Holly Jacobs - Unexpected Gifts

I’m knocked up.

Knock, knock, guess who’s knocked up?

What are your plans six or seven months from now?

You know the tour of Europe we’ve been talking about? What about a tour of local hospital maternity wards instead?

Arthur, I love you and we’re going to have a baby.

Hey, Arthur, I’m pregnant. And do you know what irony is? I teach girls who experience unplanned pregnancies, and here I am. I wonder if I can write it off as educational expenses?

“Elinore, are you listening to me?”

She gritted her teeth at the use of her given name. Elinore was a name for someone older, more mature than she was. She was going to have a baby, for goodness sakes, she couldn’t be an Elinore yet.

She’d always hated it when he called her that, but today it grated more than it usually did.

“Eli,” she snapped.

His fork full of General Tso’s chicken froze midway between the plate and his mouth. “What is wrong?”

“I could give you a list, a long, long list of things, but topping it would be the fact I’m pregnant.”

Arthur dropped the fork, and the bright red sauce splashed onto his shirt, but he didn’t make a move to clean it off. He didn’t say a word, but the wave of paleness that moved from the top of his head downward said it all.

Great. Just great. That was slick. What a gentle breaking of unexpected news.

Eli didn’t say anything for a few minutes, letting him adjust to the shock.

When a bit of color seemed to seep back into his face, she said, “I know we didn’t plan this. It’s unexpected. When the doctor told me I didn’t believe him. I thought I was entering menopause. I went to the pharmacy and bought one of each brand of pregnancy test there was and the results were all the same. I’m pregnant.”

She waited for him to smile at her reaction.

Still nothing.

“I go for a second visit on Monday to have a sonogram, but the doctor thinks I’m either entering, or barely into my second trimester.”

“Is it mine?”

Of all the responses she’d imagined, this hadn’t even made the list of possibilities. “Is it yours?”

He nodded.

“Of course it’s yours. I didn’t cheat on you.”

“I wish you would have.” Arthur gave his head a small shake. “I can’t have a baby. We can’t have a…We talked about this up front. I’m almost ready to retire, and you have a busy and satisfying career. We have plans. I want to write my book, we’re going to travel. We can’t have this…”

“Baby, Arthur. It’s a baby. Our baby. I know we didn’t plan it, but it’s here, a reality we’re going to have to cope with. It means adjusting some of our plans, but we can make it work.”

He frowned. “Don’t you see? I don’t want to make it work. And there’s nothing to say we have to. That you have to go through with the pregnancy.”

Her hand immediately moved to her stomach, as if to protect their baby from the harshness of his suggestion. “Arthur, that’s not an option.”

“It is. I’d go with you, support you through the whole thing.”

“I know it’s a surprise, and I wouldn’t condemn someone for making that kind of decision, but it’s not for me. I couldn’t terminate this pregnancy.”

“And I can’t be a father.”

“Oh.” Eli didn’t know what to say to that. She’d expected him to be as taken aback at the news as she was, but she’d also expected him to hug her, to say he’d be there for her, that everything would be all right.

She hadn’t realized how much she’d been counting on that.

“Arthur, we’ll talk to someone and find a way to work this out.”

He shook his head and his shaggy brown hair tumbled over his eyes. Normally, she’d reach over and push it back into place, but tonight she simply gripped her hands on her lap. “What do you suggest then?”

“If you go through with this, I can’t be a part of it. I want nothing to do with the baby. Nothing.”

There was a finality in his tone that cut straight through her. It was almost a physical pain. But Eli wouldn’t give in to it. She sat up straighter. “Fine. You’ll have to see a lawyer, have him draw up papers terminating your parental rights because I won’t have you playing on-again, off-again father.”

“That’s not a worry because I have no wish to be anyone’s father. I’ll see my lawyer, have the papers drawn up. I’ll open a college fund for the baby, in lieu of paying child support, if that works for you.”

She wanted to tell him to keep his money, that they wouldn’t need it, but a practical side of her knew that someday the baby would need substantial financial help with college.

“Fine.” Somehow she found the strength to stand. “Goodbye, Arthur.”

He stood as well, and moved next to her. “I didn’t want things to end like this.”

“I didn’t, either.” She’d barely begun to adjust to the idea of a baby, but when she’d pictured what it would be like to be a mother, she’d imagined Arthur by her side, learning to be a father. It was another future she’d have to let go of.

“Keep in touch.” He moved toward her, as if to hug her.

Eli took a quick step backward. She didn’t want to touch Arthur Stone. Didn’t want the pity she saw in his eyes. She shook her head. “I don’t think so. If we’re going to make a break, let’s make it clean. Call me when you’ve got the papers, and that will be the last you’ll hear from me.”

“Elinore—”

“Eli.” And with all the dignity she could muster, she held her head high and walked out of Arthur’s condo.

She got into her MINI and sat a moment, her hand pressed to her stomach. “Looks like it’s just you and me, kid,” she whispered.

Despite what she’d said to Arthur, she wasn’t sure she could handle this. Wasn’t sure at all. Unlike Arthur, though, she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t walk away.

She snapped her seat belt into place, put her key in the ignition, then the car in Drive and left.

Left Arthur, and left the life she’d thought she’d have.

For the first time in years, Eli Cartwright was driving without a map. It was disconcerting. It was terrifying.

Underneath all that, there was also just the tiniest bit of exhilaration. There was suddenly a potential that hadn’t been there before.

Rather than driving home, Eli headed toward Tucker’s, knowing her friend would be a hundred percent on her side.

But half an hour later, when Eli finished telling Tucker about her meeting with Arthur, her friend’s reaction was far more vehement than Eli had imagined.

Tucker paced back and forth in her living room. “Penis. Goat-boffing, self-important eunuch of a man.”

“Tucker, sit down next to me.” Eli patted the empty couch cushion. “I feel I have to point out Arthur couldn’t boff goats if he was a eunuch.”

Tucker didn’t stop pacing. Instead, she kicked the ottoman. “He could try. I hope—”

“Stop right there,” Eli warned. “You’re not going to tempt the fates by wishing any plagues—”

“I was going for some penis-eating venereal disease, but a plague would work.”

Eli laughed. Tucker’s reaction was almost a balm to her wounded pride. “How could I have wasted five years of my life on someone who could desert a child?”

Tucker finally sat, but remained resolutely silent.

“You tried to tell me, and I appreciate your not saying ‘I told you so,’ but I’ll say it for you—you told me so.”

“I never in a million years would have expected him to just walk away from this. Oh, I thought he was a boring, pontificating prig—”

“Prig?”

“I’ve been reading historical romances again, and it’s a good descriptive word. And though I thought it would describe Arthur, I still would never have guessed he’d abandon you. To be honest, I can’t imagine him not having opinions—many, many opinions—on how a child of his should be raised.”