The Girl Next Door - Emma Hart Page 0,2
the same doctor for five years.
I wiped my eyes while she gave our doctor the rundown and made me an appointment for Thursday morning.
“Have you had any nausea yet? Vomiting?” Tori asked, the phone still plastered to her ear.
“Bit of nausea, I think.”
She relayed that followed by a string of “Mhmm,” “Okay,” “Yep,” and “No problems,” then hung up. “Right.” She turned back to me. “She said to tell you not to take ibuprofen, only paracetamol. Drink plenty of water, nap if you need to, and she’ll go through everything with you on Thursday. Do you want me to come with you?”
“If Kai doesn’t. Yeah.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You think he won’t?”
“I don’t know, Tori. I haven’t spoken to him in more than a week. In fact, I’ve actively avoided him because I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure.” I pulled Genevieve onto my chest and cuddled into her masses of soft, white fur. “I don’t know how he’s going to react.”
“You know it’s going to be okay, don’t you?” She sat down next to me and stroked my hair gently. “Kai isn’t a bad person, and I have no doubt that he’s going to support you, Ivy. And if I’m wrong and he doesn’t, then, well. You’re not alone. You have me, and your parents, and my parents. It will be fine.”
“Easy for you to say. You don’t have a tiny alien growing in your uterus.”
“Fair point. But that’s no excuse to be a bitch, you hear me? I’m not being your slave for nine months.”
“Eight months, technically,” I replied. “And growing an entire human gives me a great excuse to be a bitch. It’s a fact.”
She grinned. “You look tired. Do you have to work today?”
“No. Kelly’s childminder had something come up so I switched shifts with her. I’m working Wednesday night instead.”
“Are you sure you can do it?”
“I’m serving drinks behind a bar, Tori, not moving rocks to build the pyramids. Besides, I’m going to have to tell my parents tomorrow.”
“Does that mean you’re telling Kai today?”
“I don’t have a choice.” I sighed, rubbing my cheek against the cat’s head. “If I’m telling my parents tomorrow, it means Grams will find out. And when Grams finds out, if it doesn’t kill her on the spot, she will happily announce to the entire town that her whore of a granddaughter got knocked up out of wedlock, and he’ll find out anyway.”
“If she does that, I’ll beat her with a bible. A hardback one.”
“Thanks.”
“I got your back.” Tori grinned. “I have to go run some errands, and you look exhausted. Do you want to crash here for an hour while I go out?”
I didn’t want to bother her at all, but she was right. If I looked exhausted, it wasn’t a patch on how I felt. Physically, emotionally, mentally—I was ruined.
“You don’t mind?”
“I didn’t mind before and I definitely don’t mind now. Do you want anything? I can swing by B’s and get sandwiches for lunch.”
“A meatball sub,” I murmured, cradling her cat. “Extra cheese. Toasted. And salt and vinegar chips with a double chocolate chip cookie.”
“Anything else?”
“Ice-cream works, too.”
“Let me guess, you’re eating for two now, so I can’t say no.”
“No, I’m just a greedy bitch, but the state I’m in, I’ll probably cry if you don’t bring it back.”
Tori shook her head, but her eyes sparkled. “Noted. I got it.”
“Thanks. I’m taking Genevieve to bed.”
She laughed as she pulled her shoes on. “Take her. She’s a snuggle whore. Just don’t steal her side of the bed.” With a wink, she grabbed her purse and left me alone in her apartment to take a nap with her cat.
With any luck, how to tell Kai he was about to be a father would come to me in my dreams, because I was coming up empty.
CHAPTER TWO – IVY
Sadly, my dreams hadn’t given me any help at all. Not a single one during my two-hour nap had bothered to give me any tips for the conversation with Kai.
A conversation that was rapidly approaching. I knew he got home from work at five-thirty every day, and it was now five-fifteen. I really didn’t have a lot of time to get my shit together.
The first thing I did was open the food delivery app on my phone and place a dinner order for us both from the Chinese place we’d eaten at the night this whole thing had happened. I remembered what he ordered, so after I’d confirmed