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He sat in a chair at his table in the apartment that used to be his escape from the chaos of life.
“Xìnyùn’s out of his cage because he needs the exercise and mental stimulation. Parrots are smart and need regular challenges to their intelligence. In answer to your second question, I have a parrot that prefers men to women because he’s not my parrot.”
“Are you going to be hunted down by someone whose parrot you stole?” What did he know about her other than that she claimed to be pregnant and was living in his apartment? And that he liked the curve of her lips and length of her neck.
She laughed, but a haunted look accompanied the noise. “Xìnyùn’s my father’s bird.”
“Where’s your father and why doesn’t he have the bird?”
“Um…” She looked at the window.
“There’s probably bird shit on my kitchen counter. You can at least tell me where your father is.”
She looked back at him. “I’ll clean up Xìnyùn’s mess. I’ve been cleaning it all week.”
Of course. He hadn’t been home all week. The bird could’ve been dancing on his pillow for all he knew.
“And my father said he couldn’t keep the bird right now. I came home from work one day to find Xìnyùn in my apartment, along with a note.” She said all that while looking at him, but then she looked out the window. There was more to the story of her father. “But I wanted to talk to you about our child.”
She sat at the table across from him, and the bird hopped down her arm, landing on the belly of the pregnant woman on the cover of the book.
“Should you be around a bird while pregnant?” He really should know more about pregnancy than that Vivian shouldn’t have caffeine or alcohol.
“It’s fine. I wear gloves when I clean up after him and wash my hands often, but that’s one of the things I wanted to talk with you about. I need to find a doctor.”
“Are you sick?”
She pulled her chin back into her neck and gave him a funny look. “I’m pregnant.”
Karl’s throat tried to choke him and he coughed. “This is all new to me.”
“It’s new to me, too. I’ve not had much more time to get used to the idea than you have.” She patted his hand like he was a child. Her hand was warm. “I need to start having regular checkups for myself and the baby. Would you like to go with me to the first visit?” When he turned his hand palm up, she grasped it and squeezed. “Maybe it will help this all be real to you.”
It’s not as though he hadn’t imagined having a pregnant wife before. When he’d believed their marriage to be happy, he’d roll over in bed to look at Jessica and wonder what their children would look like. But with Jessica everything would’ve been planned. There would have been a calendar tracking when she was fertile, the best OB-GYN practice in Chicago already chosen and she would have picked out the crib she wanted before they even stopped using birth control. Jessica organized everything.
And he would’ve been a better partner to Jessica. Despite their arguments, Jessica wouldn’t have questioned whether he would be around to discuss the pregnancy. She would have assumed.
Vivian was a stranger, but legally she was his wife and—until he knew for certain otherwise—she was carrying their child. He should be no less a partner to Vivian just because she and the baby were inconvenient. Pregnancy was hardly convenient for Vivian, either. Whatever had driven her out of Vegas, she’d had a life there.
He squeezed her hand in return. “Yes. I would like to go to the first prenatal visit. I’m not sure I can make all of them, but I’ll make the ones I can, so long as you want me to.”
“I dropped in on your doorstep with no warning and you’ve taken me in. You’ve been great, considering. Really.”
“You’re a bad liar.” She looked out the window, but he saw the lie in the way her nostrils curled. “I didn’t kick a pregnant woman out on the streets, which means I’m not a jerk. It doesn’t make me great. We don’t know each other now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t eventually become friends. Friendship would be a better place to start than many people having a baby together.”
