I’m pregnant.”

I don’t know why I just spit it out like that. Maybe it’s because of how awkward I feel. I’m such an idiot. I should have called first, but seeing him again brings back all those feelings from that night. He’s just as handsome, even more so maybe, since he’s a little sweaty and dirty from work and it suits him.

I debated whether or not I would do this. I told him that night that I couldn’t get pregnant, and truth is, I didn’t think I could. I’ve had sex before without condoms, a bunch of times when I had a boyfriend back in college, and I never got pregnant. I don’t know how this happened.

My doctor couldn’t explain it either. I went in as soon as I took the pregnancy test. The doctor confirmed my pregnancy and even did a scan, just to look at the scarring, which he says is still there. It was one in a million that I got pregnant, he said with a laugh. But apparently, that doesn’t matter, because the one-in-a-million chance actually happened, and now here I am, nervous and afraid.

I could have just kept it from Elias. He didn’t need to know at all. I could have taken care of it on my own, and I thought about it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead, I’m going to bring the baby to term and give him or her up for adoption, because I can’t exactly afford a baby. I can barely afford myself. Some other loving, deserving family will take care of my baby, my little miracle baby.

“You’re pregnant,” he repeats, like it’s just a fact.

“Yeah,” I say softly.

“I thought you said you couldn’t get pregnant?” he asks.

A reasonable thing to ask. “My doctors said it was a one in a million chance.” I smile weakly. “I guess I’m really lucky, or unlucky, depending on how you see it.”

“Shit,” he says softly. “So I guess you don’t want a drink.”

I smile at his weak joke. “Guess not.”

“Shit,” he says again, leaning up against the counter. “Pregnant. Shit.”

“Yeah. That’s about how I felt when I heard.”

He laughs a little bit, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. I just… I didn’t think I’d see you again, and now you’re here, and pregnant. With my baby.”

“I know. It’s crazy. I just… listen, you don’t have to be involved, okay? I just thought you should know.”

“Okay,” he says, blinking. “Okay, sure.”

“I mean, I’m going to give the baby up for adoption. I’m not going to have an abortion or whatever.”

“Good,” he says, and I think he genuinely means it. “About the abortion, I mean. I wouldn’t want you to do that. I mean, I’d support you, but… you know what I mean.”

“I know,” I say, smiling a little bit. His awkward discomfort is making me feel better. “That’s all I came to say, anyway. I’m pregnant on a crazy fluke and I’m going to put the baby up for adoption. So if you see me around and I’m looking fat… that’s why.”

He smiles at my bad joke. “You look perfect, pregnant or not.”

I blush a little bit. It’s such a stupid, simple compliment, but I can’t help smiling at it anyway.

“Okay, well, that’s all I wanted to say.” I turn toward the door, heart beating fast. “I guess I’ll say bye. You really don’t have to contact me or whatever. It’s okay.”

He stares at me for a second, a confused look on his face. “Hold on a second,” he says. “Come with me.”

Without another word, he turns away from the counter and heads into the back of the shop. I pause, not sure what I should do. I didn’t come here to make him feel like he needs to get involved, but I also can’t help but want to be near him. I follow after a short second wrestling with myself, unable to help it. I think I’d do anything he told me to do, and that thought scares me more than a little bit.

There’s a short hallway with a bathroom off to one side, another smaller office on the other, and it ends in a large workshop. There are tools everywhere, workbenches all over the place, a small refrigerator against the one wall, and a radio toward the back.

Elias is standing in front of a half-finished motorcycle. He’s looking at it with a frown on his face, and I slowly join him.

“What do you think?” he asks.

I look at the bike. It’s garish, with big dragons painted on the side, and all the parts molded to look like either fire or a dragon’s head. It’s absolutely over the top and absurd.

“It’s… great,” I say, smiling.

He laughs at me. “It’s horrifying,” he says, “I mean, look at this piece of shit. Dragons all over the place?” He groans a little bit, shaking his head.

I let out a breath, relieved that he can see how bad this bike is. “Why are you building it then?” I ask him.

He shrugs. “I build what people pay me to build,” he says. “And someone’s paying a lot for this one.”

“For dragons,” I say flatly.

He grins. “For lots and lots of dragons.”

I laugh again and some of the tension slowly fades away. For just a moment, I forget that I’m pregnant. “So this is what you do? Build bikes?”

He nods. “Business is pretty decent too. I can’t keep up with the orders.”

“Really? Providence doesn’t really strike me as a big motorcycle town.”

“Apparently it is,” he says, and shrugs. “I didn’t really picture myself building these things, but here I am.”

“How’d it happen?”

He hesitates a second. “Youthful rebellion,” he says finally. “Got into bikes as a way to avoid spending time at home. Eventually started building them myself and found out that I was good at it. Skipped college and opened this business instead with pretty much no money at all, but here I am.”

I watch him for a second. “No money at all?”

He gives me a sidelong glance before finally shaking his head with a little smile. “So you know, huh?”

“Hard not to figure it out,” I admit to him.

I found out that he’s the son of the mayor by accident. I searched his phone number plus his first name, which gave me his last name, and that opened a whole new world to me. I found pictures of him when he was younger in the background of the mayor’s campaign photoshoots, smiling and looking angry at the same time, his mother blonde and pretty in a sad sort of way. I had no clue that Elias was the son of the mayor, but it actually makes a little sense. He has that same charming quality, although Elias isn’t nearly so loud about it. Fortunately, Elias is much more handsome than his father.

“Well, guess it’s about time you found out,” he says, walking back toward the radio. He switches it on, and classic rock comes through. He turns the volume down a bit and I watch him do all this, absolutely fascinated.

How did the son of the most popular and corrupt mayor in this whole nation end up building motorcycles for a living? I can’t imagine his father wanted him to skip college. I bet Buddy had grand plans for Elias, maybe even wanted him to go into politics.

Instead, he ended up here, and I have no clue why.

Elias turns back to me. “My father didn’t help with this,” he says. “I built this all myself. I wouldn’t have accepted his help, even if he offered.”

“Why not?” I ask, but I can already guess.

He pauses, though. “We don’t get along,” he says finally.

I nod and decide not to press the issue. I can only imagine what it’s like to grow up with Buddy as a father. I know he has a horrible reputation, with lots of rumors about corruption and mafia ties, but I don’t know. It’s hard to know what to believe, although there have been some bad things in the press lately. The office has been a mess of activity, trying to contain it all, but I mostly stay away from all that if I can help it.

“Thanks for showing me this,” I say finally. “It’s really cool.”

“Sure.” He nods a little bit, still watching me with a confused expression.

“I should get going.” I take a step away, and suddenly a part of me wants him to call out, to stop me like he did before. Irrationally, I want him to walk right over and kiss me, tell me he’ll save me, keep me safe forever.

But of course that’s insane. We’re total strangers, and he’s the mayor’s son. The mayor also happens to be my boss, which only makes things that much more confusing, and I don’t even want a baby. I’ve never imagined that I could be a mother. I always thought it wasn’t even possible for me to have a baby, let alone get pregnant by a stranger on a one-night stand.

He doesn’t stop me as I leave. I know it’s for the best. He doesn’t owe me anything, and it was my own stupid idea to let him not use protection. I should have been more careful, but there was no way I could’ve known. It’s all just so mixed up and impossible anymore, but at least I got this over with. I was dreading it, frankly, totally afraid to come here, but it wasn’t so bad.

And now it’s done. I should feel relieved, but instead I have this strange pit in my stomach. I want to go back in there and talk to him more, like we did that night, but I don’t. I leave his store, get into my beat-up car, and drive back to my tiny little apartment to go on with my life. I’ll deal with this baby, put him or her up for adoption, and hopefully that’ll be the end of this story. I’ll be more careful in the future, and I won’t ever see the mayor’s son again.

The thought makes me so sad I can barely explain it, but I just have to keep moving forward no matter what.