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All Grown Up Thinking of Her
JesseI glanced over at Chance a couple of times as I stacked paint cans on the shelf. He was sorting some hardware at the counter, his tongue stuck between his teeth as he concentrated. He had finally become a relatively competent employee over the past couple of months. It had taken a lot more hours of training than I had planned on, and he still had weird little lapses, but overall, I was glad to see the kid get his act together here. I was glad that I had given him a chance, when the rest of the town didn’t seem ready to.He still drove Joe crazy, of course, and there was part of me that thought that maybe I should have hired someone different just so that they wouldn’t be at odds all the time. Joe was my partner in the business, after all. If I left, he would be in charge, and I wanted him to have an employee that he could work with.If I left. That wasn’t going to happen now anyway. Audrey had made it clear that she saw me here, even while she was off in France performing. There
All Grown Up The Test
AudreyI took a deep breath and stared at myself in the mirror. Truth time. All I had to do was flip over the little white stick that was resting on a paper towel there on the edge of the sink. Then I would know.I still didn’t know what I wanted to see there. None of this felt real to me. It felt like something out of a movie, or like something that happened to a friend of a friend. Not the kind of thing that could happen to me. Could I really be pregnant?Of course, I knew that birth control wasn’t foolproof. That no matter how careful we had been, there was a chance that I had still gotten pregnant. I kept going over it in my head, trying to remember if there had been a day when I had forgotten to take my pill, or a day when I had even been late taking it. I knew that it didn’t really matter, though. Whatever the reason for it, this was where we were now.Was I pregnant or not? All I had to do was look.I knew everybody was waiting out in the living room. Trish had asked me if I wa
All Grown Up Maternal Instincts
AudreyI gave myself one last look in the mirror, nodding as though that was some sort of pep talk. I threw the test in the trash and washed my hands. Then, I opened the door. “I’m pregnant,” I announced.Trish gave me a big hug. “Oh Audrey,” she said. She looked like she had a million questions. She tactfully didn’t ask any of them, though, waiting for me to say more.I slumped into a seat in the living room. “I’m pregnant,” I repeated. I looked around at them. “I think I’m going to keep it.” My hand came up to protectively rest against my belly, not that I was showing any signs of the pregnancy there yet. When it really came down to it, there wasn’t a question in my mind.I hadn’t prepared to have a baby yet. I wasn’t married, and I wasn’t settled down. This would shake my world down to its very foundations. At the end of the day, though, this baby had been created out of love. This baby was mine and Jesse’s, the culmination of all those years of friendship and more. I could never g
All Grown Up Rebound
JesseI carefully measured the board and marked it with a pencil, adding the piece to the pile of boards that were ready to be cut. Joe was doing some renovations on his place, and I had offered to help him out in exchange for beer and pizza. It was good to have a project to turn my attention to in the evenings after work, rather than going home and thinking about how much I missed a certain blonde.“There,” Joe said, fitting together one last piece on the left-hand side of the mantle. “Looks good, doesn’t it?” he asked.“Yeah, looks great,” I said appreciatively. Personally, I kept things pretty minimal when it came to furniture and decorations, so when Joe told me that he wanted these two shelving units, one on either side of the mantle, I’d been a bit skeptical.“What the hell are you even going to put on them?” I scoffed. “It’s not like you read, man.” Joe guffawed. “Books are a huge chick magnet,” he said. “Bring them home to a house full of books and they’re sure to sleep with
All Grown Up Going Back
AudreyI rubbed my eyes and yawned hugely, looking at my phone again. Still nothing from Annabelle. She was supposed to be here to pick me up at the Fayetteville airport. I couldn’t help the prickle of irritation that I felt at the fact that she was late. Granted, I hadn’t given her much warning that I would be coming back.That said, I had just finished up 23 hours of travel time, including two layovers, to get back here, and I was exhausted and cranky. Not to mention the fact that I was dying for a shower and a fresh change of clothes. Fortunately, my nausea hadn’t been too bad on the flight, although I had brought my own snacks rather than trying to eat what the airline dished out to me. I’d stuck to water as well. That seemed to help.Still, I couldn’t help feeling the complete opposite of a glamorous ballerina right now. Normally, I dressed semi-professional for flights, in slacks and a nice shirt. When I’d gone to put on my slacks, though, I found that they weren’t at all comfor
All Grown Up Blurting It Out
Audrey“Should we go straight over to his place? Or wait, he’s probably at the hardware store right now. That’s easy. Let’s swing by on the way back to the house. Mom is dying to see you too, but I’m sure she’ll understand if we have to make a stop on the way.” She smirked at me. “You’ll have to keep it to kissing for now, though.”I shook my head. I wasn’t ready for a confrontation with Jesse yet. I hadn’t told him that I was coming back, even though I knew it was only a matter of time before the rumor mill informed him. I should probably talk to him before he heard from someone else. I didn’t want him to think that I was avoiding him. Anyway, I wanted to see him.Not right away, though. I wanted to sleep before I saw him, at least. I was still worn out, and I didn’t want to say something that I would regret.I also didn’t want him to look at me, knowing that I was pregnant, and accuse me of not taking care of myself and, by proxy, our baby. I hadn’t realized how important that was t
All Grown Up Together
Audrey“Have you at least given Jesse a heads-up already?” Annabelle asked. “It is his, right? Not some French dude’s? I mean, it’s okay if it’s some French dude’s, but Jesse’s going to be heartbroken.”I shook my head. “It’s his. But I haven’t told him yet. I wanted to tell him in person,” I said, even though I knew that part of my delay was just that I was having a hard time getting the courage to do it.“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Annabelle said. She paused. “You probably don’t want to tell him in the middle of his work day, huh?”“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “To be honest, I really need a shower and a night of good sleep first.” I glanced over at her, wondering if she would argue with that. I knew that Jesse had a right to know. It wasn’t like I was going to try to keep this from him. I just wasn’t ready for that conversation yet. Surely, she would understand that.Fortunately, Annabelle was nodding. “Yeah, let’s get you home.” She started the car. Was it just my imag
All Grown Up Stranger
JesseWe weren’t super busy on Saturday, and it was easy enough to manage the shop by myself while Joe was on his lunch break. The only trouble was, it gave me a little too much time to think. I was starting to dread that. I still couldn’t stop thinking about Audrey.That said, I was starting to finally feel like I had settled back into my old routine. All right, maybe I was still going to Gabby’s more than I used to, all for the sake of asking Annabelle about her sister. I was starting to get used to the silence around the house in the mornings and evenings, though, and that was what really mattered.I did miss the excitement of being with Audrey. Now, every day sort of felt the same. A colorless blur. Oh, there were certainly moments that were out of the ordinary, like when Chance actually clocked in on time that morning and Joe started cheering for him, confusing the heck out of the kid. That had brought a grin to my face.Most of the day was just the same as the day before: going
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