I satin my car for the longest time, trying to wrap my brain around twins. I’d been stressing about raising one baby. How was I going to manage two?
The emptiness and aloneness filled my chest. I needed to confide in someone, and I knew James wasn't the person. I picked up my phone and called Vivie.
"Hey, girl. What are you doing?" She sounded perky.
"I'm not quite sure."
There was a pause on the other end. "Something's wrong. Why don't you come over to my place? I just moved in yesterday." She rattled off an address.
I hadn't realized she'd finally made the decision to stay in Las Vegas. I felt guilty about that because it meant I wasn't being a very good friend. I was so swallowed up in my own life, I'd been neglecting our friendship.
I drove over to the address she gave. It was a nice condo community on the edge of the desert. When she opened the door to let me in, she was holding a bottle of wine.
"I've got more of this. We can drink and share all the messed up things in our life."
I entered the condo. Even without knowing it was her place, I might have guessed it was hers with the soft colors of gray and blush pink and the fairy lights behind her desk in the corner of the living room.
"No wine for me. Thank you."
"That doesn't sound good. Do you want water?"
I nodded and followed her into the small kitchen. I sat at the dining table, only large enough for two. She got me a glass of water, set it in front of me, and then sat in the chair across from me. "What’s going on?"
"I'm pregnant." No reason not to throw the news out there.
Her eyes rounded, and for a moment she started to smile, but then she seemed to catch on that this was not good news. "So things between you and James aren't as blissful as you suggested before?"
I took a sip of the water. "Before, I didn't suggest that James and I were in love or destined for happily ever after. I just said we were friends having fun. But the fun is over because James doesn't want a family. He doesn't want kids."
Vivie scowled in indignation. "Well, too bad for him. He has a responsibility."
I nodded. "He's aware of that, and he's fully committed to taking care of me and the baby."
Her features softened into sadness for me. "That means he's going to give you money, but he doesn't want to be a husband or a dad?"
I nodded. It surprised me how sad that made me, not just for me and the babies, but for him.
"And you were hoping he would."
I nodded. "I don't know how it happened, but I ended up falling for him." I gave her a pointed look. "I guess you can tell me, ‘I told you so.’"
She reached out and took my hand. "I would never do that. What are your plans? What are you going to do?"
I shrugged. "I’m going to be a mother." Then I remembered I hadn't told her the most shocking thing of all. "A mother of twins."
Her jaw dropped. "Oh, my God, Reyna." She got out of her chair and moved it close to me, sitting down and putting her arm around me. "That's amazing. And I know you must be terrified beyond belief, but you're not alone. James might not want to be involved, but I do. And I know without a doubt that Amelia will want to be."
For some reason, I felt a pang of guilt because I knew Amelia would not approve of James's response or his plans for us. But that was between him and her.
"It will be fine. It will be fun." She was quiet for a moment. "What does this mean for this fake marriage? Are the babies due before the end of your year?"
I nodded. “And I'm already starting to show. I won’t be able to hide it much longer. But James seems to be in denial. We did this fake marriage so that the board would think he was settled. This pregnancy would help that, obviously, but it won’t look good if he decides to leave a pregnant woman or leave us after the babies are born."
She gave me a quick shake. "The minute those babies were conceived, your duty to this plan went to the back burner. James can worry about James and his reputation and his company. You have more important things to think about now."
She was right. As long as I continued to honor the deal James and I made, I didn't have to worry about what he wanted to do in terms of dealing with the board and the pregnancy.
"If I make it six months in this marriage, I’ll get a nice little nest egg, but I don't want to rely on that, you know? I need to figure out a career, and as much as I'm enjoying all these classes we're taking, none of them are really going to give me a career." Maybe I needed to see about going back to law school, although I wasn't sure how I was going to do that next semester considering I was going to have twins sometime at the beginning or middle of it.