Hetty and Ryan: Overcome

Making a Choice

"Cooper." He didn't notice her trembling hands, her eyelashes matted with tears. He was busy hanging up his jacket and removing his tie.

"Cooper!" she practically yelled. He swung around.

"What, baby?" Didn't he used to call her other things, too, like "gorgeous" or "beautiful?" Something was different. She knew something was different between them. Obviously, it was the emotional affair she had been having with Ryan the past several weeks. She hated herself in that moment.

"I have some news. It's a bit of a big deal."

"Oh, okay. What's up?" She now had his full attention.

"Uh," she stammered, willing herself to hold in the vomit gurgling at the back of her throat. "Um, I'm pregnant."

Cooper went white as a sheet. For several seconds, there was no celebratory air between them. Just a heavy, dripping tension.

"Wow," he said after a while, mustering up a smile. "That's unexpected. We've been using condoms every time."

"Yeah," replied Hetty. She left to retrieve a glass of water from the kitchen. Staring out the window at the billowing apple tree in their lush backyard, Hetty took a profoundly deep breath to re-center herself. She had to readjust her perspective on this new reality. It was incumbent upon her to reverse the damage she had done to their relationship over the past seven weeks.

Returning to their bedroom, she smiled at Cooper. They locked eyes, and he smiled back. He grabbed her hand, which felt warm and comforting against hers.

"We're going to have a baby," he stated, hugging her tight.

"Yeah," she exhaled.

* * *

Hetty avoided Ryan as best she could the following day. When the bell rang at the end of sixth period, she descended the staircase gingerly to the first floor to ask Ms. Destin about adding a new student to her biology class. As she left the science classroom, Hetty heard the reverberation of gentle chords hanging in the air like sweet mist. Her heart tightened, catching in her chest.

Hetty could have walked the long way around to avoid him, but curiosity drew her towards the piano. This was a song she didn't recognize. She stood near the scratched-up chestnut piano and watched him play. He finished shortly after she arrived, looking to her with a vague expression of sadness as he lifted his fingers from the keys.

Ryan swung his legs around the side of the bench to face the opposite direction of the piano. Hetty approached the bench and sat down beside him. They remained side-by-side in silence for a full minute.

"Hetty," Ryan pleaded, opening himself back up to her after a week of trying to keep sealed shut.

"Did you compose that?"

"Yeah," he breathed. Their shoulders were practically touching. It brought comfort to both.

"What the hell is going on? Please, this isn't fair. You can't just leave me in the dark, after everything that happened at dinner the other day. I thought... I mean I really thought you..." 

Hetty took a deep breath to steady herself. Her stomach felt full of churning cement.

"You asked what changed. Something did change, Ryan. Everything completely changed."

"Just tell me," he whispered. "I can handle it."

"Oh, Ryan... I'm pregnant." He turned towards her on the bench to see her eyes welling up with tears. They stared into each other's faces for quite a long while, Hetty's blurry vision of Ryan shining colorfully like stained glass windows.