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I can’t lie and say I was thrilled when that stick turned up with two lines. I immediately threw up, and not because of morning sickness. All in all, I’ve had a great pregnancy. Ever since I first felt the little flutters in my belly, I’ve been growing more excited, if not nervous.
“I thought you went to Chicago and told him?” Sami continues. She’s also reading her latest gossip blog on her phone when real drama is unfolding right here in front of her.
“Oh, she went to tell him,” Isla says. The way she drops her feet from the chair she’s resting them on, I know she’s prepared to tell Sami the whole story, but thankfully, some other teachers come into the room.
Teachers like Henry. He smiles at me, his gaze dropping to my stomach. That’s the way it is these days. Opening up the fridge, he takes out his prepared lunch, then he walks over to me, glaring out the window. “Still here, huh? Talk about making a spectacle. Every student is making bets on who it is and who they’re here for.”
The day I hooked up with Damon, all of the teachers were at the Colts game in the city. I’m sure some noticed I disappeared midway through, but I don’t think anyone realized it was with Damon, though Henry has alluded he did.
I smile, not offering Henry much else. Leaving the window, I stalk over to the table with Sami and Isla, no longer able to talk freely.
Sami pushes her veggie plate toward me. “You need to eat.”
I nod. “I had a big breakfast.”
“Liar.” Isla pulls an apple out of her lunch bag.
I stare at the prepared salad I picked up from the grocery store on the way in today. It looks about as appetizing as a piece of cardboard. “I want a Reuben. Why do I want a Reuben? I’ve never eaten one in all my life.”
“Go to Ira’s Deli over on Forest Drive. The best Reubens,” Lloyd says from across the lounge, then carries on with Henry about the Reuben in great detail.
Saliva pools in my mouth, and I know that nothing will satisfy me now until I get that damn Reuben. I pick up my phone to see when the deli closes, crossing my fingers they aren’t one of those places only open for lunch.
“What do you think his plan is? Chase you down at your car?” Isla asks in a low voice.
“It’s kind of hot that he’s here, no?” Sami asks, finally putting down her phone.
“Hot? Seriously, come back down to reality.” Isla wasn’t a fan when I slept with Damon, and when I got pregnant, she did the whole “I told you so” crap she always does when I do something she doesn’t approve of.
“Oh, come on. He clearly just found out, and he tried to get in yesterday but Shaylene denied him, so he’s going to wait outside the school all day until she leaves. Definitely not that jackass Damon I slept with.”
“You are aware his name probably wasn’t Damon, right?” I ask, grabbing a piece of broccoli. I have to remember that the health of my baby is what matters at this point, not my cravings.
I’ve rehearsed telling him for months. First, when I first went to tell him I was pregnant—before I abandoned that plan—and every day since, knowing telling him is the right thing to do. Still, his lifestyle isn’t one I want my baby exposed to, and he doesn’t need the bad press of having a baby mama. Damon’s got a reputation, and from all the scouring I did online, he comes from a wealthy family on the East Coast who will probably think I got myself pregnant on purpose. All of this runs through my head every time I gather the courage to consider reaching out to him.
My gaze meets Henry’s across the room. If I was going to make this colossal of a mistake, couldn’t it have been with an average Joe like Henry?
“I’m not an idiot. I know his name wasn’t really Damon,” Sami says, but she blushes.
Part of me thinks Sami wishes what was happening to me was happening to her.
“I’ll go out there and confront him,” Isla whispers. “Because God knows Vic won’t.”
“No. I have to see him at some point. I just have about three hours before I do.” I lean back in my seat. He has to have better things to do than sit in a middle school parking lot all day. “If I’m lucky, he’ll get sidetracked by a hot blonde.”
They both stare at me.
“You have a better chance of Vic actually doing his job and telling him to get off school property.” Isla looks over my shoulder. “Get an autograph yet?”
I don’t have to turn around to know she’s talking to Vic. He’s been going gaga over this whole “Damon Siska in the house” thing. That’s what he keeps saying, earning an award for telling the most people that Damon was here looking for me yesterday. Although I never told anyone else at work who the father is, I’m sure people have put two and two together. Especially if they think about the Colts game this past summer, where we all saw Damon and Cooper Rice, the Grizzlies’ quarterback.
“No. But if he’s out there when I’m on bus duty, I plan on it,” Vic says.
Isla rolls her eyes. “He’s as pathetic as Lloyd, just in a different way.” She points at the man in question who’s now at the table with Henry.
Sami gives me a look, as if asking what Isla’s smoking.
We watch as Lloyd pours his soup out of his thermos and shoves his tie over his shoulder, slurping the soup into his mouth with the spoon that snaps to the top of the thermos.
