Teagan

“Earth to Teagan. Come in Teagan.” Lola leans in close and studies my face. “You did that thing again where you just kind of go away.” She waves a hand through the air. “I know you’re busy pining over Joshua, but at this point, I think you talk to him more than you talk to me.”

“Sorry, Lo.” I turn a unicorn figurine over in my hands before setting it down on the table next to the box it came in. “I just can’t help myself. I miss him so much.”

“Yeah, well, since the all-powerful Mr. Kincaid gave me permission to hang out with you for the rest of this summer and drink his super duper expensive scotch, I think maybe you should tune back into the here and now, you know?” She picks up the figurine. “What’s with all the unicorns, anyway. Does he have some kind of little girl fetish?”

“God, no.” I roll my eyes. “It’s an inside joke.”

“I’m just saying, it’s starting to look like my room at my parents’ house in here.” She makes a show of looking around at all the unicorn-themed gifts Joshua has sent me over the last few weeks.

“I think it’s really sweet.” I run a finger over the pendant he sent me yesterday.

“Of course you do. You think everything he does is really sweet.”

“That’s because it is.”

Lola sighs dreamily. “Yeah. You’re right. It is. I can’t believe he sends you gifts every day. And not just all the unicorn shit either. The purses. The lingerie. The clothes.” Lola rests her chin on her hands. “It’s like Cinderella meets Pretty Woman meets…”

“Meet the Parents?”

Lola cringes. “Yeah. About that. What exactly are you going to tell your parents?”

“I have no idea. Can you imagine how well that particular conversation will go?”

“You mean the conversation where you tell your dad that you’re fucking his boss?”

“Yeah. That one.”

“Nope.” Lola grabs the bubble wrap off the table and starts going to town. “Although, your parents are pretty easygoing…” She breaks into laughter. “I can’t even finish that statement with a straight face. There’s nothing easygoing about Mr. and Mrs. Flowers, especially when it comes to their precious Teagan.”

My stomach drops. If only shew knew just how bad things really are. The news I have for my parents is so much bigger than me losing my virginity to my dad’s boss. “It gets worse, Lo.”

She raises her eyebrows. “How can it possibly get worse?”

I stare at my best friend for a long time, trying to get the words to come out of my mouth. Imagine our mutual surprise when I stay silent.

Lola puts the bubble wrap down on the table. “You’re freaking me out here, Tea. When does your brain ever work before your mouth?”

I take a long breath and let it out slowly. “I’m pregnant.” A little shiver of excitement works its way up my spine. I’ve been saying those words in my head for the last three days and I know they’re supposed to terrify me, but they don’t. Not even a little.

Lola hits me on the arm, her jaw dropped. “Shut. Up. How?”

“What do you mean, how? When a man and a woman have feelings for each other, the man puts his penis in her vagina—”

Lola hits me again. “I know how, you goober. But what I mean is how? Didn’t you use protection?”

I shake my head. “I’m not on the pill and we didn’t use a condom.”

Lola stares at me like I’m the biggest idiot she’s ever seen. “I can’t even process that, Tea. How is that even possible? Especially for you?”

I shrug, flaring my hands. “I really don’t know. It’s so out of character for me but … we just got so caught up in the moment that I mean … I didn’t even think about it. I couldn’t think about anything more than what he was doing to me and how good it felt.”

Lola shakes her head. “Holy shit, Tea. This is the very last thing I ever thought would happen. In fact, if I’m being honest, I always assumed the situation would be reversed when we had this conversation.”

“Me, too, Lo. Me, too.”

We sit in silence for a few long minutes while Lola processes what I’ve told her and I try to understand why I feel so damn excited instead of terrified.

“What did Joshua say?” Lola swipes the bubble wrap off the table again.

I bite my lip.

Lola’s jaw drops. “Tea? What did Joshua say?” She speaks as if she’s talking to a child having a difficult time understanding a simple set of directions.

I look at my hands folded neatly in my lap.

“Are you kidding me right now? You didn’t tell him?” Lola sits back in the chair, shaking her head. “I don’t even know who you are right now.”

“I mean, I just found out a few days ago…”

“Teagan. You have to tell him.”

“I know, but I just can’t figure out how. And telling him over the phone or Facetime or something like that just feels so impersonal…”

“So, you’re just going to wait until he comes home? When you’ll be, what? Three months pregnant with his child? Don’t you think that’s kind of low?”

I hang my head. “I’m not really going to do that. I’ll tell him. He deserves to know. To have a choice in what happens next.”

Lola nods as she lets out a long breath. “There’s the Teagan I know and love. I knew you were in there somewhere.”

I pick up the unicorn figurine from the table and run my finger along the smooth porcelain. “When I don’t think about it too hard, when I just follow my heart and soul instead of worrying about what everyone else will think, I’m kind of excited.”

“Are you?”

I bob my head. “I am. I know it sounds crazy. I mean, I spent one day with him…”

“And every night since for the past month.”

I can’t help but smile.

“That’s enough time to fall in love, Tea.”

“Is it?”

“I don’t know, take a second and check in on how you feel about the guy.” She raises her eyebrows and waits for me to process. “And now, let me ask you. Is that enough time to fall in love?”

“It is.” I sigh. “I think I fell in love with him the moment I saw him.”

Lola stares at me for a long moment. “Holy shit, Teagan! You’re going to have a fucking baby!”

I fold my hands over my stomach as a jolt of love surges through me for the tiny life inside me and the man who helped make her.

“Oh, Teagan.” Lola smiles and takes my hands. “Your dad is going to kill you.”