Kane (Face-Off 2)

“You okay, K?” Sydney’s singsong voice fills the quiet room.

“Syd, my stuff is out at the table. I’ll be fine just go keep an eye on things.” I wipe my mouth, flush the toilet, and try to get the spins under control.

“I’ve got you covered,” she says, confident. “Do you need me to hold your hair or anything?”

“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.” My throat is so raw it hurts when I speak.

When I open the door, Sydney is waiting for me on the other side with her back pressed against the wall, our purses dangling from her arm and my laptop bag slung over her shoulder.

“What about our table?” I ask but could care less at this point, because all I can think about is going home and laying in bed for the rest of the day.

“I let a group of girls have it. We need to get you back to my place stat.”

I walk over to the sink, slap some water on my face, and wash my hands, staring into the mirror in horror. My skin has a yellowish tint, and I look like fucking death. Tyler will have a stroke when he sees me like this.

“That was so weird,” Sydney says, adjusting the strap on her shoulder with laughter in her voice. “One minute you were fine, and the next you turned into the Exorcist.”

I cup my hands together and fill them with water to splash on my face one last time. “Shut up. It’s not funny. I just hurled up everything I have eaten for the last day, and I am not in the mood right now.”

She lifts a strand of hair from my face and pushes it behind my ear. “Did you eat something bad this morning?”

“No, the cake is the first thing I have eaten all day. Tyler had a workout with his trainer this morning, and I forgot to eat since he wasn’t around.”

“You’re not…” She bites down on her bottom lip, her expression turning grim.

She doesn’t even have to finish the thought before I realize where she’s going with this conversation. But that is not possible.

“No.” My tone lacks confidence. “Tyler and I stopped using condoms a while ago, but I am on birth control. It’s…no—”

“Babe, it’s okay if you are preggers. You’re both adults.” She runs her hand down my back to soothe me except this talk is having the opposite effect on me. I may puke all over again at the thought.

“I’m telling you, Syd, there’s no way I am pregnant.”

“Because you are on birth control? While it may be super useful most of the time, it can fail.”

Taking my purse from her arm, I slip it onto my forearm and reach inside to retrieve my empty birth control pill packet. I finished my entire dose five days ago. But when I open the pack, I spot one last pill in the row above the sugar pills. Somehow, I must have mixed them with the real medicine.

“Fuck,” I mutter to myself under my breath.

Sydney takes the pills from my hand, her face twisting into a mixture of surprise and disgust before she gives them back to me and feigns a smile. “You will be okay. No matter what, I am here for you and Tyler will be as well.”

I cannot and will not accept reality, my entire world feeling as though it is crashing down on me all at once. How will Tyler take the news if it turns out I am pregnant?

“I have to call Tyler,” I tell her as we leave the restroom. “He is going to freak out.”

“Maybe not. For all you know, Tyler wants kids. Besides, you could be fine.”

I still haven’t told Sydney about Blake or Tyler’s extended family. She has no idea how Tyler may feel about this situation. Keeping my fingers crossed, I follow behind Sydney as we stroll through the café and out the front door.

On our way to Sydney’s apartment, we stop by the pharmacy and buy three pregnancy tests—because one did not feel like enough at the time. Sydney unboxes all three while I wait on the toilet for her to hand them over. She insisted she does this with me, regardless of how awkward it is for her to stand here as she gives me the sticks. I pee on each one and set them on the counter next to me, afraid and scared for both Tyler and me of the results.

While I know he wants kids, children are a sensitive subject with Tyler. The outcome of the tests holds our future. I am beyond terrified.

I hold my breath, sinking my elbows into my thighs and glancing over at Sydney as we wait for the tests to change color.

“It’s going to be okay, babe.” Sydney sits on the floor next to me and rubs her hand down my forearm. “No matter what the tests say, you have Tyler and me. You have your family. We will all be here to support you. If it’s Tyler you’re worried about, he’s a grown man who can handle it.”

“We haven’t been together long enough for us to be thinking about having children.” I shake my head, both frustrated and irritated with myself. “As much as we have sex, we were running through condoms every other day, and with my irregular periods, I was already on the pill, so I didn’t think anything of it. I never mess up like this. How did I not see that I was taking the wrong pills?”