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Chapter Five
She was pregnant. Marigoldcouldn’t believe it. She hadn’t wanted to believe it, not even when Allison brought her the pregnancy test. Her friend kept urging her to take it, but Marigold just couldn’t. It was like if she ignored the bag she had put into her bottom drawer, it would simply go away. It was just a stomach bug, and it was hitting her worse than normal.
Of course it wasn’t just that. Marigold knew it. She just didn’t want to see the results. It was better to be in denial.
But it was going to be there tomorrow. And the day after that. And it would leave Marigold wondering if Allison was right.
She didn’t touch the test until it was time to go home, when Marigold was sure that Darren had left. She wasn’t about to do it during office hours, and then have Darren asking what she was doing if he caught her. That would be a really awkward conversation. Marigold tried to concentrate on her work, but it was very difficult when her eyes kept drifting to the drawer she had put the test in. It was going to be like an elephant in the room.
Finally, Darren left his office. She noticed that he locked up and ducked out of the room, barely looking in her direction. He had been like that for a while now, and Marigold really didn’t like it. She enjoyed it when he came into their part of the office to talk to them, to flirt with her. It made her smile seeing him, and now he couldn’t look at her.
Maybe having that one night between four of them wasn’t such a good idea. Things between everyone had gone backwards. Marigold shuddered to think what would happen if they found out she was pregnant. Would they be fighting to find out who the father was? God, she hoped not.
As soon as Darren had gone, Marigold grabbed the bag and headed towards the bathroom, giving a nod to Allison.
“I’ll call you later.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Allison sat back in her chair. “I’ll wait for you.”
“What about Stephen and Leon? Aren’t you going home with them?”
“They’ll come up to me when they’re done. And I’m not leaving until I know what’s going on with you.”
Marigold felt like she was about to cry. Her friend was too good for her. She ducked into the bathroom and read the instructions. Twice. She didn’t want to get it wrong.
It didn’t take long to do, and then the wait was agonizing. Marigold resisted the urge to pace around the bathroom. Luckily, the only other person who would be coming in here at this time would be Allison, otherwise there would be some very awkward conversations with her coworkers. The cleaners left the bathrooms until last, so hopefully they wouldn’t be around to be nosy.
After the ninety seconds had passed, Marigold checked the test. Allison had gotten the type that read out ‘pregnant’ or ‘not pregnant’, which was supposed to make it easier. But as Marigold stared at the result, she kept looking for the ‘not’ part.
It wasn’t there.
Shit. She really was pregnant.
It had to be a faulty test. Marigold took the second one, and she was bouncing from foot to foot waiting for it. But the result was the same. She was pregnant.
Marigold leaned on the sink, her head spinning. This shouldn’t be happening. They had used protection every time. Apparently, even birth control wasn’t completely effective.
What was she going to do? How was she going to tell the guys? Nobody had even talked about kids. It wasn’t something that came up with a night of fun. Marigold didn’t even know if any of the three guys liked children.
This had just made a messy situation even messier.
Her hands shaking, Marigold gathered the tests and shoved everything into the bag. She would dispose of it in the dumpster behind the building; no need for anyone to be nosy and wonder who was pregnant. Gossip could be rife with the right people, and she didn’t want to be in the middle of it.
She felt sick as she went back to her desk. Allison was there with Leon and Stephen. Leon was leaning against Marigold’s desk while Stephen had his arms around Allison from behind. All of them looked pensive. They turned as Marigold joined them. Marigold tried to speak, but she couldn’t. The words just stuck in her throat.
Allison didn’t seem to need her to say anything. She pulled away from Stephen and went to her friend, putting her arms around Marigold.
“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
That seemed to do it. Marigold just burst into tears, clinging onto her friend and she buried her face into Allison’s shoulder. She just felt overwhelmed. It was just too much.
“Hey.” Someone touched her back. She looked up to see Leon standing beside her, giving her a gentle smile. “It’s not that bad. Things will be fine. I’m sure we can figure out how to deal with the bastard.”
“What?”
“Trey. It’s his, isn’t it?”
“What? No!” Marigold shuddered and pulled away from Allison. “It’s definitely not Trey’s. I dumped him back in October, remember?”
