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“I knew that,” I grumbled.I had no fucking clue.
“Mm-hmm,” Aria said, pulling out her photo ID for the receptionist.
I followed suit, presenting my license, then she handed us each a clipboard thick with paperwork and directed us to take a seat. Aria walked—slowly—to the far side of the room and made a huge show of sitting down, adjusting and re-adjusting to get comfortable. A few of the other patients glanced up, shooting me disapproving looks, like I knocked this woman up and then asked her to go for a ten-mile jog or something.
I rolled my shoulders, cracked my neck, trying to remain calm. Now I vividly remembered why we’d only made it to date three. Aria was annoying as fuck. She smacked her gum. She fidgeted, her knee bouncing up and down non-stop. She flipped her hair thirty-two times in less than a minute.
By the time I’d filled out the paperwork and the nurse called us back, I’d had enough Aria to last me a lifetime.
I fielded more dirty looks as we crossed the room, following the nurse down a long, sterile hallway, our shoes squeaking on the linoleum tile floor.
“Rasputin—here.” The nurse pointed to a plastic chair with an arm rest.
“McCauliffe over there.” She led me to a bench on the opposite side of the hall. Mercifully, I could still see Aria and she could see me.
The nurse opened a bank of drawers, pulling out two separate kits. “Ladies first,” she said, tying a blue band of rubber around Aria’s upper arm. “Make a fist,” she said, her voice neutral. Aria did, squeezing so tight her knuckles went white.
“Good.” The nurse pricked her vein and Aria winced, glowering at me. The nurse undid the band and dark red blood flowed freely into the tube. Then she pulled out the needle, dabbing at the vein and wrapping it with a nude-colored stretchy bandage. “Leave that on for ten minutes. Then you’re good to go.”
The nurse affixed the pre-printed label on the test tube of blood, depositing it into the metal safe behind her. Next, she grabbed the second kit, crossing the hallway to me.
“This part’s easy. The guy always gets the better part of the deal,” she grumbled, tearing open the plastic packaging. “Swallow. One more time. Good.”
She whipped out a long Q-tip. “Open up wide.”
I did as I was told and she swabbed the inside of both my cheeks, all the way up and down, two times each.
“All done.”
I could have sworn she murmured ‘lucky bastard’ under her breath as she rammed the swab into a long test tube with a small amount of clear liquid at the bottom. She put my pre-printed label on the tube and stuck it in the safe with Aria’s sample.
“All done. Good luck.” She pointed us towards the exit, and we were set free.
“We’ll get the results back in ten days. I paid the rush fee,” I told Aria as we stood in the hallway, waiting for the elevator.
“Gee, thanks,” she said, huffing out a breath, her dark hair fluttering up then falling back down in a straight line on her forehead.
“They’ll send us each a text with the initial results, then the actual paper test results will come in the mail. I’m traveling for business, but if you need me in the meantime, give me a call and I’ll do my best.”
She crossed her arms over her belly. “When this test shows the baby is yours, you’re going to help raise it, right?”
I swallowed hard over the lump in my throat, my gut clenching. The last thing I wanted to do was have a baby with this woman. But if the kid was mine, I knew I had to take responsibility, do the right thing.
Be the father the baby deserved.
Macy was right.
I nodded, my palms clammy with sweat. “I’ll do the right thing, Aria.Ifthe baby’s mine.”
She flipped her hair over her shoulder, smirking. “Okay, good. Because I’m positive the baby’s yours. And I don’t particularly want to be a single mom.”
A cold slither of dread snaked its way down my spine, settling deep in my gut.What, exactly, did she expect from me?
Torn between hashing out her expectations right then or letting it slide until I knew what I was dealing with, I debated what—if anything—to say. I finally settled on: “Let’s wait for the results and go from there.”
I figured that was a safe response; best not to upset her over nothing. Regardless of paternity, she was still pregnant and should be taking it easy, not stressing out.
The elevator came and we rode down to the lobby in silence. Well, as silent as Aria could be, what with the gum smacking and the fidgeting.
