Free The Heartbreak Cafe by Melissa Hill

much
later that night, as she and her husband shared more than just ‘a
couple’ of margaritas and spent much of their time laughing and
chatting like they always did, Jess wondered what on earth she had
been worrying about. Her life was wonderful and she had everything
to be grateful for. So why on earth waste time stressing about what
she didn’t have?

Chapter 6

    Ruth
worried the entire way to Dublin. During the first flight from L.A.
to New York she suffered through a hangover and a low level panic
that pulsated in her stomach. Chloe had arranged for the morning
after pill without asking any questions and had packed it in her
carry-on bag, along with a pregnancy test kit that she said ‘should
set your mind at ease later’. Ruth had taken the pill while waiting
for the flight to board at LAX and hoped against hope that it would
do the job.
    Now, as
she walked through Kennedy airport, heading towards the gate for
the connecting Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, she turned her cell
phone back on and saw that she had voicemail waiting. She punched
in her code and listened. When she heard the voice, her stomach
clenched.
    ‘ Ruth, babe it’s me, Troy. Hey, how did you get out of the
hotel room so fast?’ her co-star asked. ‘You were gone before I
woke up.’ There was a pause; as if he was searching for something
to say. ‘Hey, just wanted to say that I had a great time last night
and well … I hope we’re cool. We were both pretty hammered, I guess
… Anyway, I’d like to see you again. I know you’ll be gone for a
bit but … hey, maybe just call me when you get this?’
    Oh, she
thought to herself. What did all that mean? At first, it sounded
like a message left by someone who really wanted to cover his ass,
but then he’d asked to see her again. On a date, or just for more
sex? She shook her head and wondered if he carried any of the same
worries that she did right now. Unlikely  he was a man after all
and a split condom wouldn’t be an issue for him, wouldn’t have
potentially career-changing consequences.
    She
thought of her painstakingly maintained size zero body, pictured
stretch marks developing on her toned stomach and winced. It
couldn’t happen, could it? Life really couldn’t be that
cruel.
    She
briefly remembered reading something about the age at which women
were supposed to have a decline in fertility  age thirty she
thought, so maybe for once, her age would work in her favour?
Regardless that everyone in Hollywood believed she was
twenty-five.
    When Ruth
reached her gate, she saw that the flight was already boarding.
Good, she wouldn’t have to wait around. She just wanted to try and
put all this behind her, and while she wasn’t as excited to be
returning to Ireland now, she felt that the distance between her
and that stupid mistake from last night was exactly what she
needed, even if that distance was just miles.
    Now,
cruising at thirty thousand feet over the Atlantic, Ruth put the
sleep mask over her eyes and tried to relax. But try as she might,
she just couldn’t get last night out of her mind. She briefly
thought through her options. Okay, if (and it was a big ‘if’ at
this point) she was pregnant, it could still be a secret. She would
be in Ireland for the next few months; so she could always pop over
to London to get it dealt with. No one would have to
know
    But no,
even though it was the obvious solution to what could potentially
be a career-wrecking problem, Ruth found it difficult to even
consider that. While she knew that she could not allow her
glittering career to come falling down around her ankles, she would
also not allow herself to do such a thing. There had to be another
way. She would figure this out, in the same way she had always
figured things out. She hadn’t become a Hollywood star through lack
of determination or know-how after all.

    The
flight landed in Dublin early the following morning Irish-time.
However, the fact that Ruth was still operating on