Happily Ever After_ - Benison Anne O'Reilly [117]
‘Yeah, good. Your replacement is not as talented as you…I mean at marketing, [He couldn’t help a smile here.] but he’s learning. So what’s the great mystery you couldn’t tell me about on the phone?’
‘I wouldn’t mind finding a more private place to sit first. Mind if we move upstairs?’
‘God, is it that bad? How about the restaurant? I didn’t get lunch today and I’m starving. Have you eaten?’
‘No, not yet.’
We moved upstairs to the restaurant. The waiter smiled in acknowledgment at Alex, who was clearly a regular. Then he gave me a curious look, suggesting that my companion had probably been coming here with his new girlfriend too.
I unbuttoned my coat and sat down.
He stared at me for a few seconds before saying, ‘You’re pregnant.’
‘Yes.’
‘For a while there I was thinking you must have got too keen on the dim sum in Hong Kong.’
‘How rude!’
‘I didn’t say you looked the worse for it. You know I always preferred you with a few extra curves.’
The waiter came over to offer us a menu. Alex said, ‘Sorry mate, I’m really hungry. Could you hold on so we can order straight away?’ He ordered a steak and I chose a salad.
After the waiter had moved beyond earshot Alex said, ‘So this is the complication is it?’
‘Yes.’
‘And your husband thinks this baby is this reason you should get back together.’
‘No…I know it sounds stupid but he doesn’t even know about the baby yet. I think I’ve been a bit in denial about the whole thing. I realised almost straight away when I got back - which is the main reason I didn’t call you by the way - I’ve needed this time to decide what I really want to do…not that I was thinking about a termination or anything…Anyway, it’s just as well I did wait…and now comes the difficult bit…because I went to have an ultrasound to screen for Downs yesterday and found out that I am more pregnant than I thought. I am closer to sixteen weeks than eleven. At first I was pleased - I am so huge already I was worried that I was going to have a baby elephant - but then I did the sums and…’
‘Mmm.’
‘This baby was conceived in late November.’
‘Are you saying it’s mine?’
‘No, I’m saying I don’t know…but it could be yours.’
‘I thought you were taking the pill.’
‘I stopped it only a few days beforehand because Tony and I were going to start trying again. I wasn’t actually planning to sleep with you that night, you know. I have never been very fertile and assumed it would take months. I never dreamed…I am so sorry.’
‘Oh.’
‘I thought about winging it - going back to Tony and pretending it was his - but what if it isn’t? I can’t imagine I would be able to pass off a little dark baby as his. I decided that I have to come clean. Not that it means I expect anything - anything - from you. I am well aware you said you wanted a say in when you have kids.’
‘I still can’t work out why you are telling me and not him?’
‘I will tell him straight away after I leave here. I just have a feeling that he’s going to guess who the other guy is. I wanted you to hear it from me rather than from the irate husband. You are probably fortunate that he happens to be in London at the present as I expect he is going to be very, very angry.’
‘That would be a bit rich considering he’s had his bit on the side for years.’
‘I know, but I don’t think logic necessarily comes into these things.’
He sat silent for a while before saying, ‘I think I need time to process this, if that’s okay.’
‘I’m sure you do. You must be so angry with me. I’m surprised you haven’t walked out.’
He smiled at me wryly. ‘I’m too hungry. We may as well eat.’
So, bizarrely, we sat and ate dinner and pretended as if I hadn’t just turned his life upside down. Well, he ate; I didn’t have much of an appetite. I filled him in on the whole sorry Wendy Wong saga and my husband’s double life.
‘And all that time you were feeling guilty,’ he said eventually.
‘Yeah, well