Carrying His Baby

“I’m sorry, Miss Holt, but we cannot let you go up. You haven’t been cleared.”

Her jaw dropped.

“Did Aldous tell you that?”

“I’m afraid you’re not cleared,” he repeated.

The penny dropped. Aldous Banks hadn’t said that. That snooty Mandy bitch had.

“That admin of his told you to say that, didn’t she?”

“I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave, Miss Holt,” said the young man.

“Look, it’s really important. If you could just tell him that I’m here, he’ll give me a few minutes. I’m telling you, he will. Just tell him, not his admin.”

“I’m afraid he’s in a meeting, Miss Holt. He’s got meetings for a couple of hours yet. Your chances of meeting him even if you got past the admin are negligible.”

He looked sympathetic. Hallie wondered, mortified, how many women came by like her.

Desperate, she tried again.

“How many hours do his meetings go on?”

He looked like he wanted to tell her something.

“Please. I really need to see him. I really do.”

Her eyes filled with those tears that were becoming far too predictable and easy.

They worked, though, because he sighed.

“He usually goes to the deli one block down at three. He has a break at three. And you did not hear this from me, all right? I don’t think you’re a security risk. And I remember you. I was on security detail at the party.”

She didn’t know if she was relieved or ashamed.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and left, humiliated.

It shouldn’t be this hard to tell the man whose baby she was having that she was pregnant, she thought bitterly.

She considered her options. She could go back to work and make her own decision. Or she could wait another hour and see if she could corner him in that deli.

She really didn’t have much of a choice. She waited.

She had to kill time somehow, so she got a magazine and bought a salad for herself. If she was eating for two, she should go about it the healthy way.

She stabbed at wilted leaves and read silly articles for a few minutes. She got her tablet out and did some work for a while longer. By ten to three, she was so jittery that she could hardly deal with it. Finally, she just stopped pretending to work and waited.

And she still almost missed him. Hallie looked away for a moment, and when she looked back up, she saw his retreating back.

She knew it was him. She recognized the way he walked, the broad shoulders, the rangy limbs, the blonde hair.

With a yelp, she grabbed her stuff and trotted along after him, trying to keep him in sight. But his long legs ate up the ground so fast that she was out of breath by the time he reached the deli. She saw him sit at a table for two and ran in. Out of breath, she dropped into the chair opposite him.

He was startled.

“Hallie?”

Well, at least he remembered her name, thought Hallie.

She had come up with plenty of ways to build up to the announcement. She would ask him how he was doing, and tell him what a surprise it was to see him there. She would be all suave and sophisticated and polished.

What she actually did was, looking flustered and hassled, blurt it out.

“I’m pregnant.”

Aldous put down his sandwich. His blue eyes widened in shock.

She wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole. This was beyond humiliating.

But why should she be humiliated? She didn’t get pregnant by herself!

She stiffened her spine and straightened her shoulders.

“I’m pregnant, and in case you’re wondering, you are definitely the father. I’m late, I took three tests, and there’s no doubt about it. I’m pregnant. I don’t know what to do. I’m considering all options, but I figured, as the father, you’re entitled to at least have your opinion heard. It will still be my decision. But you probably deserve to at least know before… Before I make my choice.”

“Pregnant.”

Aldous Banks didn’t sound like Aldous Banks. He sounded like he’d been hit hard on the back of his head.

“Yes, that’s what I said. Pregnant.”

“How can you be pregnant?”

“The usual procedure is when a man and a woman have s*x without using a condom, especially when the woman is ovulating, the sperm meets egg, becomes an embryo, and the woman ends up pregnant and feeling like her life is over,” snapped Hallie.

Was he an imbecile? How did he get to be a billionaire if he was so horrible at dealing with crises?

“I know how pregnancy works,” he snapped.

But he looked dazed.

“Are you sure?”

Hallie could’ve kicked him.

“No, Aldous, I came to your office, got myself completely humiliated by your security and that new admin of yours, waited outside for you for an hour, followed you to this deli and came and told you I’m pregnant because I’m not sure at all.”

She was so fed up with everything that she didn’t even care that she was being that sarcastic to one of the richest men in the country. She didn’t care. She didn’t give a fu*k what he thought. She had had enough of all of it.

“And that admin of yours? Ask her. I called in the morning, and she refused to even tell you that I needed to speak with you. I came to your office, and your security guy – really nice guy – called her again, asking if you could squeeze me in between meetings. She said no, again. What is her problem? Are you banging her? Is she jealous?”

Hallie finally managed to get her tongue under control and stopped talking. She felt deflated after that sudden spurt of hot temper.

“I’ll talk to Mandy about that. She’s supposed to screen my calls, but that’s not how it’s done.”

“Well, good,” she said.

“Hallie… I’m sorry. I just… Well, I didn’t expect this.”

“Neither did I. I tried to remember if we’d used a condom and couldn’t, but I thought we probably did.”

“I couldn’t quite remember, either,” he confessed.

“Well, we obviously didn’t. Or if we did, we didn’t do it very well.”

“How far along… No, silly question. I need to wrap my head around this.”

“Good luck with that. I’ve been trying. Not working very well.”

“Have you… considered your options?”

Hallie shrugged.

“The most sensible option is to terminate it. I’m not ready for this. But… Well, but.”

“Hallie… You came to me because you thought I deserved a say. I… Would you consider not terminating it? Consider going through with it?”

Now what was going on, she wondered.