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“Okay,” I said.
Twenty minutes later, I was dressed and in my car, sitting in the parking lot of the diner. A car pulled in behind me, and I saw Helen in the driver’s seat, pulling up beside me and parking. I got out and met her, and she walked with me inside, commenting on how nice my hair looked, in spite of it clearly still being bedhead and her just being nice to get the conversation going.
She guided me to a booth, and I sat down as she disappeared into the kitchen. When she came back out, she had two mugs of coffee and sat them down on the table. My brain immediately jumped to everything I’d read about drinking coffee while pregnant, and I decided that at this moment, getting a little bit of it in me wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
“So,” she said, taking a sip of her own, “I have Tony back there working on a breakfast for us. I didn’t tell him it was you, so he won’t make it as spicy as all hell. Just in case.”
“Just in case?” I asked.
She sighed and smiled warmly.
“In case you’re pregnant?” she asked. “I assume that’s what all the hubbub is.”
My eyes went wide, and I stuttered for a second.
“H-how?”
She waved her hand and took another sip of her coffee.
“You aren’t the first person I know who got knocked up unexpectedly,” she said. “And your coffee is decaf. Also just in case.”
I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry, but the overwhelming desire for the dark, black coffee was more than either, and I guzzled some of it down quickly.
“You are amazing.”
“Don’t mention it,” she said. “Now, tell me, what’s happening?”
I took a deep breath and let the aroma of the coffee wash over me, warming me as I tried to put my thoughts in order.
“It’s Kieran’s,” I said. “I don’t know exactly how far along I am, but I think it’s about eight. My period has never been regular, but it was way later than it’s ever been before. I took the test this morning.”
“How did you know?”
I laughed softly, quietly to myself.
“I didn’t want anything spicy,” I said. “For a couple of days, every time I thought about hot, spicy stuff, I got sick to my stomach. Just even thinking about it was enough to make my insides do flips.”
“Yeah, I can see how that would do it for you,” she said.
“The thing is, Kieran’s been on this retreat for six weeks. That’s longer than the time we’ve been seeing each other before he left. We’ve been apart more than we’ve been together.”
“Ahh,” Helen said. “And when does he come back?”
“Tonight or tomorrow. He said he wasn’t sure if he needed to stay after the last exam or not. But that’s this morning. He’s taking it right now.”
“I see. And you haven’t told him, have you?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t know how. Or if I should right now. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m torn on whether I should tell him immediately or if I should wait. Maybe a couple days, maybe a couple of weeks. It will be a little bit before I’m showing, I think. I just don’t know.”
“Well, first off, are you going to keep it?” she asked. “No matter what?”
“Yes. I made that decision before I even took a test.”
“Good. Then everything else is easier that way.” She paused as a young lady I didn’t recognize came up to the table with two plates and a large serving tray. It seemed to have every kind of breakfast food imaginable on it, and our individual plates were stacked high with pancakes. For the first time in a few days, I suddenly felt ravenously hungry. “Thank you,” she said to the waitress as she walked away, then pointed at her with her fork and leaned in to me. “New girl.”
“Ahh,” I said.
“Anyway,” Helen said, stabbing her pancakes with her fork and taking a large chunk into her mouth, “you need to tell him immediately. Like, not the second he walks in the door, but soon after. You need to know where he stands as soon as possible, and it’s no damn good to let yourself think things will be okay and then have him freak out when he finds out.”
“So, how should I tell him?” I asked.
“I’d do it somewhere public. So that way he can’t get too weird.” She stuffed another bite of pancakes in her mouth and cut into the eggs with great fanfare and a look in her eyes like she was experiencing a bit of heaven. “You know what? We have a bonfire tomorrow. Why don’t you do it then?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how he’ll react.”
“Think of it this way,” she said. “If he reacts well, great! You have a party to celebrate the news. If he reacts like a dick, well, Everett can straighten him out real quick. I know your boy is a big, strapping fireman, but Everett has about twenty other dudes there that would throw down with him in a heartbeat. Twenty-to-one doesn’t sound like good odds for Kieran.”
