It had been weeks since the reunion. I was laying in my bed trying to get motivated to get ready for the day. Work was starting in a couple of hours, and I didn’t want to be racing around in a rush. I wasn’t feeling myself lately, I was always tired. This morning was a little different. I almost wondered if I was sick. The wave came over me just then and I jumped from my bed to head to the bathroom. I hugged the toilet as I let out the lasagna I had the night before. I felt disgusting, as I sat on the bathroom floor, wondering if I was going to let out some more. It had been a very long time since I had been sick like this. I couldn’t even remember the last time I threw up. Although, in that minute, I felt like the wave in my stomach was making its own tsunami, and it had to come out. I leaned in one more time, and gave out a dry heave. Maybe I would feel better if I took a shower. I took off my robe and started the water.

As I got in the shower, I started to think about the night of the reunion. I hadn’t thought much about it over the last few weeks, as I was back in my daily routine. I wasn’t even sure why I was thinking of it now. I never saw Gavin after that night, but I didn’t think much about it. I also had not seen Janet after that night either. I wasn’t surprised in either case. Janet, no doubt, had a one night fling with Sam. I never saw them again after arriving at the reunion. Sam had been in on occasion to the restaurant, but I didn’t bring it up, and neither did he. After all, she was a married woman with children. It was something I’m sure no one would ever speak of again.

As for Gavin and I, that night was a surprise, as we had ended up in the back seat of his car shortly after our stroll. Now that I look back at it, I did have fun, and it felt good to be someone’s center of attention. I woke up the next day feeling like it had been a dream, a dream that sadly fading away as reality sank in, but I couldn’t believe how much I degraded myself as to end up in the back of Gavin’s Escalade. We were grown adults. Most people would have gone home, or to a hotel. We barely got to the car that night. It all seemed as though Gavin’s obsession had built up so much over all this time that words failed him and he needed to let it all out with his body before he exploded. After it was all over, we talked very briefly about our distance from one another. He was living in New York City, I had found out during all of this. It was inevitable that it was going to be a one night stand, but at the moment, neither of us really cared. I still didn’t. There was something different about this morning though.

As I finished my shower and started to dry off, it dawned on me, I hadn’t had my period yet. That was weird, since I have had a schedule almost to the minute since I was a teen. I was only a couple of days late, but my throw up show this morning had me worrying. I finished up and put on some clothes. I opened the vanity doors below the sink and dug around all of the essentials a woman needs. Way back in the back, I found the box I was looking for. I had purchased the pregnancy tests after my trip last year. I had a scare at that time too. I wasn’t one for birth control, so I figured it would catch up with me eventually. I opened up the box, scanning the outside of it for an expiration date. I was in luck, still good. I proceeded to do my business on the stick, and then I waited.

The minutes stood still as I waited for that little stick to tell me my fate. I looked at my phone, one more minute. I counted it down. The numbers seemed to start creeping by. That’s when the second line appeared. It was there in front of me. I was pregnant, and there was only one person that could be the father.

* * *

The subsequent months were a blur. I was still working just as much as I ever did. I hadn’t told anyone of my pregnancy, and I hadn’t started showing yet, so I still had time to hold onto my secret. A lot had happened since I found out I was pregnant, and my emotions were all over the place with my hormones.

My dad had been hospitalized as winter hit. He had come down with pneumonia, and with his age, it had given him a turn for the worse. I was pretty much running the restaurant at this point, but we had cut back on the hours of operation, since Brian was our only other cook at the time.

I was standing at the cash register on a cold November afternoon as the phone rang. I think that I almost felt a bad vibe from the phone before I answered it, although I don’t know how that was possible. My head started to spin as I picked up the phone, and I barely managed to get the words out, “Baxter’s Family Restaurant, can I help you?” My voice was hoarse and it cracked.

“Ms. Baxter. It’s Dr. Mitchell. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news this afternoon but we need you to come down to the hospital. Your father’s condition has worsened and he is in a critical condition. We are doing everything we can to help him, but I would advise you to come over and help him get his affairs in order.”

It was the worst possible thing that I could have heard in that moment. Everything went black and I was out.