Carrying His Baby

One could be a mistake. Three… Three probably meant that she should accept that she was knocked up.

Hallie stared at Bridget, her eyes bleak.

“Look, I know it’s a shock, but Hallie… Look at the positives. You’re financially independent. You’ve got a good support system. Valerie has put in place an excellent policy for expectant mothers, and there’s childcare. All things considered, you’re working at one of the best places you could possibly be if you have to deal with an unplanned baby.”

Bridget was beginning to go on a roll.

“Besides, you like children. I’ve seen you with kids, you’re excellent with them. You’ll make a wonderful mother. And I’ll make an excellent godmother!”

Bridget was quite cheerful now.

Hallie gaped at her.

“Bridget, I… I have to decide what I’m going to do, first. I can’t… I don’t want you to just assume that I’m going to have the baby. I need to think about it.”

Bridget’s face went blank.

“Oh… Oh! Oh…”

Hallie began to get irritated. She didn’t want her life to get completely overturned, have all her plans go to hell, because she got pregnant. She couldn’t take care of a child unless she was stable enough to give the child a good future.

What was the point of bringing a child into the world when the best you could give it was mediocrity?

Bridget looked thoughtful. It was a few minutes before either of them said a word.

Finally, Bridget spoke.

“I’m sorry, love. I just associate pregnancies and babies with happy times. It’s always been like that for me. You know I have a pretty big family, you’ve met all of them. But I know it’s not like that for everybody. And it’s only right that you should do what’s right for you. I can’t help being thrilled that my friend is pregnant. I love you, Hallie.”

Hallie felt the waterworks start. Why was it that now that she knew she was definitely hormonal, she couldn’t stop the tears? She had been perfectly levelheaded until then.

“Oh, honey,” said Bridget, hugging her.

“It will be all right. It will. No matter what, it really will be. No matter what you need, I’m here for you.”

“Oh, Bridget,” wailed Hallie and let it all out.

“How could I do this? I’ve been so stupid! What am I going to do? I was supposed to do better. I was supposed to do better than my momma. She had me when she was eighteen. For the rest of her life, her life revolved around me. You know how much talent she has. She is so much better than I am. I don’t want to see it all fade away for me, too.”

Bridget held Hallie and let her cry it out. She had dealt with her twin sister’s pregnancy a while back. She had a beautiful boy now, and was perfectly happy, but when she was pregnant, especially during the first trimester, she had been forever wailing. There was nothing to do but to let her wail it all out.

“There, there, honey, it’ll all be all right. Shush now,” said Bridget with the patience and knack of a veteran. She was a veteran. She was the only woman over twenty-five in her family who hadn’t been pregnant, and she was the butt of much teasing about how she was going to forever be the spinster aunt. She shrugged it off, usually, but it meant that she knew how to handle pregnant women.

She couldn’t quite fathom not being excited about a baby, but she was firmly on Hallie’s side, no matter what. That, she was completely certain about.

But, she thought, the baby’s father was Aldous Banks. Surely Hallie’s problems as far as finances to raise the baby were concerned would be irrelevant? Hallie was never going to use a baby as leverage to get money. But if a billionaire fathered a child, he was surely honor bound – and legally bound, for that matter – to pay child support?

Anyway, wouldn’t a billionaire want to know that his child was raised comfortably, even if he didn’t want anything to do with the child, or be a real father to the child?

Maybe, thought Bridget dreamily as she patted Hallie’s head, Aldous Banks would want to be a father to the child. Maybe when he knew about this, he would want to be with Hallie, and what a fairy tale that would be!

Maybe Hallie and Aldous Banks would live happily ever after. Maybe she could be a bridesmaid at their incredibly extravagant wedding.

Even better, maybe she could cater it.

“Bridget?”

Hallie’s voice broke into Bridget’s dreams of magnificent wedding feasts.

“Yes, love?”

“Practically, now, what do you think I should do?”

Ah, thought Bridget, the crying jag was over for now. But she didn’t think it was quite the time to broach the topic of Aldous Banks.

“Sit tight, and I’ll make us some tea. We’ll figure it all out.”

Hallie sat listlessly. She wasn’t silly enough to think that a pregnancy was the end of the world. But it could very well be the end of the life she had worked so hard to make. It could be the end of all her simple dreams.

She didn’t want it to be.

But she wasn’t sure what to do. She wasn’t sure if she could go through with it.