Page 19 of Secret Baby for My Brother's Best Friends

"Uh, no. Can you please repeat it?" Because surely I didn't just hear her tell me that I was pregnant.

"Of course. So we noted that your HcG levels were consistent with pregnancy."

Shit. "Okay," I swallow. "Um...so I'm...?" I don't say it loudly, hyperaware of my brother in the next office over.

"Pregnant? Yes, most likely."

"Is there any chance that the test is wrong?"

"Um, well, it has an accuracy rate of over ninety-nine percent, so there's very little chance of it being wrong."

"I see." I don't know what to say to that. I kind of want to scream, cry, and laugh all at once.

I probably shouldn't be at work dealing with this kind of monumental news. I probably shouldn't be driving either.

I’m tempted to ask James to drive me, but I don’t want to interrupt his work, and I also don’t want to be around him, because he’ll instantly know something is wrong just by looking at my face. Then he’ll keep poking until I eventually spill the beans, whether I want to or not.

And I don’t want to spill the beans yet, because then I’d have to explain to my brother how I got pregnant in the first place.

Although I’m not quite sure myself. I mean, I had sex with Eric only six weeks ago and then had that threesome only four weeks ago, so the father could be any one of the four men.

Jesus. I never thought I would end up in this predicament, and if I were in a more amused mood, I would probably be laughing my head off right now. In fact, semi-hysterical laughter bubbles up from my throat, leaking into the world, and I slap my hand over my mouth to hold it back. This is insane, on so many levels.

I’m pregnant. And I don’t know who the father is.

The pregnancy part of it doesn’t really scare me as much as the latter. Truthfully, I’ve always wanted to be a mother, and that was one of the things about breaking up with Eric that hurt the most: letting go of the dream of us starting a family soon. I wanted to have kids young as well, because my parents had me in their later years, and though they tried their best, I saw how much wear it was on them, especially combined with the stress from work and just health issues that they both faced.

They didn’t have the energy for a toddler at the time, and in a lot of ways, my brother raised me, though he was only a few years older himself.

In any case, having children young has always been something I wanted, and I’m not really scared about the concept of having them alone.

But God, I never expected it to happen like this.

“Mrs. Winston? Are you there?”

"Erm, yes.” I clear my throat, stopping the ridiculous laughter in its tracks, and I assume a serious affect once more. "Yes, I’m here. It’s just…Wow, I wasn’t expecting that to be the case. I thought I would have food poisoning or something.”

“Oh, you do,” She says, almost cheerily. “You have food poisoning, but while checking for that, we also checked your HcG, and it definitely indicates pregnancy.”

“Okay, and hum….how far along am I?” At this point, I'm not even sure what I’m hoping to be the answer. I definitely don’t want Eric to be the father. These four weeks away have opened my eyes to what a complete jackass he is, and he will definitelymake a terrible dad. Also, selfishly, I really don’t want to have anything to do with him anymore.

But then the alternative is that the father will be one of the three

strangers that I had a one-night stand with at a party four weeks ago.

I mean, is that really any better?

I dunno. I guess the best-case scenario is that the guy somehow ends up being a decent human being and a good father to our child. The worst case scenario…I don’t even want to consider that, but if anything, I can always maybe ask him to sign his rights away so that he has no claim, and tell him I’m not going for any child support.

God, am I actually planning on keeping the pregnancy? It looks like it.

“We can’t tell yet. There's another test we’re running, but you'll have the results on that tomorrow.”

“Sure. Of course. Um…is there any way you can pen me in for a meeting with the doctor?” I could also go see my regular gynecologist, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have to wait at least a week for that, and I really don’t want to. “

“Sure. We have an opening tomorrow if you want.”

“Yes. That would be perfect, thank you.”