Page 38 of F Buddy

At his words, the whole table went quiet and all eyes turned to me. I winced, holding back a string of curse words.

No one else had outright asked the question, probably trying to be considerate because I hadn't mentioned anyone. They must have thought the father was my last boyfriend. Only the math didn’t add up since I’d broken up with him over a month before the wedding, and I was only seven months along in the pregnancy. I wasn’t dating anyone else, and they would have known if I was. So another assumption would be that I was hiding a boyfriend from them.

“Uh,” I floundered, not sure what to say. Everyone waited for me to say something, but I couldn’t. “The baby’s father is…”

I couldn’t come up with anything, and out of panic, I turned to the one person that knew all my secrets, giving her a pleading look. Her eyes widened as attention suddenly turned to her, and I noticed Sasha frown.

“Olivia, do you know who the father is?” Sasha sounded almost hurt.

“Not technically,” she said slowly. “Scarlett came to me when she thought she was pregnant, and I’ve been helping her out, but that’s about it.”

“Is it that guy you dated before? His name was…” she frowned as she tried to remember.

“It doesn’t matter,” I cut in. “I haven’t been able to contact the dad yet, so he… still doesn’t know.”

“And do we know who the dad is?” the question came from Chad, and the intent way he was eyeing me worried me just a little.

“Well, I guess you could say that,” I said in a small voice.

His eyes narrowed at me, and I knew immediately what it meant. He knew. Or, he guessed.

Dammit.

I realized too late that Zach might have told him about our one night stand. The two of them were close, I knew that. Probably close enough to tell each other about their conquests. He suspected, but he didn’t have proof. I prayed he wouldn’t pay too much attention to it.

He ignored my silent plea.

“How well would you say we know this guy?” he continued. “Say, for example… were they at the wedding?”

The others shared confused looks, while Olivia met my gaze with the beginning of panic in her own eyes.

“The wedding?” Sasha repeated, sounding confused.

“Yeah,” he glanced over at them, before looking back at me. “Remember, the wedding was seven months ago? If you met someone at the wedding then we’d know him, wouldn’t we? If you can't contact him, one of us probably could.”

“Oh, definitely,” Sasha jumped in. “I still have the guest list, and I have contacts for everyone that attended… somewhere. If you need it—”

“Thanks, Sasha, but it’s fine.” I knew she was trying to help, but I had to shut the idea down before they started calling everyone up. Someone else might remember I left with someone, and they might know who it was. I wasn’t going to tell my friends who the father was before I told the man himself. “It wasn’t someone at the wedding,” I said to throw them off.

Chad’s eyes narrowed at me again, and I quickly looked away from him.

“Then who?” he questioned.

“Um, I dated someone. After the wedding. I’m pretty sure he worked for the catering company or something that did your wedding. I met him at the wedding rehearsal and we clicked.” The lie felt awkward on my tongue, but to them, I had no reason to lie. “I guess I took my last breakup harder than I thought, and I realized I’d made a mistake getting into something else so early, so… we haven’t talked for a while now.”

It painted a pretty pathetic picture of myself, but of course, they bought it. After all, in my world, it wasn’t anything new. I had rebounds that fell through quickly after some of my breakups. I didn’t always do it, of course, I knew it was wrong, and the result was always the same: me feeling even worse than before.

“Would you guys excuse me for a bit?” I said suddenly, scooting my chair back. Olivia, picking up her cue, jumped up to help me. “I need to head to the bathroom.”

“I’ll go with you,” Olivia said, holding onto my arm as she helped me up.

I winced at the light ache in my lower back, moving slowly through the restaurant.

“Fuck, I hate that I still have months to go before this is over,” I grumbled.

I should have been able to go by myself. Olivia was just going along so we could talk privately, but I needed her help a lot more than I had expected. I leaned on her as I moved one foot in front of the other, wincing every few steps because my feet had swollen along with the rest of me.

Olivia was silent the whole way. I’d used it as an excuse to get away, but I did need to use the bathroom. My visits had increased. Some days it felt like the baby was lying on my bladder. As far as I knew, it could have been. Olivia waited for me to finish my business and met me at the sink as I washed my hands.