Set Me Free (29 page)

But
only for a second, and five minutes later, Emily had had enough. She leaned
down to Annie. ‘Okay, I concede. Do you want to get out of here?

Annie
jumped to her feet.

Emily
smiled. ‘Just give me a minute,’ she said, summoning Andy. He separated himself
from a clinging teenage girl and swaggered over.

‘I’m
going to go.’

‘Already?’
he asked.

‘I
don’t feel well.’

‘Yeah,
okay. I didn’t want to say anything, but you do kinda look like shit.’

Beside
her, Annie choked on her drink. Emily ignored her, concentrating on her
brother.

‘I
have to tell you something before I go.’

She
needed him to know. Annie had been great and was truly going above and beyond
the call of duty for a friendship only a few hours old, but before Emily
returned to the solitude of her hotel room, she needed someone who loved her to
know. She needed him to tell her everything would be all right.

‘What’s
up?’ he said, looking away, back across the room toward the teenager. Emily
could see she barely had his attention.

‘I’m
pregnant.’

That
got it back.

‘What?’

‘I’m
pregnant.’

‘Shit.
Are you sure?’

‘Pretty
sure. I took a pregnancy test tonight. I can show you the stick if you like.’
She made to dig into the pocket of her dress.

Andy
was quick to hold up his hands. ‘No, no. That’s okay. I don’t need to see it.
Shit. What are you going to do? I wouldn’t try to get an abortion in Japan.’

Emily
stared at him. It was not quite the response she expected.

Beside
her, Annie sucked in a lungful of outrage and raised herself up to her full
height. Emily grabbed her arm to pull her back before she attacked. ‘Jerk,’
Annie mumbled, folding her arms across her chest.

‘I
don’t want to get an abortion,’ Emily said, calmly.

Andy
looked around the room again. ‘Really? I just assumed you would. You know, with
the divorce and all.’

‘What?
What’s the divorce got to do with this?’

Andy
looked back, eyeing her as though she were a simpleton. ‘You really want to
have your cheating ex-husband’s baby? You’ll never get rid of him. You’ll have
to deal with him for the rest of your life.’

‘Oh,’
said Emily. ‘It’s not Geoff’s baby’.

Andy’s
eyes popped. ‘Whose baby is it?’

A
memory of him, her baby’s daddy, looking up at her while they made love, came
back to her. Her chest constricted. She hadn’t thought about how he would take
this news. The way she’d left things, she’d be lucky if he would ever talk to
her again, let alone be willing to raise a child with her. Did he even want
kids? One thing she knew for sure, he wouldn’t want it this way.

Emily
looked up at her brother then cast her eyes down to the stained carpet at his
feet. ‘It’s Ben’s,’ she said.

‘Charlotte’s
friend Ben?’

Beside
her, Annie was looking between them, humming with curiosity. Emily nodded.

‘Oh,’
said Andy. ‘What are you going to tell her?’

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