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“I’ve been feeling off for … hell, I don’t even know how long at this point,” I answer. “I’ve been nauseous, I can smell everything, my boobs hurt like crazy, and my period is late.”
There is a stunned silence on the other end of the line. “Oh shit, Aria. Do you know what that sounds like?”
“I know,” I say. “I don’t know what to do. I’m absolutely terrified.”
“I’m coming to pick you up and take you to the doctor. Let’s first confirm that this is actually happening, okay?”
I know I can always count on Jess to be the smart one out of the two of us. But going anywhere isn’t quite that simple. There is nothing I can say to my father that wouldn’t make him feel concerned about visiting the doctor.
“Just give me a minute to come up with something to tell my dad,” I instruct.
It takes me another half an hour to convince my dad to let me leave the house. As far as he is concerned, Jess and I are just going to the cinema. It wasn’t the best lie I’ve ever come up with, I’m not one to go to the movies, but after a short while, I managed to convince him. I then waited impatiently in the driveway for Jess to pick me up.
The drive to the doctor’s office is awful. I don’t know what to do or say. Instead, I bite my nails while urging Jess to drive faster.
“Are you sure going to the family doctor is the best idea?” she asks. “Won’t your father find out?”
“Well, I’m pretty positive I know what the doctor is going to say, in which case it isn’t exactly something I can hide from him forever,” I say. “Besides, Doctor Palermo always clears his schedule for us. I can’t wait in a waiting room right now. My nerves are too intense.”
A few minutes more pass before I’m walking into the waiting room for Dr. Palermo’s practice. As expected, he cleared his schedule for me. I can’t help but notice his nervous energy as I describe my symptoms to him. He does a few tests, all of which require some waiting time.
Each minute of that waiting time feels like an hour.
“You are pregnant,” he says carefully when he re-enters the room.
My world stops for a moment. My heart is pounding so loudly in my body, in my chest and my ears, that it’s all I can hear. Dr. Palermo is speaking, but I don’t pay much attention. I can’t even hear him finish his sentence. Instead, I get up to leave and walk out of the building, back toward the car.
Jess knows by the look on my face what the outcome of the visit has been, and I can’t help but notice her face paling as well.
“What are you going to do?” she asks nervously.
“I need to tell him,” I say. “It’s only right.”
“Your dad?” she asks. “He’ll be furious!”
“Yes, my dad,” I say. “But I also need to tell Edoardo. It’s his kid after all. But I don’t have his number.”
The next few minutes feel like autopilot to me as I phone the club where we met in an attempt to find out more about him. Turns out, he owns the club. It doesn’t take much convincing to get his number either, which seems like an oversight on someone’s part, but I can’t complain. Not right now. Not when I need to do this.
It feels like an eternity as the phone rings. And when he eventually does pick up the phone, I’m tempted to immediately kill the call. Instead, I gather what bravery I have and weakly greet him.
“Hey Edoardo, it's Aria.”
“Aria,” he greets coldly. “You shouldn’t be calling me. How did you get this number?”
“Please, just listen,” I say, unable to fight back the tears any longer. “It’s really important.”
I know that he can hear me crying through the phone. It’s impossible for me to bat back the tears any longer.
“What’s wrong?”
His voice is gentle now, and even so, I want to run away from the situation entirely. But I am nothing if not accountable, and I know that I need to do what is right, even if it is potentially harmful to me.
“I’m just calling to let you know that I’ve been to the doctor, and I’m pregnant.”
There is dead silence on the other end of the line. I don’t even hear him breathing anymore. I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t know what to say either.
“Um, I know that the baby is yours,” I continued through the tears. “I haven’t been with anyone else recently, and the timing fits. I don’t expect anything from you, but I thought you should know.”
