The bathroom tile felt cold against my bare feet as I stared at the pregnancy test in my trembling hands. Two pink lines. Clear as day. Undeniable.
"No, no, no…" I whispered, my voice cracking. "This can't be happening."
I'd taken three tests. All positive. My period was two weeks late, and the nausea that had been plaguing me every morning suddenly made terrible, perfect sense.
My phone buzzed on the counter. A text from him.
Ethan: Coffee at our usual spot? I have news! 😊
Ethan Reed. My best friend since college.
The man I'd known for seven years. The one person who knew everything about me my dreams, my fears, my terrible taste in rom-coms.
The man whose baby I was now carrying.
My stomach lurched, though whether from morning sickness or pure panic, I couldn't tell. That night six weeks ago flashed through my mind in vivid, heated fragments. His birthday party. Too many drinks. The way he'd looked at me when everyone else had left. The electricity between us that we'd both been ignoring for years suddenly impossible to deny.
"Just one night," we'd agreed the next morning, awkward and hungover. "We'll pretend it never happened. Save the friendship."
Except now I had three positive pregnancy tests that said otherwise.
I caught my reflection in the mirror. Makeup-free, hair in a messy bun, wearing his old college hoodie that I'd "borrowed" years ago and never returned. At twenty-nine, I was supposed to have my life together. Instead, I was pregnant by my commitment-phobic best friend who'd just started dating someone new.
My phone buzzed again.
Ethan: You okay? You've been weird lately.
Ethan: If this is about that night, we said we'd move past it, remember?
Move past it. Right. As if I could move past the fact that I was carrying his child.
Another text came through.
Ethan: Also… I kind of need to talk to you about Jessica. I think I'm going to make it official with her.
The phone slipped from my fingers, clattering into the sink. Jessica. The pretty blonde he'd been seeing for three weeks.
The one he'd told me about with that excited gleam in his eyes, asking if I thought she could be "the one."
I pressed my hand against my still-flat stomach, tears burning behind my eyes.
"What am I going to do?" I whispered to my reflection.
The apartment felt too small suddenly, the walls closing in. I needed air. I needed to think. I needed…
A knock at my door made me jump.
"Mira? You in there?" Ethan's voice called through the wood. "I was in the neighborhood. Brought your favorite croissants!"
Of course he did. Because Ethan was thoughtful like that. Sweet. Caring. The kind of guy who remembered that I liked my coffee with oat milk and two sugars, who showed up with comfort food when I had a bad day, who'd held me while I cried through two breakups.
The kind of guy who deserved to know he was going to be a father.
I grabbed the pregnancy tests, shoving them into my hoodie pocket as I stumbled toward the door. My hand hesitated on the doorknob.
This was it. The moment that would change everything between us. No going back.
I opened the door.
Ethan stood there in his usual casual perfection dark jeans, leather jacket, that devastating smile that had probably gotten him out of trouble his entire life. His chocolate-brown hair was slightly tousled, and those green eyes that haunted my dreams crinkled at the corners as he grinned at me.
"There's my favorite hermit," he teased, holding up a pastry bag. "You look terrible, by the way. Are you sick?"
"I…" The words stuck in my throat. Tell him. Just tell him. "I need to talk to you."
His smile faltered, concern replacing the playfulness. "Okay, that sounds serious. What's wrong?"
He stepped inside, and I closed the door behind him, my heart hammering so hard I was sure he could hear it.
"Sit down," I managed.
"Mira, you're scaring me." But he sat on my couch anyway, setting the pastries on the coffee table. "What's going on?"
I pulled the pregnancy test from my pocket, my hand shaking so badly the plastic rattled. For a moment, I just stood there, unable to move, unable to breathe.
"Mira?" Ethan's voice was gentle now, worried.
I held out the test.
He stared at it, not moving, not speaking. Five seconds passed. Ten. Twenty.
Then his eyes snapped up to mine, wide with shock. "Is that… Are you…?"
"Pregnant," I whispered. "I'm pregnant, Ethan."
The color drained from his face. "But we used"
"Condoms aren't 100% effective."
He stood abruptly, running his hands through his hair, pacing across my small living room. "Holy shit. Holy shit." He turned to face me.
"You're sure? You've seen a doctor?"
"Three home tests. All positive. I have an appointment scheduled for next week to confirm, but…" I wrapped my arms around myself. "I'm pretty sure."
"And it's…" He couldn't even finish the sentence.
"It's yours," I said firmly, anger flashing through the fear. "That night was the only time I've had sex in six months, so yes, Ethan, it's definitely yours."
He sat back down heavily, his head in his hands. The silence stretched between us, suffocating.
"Say something," I pleaded.
He looked up at me, and the expression on his face made my heart crack. Panic. Pure, undiluted panic.
"I don't know what to say," he admitted, his voice rough. "I just told Jessica I wanted to be exclusive. I was going to ask her to move in with me. And now…" He gestured helplessly between us. "Now you're telling me you're pregnant with my baby?"
Each word was a knife to my chest. "I know the timing is terrible"
"Terrible?" He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Mira, this is catastrophic. I'm not ready to be a father. I can barely take care of myself. And you and I… we're friends. We're not we're not a couple. We're not in love."
The last sentence hit harder than it should have. Because he was right. We weren't in love.
Except that wasn't entirely true, was it? At least not on my side.
I'd been in love with Ethan Reed for three years. I'd just never admitted it out loud.
"I know," I said quietly, forcing the words past the lump in my throat. "I'm not asking you to be with me, Ethan. I'm not asking you for anything. I just… you deserved to know."