you, Dr. Butler. When can I go home?”

“Give it another thirty minutes to get some fluids in you, and you’ll be on your way.”

“All right, thanks.”

IT WAS TEMPTING to just catch the train and go straight home, but instead I found myself in Josh’s building. After waving at Rafael, I made my way upstairs, bracing myself for a scene that wouldn’t go well.

After knocking, I waited patiently for him to answer. Just when I thought he’d keep ignoring me, the door opened.

He was still in his suit, but with his tie loosened and jacket tossed on the floor behind him. He already had a glass of amber liquor in his hand. “What do you want?”

I about lost my nerve. I loved this man more than anything, but right now the last thing I saw in his eyes was love for me. “I want to talk to you.”

“I’m pretty sure everything I needed to hear was in the hospital room today.”

“Can I please come in? I don’t want to have this conversation in the hallway.”

“By all means, come on in. At least this condo doesn’t have stairs, so when you leave in tears after admitting it’s not mine, I don’t have to feel guilty if you fall down.”

The pain of him comparing me to his ex-wife shot through me.

“I’m assuming it’s Will’s, but I guess the fact that he’s not with you must mean that you either met someone else up in New Haven, or you wanted to see if you could trade up first.”

“I haven’t slept with Will or anyone else. I’ve been miserable without you the last six weeks.”

“I had a vasectomy, Haylee.” He shoved his hand through his hair and took a swig of his liquor.

“Did you ever get tested? I mean, given the other side effects, maybe that part was botched, too.”

“You know, I didn’t give my ex enough credit. At least when she was confronted, she came clean about cheating. But you’re actually going with a botched vasectomy angle, huh?”

My temper flared. “I’m not going to stand here and have you treat me like shit because of what your ex-wife did to you. I don’t deserve to pay for her transgressions.”

“I trusted you,” he tossed out, his voice thick with emotion.

“Did you?”

“My ex tried to trap—”

“Don’t.” I cut him off. “Please don’t make me hate you by saying what you’re going to say. I’m not her, and you need to get over yourself and what happened because you know what? It has nothing to do with this moment. And why on earth would I trap you? I’m in law school. Do you think this is convenient for me? I trusted you, and you got me pregnant after assuring me you couldn’t.”

“Well, that’s a new spin, isn’t it? Now you’re the victim?”

“Why can’t you believe I’m telling the truth?”

“Even if I were to buy into the whole botched vasectomy, we had sex for a year. A full year without getting pregnant. Then we break up, even though it shreds me to do so, and now you’re pregnant. You were in New York with Will today without a word to me. I haven’t heard from you in six weeks, but now you’re telling me you’ve been miserable?”

“I thought maybe you’d moved on,” I said lamely. How was I supposed to tell him that I’d waited for him to contact me since I’d been the one who had pushed him away?

“How far along are you?”

I knew instantly he’d start doing the math. “I won’t know for sure until my OB appointment, but Dr. Butler estimated about six to seven weeks.”

“Convenient,” he said bitterly.