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“I mean, I don’t even know their stories, but seeing them sitting there alone seemed so…sad.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I thought the same thing.”
“Even if they’re here on their own because they want to be, it still seems sad,” she went on. “No one should walk through those doors on their own.”
I didn’t disagree with her. In fact, it felt like a fucking Greek tragedy for a girl to have to walk through these doors alone. Mistake or no mistake, unless a girl went out of her way to poke holes in the condoms, men were every bit as responsible if a sexual encounter resulted in pregnancy. Only abstinence was foolproof, and we all knew that going in. So, for a guy to wash his hands of an unplanned pregnancy was cowardly and foul. Of course, that was only my opinion. That was the double-edge sword of insisting that a woman’s body was her own business; it gave men the green light to let women handle this shit on their own.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, there was no going to be a clear-cut answer to unplanned pregnancies. Every angle was an opinion based on a mixture of how you’d been raised, what social experiences you might have experienced, what religion-if any-you practiced, etc. I could only be grateful that Alexandria and I were on the same page because I honestly wouldn’t know what to do if we weren’t. Even as her husband, I wouldn’t have had a say in what she ultimately chose to do about this pregnancy, and that just seemed crazy to me. All of it seemed so crazy to me.
“So, do we ask for the weekend off if it’s positive?” I asked. “Go home and tell our parents?”
Alexandria shook her head. “As important as this is, we just started our jobs,” she replied. “I think that we should put in a time off request for the following weekend.” She shrugged. “It’s the courteous thing to do, I think.”
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that would probably be best.”
“Plus, it’ll give me time to…”
I eyed her. “Time to what, baby?”
Alexandria let out a heavy sigh. “It’ll give me time to…notfinda way to tell my parents, but to be able to answer their questions like I’m not…stupid.”
I reached for her hand. “You’re not stupid, Alexandria. If you are, then we both are.”
“I just want to be able to answer that ‘what are you going to do’ question,” she explained. “The rest of it is kind of irrelevant since nothing can turn back the hands of time. So, I just want to be able to…lay out my plan to them, so that they don’t worry.”
“Do you have a plan?” I asked carefully, already knowing that I had one.
“Not really,” she admitted. “I mean, if it’s a normal pregnancy, then I can still work and go to school. So, it’s theafterI have the baby that I need to figure out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out, Alexandria,” I told her. “If you’re healthy enough to do it, you continue school, and I’ll allow you to work until your around seven or eight months.” She arched a brow at my choice of words. “If I can’t take classes and still work enough to support you, then I’ll quit school and get another job to take care of you.”
She was already shaking her head. “Hunter-”
“If we’re able to both go to school and work, then we’ll schedule next year’s classes to make it so that we don’t have to worry about childcare too much,” I went on, interrupting her. “It’ll be rough, but we can do it.” I took her face in my hands. “That’s the plan you tell your parents, Alex.”
Before she could argue with me, the door to the room opened, and in walked the doctor and the nurse that had escorted us back here. The doctor was smiling kindly, and I couldn’t imagine the kind of strength that it took to do a job like this.
“Good morning,” she greeted. “I’m Dr. Mourney.”
“Hello,” Alexandria muttered.
“Now, as I understand it, you’re simply here for a confirmation of your pregnancy, correct?”
Alex nodded. “I took three home pregnancy tests that came out positive, and I was also supposed to start my period last week.”
Dr. Mourney nodded in acknowledgement. “And you’ve engaged in unprotected sex?” Alexandria’s face turned bright red. “I’m not judging you, Ms. Grant.” Her voice sounded kind enough that I believed her. “I just need the complete picture.”
“I forgot to put a condom on,” I confessed, doing whatever I needed to do to protect Alex. “I got carried away-”
“I’m not judging her,” she repeated, still kindly. “Mr…?”
“Hunter Finley,” I grumbled, feeling a bit chastised.
“Mr. Finley, unless this is a rape situation, though I do need the full picture, I’m not overly concerned withhowa patient got here,” she explained. “I’m more concerned with providing answers on where we go from here.”
I liked her.
“We had unprotected sex the first two times,” Alex finally answered her. “We used a condom the second night, but…we didn’t use any last night because I didn’t see the point.”
