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Now, again, Amelia was in tears. Probably part of it was because of her stomach flu, which always made her feel very low. Not being able to eat and being nauseated took a toll on her.
But it was more than that, too, and she knew it. Having Liam home with her was a comfort, since he could take care of Grace while Amelia rested. It was a good sign that he was still going to be in his daughter’s life, too. Liam’s closeness also reopened Amelia’s wounds, though, which had just been starting to heal. How was she supposed to move on from Liam when he was right down the hall, finger-painting with Grace?
Amelia flopped back onto the bed and wiped her eyes. She knew there was no use crying over Liam. It wouldn’t change anything. Yet the tears continued to spill.
Maybe she was due to get her period. She was always a little extra sensitive right before she got it. She counted back on her fingers to her last period. It had been one, two, three, four… Amelia’s eyes widened… five, six weeks ago.
Amelia sat bolt upright with the urgency of someone who’d forgotten about a very important exam. She was two weeks late. She’d been nauseated. She was crying a lot and was more tired than usual. Her mouth fell open. Was it possible that the night she’d spent with Liam had resulted in… pregnancy?
Don’t get ahead of yourself. She took a calming breath. Her period wasn’t exactly regular, and she had plenty of reason to be a little sad after what had happened with Liam. She might not be pregnant.
Yet, if she was… Amelia skimmed a hand over her flat stomach. She loved children and had always wanted to be a mother. This wasn’t exactly the circumstance in which she’d imagined getting pregnant, but maybe it wouldn’t be all bad.
Amelia shook her head. She was getting ahead of herself again. She didn’t even know if she was actually pregnant.
She got up, grabbed a sweater against the evening chill, and tiptoed down the hall. Liam’s bedroom door was closed, as was his office door, and there was no sign of him anywhere in the house. Amelia breathed a sigh of relief when she made it to the elevator without seeing him. She didn’t want to talk to Liam right now, not while her heart was racing and her thoughts were focused on only one thing.
Amelia rode the elevator down to the lobby and exited onto the streets of San Francisco, which were still bustling at nine p.m. Thank goodness Liam lived right in the middle of downtown. Amelia walked a couple blocks to the nearest convenience store, where she made a beeline for the pregnancy tests. Then, feeling self-conscious about buying a pregnancy test from a convenience store at night, she grabbed a few random items before making her way to the cashier.
As Amelia unloaded her purchases onto the conveyor belt, she wished she’d made different choices. Along with the pregnancy test, her random selections included a pair of socks for people with diabetes, a can of cat food, bright pink hair dye, and a package of Coca-Cola-flavored potato chips — whatever those were. The cashier looked from Amelia to her shopping and back.
“Did you find everything okay?” she asked, rather uncertainly.
Amelia nodded. “Yes. Thanks.”
“Okay. That’ll be twenty-eight fifty.”
Amelia scanned her card, gathered her shopping into a brown paper bag, and hurried back to Liam’s apartment. She rode the elevator back up in tense silence, then tiptoed quietly through the penthouse once again to her bedroom. Not for the first time, she sent out unspoken thanks that she had her own private bathroom.
She dropped the socks, cat food, hair dye, and chips onto the bed and went into the bathroom. She was so nervous that she had trouble figuring out the test. Maybe I should have bought Coca-Cola, not Coca-Cola-flavored potato chips. Amelia managed a weak smile at herself in the mirror at her lame joke.
Finally, everything was ready. She set a timer on her phone for two minutes and turned the test so that she couldn’t see it. Then she waited.
It was the longest two minutes of Amelia’s life. She swung from nerves to a strange kind of hope and back, her breath too fast, until the timer finally beeped.
Her hand shaking slightly, Amelia flipped the test over — and there, clear as day, was a little blue plus sign. She was pregnant.
Amelia knew she should be upset. After all, this couldn’t come at a worse possible time or in a worse possible situation. She was carrying the baby of a man who clearly didn’t have feelings for her and who was, for all intents and purposes, her employer. Once she left this job, which she would have to now that she was pregnant, she would be unemployed and alone.
Yet, strangely, for a reason that Amelia couldn’t quite explain, she wasn’t upset. In fact, she was happy. She was excited. All she could think about was the child she would have: a little son or daughter. A bouncing, beautiful baby with Liam’s blue eyes who would grow into a spunky, spirited, smart toddler like Grace.
Finally at peace, Amelia fell asleep that night with a smile on her face and hope in her heart.
The next morning, though, reality came crashing back in with a knock on her door. Amelia dragged herself out of bed to answer and saw Liam standing there with a tray of toast and a cup of tea.
“Good morning,” he said, holding out the tray. “I made you something to eat, in case you’re hungry.”
“Thank you.”
“How’s the stomach flu?”
“The stomach flu?” Amelia blinked. “Oh, right. I feel better.”
The truth was that she didn’t feel much better, but knowing that the nausea was morning sickness changed her outlook on it. She knew from her sisters that morning sickness was best fought by eating small amounts of bland food frequently, so she was ready to try some toast.
“That’s great. Try to eat something. I’m going to feed Grace breakfast and then we’ll go to the park. If you feel better, you’re welcome to come.”
“Thanks.” Amelia accepted the tray and let Liam close the door behind him. Then she sat on the bed and nibbled on a piece of dry toast as her mind raced. Of course, she would have to tell Liam. There was no chance her pregnancy would change things between them — he had shown clearly where his loyalties lay, and it wasn’t with family. Even so, he deserved to know that he was going to be a father a second time over.
