Chapter 2

“Our Baby”

Those two little words seemed to hang in the air.

The small, two bedroom, one bath apartment seemed to shrink even smaller. Both adults, man and woman, hadn’t moved, hadn’t even taken a breath, both just kept staring into each other’s eyes, blue on blue, waiting impatiently for what was to happen next. Finally, after what seemed like hours but was only a matter of seconds, Jason swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, his gaze never wavering and whispered: “Our Baby?”

It was just a whisper, barely audible, but Elizabeth heard those words louder than if Cameron was screaming during one of his infamous tantrums. Not that her son screamed a lot, for he was generally a very happy toddler, listening to his Mommy, doing what he’s told…. Oh god, oh god, she was even starting to ramble in her own thoughts, too.

She kept thinking: what do I do? Do I tell him the truth? How can I tell him the truth? God, how did I get myself in this situation? Well, I know how. I climbed up eighteen flights of stairs to experience the best sex of my entire life. Okay, so my life hasn’t been that long, but I just can’t imagine it getting any better than that. And not just once but multiple times in one night. Realizing she was starting to digress in her thoughts AGAIN and blushing at where her thoughts were taking her, she turned her eyes away from the object of her distraction and tried to focus.

But Jason was waiting, waiting for an answer – an answer to a question that could change their lives forever.

Bringing her head back up, looking into Jason’s beautiful blue eyes, Elizabeth took a deep breath and did the only thing she thought possible: she answered his question with a question.

“What did you say?”

Jason, releasing the breath he was holding, looked into Elizabeth’s sapphire orbs, and he saw it. The walls were starting to come up, the walls that were always associated with him and Elizabeth. Elizabeth was pulling back.

Breaking their gaze, Jason released his hands from Elizabeth’s chin and stomach. He immediately felt the loss of their contact. Refusing to give in to the urge to touch her again, he placed his hands on his knees. Then, taking a deep breath and blowing it out, Jason rubbed both hands across his face and a little louder this time asked, “Elizabeth, is this baby ours or not?”

Elizabeth got up from the couch. Putting some needed distance between herself and Jason, she began to walk around in circles, trying to calm her nerves. Unable to meet his gaze, she blurted out, “Jason, I have no idea what I just said.”

Throwing her arms up in the air she couldn’t seem to stop herself from rambling.

“You are talking to a hormonal, sugar overloaded, pregnant women for god’s sake, a woman who just ate all of her two year old’s Halloween candy! You really shouldn’t listen to anything I have to say.”

It was then Jason’s turn to get off the couch. He knew he couldn’t let this go. It wasn’t like he didn’t have practice in not confronting Elizabeth on what mattered most between them; he just couldn’t this time. He needed to know the truth, and he wasn’t going to let either one of them back away from it now. With determination he never thought possible when it came to Elizabeth, he walked directly to her. Standing toe to toe, their bodies practically touching, Elizabeth looking down at the ground and Jason boring a hole into the top of her head, Elizabeth refused to meet his gaze. It was then that Jason took Elizabeth’s petite hands in one of his much larger ones, calming her like no one else could. Taking his other hand, he placed his thumb and forefinger on her chin, bringing her head up, forcing her to look at him.

Licking his dry lips he asked again, “Elizabeth, tell me the truth. Is this baby ours?”

Finally, she admitted to herself that she needed to tell the truth, the words barely coming across her lips, Jason strained to hear what she was saying, but then he heard it – Elizabeth saying what he had hoped would be true since she had first taken the paternity test just a couple weeks earlier.

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