As I grab his bag, I swing by the calendar on the side of the fridge to check if he has everything he needs for today. Last time I forgot to check, he was the only kid without a show-and-tell. Mum guilt was strong that day, seeing his sad little face come out of the gates wrecked me. I won’t make that mistake again, so I check down the list. But it’s something else that catches my eye.

My period is three days late.

My period is like clockwork.

Fuck.

My mind reels thinking about when my last period ended. I never forget to take my pill, I know I haven’t missed a day. I take it at the same time as my last round of painkillers every day and I sure as hell never forget them.

Then it comes back in flashes. Me laying on the bathroom floor heaving into the toilet. Jack had picked up a bug in school and I caught it. The burden of comforting your sick kid is that the germs are in your face too. I wasn’t sick for as long as him, maybe a day and a half but that’s enough isn’t it? I pull out my phone to google. Maybe vomiting only affects the effectiveness of your contraceptive if you’re ill for a week? God, let me be wrong. I can’t be pregnant. But Google proves my fears, vomiting can make your pill ineffective, and that damn illness ended days before my one-night stand.

I was on the pill. The pill just wasn’t on me.

“Mum, we have to gooooooo.” Jack tugs on the hem of my jumper and my eyes snap to him. I have to take my kid to school and open Bloom and Blossom, I don’t have time to think about the high possibility that I’m with child. That will have to be a nightmare for later.

But as I throw my jacket on, I have a gut feeling. I’m going to be a mum to two and I’m going to have to use Liam’s number after all.

Chapter Four

Ellis

This isn’t the first time I have sat on the blue tiled floor of my bathroom. It won’t be the last time either, but this time, my world is shifting. The many other times I’ve sat on this floor since I moved into this two-bedroom flat I haven’t taken the time to notice my surroundings; I am usually too busy overthinking and spiralling to notice the state of the room. I locked myself in a different bathroom before Jack was born, that’s how I found out I was going to be a mum for the first time.