Free Bridge of Hope by Lisa J. Hobman Page B

calm the storm raging beneath my skin as I thought about her being unfaithful. I hated the idea. She should’ve dumped me first. “Alice, just tell me.”
    “I’m… Greg… I’m four weeks pregnant.”
     

Chapter Twelve
    June 1995
    My mouth fell open and I could swear my heart stopped for a split second. I let go of her and stood up, running my hands through my hair. I peered down at her, sitting there, sobbing. She looked… broken . I rubbed my hands over my face and let out a long huff of air. What the hell did we do now?
    She gazed up at me. “You have to know, Greg that I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
    “But… you’re on the pill. I don’t… I don’t get it, Alice… how…?”
    She shrugged. “They don’t always work. They’re only… like… ninety-something percent reliable.”
    “Fuck.” The word fell out of my mouth as I closed my eyes. This was my worst nightmare come true. I loved sex. Couldn’t get enough of it. But I had never expected this. I thought that we were protected. Fucking idiot.
    I sat beside her again and leaned my elbows on my knees. “What… erm… what do we do now?”
    “I have no idea, Greg. I’m so scared.” I turned to see her lip trembling and my heart broke. This was my fault. I’d done this. I know they say it takes two to tango, but I should’ve worn condoms as well. This was a stupid male pride thing. I hated condoms. And she was my first, so I knew I wouldn’t give her anything. Pregnancy never entered my thoughts.
    Until now.
    It was time to step up and be a man. I had some major decisions to make, but I had to be a fucking adult and grow a pair of metaphorical bollocks. Ironic thought pattern, considering the mess my actual bollocks had gotten me into. Fuck. Me… a daddy? Fuck.
    We sat there in silence for a long while until Alice stood. “I think I should go, Greg. We both need time to adjust. And then we need to decide the way forward.”
    I stood before her and cupped her face in my hands.
    “Marry me.” The words fell out of my mouth before I’d really thought them through—and as soon as they had, I clamped my stupid mouth shut.
    Her face lit up. “What? Greg, are you serious?”
    No going back now . “Well… we’re going to have a baby and… we need to make a proper commitment. We need to be a family for this little one,” I said sliding my hand down across her tummy.
    Tears over spilled her chocolate-brown eyes and she hugged me hard. “Oh, Greg, you’ve made me so happy. I thought I was going to have to get rid of it. I thought we’d be over. But… Oh, Greg.”
    “No, no, we’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.” I said it for my benefit more than for Alice’s. What the hell had I done? Idiot! I was twenty-one and not ready to be either a husband or a father.
    ~~~
    August 1995
    We stood outside Oban registry office as Connell snapped photos. Alice’s friend Anna did the same. I forced smiles and cringed as Alice clung to me and posed for the camera. Her simple wedding band was flashed at the lens in every shot. She was so proud of it. We’d gone for silver bands as we couldn’t afford gold. Connell and Anna had been our witnesses, and the service had been over in fifteen minutes. We’d decided to get wed before Alice’s bump started to show and she couldn’t fit into a nice dress.
    She wore a white knee-length summer dress with pale blue flowers dotted all over it. She carried a bunch of fake blue flowers and had put one in her hair too. It all felt so contrived… so pretentious. But what could I do? I’d gotten the girl pregnant; the least I could do was marry her. A table was booked for the four of us to eat at our favourite Chinese restaurant to celebrate the marriage.
    The meal was good, but for some reason my stomach was unsettled. I felt like a thousand tiny elephants were stampeding through my intestines or learning to bloody tap-dance in there. Something was off. I couldn’t help the uneasy feeling that had taken