High Hopes

Chapter Thirty

Back home in her own apartment, with a puffy, tear-stained face, Claire fumbles with her phone. Eventually she's able to tap the number on Candace's contact page so that her phone starts to ring on the speaker. "Hi, Claire. How're you?"

Sniffing, she says, "Not so good."

"What happened?"

"Henry just broke off our engagement, for starters."

"What? Why? Tell me he didn't find out about Will?" Claire doesn't reply, she just starts crying again, so Candace continues, "He obviously did then. I'm so sorry, Claire. With Will back in San Francisco, I though you'd avoided any risk of this happening. How did he find out?"

"Will and I went to a photo booth when he was here. It was completely my fault that Henry found out. I was using the strip of photos from the photo booth, as a bookmark, in a book I was reading and I stupidly left the book at his place."

"Didn't you explain that it's over between you and Will?"

"Um, not really."

"What do you mean? You didn't explain it to Henry, or it's not over between you and Will? I'm confused."

"Henry asked if I was still in love with Will and I admitted that I was."

"Why the hell did you do that?"

"I couldn't lie to him anymore. I am still in love with Will. Desperately and completely. I love Henry too. I told him that as well, but he told me to go to Will. He said that he'd observed the chemistry between us at the Awards dinner and as a result had suspicions from then on, but they were never confirmed until tonight."

"Oh dear. You really are in a pickle, aren't you?"

"You have no idea, Candace. I also just found out that I'm pregnant."

"Oh my word. Do I say congratulations now or commiserations? Is Henry the father? Or Will?"

"The million dollar question! I wish I knew."

"Claire, this is terrible! If you knew it was Henry's, you could appeal to his paternal feelings, but if you don't know for sure, that would be a terrible plan if it turned out not to be his."

"Exactly, but it doesn't matter. It's definitely over with Henry. He made that abundantly clear. He doesn't want me meeting with the group either, so I effectively have no friends here in New York. I just want to come home, Candace."

"I'd love you to do that, but I'm guessing that's not possible right now for you with work and everything, is it?"

"No, unfortunately not."

"I have an idea though - how about Aaron and I come stay with you for Christmas? I know it's a month away, but Christmas will come soon enough. What do you say?"

"Yes please. That would be the best Christmas present ever." Except for Will coming back to me.

"Great. I'll talk to him the minute he gets home, then we'll book and let you know. We love you, Claire. Take care of yourself, be strong, I believe you can get through this. I have to say I'm really excited about being an Auntie, seeing as I'm no longer going to be a bridesmaid."

"Candace, you really know how to make a girl feel better, not!"

"The fact that you're sounding a little annoyed now, as opposed to sad, tells me that I'm doing a pretty good job of distracting you."

"You're such a great friend, I love you too."

Avoiding Stacey throughout the next morning, she almost gets it right until Stacey knocks directly on her office door just before lunchtime. Looking up from her desk, spotting her friend in her doorframe, Claire's heart drops into her stomach. "Stacey, Hi." She sounds anything but happy.