All the Better Part of Me by Molly Ringle

Author:Molly Ringle [Ringle, Molly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Central Avenue Publishing
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25: HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Andy: On my way! See you soon :)

Beneath heavy clouds, a line of orange sunset glowed over the water. I was back at the apartment, pacing, sipping a cup of chamomile-and-other-stuff herbal tea I’d found in the kitchen cabinets, in a vain attempt to settle my guts.

Sinter: Cool, see you soon

I couldn’t even manage an emoji. It would have been a lie.

I turned on the light over the stove, sat at the kitchen table, and waited.

Andy’s key hit the lock. The apartment door opened. “Hey,” he called.

“Hey.”

I heard the thumps of him setting down his pack and taking off his shoes and coat. He came into the kitchen with a pink bakery box. “How’s it going?” He set the box on the counter and came over to kiss me.

The warmth of the kiss sent me a temporary shot of comfort, but I kept my hands wrapped around the mug on the table.

When he lifted his face again I said, as calmly as I could, “Fiona called today.”

“Yeah?” He studied the mug of herbal tea and the surely haggard state of my face. “Um. Is something wrong?”

I nodded, once. “She’s pregnant.”

“Oh. Wow.” He sounded mildly sympathetic, the appropriate level for someone he’d never met. Then he put it together. He clutched the edge of the table. “It’s yours?”

My gaze rested on his fingers. I nodded.

He let go of the table and tottered toward the counter. “How? You said it was once, and you used a condom.”

“It was, and we did. Apparently it failed.”

“Well, shit.” He rubbed his face. “What’s she going to do?”

“She doesn’t plan to keep it. She’s thinking adoption.”

His shoulders relaxed a little. “Okay.”

“That should be that. Except …”

He turned to look at me. Maybe it was just the hue of the soft light over the stove, but his face seemed pale. “Except what?”

I gazed at the chair across from me. My tongue touched my upper lip. “It’s my kid, is all. It’s a lot to think about.”

He gripped the back of the chair and sank into it. His gaze slipped absently to the front of my sweatshirt. “Sure. Guess it would be.”

“She called this morning, and I’ve been thinking about it all day, and I keep telling myself I should just say yes, fine, let the kid be adopted. Sign off on the whole deal, same way she plans to. But every time I try to commit to that, it’s like something tugs on my sleeve and says … ‘Wait.’”

I met his gaze. He looked frozen in fascinated terror.

“This is my child,” I tried to explain. “I don’t plan on having a lot of them. I kind of want to know the ones I do have.”

He put down his glasses with a clatter and dropped his face into his hands. “Well, holy fuck.”

“I haven’t decided anything yet. I’m obviously not going to decide today. There’s time.”

“How much time?” he mumbled into his palms. “When’s she due? Nine months from, what, December?”

“Yeah. Due in September. But I should make my decision sooner than that, so she can plan.

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