Life's Unexpected Surprises

         "Well that was unexpected...Not!" Kristen blew the hair out of her eyes. "I am such an idiot! What was I thinking???"

         Janice grabbed for the stick, "So two blue lines, huh? What are you going to do?"

         "Can you give me maybe, oh I don't know, 30 seconds to adjust to the fact that I'm pregnant before you ask me what I'm going to do? Oh my God!" Kristen took the pregnancy test back and stared at it as if willing the second blue line to go away. "I hadn't had sex in two freaking years! Then you drag me out to that club, I get blind, stinking drunk and hook up with some hot guy, who was also blind, stinking drunk and then we proceed to have hot monkey sex with no protection! I am a fucking moron! Not only did I risk catching some sexually transmitted disease, I risked getting pregnant. And I did!" She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes trying to blot out the images from the hot monkey sex.

         "Kristin you gotta slow down. You're talking a mile a minute and with that New York accent I'm having trouble following you.  All I got was no sex for two years, blind, stinking drunk and hot monkey sex. "

         "Janice, I'm gonna kill ya! Did you understand that?"

         "Yeah, I got that one."

         "All right then." Kristin took a large breath. "I'll talk slower now so you can follow me. I. Am. A. Fucking. Moron. I hook up with some dude I've never even met before and now I'm pregnant. I swear if I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all."

         Janice hesitated, "Are you gonna tell him?"

         "I don't know yet. I mean we've talked a couple of times, but it's not like we have some romance going on, you know. I mean what am I supposed to do? Call him up and say ‘Hey Nicky. Remember the night you banged me without even knowing the right way to say my name until the next morning. Well guess what? You're gonna be a Daddy!" 

         "Well, since you suspected you were for the last couple days, you have to have thought about actually being pregnant and what you're gonna do, right?"

         "Yeah, I've thought about it. It's practically all I've thought about for the last 24 hours. I had to work up the nerve to go get the damn test, but I pretty much figured I was, cuz I'm one of those clockwork girls. I mean, Bam! The third Thursday of every month I know I better be ready. But not this Thursday. Damn it! I want kids, but I want them with my forever, married to husband that I haven't found yet."

         Janice laughed lightly, "Well, maybe Nick will be your forever, married to husband. Maybe he's the one."

         "That's a nice thought Janice."  Kristen sighed heavily, "What am I gonna do?  I mean, I'm 34. I thought by now I'd be married, have 2.5 kids, the house with a picket fence and the yappy little dog. Out of all that, what do I got? The yappy little dog. Now I could at least have one of those 2.5 kids.  But do I wanna do it alone? Do I wanna be tied to some guy that I don't even know if I really like, let alone love? I mean Nick seemed like a really nice guy the next day and Damn! he's hot, but I've only talked to him twice since that night.  My job is great and I get to travel all over the place, so if I have a kid I'll have to give all that up. What do I do Janice?"

         Janice got up from the kitchen table and poured both them a cup of coffee. "Well the first thing you should do is go see a doctor and have them confirm the pregnancy test."

         "Have you ever read the box? These things are like 99% accurate if they come out positive.  I followed all the direction and waited till the morning to pee on it. I'm pregnant. I know it and I may as well face it."

         "Ok then.  Kristen you gotta tell Nick. It's his baby too."

         "Yeah, but it's my body. What if I decide I wanna  have an abortion and he's one of those fanatical pro-life people?"

         "Do you wanna have an abortion?"

         Kristin didn't answer for a few seconds, then softly, "No. But I'm scared. I know I gotta tell him, but how?"

         Janice walked over, picked up the phone off its base and handed it to Kristen.

         "I can't call him now. It's Sunday morning. What if he's at church?"

         "Ummm, didn't you stay at his place on a Saturday night? Was he rushing you out the next morning so he could go to church?" Kristin smiled and shook her head. "Then I'd bet he's at home."

         "Yeah, you're probably right. But what if I call over there and he's with some other chick?"

         "Kristin, stop stalling. Call him. If he's not there, leave a message. If he's with someone, tell him you gotta talk to him and arrange to meet somewhere.  You've already admitted you want the baby and that he has a right to know, so..." Janice nodded toward the phone.

         "Ok. You're right. I just gotta do this."

         "Well, I'm gonna give you some privacy. I'm gonna go watch some TV in my room." She got up and started to leave the room.

         "Janice?"

         "Yeah?"

         "Thanks for listening to me and thanks for being such a great friend."

         "Awww. Come here" The two women hugged then Janice left Kristen to make her phone call.

         "Here goes nothing." She dialed the number and almost hoped she got voicemail, but on the third ring Nick picked up. "Hi Nick, it's Kristin."

         "Hey my favorite New Yorker. I was just thinking about you."

         "Really? Cuz we gotta talk."