And Wives (The Infidelity Trilogy #3)
Chapter 1
Chapter One
S teph stared down at the pregnancy test. She couldn’t be seeing it correctly. There had to be another reason for this. The words refused to change or go away and simply stared up at her.
Pregnant
2-3
“What the fuck is this?” she asked tearfully as she slumped onto the seat behind her unsure whether sitting had been a choice or if her legs had simply given way beneath her.
“You’ve had a shock so I’ll let you off with swearing,” replied Lindsay, sitting next to her.
“Fuck swearing! That is the very least of my problems. Lindsay, I can’t be pregnant, it’s got to be wrong,” cried Steph.
“They are very accurate, so I think you are pregnant.”
Steph was still staring across at her friend when her phone began ringing and reaching across to retrieve it she saw it was Jon calling.
“I can’t talk to him,” shouted Steph leaping to her feet.
“Shall I? Tell him you’re in the shower?” asked Lindsay concerned for her friend now.
“Or maybe you could tell him that it appears he has somehow managed to get me pregnant and I am seriously fucking freaking out!” she screamed in response.
The phone went dead as Lindsay deliberated whether to pick it up or not, allowing her to turn her attention to Steph.
“What are you going to do?”
“It has to be wrong, Linds, so I need to get showered and dressed before we find a chemist to buy another test, for us both, you must have bought a dodgy batch,” said Steph suddenly composed again. “It has to be wrong because I can’t have a baby. I am sleeping with my boss who is still married to another woman and although I know that Penny is not and never was quite what I imagined, I can’t be having his baby, not now.”
About two hours later, Steph had managed to buy another six pairs of pregnancy tests and despite Lindsay being happy to accept her single positive result, Steph remained unconvinced on their accuracy and insisted on using them all and only as she sat on her bed surrounded by eleven new tests and the original one Lindsay had given her, did she actually say, “Lindsay, I’m pregnant!”
“Yes, babe, you are, we both are.” Lindsay held her close and stroked her hair.
“Congratulations, you and Charlie will be brilliant parents.”
“I’m not sure you’re ready for congratulations yet but I happen to think you and Jon will be pretty bloody marvellous yourselves,” reassured Lindsay.
“Stop swearing in front of our unborn babies please,” said Steph as sternly as her friend had earlier that morning making them both laugh.
Flopping back onto her bed, surrounded by pregnancy tests, Steph grimaced as she watched the other woman get up and push a cushion from the nearby seat up her mini dress to represent her pregnant belly.
“You are kidding me. You’re excited about getting fat?” Steph shook her head.
“Yeah, but I get that it’s different for me because Charlie and I are married and this was planned, it’s what we both want.”
“Whereas Jon and I have never even spoken about children, and as I may have mentioned, he is already married.” She recalled his intention to divorce Penny, but still, a baby, that was huge and something neither of them had ever discussed. “It’s just a bit of a mess. Look Linds, I need this to remain between us, even when you tell Charlie and your family I need to know that nobody else knows about me until I have decided what I’m going to do,” said Steph sitting up and gathering the pregnancy tests in both hands and heading for the bin.
“What do you mean, what you’re going to do ?” asked Lindsay concerned.
“Exactly that. I don’t know if I’m ready or if Jon’s ready for a baby, so I need some time,” she explained.
“You know I am sure when he does know, Jon will want to marry you.”
“Well that’s something to look forward to then, the man I love feeling morally obliged to marry me despite still being legally married to someone else. What a way to live the dream.” Steph sounded close to tears again and then began to laugh, ironically. “While I’ve been dreaming about Jon I should really have been having nightmares about him and his virile sperm.”
After the initial shock had subsided a little they decided to remain in the hotel and its grounds for the day; Lindsay with a permanent grin on her face and Steph with the weight of the world on her shoulders, wondering what she was going to say to Jon and just how she was going to tell him. She even wondered if this would seep into her dreams and maybe she could test out a variety of I’m pregnant speeches, although if she decided against having the baby she would never have to tell him.
Sitting poolside with a cocktail she’d instinctively ordered, Steph had almost got a sip of it before Lindsay swiped it from her grip.
“You can’t drink, not now,” she whispered.
“I didn’t think, sorry. Shit! Do you suppose I’ve damaged it? Or maybe I’ve just pickled it, although it may not matter long term,” Steph mused with genuine concern in her voice.
“I’m sure you haven’t and you didn’t know, but now you do. And you know you’re going to have this baby, so we’ll grab you a non-alcoholic one.”
“I still can’t figure out how this has happened Linds; I am so careful, I take my pill at the same time every day and I never miss one.”
“What about that flu thing you had, did you take antibiotics? That can affect the pill can’t it, or a tummy bug?”
“No, I didn’t and if I had I would have used condoms. Jon nagged me to go to the doctors for antibiotics but I wouldn’t and just took some herbal remedies,” explained Steph still unsure how this had happened.
“What herbal remedies? They have stuff in them that can make the pill ineffective you know,” said Lindsay informatively.
“Really? I didn’t know that, I thought it was all natural stuff.”
“It is, but even natural stuff can have side effects or not mix with conventional drugs. Check it on your phone, it won’t change things but at least you would know how it happened and when-ish.”
“Mmm, I know when-ish because of that test, but I would like to know when and if it was that cold remedy stuff I can hazard a guess as to exactly when.”
Pulling her phone from inside her flip-flop, Steph opened an internet tab and searched herbal remedies with the pill and her screen was flooded with lists of herbal ingredients that make the contraceptive pill less effective. She scanned the list of most common ones and began to mutter and then curse loud enough for Lindsay to hear.
“Bugger, yes it had that in it, bollocks, and she recommended an all-rounder that had that one in. All-rounder, I am going to be all fucking round in about eight months courtesy of this and I don’t think it even worked. At least I know now, herbal remedy and shagging my boss across my desk got me knocked up.”
Lindsay laughed loudly at her friend who was throwing her phone into her shoe again.
“It’s not funny, Linds!” She pouted.
“I know, but it kind of is too. I really am sure once the shock wears off and Jon knows, it will be okay.” Lindsay offered a warm and sincere smile.
“If you say so. You know what, if I dream of him again tonight I may actually castrate him,” Steph’s words caused them both to laugh loud enough that the people around them began to stare.
After a late dinner, several more fruit based cocktails and a promise to find some adventure the following day, maybe even a road or a boat trip, Steph and Lindsay decided to go to bed, both of them feeling exhausted by the day’s events and hormones according to Lindsay, hormones that Steph was desperate to forget were even there.
“I love you Linds and if this had to happen with anyone I’m glad it was you,” said Steph feeling unusually emotional as she hugged and kissed her friend goodnight.
“I know what you mean,” she agreed and then smiled. “I love the idea of us being pregnant together and our babies being friends.”
“Mmm, I suppose,” agreed Steph. “Now bugger off to bed before we start crying or we both stick cushions up our tops.”
Stripping down to just her knickers, Steph scrutinised her reflection in the mirror that covered one wall in the bathroom, desperate to find some signs of change or maybe more desperate to see none. She thought she could see changes in her breasts, they looked darker, larger, but then decided they probably weren’t. She gently stroked her hand across her belly wondering what her baby would be like and if it had picked up her lack of joy at its existence. Panicking slightly, she hoped it hadn’t sensed anything from her because she would never do anything to harm anyone’s baby, least of all her own, hers and Jon’s. It had just been a shock, still was, but this baby was going nowhere, she knew that.
With a stern shake of the head at her reflection, she cast aside her tiny tanga brief and threw it into the bag she had assigned as ‘dirty washing basket’ and headed for her bed feeling hot and tired but had already turned off the air conditioning as it made her wake up in the night cold. She’d tried to call Jon but he wasn’t picking up. He had warned her earlier that he was working late and then meeting up with Charlie so she sent him a quick text.
Hi, tried to call you but you’re busy. Am off to bed, am knackered. This holidaying lark takes it out of you. Will call you in the morning, I miss you, miss seeing and speaking to you. I love you, Steph x
Sending the message she chastised herself again for being so close to tears because she missed him and loved him so much, or maybe it was hormones, but thought that really could come in handy as she plunged into a deep sleep.