I shrugged and shook my head, having no recollection of the name.

“It’s the woman I … from San Diego.”

“She’s here?” I asked, standing.

“I guess so,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Why?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, baby.”

“You were tested,” I said, trying not to show the intense panic igniting inside of me.

“Yeah … no, that can’t be it. That’s not it.”

My heart pounded against my rib cage, making the vessels in my head throb and my fingers tremble.

Taylor’s worry vanished, and a contrived smile softened his face. “C’mon. We’ll find out together.”

I took his outreached hand and grabbed my purse before following Taylor into the hall. We took the elevator to the first floor, and then we found the lounge. Taylor didn’t let go of my hand as he paused when he saw a beautiful woman sitting alone at one of the booths along the wall.

He tugged me forward and sat down, scooting across the bench. I sat next to him, looking at the last woman I’d ever expected to meet face-to-face.

“I know you’re surprised to see me,” she said. “I apologize for not calling first.” She glanced at me, blinking and looking down at her folded hands on the table. “But what I have to say needed to be said in person.”

Taylor’s hand squeezed mine. I wasn’t sure he even knew he was doing it.

“Does she …” Alyssa trailed off.

Taylor nodded. “This is my girlfriend, Falyn. She knows who you are and what happened.”

“Well, she doesn’t know this,” Alyssa said, raising her eyebrows. She pulled a folded paper that looked like it had been wadded up a few times and pushed it across the table to Taylor.

He opened it, read it, and set it down in front of him. I waited, staring at the side of his face. His eyes had lost focus. He was so still that I wasn’t sure if he was still breathing.

I had a few ideas about what the paper said, none of them I wanted to be true.

“Pregnant?” Taylor said, swallowing.

All the air was knocked out of me, and my eyes instantly glossed over.

Alyssa sighed. “Fifteen weeks tomorrow. I scheduled an abortion for Thursday.”

“You … do you want me to go with you?” Taylor asked.

Alyssa breathed a laugh, unimpressed. “No. I canceled it.”

“So …” Taylor began. “You’re keeping it.”

“No.”

I rubbed my forehead and then looked down, trying not to scream. This wasn’t happening to us, to that baby.

“You’re giving it up?” Taylor asked.

“That depends,” Alyssa said, putting the paper back into her purse. Her cool demeanor was maddening. “I’m not in the position to raise it. Are you?”

Taylor touched his chest. “You’re asking me if I want to keep it.”