^“You’re pregnant?” Andre asks. I’m a little taken aback that he looks amazing, like the first time we met. Andre’s short, blonde hair is slightly spiky, and his fringe hangs over his forehead a little. My cheeks blush as I look over his massive body, remembering our night together. The black shirt he is wearing shows off his tattooed arms, and I know the tattoos meet in the middle of his firm chest. I also know he has a cross tattoo right the middle of his chest, and I have spent many nights dreaming about our night together. The black jeans are tight in the right places and do nothing to make me forget what he looks like with no clothes on. I don’t think I could ever forget that night if I tried.

“Yes,” I say, and he still just stands there. The angry look he gives me is a little worrying, but I keep my eyes connected with his blue ones. They watch me closely, until he pulls his gaze away and looks over my body. I don’t dare look at anyone else in the room as we all wait for his reaction. I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous before. Okay, maybe the time I told my ex-husband that I was kicking him out was worrying. Even then, it wasn’t this bad. This makes me want to pee myself. Okay, maybe that’s because I’m pregnant, and peeing all the time is apparently the thing to do.

“Fucking hell,” he finally pants out and links his hands behind his head as he looks up at the ceiling. The room is silent for a long time, and I end up looking down at my hands in my lap. Why do I have the feeling he is going to flip out?

I guess it’s not every day your one night stand turns up and says she is pregnant. We don’t even know each other.

“Didn’t you use protection? I thought you were smarter than this shit,” Dom says behind me. I manage to swallow the hurt and just let my anger out. How dare he? This is nothing to do with him. When Andre doesn’t say a word, I stand up off the stool. When I turn to glare at him, he seems a little shocked. Like it’s normal to be so rude to people you don’t know.

“This shit?” I say, and he has the decency to at least wince at me.

“Ellie,” Andre says my name gently behind me, but I’m too angry to stop my rant from spilling out.

“We did use protection, but it clearly didn’t work.” I say.

“You know what–” Dom goes to say something, but I interrupt him.

“I have no idea why I’m telling you this, I only came to tell Andre. Not all his rude friends,” I say. Dom gives me another speechless look, and I turn to look at Andre who is smiling a little at me as he moves his eyes between Dom and me.

“This is a shock, but I’m happy to see you again,” Andre finally says.

“I’m sorry to just turn up like this, but I had planned a nice way to tell you. I didn’t expect to have you overhear me telling your roommates,” I say, and he nods as he runs a hand over his jaw. It is slightly unshaven, and I notice he has a large, silver ring on his finger. Thankfully, not his wedding finger; that would have been weird. I wonder if he has a girlfriend? It has been three months since we slept together, and even if I was never with anyone else, he could have been.

“You ran out,” he says, and I blush a little. When I woke up in the hotel room after our long night, it was to hear Andre in the shower. I didn’t know what to do, so I left before he came out. I thought it would be easier and less, I don’t know, awkward. As much as we had a good night, I thought it would be easier to avoid the fake smiles and the fake ‘we should do this again sometime’ that Liz told me usually happens after a one night stand.

“Not exactly, you were in the shower, and I walked out.” I say, and he laughs. I guess I’m glad he finds it funny. Andre has a really deep laugh that matches his deep voice. I find myself thinking what our baby will look like. Will our baby have my brown hair or his blond? Boy or girl? My brown eyes or his warm, blue ones?

I never wanted children with my ex-husband. I know he wanted them and asked me all the time but I just couldn’t have a child with someone like him. I knew I would be alone, as he worked all hours, and I knew there would be a chance my baby could be as cruel as he was.

Except now, I’m in a worse position, with no house, no job, and only a little money. I don’t know anything about Andre other than he is good in bed.

That’s not going to help me bring up a child.

“Are you keeping my baby?” he asks. All the laughter has gone, and he is deadly serious now.

The pressure of his gaze is a lot to handle, and I’m sure I am shaking as I answer him, “Yes, and I get it if you don’t want to be involved. I’m not expecting anything from you, but every child deserves to know who their father is. So, if you don’t want to be involved, I would want a photo or something to show the baby one day. That’s all I want.”

He shakes his head as he steps over the shopping bags and stops in front of me. “I have no fucking idea how to be a dad, but I am not going anywhere. I can’t say this is going to be easy, Ellie, but I think we can make it work. No, I’m going to make it work because you’re carrying my child,” he says, and a relief fills me. A relief I didn’t know I needed, and I give him a little, shaky smile. I don’t say anything as he steps closer and leans down to place his hand on my flat stomach. The warmness of his hand is soothing, and as he looks up, his eyes catch mine. We both just stare at each other, both of us knowing this is the start of something. His mouth parts open a little as I look at his lips,

“I’m sorry, Ellie, I didn’t mean to be rude to you. This is a shock to us all, and I do want to become your friend,” Dom says as he stops next to Andre, making me look away from Andre’s lips. I glance up at him and nod.

“What the fuck happened in here?” A deep, male voice says before I can respond to Dom. The voice sounded American, at least he sounds like Americans from some TV shows I have watched. I have never met anyone from across the pond before.

A man walks into the room, his hair is a dark-brown and similar to Dom’s in length. I would guess he is the same height as Kaiden, and he is wearing just tracksuit bottoms. The man has a thin line of sweat all over his chest and a spiralling, black tattoo on his right shoulder that dips into his chest. I watch as he steps over the shopping bags and stands next to Andre. Andre is taller, but both of them are extremely attractive. Hell, all of them are attractive.

So, Andre has three hot guys that live with him? I definitely think he found them off a website or app because there’s no way four attractive guys like these would happen to move in together. I feel very small in the room with all these men. It’s even more concerning when I can feel all their eyes on me, like they are waiting for me run out of the door. It’s not exactly a thought far from my mind.

The new man looks me up and down before turning to look at Andre with a glare. If I thought Dom was stern, this man gives him a run for his money.

“Who the fuck is this?” he asks bluntly.

“Our new roommate,” Andre answers, and I look at him in shock.

Did he really just ask me to move in? Well I guess he didn’t even ask, just a demand.

Who the hell are these guys?