After the second week of being unable to keep any food down, I finally agreed to see a doctor. Jess was already jumping up and down with excitement at the possibility of me being pregnant. Personally, I was terrified. I couldn’t help feeling that the timing was terrible. A few weeks ago, a baby would have been a perfect gift. Right now, it was a reminder of what Saul had done to get me there.

The doctor confirmed that I was indeed pregnant, and immediately started me on vitamins and nutrients.

My body started to change in the third week. The morning sickness persisted, and I was soon unable to eat anything without puking it right back up. I also began to experience sudden, wild mood swings. One minute I would be happy and carefree, the next I would be wallowing in self-pity and misery. Jess was thrilled at this, because she felt I could finally understand what it felt to be a girl. I wasn’t so crazy about it. Wild mood swings also meant random bursts of emotion. I would wake up thinking about Saul, and the memory would make me regret how things had ended. Those were the moments I got closest to texting him back, but I always pulled back before I did. Or I would wake up seething, and remembering what he had done to me would fill me with rage.

I was sure I was a nightmare to be around, but Jess was enjoying every minute of it. She had bought me a small bucket she kept beside me at all times. She had named it my ‘Chuck Bucket’, and I couldn’t argue with the name or its usefulness. She took care of all my meals, and never once got offended when I puked shortly after. “The baby is a choosy SOB,” she would say. “We just have to figure out what it is he likes.”

She took me out on walks around the block, because the doctor had advised me to maximize the exercise I got during the pregnancy.

Most importantly, though, she turned me into her muse. Apparently, my pregnancy was a godsend for her. It gave her an idea for a project; a collection of professionally done photos highlighting the stages of a male pregnancy. She wanted to chart it from the onset, so she took hundreds of photos of me every other day. There were no noticeable changes just yet. My body was adjusting to the pregnancy, but it had only been a month, and most of the symptoms were internal. Like incessant puking and wild mood swings.

I loved the whole thing; trying out and posing in different outfits, recreating some of the more iconic pregnancy shoot photos.

All of which took Saul off my mind, at least when I was awake.

My dreams were another matter entirely. In them, I seemed incapable of lying to myself. And the truth was that I missed Saul. I missed our life, I missed our house, and I missed spending time with him. I imagined him scurrying around the house, making me food and taking care of me. I wanted that so badly it hurt just to think about it. I wanted my hubby back, and I hated myself for it.

And then one day, I was returning from the store, and there was a hold-up at the entrance to the apartment.

I saw the procession from a distance, and I rolled my eyes at the display. There was a limousine, making its way slowly down the street, flanked and led by a band playing trumpets. The limo was decked in over the top fashion, with flowers and streaming banners on the side. As it crawled down the street, several people stopped to watch, some laughing and pointing, others pulling out their phones excitedly and recording.

The limousine came to a stop right outside the apartment building where Jess and I lived. I had been about to open the door, but instinctively, I backed into the wall, using the shadow to hide myself.

I stood on tiptoe, curious to see where this was going.

The band struck up a slow ballad. The top of the limo slid open, and a man popped up from inside.

I did not recognize him at first, because the beard was gone. Not all gone, though. Trimmed. He looked handsome and suave and very polished, and I instantly forgot that I was mad at him. And that he was not supposed to be here.

He pulled out a megaphone from the car and switched it on. The feedback echoed across the open space and down the street. He put it to his mouth and spoke clearly.

“Kyler! I’m sorry I don’t know exactly which apartment is Jess’s, but I know you’re in there!”

The street was beginning to fill with people.

“Kyler?”

I realized suddenly that he had attempted to recreate the iconic limo scene from Pretty Woman. We had talked about those big moments in romantic comedies when the relationship has been splintered, and the only way for the love interest to get the protagonist back is to stage an elaborate public intervention, usually involving a chase through an airport. He knew I loved romantic comedies and their absurdities. Whatever this was, he had planned it impress me.

After calling my name unsuccessfully a few more times, the front door opened, and Jess rushed out of the building, still in her sleeping shorts. The whispers around the street got louder; the crowd assumed Jess was the intended recipient of the romantic gesture.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” she said, loudly enough for the whole street to hear. There was no humor in her voice, and there could be no mistaking her tone.

“I’m here to see Kyler,” Saul said. He had pulled the megaphone away from his mouth when Jess showed up, but the sound still carried.

“Like hell you are,” Jess said.

“Look, Jess. I would rather do this with Kyler.”

“Kyler isn’t here, and even if he was, he wouldn’t want to speak to you.”

I had wondered how long it would take for someone to recognize him, and sure enough, I heard someone whisper the name Saul McCormick in the crowd.

“Where is he?” Saul asked, unmoved.

“Please leave, Saul. You’re causing a scene.”

She turned to leave and walk back into the building. As she did, her eyes flashed past mine, and she stopped in her tracks and did a double take. Saul’s gaze must have been following her, because when I looked back at him, he was staring right in my direction.

I don’t know why, but my first instinct was to run. But my intended escape did not go according to plan. My feet got tangled up as I tried to leave, and I stumbled and almost fell. I threw a hand out to find support and prevent a fall, but it never came to that. Within seconds, Saul had vaulted from the top of the limo and sprinted over to where I was. I wasn’t really falling, but his arms were suddenly around me, his face right against my own.

I had forgotten how good it felt to be in those strong hands of his. And those eyes, those dark pools of fiery intensity, were just as I remembered them.

“Hey, hubby,” Saul said, and he actually had the guts to grin.

I shrugged out of his embrace and backed away as far as I could. I was uncomfortably aware of the scrutiny of the crowd, their collective breath held as they watched us.

“You must have mistaken me for someone else,” I said.

“I don’t think so,” Saul said, still grinning. Did he not get that I was mad at him? “Gorgeous green eyes. Cheekbones sculpted to perfection… I’m pretty sure you’re the one.”

He stressed ‘the one’, so as to make it clear what he meant. I felt the color rising in my cheeks.

“That is unfortunate, then, because I do not believe such a thing exists.”

“Don’t you?”

“No. In my experience, people in the world are just out to use you for their own selfish reasons.”

That wiped the grin from his face.

“Look, Kyler, I’m sorry. I can’t tell you how sorry I am…”

“He was in white,” I said, cutting him off.

“What?”

“Richard Gere. He was in a white suit when he pulled off the limo scene in Pretty Woman. I assume that’s what you were trying?”

“I’m trying to apologize here, Kyler.”

“You already did. Several times. On text.”

“Clearly, that wasn’t personal enough.”

He looked around, as if he was noticing the crowd for the first time. A few of them had lost interest and began to walk away, but more zealous ones had pulled out their phones and were whispering and pointing.

“Can we go somewhere and talk?” Saul asked me, his voice low.

“Just to talk?” I said without thinking. Saul’s eyes widened slightly, and his lips twitched. What was it about him that turned me into a fanboy?

“Yes,” he said. “Just to talk.”

I thought about saying no, but I did not want to create a bigger scene. I nodded and let him lead me back in the direction of the limo. I looked over at Jess as I was heading there, and I was sure I detected disapproval in her expression. What are you doing, Kyler?

The limo was impossibly big inside. Just like Saul’s jet, it gave the impression of ridiculous wealth and taste. It even looked like a private room inside a mansion, with large, comfortable chairs and a large television screen on a small table that also held a bottle of champagne and two glasses. Fragrant red roses were scattered all over the floor of the limo, and on the seats. Someone was clearly on the charm offensive.

I sat down as far from him as I could, and yet I was still aware of his every move. I felt like I could see his body, feel every inch of him just by sitting there and not touching him. An old flame flickered from deep within me. I had forgotten how my body reacted to him.

“As I was saying, I’m sorry about my behavior. It is simply inexcusable, and I won’t disrespect you by denying it. Most of what was said about me in the media was true, as was what you overheard that day in the house. My father did threaten to hold back my trust if I didn’t marry and have a child within two years. It was my idea to go on the dating site, find someone who would pretend to be my husband for a few years and then give me a child, and in that way I could secure the fund.”

“But I didn’t anticipate you at all, Kyler. Even before I met you I was terrified of falling in love and being hurt again. But once I met you, this theoretical fear became very real, except now I was terrified of falling in love with you. It was inevitable, really. I love everything about you, Kyler. You’re perfect for me, and I think we’re great together. I want you to know that I did fall for you. I admit it wasn’t the plan. I admit I set out trying not to. But I’ll also admit I fell for you hard, and I can’t imagine my life without you.”

I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to throw his actions in his face and tell him his words meant nothing compared to them. I wanted to run from him and never look back. But I knew I would never be able to. I had barely done it before, and now that I was here with him again, I knew I would never be able to again.

“Maybe I moved on,” I said, more out of a desperate, illogical need to hold on to some of that anger than anything else.

“You did not,” Saul said, and there was that sure arrogance in his voice again. “Here’s what I know. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the minute you left. I can’t look at anything without seeing you there or hearing you. I can’t do anything without picturing you doing it with me. You’re my world, Kyler. Nothing exists for me outside that world, and I know you feel the same way about me.”

Damn the man.

I cast around for something witty to say, something scathing and appropriately vicious. But my excuses were running out. And while I struggled to find words, Saul got up from his seat and slowly went down on one knee.

My heart leapt into my throat.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box.

“Kyler Nielson,” he said. “It’s such a shame I never got to do this properly. You deserve the world. You deserve the chase, and the public proposal, and the flowers. You deserve to be serenaded and wooed. I am sorry I never got to do any of that, but I would like to start now. I’ve never met anyone like you in my life. I cannot live without you. Will you do me the honor of making sure I never have to?”

I tried speaking but the words clogged my throat. So I simply nodded. It all seemed so surreal I expected to wake up in Jess’s bed.

Saul pulled a gorgeous ruby ring from the box and slipped it onto my finger. And then he grabbed me and kissed me, and it was familiar and urgent and passionate, and I fit right alongside him like I had never left.

“You’re wrong, by the way,” he said after a while. “The suit Gere wears is definitely black. I know, because I watched the damn thing three times.”

The anger I had tried to hold on to so fiercely dissipated like mist, and I was left with a glowing sense of pride and joy.

It was only then I remembered I was pregnant. So the timing was not so bad after all.

“By the way, I have some news as well.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m pregnant. We’re pregnant.”

He stared at me in stunned silence. Saul was so rarely speechless, but he was now. He grabbed me and hugged me tight, let go and hugged me again. I laughed when he went down on his knees again and examined, then started talking to my belly.

It was a truly beautiful moment.

I had never loved anything more than I loved him in that moment.