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“You haven’t had any wine,” Samson pointed out. “That’s not exactly fair.”
“Not really. You pretty much know I’m going to put out, after this kind of dinner.”
Samson kissed her hand. “It’s just as well. I want you to remember this.”
He took a deep breath, knocked back the rest of his wine and dabbed the corners of his mouth. Then, he pulled a small black box out of his jacket pocket.
“Samson…”
“April, you know that I’m the kind of man who makes big gestures, but not big commitments. And I know that you said that things were fine, if we were just having fun...”
April felt her insides turning to ice water. “I know, but I really don’t—”
“I want you to know that I want more than fun with you.” Samson opened the box and slide it over to her.
It was a key.
“I love you, April,” he said.
“Samson, I’m pregnant,” she blurted out at the same time.
“What?” Samson dropped his hand from the table. “What did you say?”
“I said… I’m pregnant. At first I wasn’t sure… But I am.”
The knot in her throat grew with every second of silence that followed. His expression was as forbidding as it had been the day she’d interviewed with him.
“You can’t be pregnant,” he managed.
“I am. I went to the doctor. I have an ultrasound picture.”
“Show it to me.”
April rolled her eyes. “I don’t have it in my purse. It’s at my apartment. We can go get it after dinner, if you want proof. Do you really not believe me?”
“We’ve always used condoms!”
“They aren’t a hundred percent effective. Maybe one had a tear. Maybe we just bucked the odds with the sheer amount of times we fucked in that first week. I don’t know what happened. I’m not lying to you!” April turned her face away and covered her eyes. This was not her best-case scenario. She prayed that she wouldn’t start to cry.
“Hey.” Samson came over to her side and took her hand from her eyes. “I know you wouldn’t lie. I just don’t understand how it happened.”
April felt her head beginning to spin, and she closed her eyes tightly. “I guess we can try to figure out what happened. Take a closer look at that box of condoms. Maybe your swimmers are particularly aggressive lately. I don’t know.”
She felt his hands rubbing her shoulders and thought for a moment that it would be okay.
“Let’s go home. I meant to invite you to live with me anyway. Stay the night, and we’ll think about it more tomorrow.”
April felt a stab of panic and looked back at him. “Think about what more tomorrow?”
“What we’re going to do.”
“Aside from getting a registry going and buying some maternity clothes, I don’t know what you think we’re going to do about it,” April snapped.
“That is not what I meant. I just meant that we need to talk, and you are clearly upset.”
April pulled away from him and stepped closer to the railing. “Of course, I’m upset! I’m pregnant out of the blue, with a man I love, who doesn’t want to have children, ever!”
Samson held his hands up. “It’s true that I have no desire to have a baby at this point in my life.”
“Do you want to have one at all?”
“April, I need time. I need to process this.”
“Just say it. You don’t want this. You don’t want to be a father.” April crossed her arms over herself. “You want to keep merrily taking over the world with your huge company.”
“I love you!”
“You can love me, but if you don’t love our baby, too, it’s no good to me. I can’t get rid of this child. I can’t throw her away like I was thrown away!” April heard her voice break and covered her mouth, trying to catch her breath.
“Oh, that’s it? You’ve already made all the decisions?” Samson boomed. “You’re going to have the child whether I want it or not? What comes next? You’ll tell me where we’ll live? When we get married? I guess whether we do is up to you as well.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” April shook her head. “You can’t compromise on a baby! Either I have it or I don’t. It’s not that you don’t get any input on the situation; it’s that I can’t do anything else. Don’t you see that? I can’t do it!”
She grabbed her jacket and made for the stairs. Samson grabbed her shoulder.
“April, just calm down!”
“No! Your choice here isn’t whether or not you can get me to get rid of a baby. Your choice is whether or not you want to be part of his or her life.” April started down the stairs. “Keep the key. I’m calling an Uber.”
