“As much as I want to fuck you, Phileigh, I can’t penetrate you tonight. I’m not that nigga,” he said, staring at me sincerely.

I sank into the cover, wishing I could disappear. This was so embarrassing.

“I’m not about to harm the baby,” he said.

He was concerned about my baby. I stared at him speechless. He was showing me a level of concern that the person who helped me sprout this seed hadn’t shown, and I was completely caught off guard.

“I’ll be back to get you early. We can do a character breakfast before your flight leaves. Get some rest.”

He stood from the bed, preparing to leave. My mind was going a mile a minute. Was he saying that he still wanted to pursue me?

“Hey…” I called out to him softly. “Are we… like… are you still interested in me? I don’t want to assume anything.”

I was nervous about his response. He stopped in the doorway and turned to look at me before making his way back over to the bed and taking a seat.

“You being pregnant isn’t enough to run me off, Phileigh. I still want to get to know you.”

I bit my lip nervously. “But me being pregnant is a huge factor. I’ll be taking on something new, and I don’t know if I have time to invest in getting to know you.”

“We’ll both be experiencing something new then. You’ve never been pregnant before, and I’ve never dated anyone pregnant. We can figure this shit out at the same damn time.”

Together. Dated. His words echoed in my brain. The last twenty-four hours had been crazy. Heck, if I was being honest, the last week had been crazy. I’d found out I was pregnant, got ghosted, and now, I was sitting here with the man of every woman’s dreams.

“It doesn’t bother you that I’m pregnant?” I repeated. Maybe he hadn’t actually grasped what that meant.

“It doesn’t. It happened before we met.”

“But you don’t even know by who.”

“Don’t care. Y’all together?”

“No, he blocked me the moment I told him I was expecting. Apparently, my pregnancy doesn’t align with his engagement to a woman I knew nothing about. You’re looking at another statistic,” I said sarcastically.

“Damn. Niggas be out here moving foul as fuck. It’s his loss, though. Fuck that nigga.” He kissed my forehead.

“I thought I knew his character, you know? What do they say? I chose him, right? I can’t complain.”

“Bullshit. Just like you chose him, he chose to nut in you, knowing he had a gal. Please don’t beat yourself up about it. Everything happens for a reason.”

“I know my baby is meant to be here.” I meant every word.