Untitled S&R Chapter Twenty
Untitled S&R
Chapter Twenty
Today, R was certain she’d made up her mind that she was not ready to have a baby. However, that was before Isaac, the unsuspecting father of said baby, sent her an email.
Hey, R
I hope you don’t find this intrusive, but I found your work email address on your company website.
There’s no pressure to respond to this. I just wanted to reach out.
I know I left you my number and you not calling me is probably you telling me everything I need to know, but I just thought we had such a good night when we met, and it felt like we were on the same page regarding what we both wanted.
I know things can change so no hard feelings. I just had to make sure.
Isaac.
R stared at her computer screen for several minutes before a colleague asked her if everything was all right.
“Yes! Yes, all good,” she said. “I thought I’d misread something, but it’s fine.”
When R was sure no one was watching, she fired an email back.
Hey, Isaac,
I’m a little surprised to hear from you. I tried sending a message to the number you left but it kept bouncing back. When I called, it said the number was unrecognized.
R pressed send but soon regretted doing that so quickly. She hadn’t even signed off with her name. When she didn’t hear back from him before lunch, she sent another email with her phone number. Then she left the office.
R was sitting in the park barely able to make it through her sandwich when she got a call from an unknown number. She only ever answered unknown numbers when she had an idea of who might be calling.
“Hello?” she asked tentatively.
“Hi! It’s Isaac.”
R’s hand flew to her stomach.
“Hello?” he said.
“Sorry, yeah, hello, Isaac,” R managed to say. “How are you?”
“I’m good, thanks,” he said. “I’m glad you sent your number. I can’t believe mine didn’t work! What number did you call?”
Isaac’s easy leap into conversation threw R off, but of course he was being friendly and easy to talk to. He had no idea what was coming. “I don’t remember exactly,” R answered, “but it ended in four eight.”
“Oh, God.” Isaac laughed. “My number ends in forty-three! You know, my teachers used to tell me off all the time because my threes always looked like eights because of how severely I curve the ends! My maths teacher said, ‘One of these days accidentally writing eight when you mean three will cost you a lot of money!’ Anyway, I’m so sorry.
I can’t imagine how that must have felt, thinking I’d given you a fake number after we spent the night together.
Hopefully… not too much harm done?” he asked.
“Oh…” R looked down at her stomach. “I don’t know about that… Look, Isaac, I’m glad you reached out. I actually have something important I need to tell you.”
“What do you mean we should keep it?”
R had asked Isaac to meet her for lunch the next day.
It was over ramen on a Thursday afternoon when she shouted this in the middle of a busy restaurant.
Once everyone seated close by had moved on, Isaac said, “Hear me out. I know we don’t know each other well and this is a big commitment, but don’t you think it’s kind of… a sign?”
“How?”
“You said the doctors had told you it would be difficult,” he said, “and the day you make up your mind not to go through with it, is the exact day I decide to bite the bullet and reach out to you again?”
R couldn’t help but feel this was a position many women pregnant from a one-night stand would love to be in.
Here was Isaac, a very good-looking man, with a stable job, his own home, and undeniable golden-retriever energy, wanting to be a father to their child.
R was sure this wasn’t a common occurrence, and yet… how far could they take this?
R was willing to pursue things when they’d first met because the stakes were low.
She’d hoped, back then, that once they were both comfortable with one another, had forged a bond, R could reveal the true magnitude of her low sex drive.
Her plan B had been to offer friendship should he want to be with someone else.
Now, this was different. Isaac was essentially proposing they be a family.
“There are a lot of coincidences,” R acquiesced, “but… this is a baby we’re talking about.”
“I know,” Isaac said, “and don’t get me wrong, it’s terrifying and crazy and maybe terrible timing and not at all how I thought my day was going to go, but we’re here now and we only have two options. I just wanted you to know what option I’d go for.”