Fall to You (Here and Now 2)

Maggie gawks at me as if I suddenly started speaking in tongues.

Best to just spit it out, I guess, but I lower my voice and lean over the table so curious ears don’t hear. “I’m pregnant.”

Maggie chokes on her beer and the mug clatters to the table, its contents sloshing. “Pregnant…like metaphorically, right?”

I look to Nix, who’s nodding in confirmation. “Nix called me in LA. My blood work came back and everything looks good…except that.”

Maggie blinks at me. “But you’re a virgin.”

“So they say,” Liz mutters.

“One of them must be lying, right?” Maggie says.

“Which one?” Cally asks.

Liz raises a brow. “Kind of an awkward question to ask.”

I fill them all in on the memory that had me leaving for LA and the truth about how Max and I were pretending to be together before my accident so he’d still have a good chance at getting the grant money.

Cally’s studying her beer.

“You knew, didn’t you?” I ask Cally. “You knew we’d broken up.”

She worries her lower lip between her teeth and shrugs. “Will and Max are best friends. Max needed someone to confide in when it was all going down.”

Liz gapes at her. “And you didn’t think you should’ve mentioned it to her after the accident?”

Cally shows her palms in defense. “I didn’t know until the night of the bachelorette party. Will told me then.”

“So why didn’t Will say something when Hanna woke up without her memory?” Maggie asks. “Didn’t he think she should know her relationship was pretend?”

Cally shrugs. “But it wasn’t. Not anymore. Hanna was wearing the ring. Will thought she’d finally taken Max back.”

We’re all silent for a bit. I sip my water while the girls nurse their beers.

Then Cally asks, “Have you told Max about the pregnancy?”

I shake my head. “He’s going to meet me here later, and I’m planning to tell him then. He came over last night, but we were a little busy arguing about Nate, and I never got around to telling him.”

Maggie’s eyes go wide. “Max knows about Nate?”

I pull the magazine from my purse and plop it on the middle of the table. “Apparently that’s what Mom was looking at when she started having chest pains.”

“Oh, shit,” Cally says.

“I told her I was there as an extra for a music video.”

“Good cover,” Maggie says. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“I don’t know if she believed me or not,” I admit.

“I’m sure she believed you,” Liz says. “She wants to see you marry Max too badly to believe anything that doesn’t align with that goal.”

“Speaking of marrying Max,” Maggie says. “I presume that’s over now t

hat the thing with Nate’s out of the bag?”

“It’s over,” I admit. “He wants me for the wrong reasons.” Or I think he does. Our conversation last night left my mind spinning with confusion and my body hungry with wanting. “He has so many financial problems.”