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But before I can take a single step, a woman a few meters away from me catches my eye. She's dressed in a business suit, her hair tied back in a neat chignon. She looks like the very picture of elegance and sophistication. But she's sobbing. Badly.
Just the wayI did back in Hayley’s office.
I wonder if we are both suffering from the same ailment, but then, her hand reaches out and grabs something from the shelf in front of her.
My eyes follow her movement.
It’s a pregnancy test.
Dread piles up within me.
No,I think.No, no, no.
But then…
My period is late. And I’d been certain my emotions were being wrecked by PMS. But I’ve had periods for half of my life, and I’d never felt this torn apart.
My hands are trembling.
It can’t be,I tell myself. If I’m pregnant, it means I’m pregnant by…
I shake my head, forbidding the thought to form.
The woman stumbles towards the cashiers, pregnancy test in hand. Fear envelops me as I push myself towards the shelf and take one.
Just to confirm,I tell myself.Just to rule it out.
Five minutes later, I’m holding a bag with my box of tampons and the pregnancy test. A quick movement catches my eye, and I turn around. The woman is hurrying towards the store’s bathrooms.
I decide that I cannot wait any longer.
It takes me less than a minute to rush over there and stumble into the stall adjacent to hers. My heart is pounding violently, and my hands are shaking so feverishly that it's a wonder I don't drop the pregnancy test into the toilet. Minutes later, two pink lines on the drying stick confirm what I've been afraid to believe. I'm pregnant with Brandon Stawarski's baby.
CHAPTER16
BRAN
“We’re all set then, Mr. Stawarski? Would you like to go over the final draft of the address?”
I look up at Alex, my head pounding with the familiar headache that lately seemed to accompany any conversation directed toward me.
“Can you not tell,” I say, my words coming out in a deathly whisper, “that I am notthe person you’ve been working for over the past several months?”
Alex looks both confused and concerned simultaneously, and I am frustrated to realize that he no longer seems to be afraid of speaking to me.
It appears that yelling at people for eight hours a day for over a month can rid them of any fear they once had of you. “Yeah, I know you're not Theodore,” he chuckles condescendingly, as though speaking to a child. “But I wanted you to review the speech and give your approval. Theodore suggested we run all the speeches by you.” I stand up abruptly, my nerves pulsating.
“Fine,” I snap, snatching the printed speech from his hand and scanning it over.
“I know it’s probably good,”Alex says before I can even bring myself to focus on a single word. “Pam has gone through it, and she lovesit. And Pam never loves anything. But I did want you to say something about the ending. I asked Alicia to end with a joke. You know, something about what Tony did. Funny enough so people know that weknow everyone knows about it, and we’re addressing it, but not funny enough that they think we want to dismiss it. I really wanted to strike the balance between…”
I look up at him, my headache intensifying by the second. “How am I supposed to read the speech, if you don’t letme read it and keep jabbering on?”
My words come out so loudly that everyone in the tent turns around to stare. But Alex does not display even a modicum of fear.
“Fine,” he says with a tiny shrug and a smile. “I’ll letyou read it. Let me know when you’re done.”
He gives me a mock wave before he disappears.
