Book 2: Beginning Again -Carlos Sainz

Chapter 27

"To be fair," Erin said as she squeezed Marie's hand. "This baby is gonna be hot as fuck."

Even in a crisis, Marie could count on Erin to make her laugh. Marie put her head in her hand and groaned.

"That's the worst part. We would talk about how cute our kids would be sometimes," Marie replied.

They were sitting against her bathroom wall, the room that had been thoroughly disinfected by Marie that morning. The test sat on the top of the counter, next to her phone with a timer going. All she had to do was wait.

"This is just... extremely out of character for me," Marie said as she looked at Erin. "I'm not the kind of woman who just...gets pregnant. I am a planner, and I'm responsible."

"So what you've changed! I think it's a good thing. You've been so much happier and looser since you dated him. More go-with-the-flow," Erin replied.

"Yeah I let a man change who I am fundamentally down to my core. I'm a feminist, Erin, how could I let this happen?"

"You are not changed to your core, I can promise you that. You are still the same type-A, workaholic weirdo that I've always known. To be fair, you sent an email before we even had this conversation."

"How will I tell him?" Marie spoke quietly, letting the words she had been thinking for the past hour finally out of her mouth. There was a beat of silence before Erin replied,

"Well, one step at a time."

Right on cue, the timer went off and the girls looked at each other. Marie scrambled up off the floor to go look at the weird lines on the stick. Panic and nausea rose up in her, as she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She could just call him. He had called her last night. She could just call him back and say 'hey, guess what? Even though I take my birth control religiously, I'm pregnant.' Hell, maybe it would be enough for him to love her.

She looked at the stick, then over to Erin who was waiting like she was on an episode of Maury Povich.

"Negative."

**

Carlos woke up to birds chirping, which was slightly soothing, but mostly odd since he had no idea where he was. The sunlight streamed in from an open window as Carlos looked around.

"Okay, hotel room. On a couch. Alone. Could be much worse," he thought as he continued to look for clues. His eyes hit the empty glassware and bottles that sat across from him on the coffee table. His pounding headache and constant threat of vomit cued him into the fact that he probably drank enough to destroy some of his liver. He looked for his phone, which he found plugged into the wall by the window.

"How did my phone get plugged in here if I passed out drunk on the couch?" Carlos thought as he scratched his head. His fingers trailed down to his eyes, which felt sticky and puffy. He got up to get his phone, unlocking it to see a contact that had been left open. It was Marie's. The nausea got more intense as Carlos flipped to his call history, feeling his heart sink at what he saw. 2:42am, outgoing call to Marie that was unanswered. All he could do was hope that he didn't leave a message. He went into his texts, seeing that there was one drafted as well, also to Marie. He didn't get very far as it read

Carlos: Maire I miss yuo so mu

He quickly deleted the drafted text, wishing he didn't see what he knew he felt, deep down.

"Really? A drunk text and call? Are you fucking pathetic?" Carlos thought as he sat back down on the couch. He was saved from his pity party by the sound of footsteps approaching.

"You're finally awake," Charles said as he walked into the room, not even looking up from his phone as he spoke.

"Yeah, uh I don't really..." Carlos replied as he couldn't find his words.

"Remember anything? I'm not surprised," Charles said with a laugh as he sat down next to his teammate on the couch. "I can't say I've seen you drink like that in a while, even after a win. What's going on?"

"Uh, nothing, I just drank too much. Happens." Carlos said with a curt tone as he tried to hide his annoyance. He wasn't a fan of personal questions.

"Dude, I'll wait you out."

Silence filled the room as Charles looked around the room, patting his legs as he waited. He had every intention of waiting, as he knew exactly how Carlos was acting and what he was saying last night. He just needed Carlos to admit it to himself.

"Are you seriously waiting for me to talk? I'm fine."

"Last night you weren't."

"Would you just shut the fuck up, man?" Carlos snapped at Charles as he stood up from the couch. A look of surprise flashed on both of their faces.

"Wow. I really thought we could talk about this like mature adults, but guess not. Last night I had to drag you away from going home with a group of women and cheating on your girlfriend, whose name you called out in your sleep like every 5 minutes. You kept trying to call and text her, even though you were babbling incoherent sentences and embarrassing yourself. I confiscated your phone and waited until you were dead asleep to plug it in. Now, are you going to tell me what the hell is going on, or are you going to yell at me again?"

Carlos stood there, suddenly aware of his pounding headache. He stood there, even though he felt weak enough to collapse.

"I... what? That happened?"

"Yes," Charles replied like it was obvious. "I just can't believe you'd do that to Marie, like have you been cheating on her?"

"Oh, uh, we broke up."

More silence filled the room as Carlos ran a hand through his hair and choked down the recurrent nausea from both his hangover and his actions. Charles sat next to him looking confused.

"When?"

"Few weeks ago."

"What happened? Last time I saw you guys together you looked crazy in love."

Charles' words sliced through Carlos like a knife. A cruel and unusual punishment, to be reminded of what he did with those three words made popular by Beyonce.

"Doesn't matter, but we're done. That's why she's not here this weekend and I don't think she's coming back, her company sent someone else out to do her job. This Mark dude has been hitting me up all week."

"Well that makes way more sense. Did you cheat on her?"

"What? No, man I didn't. It was something else."

"You really don't wanna talk about it, which confirms that you were the one to fuck up. I knew it."

"Look, I don't have time to listen to your lecture right now. I have to go," Carlos said with a huff as he collected his shirt and his phone. He didn't even let Charles have one more word before he stormed out of the room. The headache pounded even more as he walked down the hallway, feeling like his brain was slamming against his skull repetitively.

"Well I need to call her and apologize for the drunk dial. I just can't believe that I was being such a drunk idiot and trying to call and text her. Did I really call her name out in my sleep?" He thought as he waited for the elevator, letting his hangover linger like a storm cloud. He thought about all of the times he ended things with girls, thinking about how he never drunk called even one of them. And he would've never called their names in his sleep.