Chapter 5
Charlotte
“Are you sure? Maybe we are doing it wrong. Maybe I should have actually read the instructions. I never skip reading the instructions.”
“What is there to read, honey?” Josie asks. “It’s like a one and a half step process. Pee on it and wait.”
“Okay, but maybe I peed wrong,” I say.
One of her eyebrows arches, disappearing behind her dark brown bangs. “Peed wrong? I’m no biologist, babe, but I don’t think you can pee wrong,” she laughs.
But I’m not laughing.
I’m not even smiling.
I’m running my hands through my hair and pacing the bathroom floor.
I’m trying not to look at the little white sticks on the bathroom counter that are all screaming the same thing at me.
Pregnant, pregnant, pregnant.
I stop and throw my hands up in the air. “How did this even happen?!”
Josie looks up at me. She’s sitting on the closed toilet with her hands in her lap, perfectly calm.
Meanwhile, I’m freaking the heck out.
“You had sex with the silver fox from the bar, didn’t you?” she asks.
“Yeah, we had sex. Great sex. Wild sex. The best sex I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve only been with two other people, but that’s still saying a lot,” I answer.
“Wait, your body count is only three people long?” she asks.
“Yes. There was Jeremey in high school. He was the captain of the Mathletes. And then there’s Ben, of course, and now Gavin.”
“And he didn’t wear a condom?” she asks.
“No.”
“And you’re not on birth control?” she asks.
“No,” I say, looking down at all the positive sticks.
“Well. That’s probably how it happened then,” she says. “Try to look on the bright side.”
“Is there a bright side?” I ask, picking up one of the sticks and shaking it like it’s a Magic Eight Ball. Maybe if I jostle it around, it’ll give me a different answer.
“Yeah. You could be pregnant with Ben’s baby,” she says with a smile that’s meant to be encouraging, but it fades when she sees the look on my face.
When I realized my period was late, Josie was the first person I called. I did leave out one itty-bitty detail.
“So…funny story…” I say, and her eyes widen.
“Why do I get the feeling that that’s just a figure of speech?” she asks. I let out a smile-less chortle that sounds more like I’m losing my mind than actually laughing.
I take in a deep breath before forcing the next sentence out. “Gavin is Ben’s father.”
She doesn’t seem to absorb the words right away. Josie just blinks at me like I’m speaking another language and her brain is trying to translate.
“Wait. Gavin is…”
“Ben’s father,” I answer.
“So, Ben is…”
“Gavin’s son,” I say.
“Holy shit,” she lets out, and I half laugh, half cry.
“I know, right? What are the fucking odds? Sorry,” I apologize for swearing.
I’m not a cusser, but every once in a while I give myself a hall-pass.
“Leave it to me to have all the men in the world to choose from for a roll in the hay and they turn out to be related. Not only that, but he’s my ex-boyfriend’s dad!
The best sex I’ve ever had was with the father of my ex-boyfriend!
Oh, and bonus, I am pregnant with his child! ”
I slump down on the floor and cover my face with my hands. Josie abandons her position on the porcelain throne to join me.
“Listen,” she says. “I know it seems like the end of the world, but it’s going to be okay.”
“Is it?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says. “We just have to look on the bright side and be optimistic.”
“I hate to sound like a wet mop, Jo, but I’m going to need your help figuring out what the bright side is in all this,” I sniff.
“The bright side is you are a smart, strong, successful woman, and you can handle this. You’re a wedding planner!” She smiles with way too much sunshine for my current mood.
“What does that have to do with anything?” I ask.
“You make a living juggling a million details under unpredictable circumstances for bridezillas. If you can handle that, a baby will be a piece of cake,” she proclaims. I have my doubts, but I look at her and she nods with a smile.
“Babies are expensive,” I tell her. “And it’s the middle of winter. I don’t have another wedding to plan for 2 months. I’m literally living off a little nest egg right now.”
“I have a feeling something will come up soon. I don’t know, Charlotte. I know it seems like the end of the world, but what if it’s actually the beginning?”
“The beginning of my demise, maybe,” I mutter, but she grabs my hand and shakes her head insistently.
“No. The beginning of something great,” she says. While my friend’s positivity usually makes me feel better, right now I’m having trouble seeing how this could be anything but a crap shoot. This is one cloud that may not have a silver lining.
Later that night, after reorganizing my refrigerator, I grab my laptop and sit down on my couch with a glass of wine. Then I remember all those little pink lines and sigh, pushing the glass out of reach.
Pregnant. How am I pregnant? How?
I shake the question out of my mind to avoid another downward spiral, and open my email tab instead.
“Oh,” I say, clicking on an unread message. It’s an inquiry for a wedding.
Looking for a wedding planner.
Highly recommended. Love the reviews.
Perfect for the job.
All-inclusive! We want someone who can handle EVERY detail because we are planning on getting married ASAP!
The wedding will take place over the course of a week at a ski resort.
No budget.
As I skim through the message, I can literally hear Josie’s words in my head.
A speech about manifesting positive events in your life.
I’m a little surprised we could manifest it from a meltdown on my bathroom floor, but I’ll take it.
I mean, heck, with words like ski resort and no budget it’s hard to be a Negative Nancy, even for me.
I scroll to the bottom of the email to where the contact information is.
Holly Wentz. I start to send her a text, but then decide against it.
I would rather talk to her over the phone.
It’s a better way to get someone’s vibe before you start working with them.
Hearing their voice makes it much easier to feel them out than texting or emailing.
Holly answers right before the call goes to voicemail. “Hello?”
“Holly? This is Charlotte. You emailed me about— “
“Wedding planner! Yes!” She squeals. “Listen, you have no idea how happy I am that you called! My boyfriend, no, I mean fiancé, I haven’t gotten used to saying that yet.
We have only been engaged for like two weeks; Dad just told us he is going to pay for the entire wedding.
I mean everything, from every place card to every candied almond.
Once I started looking into wedding things, well, I got overwhelmed!
” She laughs and I smile. Her energy is positively contagious, and I can tell immediately that I am going to love working with her.
“It most certainly can be, but I am here to help. I can handle everything from cakes to caterers to before parties and after parties and everything in between. I even have a photographer that I worked closely with so you won’t have to consider that an outside expense,” I tell her, referring to Josie.
“This is a dream come true!” She says with emotion in her voice. And this is why I love my job. I may be a realist, but I’m also a romantic. It’s one of my few contradicting personality traits.
“So here’s the thing,” she goes on, “even though we’re not on a budget, we are on a timeframe.
I want to get married within the next couple of weeks.
And the wedding itself is going to be about a week long.
Friends and family will all be staying at a ski resort in the Rockies.
It’s going to be beautiful and amazing, and I can’t wait!
But I’m definitely going to need a lot of help.
I’m a little too spontaneous for planning things on this caliber.
If you know what I mean,” she laughs, and I laugh at the irony of her choice of words.
“I know exactly what you mean. You don’t have to worry about a thing. We will figure it all out: me, you, and your fiancé.”
“That sounds perfect! I can’t wait to tell him. He doesn’t even know that I’m hiring a wedding planner.”
We get off the phone, and I’m still smiling. I can’t believe that I landed this job right after what just happened. And for a moment, I believe what Josie says about fate.