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I returned to the house and Vivian was not home yet. Quickly, I put away the items I had purchased and went into the bathroom. For a few minutes, I stared at my reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall. What if I was pregnant? What was I going to do?
My mind went back to the night I made the crazy decision of sleeping with a man I’d just met without protection. I let myself go completely and before the man beside me woke up the next morning, I hurried out of his room and went home.
I took my trousers off and peed on the absorbent tip of the test stick and kept it on the sink while pacing in circles around the tiny bathroom. I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but when I picked up the stick, two red lines were staring back at me.
Hurriedly, I searched for the pack of the pregnancy test. Maybe two lines meant not pregnant. When I found it and read the instructions clearly stating two lines -no matter how faint- meant you were pregnant, I threw that test stick away and did the test again.
After about 4 minutes of the second test, I picked it up and the two red lines were there again. My heart started racing. I could not be pregnant. It was one time; I slipped up one time. How could I be pregnant?
I started hearing Vivian call my name. She was in the same house as me but her voice sounded really distant. The pregnancy test stick was still in my hand when I lowered myself to the floor, unsure what to do with myself. This was still difficult to wrap my head around.
“Valentinaaa!!” Vivian sang. “I picked up Chinese from that spot we discovered. Where are you?”
She knocked on the bathroom door, “Are you in there? Val?”
When she got no response, she opened the door and found me sitting on the floor. I saw panic fly to her eyes as she got down on her knees beside me. “What’s wrong Val? Are you hurt?” she asked, checking my body all over. She paused when she saw the pregnancy stick in my hand and she took it from me.
At this point, I started crying. Tears were falling from my face uncontrollably. She hugged me and held me in that position.
“Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry,” she said, holding me tightly. My chest felt tight like all the air in my lungs had been sucked out.
“How am I pregnant? I made a mistake once. Why couldn’t I just get away with it like every other girl who makes these kinds of mistakes?” I asked amidst tears.
She chuckled. “You’re not any other girl, Valentina. You’re special.”
“I cannot deal with this. How is my life over before it even starts? I don’t even have a job; how do I go about this? What do I do? Babies are expensive, Vivian, really expensive.”
“You have a sister who works for a multi-billion-dollar business. I earn well, we’ll be fine. You have me here with you and your life is not over, Valentina. It’s a baby, not a death sentence.”
Her words comforted me a little bit. Vivian always knew the right things to say to me.
“Get off the floor, let’s get you and that tiny embryo or is it called a zygote? I don’t know but let’s get you both some food.” Vivian said with a wide smile. I thought she was happy about this. She got me off the floor and washed our hands before we went to dinner.
While we ate, I asked her, “Are you happy about this? You’ve been smiling since you heard.”
She nodded, “There’s every reason to be happy. I love you and this baby will come into the world to a loving family.”
I shook my head while trying to stop a smile that was threatening to break out. Vivian was a blessing to my life.
“I’ll start teaching them to code as soon as they can read, so we don’t end up with another artist who wears large shirts to public spaces and paints in their underwear.” She said and we both laughed.
“Are you not going to ask?”
“Ask what?”
“Who the father is? How this happened? How could I have been so careless?” I said and she shook her head.
“It’s not important but tell me if you want to.”
“He was this attractive man I met at the club that night both of us went. He was the reason I texted you to have fun without me, that I’d found my own fun.” She chuckled.
“I wasn’t thinking. He was so hot and he was so in charge. I totally lost control and did things I wouldn’t normally do.”
“Do you want to reach out to him? Tell him you two have a baby coming?” she asked and I shook my head.
“Even if I wanted to, I can’t.”
“Why is that?” she asked before taking a sip from her glass of water.
