Having Your Jelly Baby

7: Stumbling

7: Stumbling

'He hung up on me.' The disbelief dripped from my voice like a bad taste.

Laina's eyes grew wide with surprise, and then, almost hesitantly, she put an arm around me. 'That wanker. That bloody wanker!' She frowned and gave me a squeeze, but a laugh of hers was hidden in her voice as she suggested, 'How about we just get a civil partnership then, and I father this jelly baby? I hope you realise that having two parents of the same gender is all the rage right now.'

I laughed, but couldn't hide the disappointment that flooded through me and made my heart sink to the ground and curl up.

I didn't know what I had been expecting but it sure as hell hadn't been this.

'It's-' My sentence was cut off by the sound of my ringtone going off, my wide eyes matching Laina's, our gazes snapping to the phone that lay on my coffee table, now lit up with Drew's name.

'Shit,' we both whispered at the same time.

'Answer it quick!' Laina encouraged, grabbing it and pressing the answer button herself, practically slamming it against my ear when I made no move towards it.

'Er, hello?' I said, my voice sound more like a squeak rather than that of an actual human being.

'Hey, it's me. Sorry about that, my reception was really bad so I had to move and the phone cut off but now I've called you back and... yeah.' Drew was rambling, and I knew that he was nervous now.

'Did you hear what I said though?' I asked softly, biting my lip and holding the phone up myself, Laina pointing to her arm that was straining and miming agony.

I imagined Drew nodding on the other end, glancing at the clock and realising that it would've been around lunchtime-ish for him in LA or wherever it was. I wondered what he was doing - whether he was sitting down or standing up or pacing the room like I wanted to do but couldn't.

'I think so,' he replied gently. 'How long have you known?'

I paused, before admitting, 'Before we went out for coffee. About a month after Mia's wedding was when I realised something was up and I took a test, actually, so I've known for about a month.'

He exhaled. 'A while, then. Why didn't you tell me?' He didn't sound angry, which was a relief.

'I-' I sighed. 'I was scared. I didn't know if I was going to keep the baby or what my mum and dad will think. But I am. I'm keeping the baby, and I suppose I'm telling you because you have a right to him or her because obviously, you know... you're the baby daddy, as Laina likes to refer to you.'

Laina grinned and gave me the thumbs up, before continuing to listen intently to what he was saying on the other end of the line.

'Good.' Drew said, the hint of a smile back in his voice. 'Look Nova, I'm back in England in two days time. Do you mind if I come and see you? We've er, obviously got a lot to talk about.'

'Yeah. Yes. We do. We really do.'

* 

Two days later couldn't come around fast enough, but Laina and I spent those couple of days slobbing around, with her taking time off work to keep me company. Hilariously, Laina worked at a matchmaking service, and I teased her relentlessly about her essentially being the bridge leading to doing the dirty for many, many people.

I was sat on my laptop catching up on crappy TV when the doorbell rang and I practically peed myself, having finally managed to divert my thoughts from Drew and the jelly baby after shooing Laina out of my front door like the green sheep she was less than five minutes earlier.