No Such Thing As A Hollywood Ending

chapter 29

Lucy sat on the edge of her bed, her hands clasped tightly together as she stared at the floor. Her heart was racing, and the pregnancy test felt like a lead weight in her pocket. She had been rehearsing this conversation in her head for hours, but now that Henry was standing in front of her, looking at her with those concerned eyes, every word she had planned flew out the window.

"Lucy?" Henry's voice was soft, but it was enough to jolt her out of her thoughts. "What's going on? You've been really quiet since Sarah's party."

Lucy took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. This was it. She had to tell him. "Henry, I... I need to talk to you about something. Something big."

Henry frowned, stepping closer. "Are you okay? You're scaring me."

She swallowed hard and finally pulled the pregnancy test out of her pocket, holding it up for him to see. "I took this after the party... and it came back positive."

For a moment, Henry just stared at the test, his eyes widening in shock. His face went pale, and Lucy felt her stomach twist with anxiety. She braced herself for his reaction, unsure of what to expect.

Henry blinked, still processing the information, and then, to Lucy's surprise, he let out a long sigh. "Well," he said calmly, "there goes having a plan."

Lucy stared at him, completely taken aback by his response. "What?"

Henry shrugged, a slight smile tugging at his lips. "I mean, we had a plan, right? To take things slow, figure out our future first, maybe talk about marriage down the line? But... well, I guess that's out the window now." He looked up at her, his expression serious but calm. "So, I guess the next logical question is: when do we get married?"

Lucy's jaw dropped. "Henry, are you serious right now?"

Henry nodded, as though this was the most natural progression of events. "Yeah. I mean, we're having a baby, right? So we should probably think about getting married. And after that, we'll need to figure out where we're going to live together, raise the baby, stuff like that."

Lucy couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her head was spinning as she tried to process his casual approach to something so monumental. "Henry, we literally just talked about how it was too soon to even think about marriage. Now you're telling me we should just go ahead and do it because of this?" She motioned to the pregnancy test, her voice shaky.

Henry met her gaze, and for the first time, she saw a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. "I mean, yeah, I guess it's a little soon, but... doesn't it make sense? We're already in this together, and I don't want you to feel like you're doing it alone. I... I care about you, Lucy. And I want to do what's right by you and the baby."

Lucy sat there, stunned, her emotions all over the place. She had expected him to freak out, to be upset, or at least overwhelmed by the news. But instead, he was calmly talking about marriage and a future together as if this was just the next step in their relationship.

She finally found her voice, though it was shaky. "Henry, I... I don't know what to say. I mean, I appreciate that you're trying to do the right thing, but... we're not ready for this. We don't even know what we're doing."

Henry sat down beside her, his expression softening. "I know. And it's scary, but we'll figure it out together. You and me. That's what we've been doing all along, right?"

Lucy's eyes filled with tears, not out of sadness but from the overwhelming flood of emotions. "I don't want to mess this up," she whispered. "I don't want to mess us up. I wasn't expecting any of this."

Henry reached out and gently took her hand in his. "We won't mess it up," he said firmly. "We'll take it one step at a time, okay? We don't have to get married tomorrow. But we'll figure it out, and whatever happens, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

Lucy looked into his eyes, seeing the sincerity there, and slowly nodded. "Okay. One step at a time."

Henry smiled softly. "One step at a time."