All I got in return was a glare, and she pointed to her stomach. I looked at it least three times before I actually noticed a little bit of a rounded bump underneath the bulky black sweater she had on. I don’t know why I didn’t question that earlier in the night.
Kara always wore black, but it was always something tight to show off her curves. She had a nice body, one of the reasons she never went on birth control, she said she didn’t want to gain weight, but we had always been super safe when it came to wearing condoms.
“Do you think I got pregnant on purpose?” she hissed before thanking the waitress for the appetizer she had just sat down. “Because you know I didn’t want kids right now, Nick. Obviously, you weren’t careful enough.”
Of course she was blaming this on me. Typical Kara.
“Well, how do I know it’s even mine?” I gestured towards her stomach, feeling bad that I called the baby an “it” but I really hadn’t come to terms that there was an actual being growing in there. “We haven’t been together in months.”
Her face turned dark as she took a bite of the beef nachos she had ordered, another strange thing to see, Kara had always been a strictly veggie girl. “Trust me, I wish it wasn’t. The guy I’m with now wasn’t exactly happy when I found out I was two months pregnant and we’d only been together for one. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to contact you, but I thought about it for a while and figured it’s the right thing to do. It’s yours, Nick. Jared’s staying with me, though, as long as I take care of this little problem.”
Take care of this little problem? What in the hell did that mean? “Are you actually considering—“
Ally interrupted us, then, one of the reasons that I had kind of been an ass to her. I was in shock at what Kara had just told me, and I needed to finish the conversation we had started. It wasn’t really one that could be easily picked up at a later time. I was pissed at myself for putting it off for so long.
“Well, that was lovely,” Kara muttered sarcastically when I returned from helping Ally back to her table. I got a nasty stare down from Danny, and I’m sure he was wondering what in the hell was going on.
I dropped back down into my chair, and Kara raised an eyebrow. “I never took you for that type. Is it really true what they say about blondes?”
“Cut the shit, Kara. Ally is none of your concern.”
She huffed and rolled her eyes at me. “Whatever, Nick. So, let’s get back to what we were talking about then, shall we?”
I grunted in response. Sure, just what every guy wanted to talk about with their ex-girlfriend.
“My first thought was to get an abortion, I mean, do you already see what this is doing to my body? And I have to eat like non-stop, or I feel like I’m actually dying. But I decided against it. I just don’t think I really believe in those.” She reached down, shuffling around in her purse until her hands landed on something, and then she pulled out a wad of papers, setting them down in front of me.
I still hadn’t gotten over the fact that she had actually considered the idea of having an abortion. Yeah, we weren’t together, but that didn’t mean a life needed to end just because of that. I didn’t comprehend what was really in front of me until my eyes landed on the word adoption.
“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me, Kara.” I read the papers more thoroughly, and no, my eyes hadn’t deceived me. She was really serious about adoption. I had just found out about the baby, and I didn’t think that would be an option. Ever.
“All you need to do is sign the papers, Nick.” She pushed a pen across the table.
“I’m not signing shit, Kara,” I pushed the pen back to her. “You literally just told me about this, and you think I’m just gonna do it because you say so? And let me get this straight, you don’t believe in abortion, but you have no problem giving your own child up for adoption?”
Her eyebrows knitted together as she scowled at me. “Don’t act like I didn’t try to get ahold of you, Nick. You’re the one that avoided my calls.”
“Because I didn’t want to deal with your shit,” I said, raising my voice above the noise of the restaurant. I lowered it quickly when I saw several heads snap our way. All I needed now was for Ally or Danny to come back over to see what the hell was going on. “Something like this, you should have tried harder. You know where I work, you know where my parents live, and the fact is, you probably didn’t really want me to call you back.”
“That’s not true, Nick. I didn’t have to contact you, I could’ve had the baby, put it up for adoption without mentioning a father, and you would’ve never had a clue. I did the right thing by telling you, so please just sign the papers.”