Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77717 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77717 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
I know I need to. Even Lauren has been pestering me to. Ah, fuck. No better time as the present, right?
I pull up her number and press “call.” Then I wonder if this is a good thing to talk about at the grocery store. Meh, I never did give a fuck about anyone else’s opinion.
“Hey, Mom,” I say when she answers.
“Noah. Is everything all right?”
“It is.” I can’t blame her. I never call. “I got some exciting news. You’re going to be a grandma.”
There’s a minute of stunned silence. “You got a girl pregnant?”
“My girlfriend,” I say so it sounds like this wasn’t just some random hookup. It started that way, but it’s not ending that way.
“It was only a matter of time,” she replies. “I’m honestly surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”
I close my eyes in a long blink, trying to stay calm. “You, uh, might remember her. It’s Colin’s sister, Lauren.”
“Your friend Colin? You’re dating his sister? And he’s okay with that?”
“Uh, kind of.”
“How far along is she? Is everything going okay? Are you two living together? You were single at Christmas.”
“She’s four months, everything is fine, and we’re not living together yet.”
“This wasn’t planned, was it? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
“No, it wasn’t. We’re working it out though. She’s excited.”
“What about her family? I remember them being a bit uptight.”
Strange how I take almost immediate offense to that. “It was a surprise for everyone. But now they’re happy. Excited for a baby due around the holidays.” I grab random produce and toss it in the cart. I make my way down the aisles, grabbing things that look good but having no idea what I can actually make with half these ingredients.
“Can I come over and meet her?” Mom asks.
“Yeah, of course. When do you want to?”
“I’m free this weekend.”
“Ah, shit.”
“Watch your mouth, Noah.” Absent or not, that woman is my mother.
“Sorry. I have a photoshoot this weekend. I’ll be out of town.”
“I work next weekend, but the one after that I don’t.”
I take a mental note. “Yeah, come over then. Just call me first or something so we know to be home.”
“Are you still in the same apartment?”
“Yep.”
“Take care, see you in a while.”
I end the call, dread building inside, and I can’t figure out why until I’m putting groceries away at my own place. My life growing up was dysfunctional. Absent mother, no father … I’m worried that if Lauren is reminded of that, her faith in me will go out the window.
“I’m not going to have to break up any fights, am I?” Justin asks, eyeing Colin and me.
“Nah,” I say, grabbing a beer and sinking onto the couch. We’re over at Colin’s for a video game party. “We’re cool.”
Colin nods. “As long as he doesn’t fuck up. Again.”
Justin laughs. “It’s been, what, four months now and it’s still so weird to me.” His eyes go to me. “You fucked Colin’s sister and you’re going to be a dad.”
“Shut up.” I shake my head and turn on the PlayStation. Justin’s been a mutual friend since college and has enjoyed every minute of heckling Colin and me about this. Though he hasn’t had many chances to be an ass to both of us at the same time. Colin might have handled the news better than I thought, but things didn’t go back to normal until recently. And it’s a new normal. There’s judgement in my best friend’s eyes for the first time. And I get it: torn between your sister and your best friend. It’s not a comfortable place to be. He shares the same doubts as the rest of the Winters family, that I’m going to fuck this up and hurt Lauren and abandon my child.
If he knew how much Lauren meant to me, he’d have no reason to worry, or he’d get pissed I’d been crushing on his little sister way back when.
“And you two are together now. Things are going good?” Justin asks me.
“They are,” I say, deciding less is more right now, though they are. A month has passed since Lauren and I made things official, and I’ve never been happier. I spend most nights at her house, and I want to spend all my spare time with her. It’s finally feeling like we’re together because we want to be, not because we have to in order to raise our child. It’s crazy when I think about it, and almost scares me that something bad is going to happen to mess this up.
And that thing is me.
Justin laughs. “So you’re fucking Colin’s sister on a regular basis now.”
“You’re such a shithead,” Colin mumbles.
“Really though,” Justin says. “Things are good with the pregnancy?”
“Doctor says everything is perfect and it’s been pretty easy on Lauren.”
“That’s good. June had a rough pregnancy. Like bad enough to make us think twice about having another.”