Beside me, Jake flicks absently through his phone, looks out the window and bites his nails.  It makes me wonder what it was Dan needed to speak with him about alone.  Mainly, though, I've been deep in my own thoughts, chewing on my lip and wondering how on earth I do this.  Suddenly he clears his throat.

"So, you and Steph got on well then I take it?" His tone is casually curious.  He doesn't lift his eyes from his phone but I feel his attention shift to me in an unseen kind of way. 

"What? Oh, yes, she's nice. Not what I imagined," I nod, glancing at him briefly. "Friendly."

He nods back, shoulders a little tense. "Yeah... friendly," he mutters. Then he turns his head to me. "What were you talking about when we were downstairs?"

I smile nervously. "You, Dan, men, jewellery."

He says nothing, watching me closely.  When I turn to look at him there's an odd look on his face.  It's one I recognise.  I've seen it before.  More than once. Oh my god. The realisation digs it's sharp claw-like nails into my chest and the air in my lungs evaporates instantly. 

"Oh god," I say. It comes out as a half whisper.

"What's wrong?" he asks.  

"You have to be kidding me?" I shake my head. 

"Alex, you're freaking me out..." He actually has the nerve to look like he has no clue what I'm talking about. 

"Oh my god I'm such a bloody idiot," I mutter.  I can't decide if I'm annoyed or angry or hurt or all three. Most likely all three. Christ how bloody dense am I?  He's shifting in his seat now and it only makes the claws hook into me a little further.  Like needles plunged deep into my chest. 

He runs a hand over his mouth and shakes his head.  "You're gonna have to help me out here, baby?"

When I turn to give him a wide-eyed glare he gives me a blank stare.  Christ he looks so beautiful it hurts.   Why I register this in this moment I don't know, except that it distracts me from this new immediate revelation for a second. Then from nowhere I feel something hot and wet announce itself behind my eyes blurring my vision. 

Up ahead I see a break in the trees and so I lift my foot from the accelerator and pull into what I see is the entrance to a gated private road. The gate is locked and the road beyond shrouded in complete darkness. I stop the car and pull up the handbrake before taking a few deep breaths.

"Does Dan know?" I ask. 

"Know what?" he replies, innocently.   

God he's good.  She was good too.  I take my time before answering, to give him time to change his answer maybe, to give my blood some time to cool down maybe. A memory of Steph's large round eyes on her pretty face creeps into my mind then. Innocent eyes. Friendly eyes. My nostrils flare angrily as the embarrassment burns through me.   "That you slept with her,"  I say.  I can't look at him.

The silence seems to last forever until finally, he speaks. 

"Yeah, he knows." He says with a tired sigh.   "It's not much of a secret."

I whip round to look at him.  "It was a secret to me!" I snap.  

He nods, licking his lips. "Yeah. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?  Why are you sorry, Jake?"

He looks lost.  "For upsetting you."

"I'm not upset."

"For making you pissed off then."

"Guess again."

He runs a hand over his mouth, looking stressed.  "Then I don't fucking know Alex.  What is it you want me to say here?"

That hurts me.  It hurts me that he doesn't know what I want him to say.  When I speak again my voice is softer.  "You should have told me before I went in there. I feel like a bloody idiot."

He opens his mouth to tell me he's sorry again I think but closes it without speaking.

"So I suppose from now on I'll just assume you've fucked every girl in London until you inform me otherwise. You know, to be on the safe side." I give him a withering stare and he looks down guiltily.    Then something occurs to me.  "What does 'it wasn't much of a secret' mean? Oh god, you and her were a thing? You dated her?" She made me like her.  She sat there and confided in me and made me empathise with her.   Does she still have feelings for him?  Is that what that was all about?  Is that why she doesn't want Dan's child?  I feel sick. 

"What? No. We weren't a thing," he frowns and shakes his head again. "It happened once."

The internal raged panic calms a little, though not completely.  She could still have feelings for him.  I remember well how much I still wanted him after one night with him.  

"So what then?  It happened once and you told everyone about it?  Was she that spectacular?" I widen my eyes.

He sighs. "No, that wasn't it either," He rubs a hand over his face and pinches his eyes closed — his usual body language for wanting to be anywhere but this conversation.

"Then what, Jake?"

"Alex, please. Baby let's not do this." He turns to me and pleads with his eyes. The action makes me feel even more nauseous.  He's desperate for me not to push this.  So naturally, I want to push this.  Naturally I need to know.  

I turn my body fully round in the seat again and stare him down.  "What is that you so clearly don't want to talk about?"

He curses under his breath and closes his eyes again. Meanwhile my mind starts working overtime.  It's trying to remember if I saw anything between them tonight, anything that should worry me, anything that seemed awkward or stilted or deceitful.  There wasn't.  They were fine.  Completely civil.    Is this what I've become?  Jealous and suspicious? Oh god that makes me even more angry.

But why does he look so bloody uncomfortable?

"Tell me."

"Alex, can we not? I don't want to fucking go here right now." 

"Oh trust me, I'd love to not go here Jake but now I can't stop thinking about it and why you're so desperate to avoid it.  I mean I get why it wouldn't have come up in conversation over dinner, but you might have at least mentioned it beforehand, before you walked me in there and she was paraded in front of me." Before I liked her and promised to help her.   "I mean don't you think it would have been the decent thing to do given I was going to be sat across from her all night?"

Would I really have wanted to know beforehand?  I know if he had told me then it would have made me look at her differently - act differently.  But by the same token, it annoys me knowing that all three of them knew and I didn't.  I feel foolish, like I was the butt of some joke I didn't hear or understand. 

"Yeah, maybe.  Maybe I should have told you.  I thought about it," he admits. 

"So what stopped you? And why can't you look me in the eye?" I ask, noting the way he's still looking everywhere but at me.  "What on earth am I missing here?" 

He turns to look at me then and gives me a firm shake of his head.  "Baby, you're not missing a fucking thing, trust me. It happened once — almost three years ago.  It meant nothing, less than nothing." He drops his eyes again.

I nod slowly.  "One time that meant nothing that everyone knew about?"

He holds my eye for a moment and then turns his head away.  He drops it back on the headrest and closes his eyes once more.  "Fucking hell..." he sighs quietly. "You seriously you want to know this shit?  Who I was then?  You seriously want to know the kind of guy I was before you?"

I narrow my eyes on him. I feel like laughing.  "Oh I know the kind of guy you were before me Jake, the kind of guy you were before me is haunting every single moment of our bloody lives." 

"With women, I meant,"  he says rather sheepishly. 

I let out a breath.  "What happened with Stephanie, Jake?"

His nostrils flare and his jaw tightens before he nods and  turns to look out the windscreen again.  "Fine..." he grumbles, defeated.   He's silent for a few long torturous moment before he begins talking, his voice low and rough.  "We used to hang out at Talia's a lot; it's a bar — with dancers.  Before I had a club to run, before I had a girlfriend I wanted to be with every minute of every day," he looks at me then and his eyes soften. Mine stay wary.  "We used it as a place for doing deals, setting up deals, meeting people.   When we weren't doing that we watched women take their clothes off for money." He watches my expression carefully, like he always does when telling me things he'd rather I didn't know about him. I try to keep it impassive. 

Shifting in my chair slightly, I try and ignore the hot, increasingly familiar, burn of jealousy that moves through me.  Him ogling women. Maybe this was a bad idea.  "Steph was new," he goes on.   "New girls were always distracting," he swallows but his eyes never leave mine.  "Plus, I'd already fucked all of the other ones."

I blink slowly.  "How many were there?  Girls?  At Talia's."

He thinks about this - I don't know if it's because he can't remember exactly and needs time to recall it, or if he's trying to decide whether to lie to me or not. 

"Ten maybe," He shrugs.  "And four barmaids."

Fourteen girls.  In one place.  He'd fucked all of them?  And Gemma. And Dawn from the lift. And Vicky.  And the woman who stabbed him.  And me. That made nineteen in just the shortest most closed radius.

I'd been with three men before him. 

"So Steph was new.." I say as an indication for him to continue.  It seems too late to stop now.

"We didn't pay them for anything," he says.  This I know isn't by way of excuse or vindication, it's simply context and fact.   "Drinks, dances, extras.  Dan owns the place — which meant that we pretty much owned the place. Anyway, she'd been there a few weeks, and I knew she liked me."

"She was young, too fucking young, she had no clue what she was getting herself into, none of them ever do..." He shakes his head and I wonder if I also fall into this category for him.  "One night after they'd closed up we were all hanging around, drinking —  We'd all had way too much to drink, coke too, it was one of those nights, you know," he explains, like I've ever had one of those nights.  His head snaps up and he meets my stare.  "I don't do that shit anymore Alex, the last time I touched any of that shit was about two years ago. I'm done with that." His eyes as they implore me to believe him are sincere and it's all I need to know.

"I believe you," I say. 

His mouth softens and he nods and then he's serious again.  "Steph was all over me, literally, telling me shit about her life, her family problems — shit I didn't care about, I just wanted to fuck her. " A guilty look flashes across his eyes as he turns to look at me.  "I asked her to suck my cock, right there, in front of everyone - and she did." He's still watching my reaction intently. I honestly have no idea what it is.  My fists curl and I feel heat creep up my neck to my cheeks and my mouth waters of its own accord.  In my head I see Jake sat down with Steph on her knees in front of him. I see him holding her head and moaning in pleasure as she takes him in her mouth.  Jealousy is what I feel.  I didn't even know him then and yet the thought of him with her makes me feel a deep hot jealousy that curls sickeningly around my spine.

There's something else too though — something I'm too embarrassed to admit even to myself at this point.  As I lift my eyes to Jake's his face flickers with something.  Deep regret maybe, guilt definitely.  He takes a deep breath to go on and I want to tell him to stop because I've heard enough but of course I don't.  Of course I say nothing. 

"Then I fucked her.  Over a pool table. In front of everyone," his voice is flat and unemotional, matter of fact. "Some watched.  Some didn't.  The next time I saw her I pretended I couldn't remember a thing about it.  Which was mainly true.  I treated her like I treated all the others - like shit. I used her."

He looks and sounds deeply ashamed of himself but it does nothing to dispel the image of him fucking the gorgeous slim dancer over a pool table.  The image is very loud and bright and vivid in the confines of my car.  I feel so... unexciting.  It's not the point in Jakes confession of course, it seems like the very antithesis of the reason behind his confession in fact, but it still makes me think:  So thats the kind of sex he used to have before me?  Risqué public sex with gorgeous lap dancers?  I'm pathetic.

"So I suppose that explains why it wasn't a secret..." I mutter. 

"Dan wasn't there, but he heard about it." 

I'm sure he did. The image of it is hard to shake. My body feels tight and hot and the car feels stuffy and small and I feel suddenly nauseous.  I  need air.  I pop open the drivers door and step out onto the gravel and close him inside with the confession.  The sound of his door opening and him stepping out of the car comes a moment later.  He stalks around to my side and comes to a stop before me, where I'm standing with my hand on my stomach taking slow deep breaths.  

From my half bent over stance I can see his silver watch glinting in the moonlight. I stare at that to try and focus on something other than the very slowly subsiding sickness. 

"Baby, I'm sorry," he says. "I told you before, I'm not proud of who I was then.  I'm different with—."

"With me, I know," I say, cutting him off.  "Why is that?" I stand up straight and meet his eye. 

"What?"

"Why are you different with me?"

He frowns, looking confused.  "You know why."

"Because I'm different to the other women you've been with?"

His eyes narrow, warily but he nods.  "Yes, and becau—."

"Different how?" I ask.  "How am I different?  You mean more... square?  More boring?"

"What?" He shakes his head, confused. "No, that's not what I mean, Alex."

"Really?"

"Yes, really,"  He frowns harder.  He looks irritated now which only darkens my mood further.  I'm sure he's never had to have these kinds of discussions with any of his other women before either.  Well, bloody tough. 

"Okay and so what happens the next time you're just sitting around getting drunk with your friends, and some gorgeous lap dancer is all over you?  What happens when she offers to suck your cock or let you fuck her over a pool table?  What then Jake??"

His eyes narrow and darken on me so that he looks more than slightly irritated, he looks completely pissed off. "What the fuck do you think happens then Alex?"

"I'm asking you."

His nostrils flare. "You asking me if I'd screw around on you? If I'd cheat on you?  Seriously, Alex? That's what you're asking me here?" he sounds utterly incredulous. Furious and incredulous.

I glance away from the dark look in his eyes. "No. I don't know," I shake my head. I know he wouldn't cheat on me. It's never once crossed my mind that he would cheat on me. What am I asking him here? "That's not what I meant."

"Then would you mind translating for me what the fuck it is you do mean baby? Because I'm not really getting it."

"I just mean... well, what happens when you get bored?  What happens when you realise that being with me, living the kind of life I lead, with me, isn't exciting or thrilling, and what happens when you get bored with it?" I look back at him.  Have I even explained that properly? What am I trying to say?  My head feels like a violent whirlwhind of thoughts and emotions. This has to be a hormonal thing.

He stares at me for a long moment before finally his eyes soften, his mouth too, his shoulders dropping into a relaxed stance. 

"Is that a question?" He asks. 

I give him a half nod.  "Yes."

He smiles a little.  "What happens when I get bored of you?  That's what you're asking me?"

"Yes," I answer, stronger.   "I'm not like the women you're used to being with and right now that's different — maybe even what attracted you to me.  But what happens when I'm not different anymore and when you feel trapped and fenced in and when some gorgeous young dancer wants you and I'm calling and whining for you to come home to me?" I ask in a rush.  He won't want to come home to me.  Especially not when there's a newborn baby screaming the place down and he's spent all night at his club working.  

He steps in closer pressing his body up against me and my body back against the car.  Drawing his hands up to my face, he tilts my head back and forces me to look up into his eyes.  He says nothing. Just gives an expectant sort of look.

"You'll get bored of coming home to me Jake, I know you will eventually. I don't want to be the boring, square girlfriend you dread coming home to..."  Ben got bored.  How could Jake not get bored?  Jake surrounded by women throwing themselves at him.  I feel sick again. Hormonal, emotional and sick 

"Bored?" he says.  It's not really a question. He says it like maybe the word is ridiculous in and of itself.  I shrug, nodding.   "Bored of what, Alex?  Bored of being with the woman I love?  Bored of looking at the most beautiful woman I've ever seen?  Bored of hearing her talk and listening to her laugh?  Bored of stroking her hair until she falls asleep in my arms? Bored of being inside her body? Bored of being in the same space as the only other person on earth who gets and understands me and loves me for who I am?" His voice is soft but there's strength in it.  There's always so much strength in it.  I try and open my mouth to say something but nothing comes out.  He begins to stroke his thumb over the skin of my cheek as he stares deeper into my eyes.   "Baby, what the fuck is it you think I'd rather be doing exactly?  What part of I've waited my whole fucking life for you don't you understand?  Why would I give a minute of you up to be anywhere else now that I have you?"

Oh god.  Now I'm going to cry.  My mood swings these days are both surprising and worrying. 

"I'm sorry," is what comes out of my mouth. 

"Don't be sorry, just listen to me and understand what I'm saying.  Alex, I love you — you're one half of my entire world — I'd be with you every second of every fucking day and I'd still feel like I was missing out on you somehow." He shakes his head and leans into me, pushing his hips into the front of my body. He's a little hard now and it sends a jolt of calming heat through my body.  My face softens into a smile as I gaze up at him.   He looks so beautiful tonight.  So completely beautiful. 

"Well, you are missing out... on exciting public pool table sex." I point out, pouting slightly.

He drops his head back a fraction and slides his hands around my neck, entwining his fingers into my hair.  "There was nothing exciting about it, trust me. "

"So you were only pretending you couldn't remember it?"

He nods.  "I remember it."  He sounds sad about the fact. 

"So it wasn't even a little exciting?" it sounded exciting.  As jealous as I am, the image itself is more exciting than I like to admit.

He smiles, a glint in his eye.  "I much prefer exciting non-public, non-pool table sex with the woman I love."

The warm slow coiling and tightening has begun around my belly and thighs and my fingers move up and curl around his arms, digging in hard.  I want him. Now.  "What about exciting outdoor sex with the woman you love?"

Something flickers over his face, something dark and hot.  His eyes narrow a little.  "What are you saying?"

I give him my most innocent smile before reaching forward to graze my hands over the front of his jeans. 

"I think you know what I'm saying," I bite my lip and tug on the waistband hoping to tempt him.   Under the material, I feel him harden a little more and so I bring my hand down to the buckle of his belt and begin to unbuckle it. 

"Are you serious?" He asks quietly.

"Very."

"Alex, you don't have to prove anything to me," he says but there's heat in his low tone and his breathing is a little faster.   I give him another small smile.

"Oh I know," I lie.  I do have something to prove.  To myself mainly, but a little to him.  "But I want you and we're still half an hour from home and I don't want to wait that long to feel you inside me." I whisper, reaching up on my tiptoes so I can capture his mouth with mine.  He growls softly and opens his mouth to let me slide my tongue between his lips.  I stroke at his tongue sensually, before brushing my lips softly over his. 

With his belt unbuckled I'm able to slip my hand inside his jeans and so I take his erection in my hand and begin to stroke him.  Our kiss changes the instant I do, with him taking over, he grips my hair at the back of my head and forces my head back in submission as I tease my thumb over the moist tip of his erection.

"I will fuck you here Alex, I have no issues doing that," he breathes. 

"Mhm, is that a threat or a promise?" I whisper against the heat of his mouth. 

He tastes divine, his body hot and hard and it seems to soften me from the outside in.  When I'm with him I always feel like some weaker substance being worked on and moulded by him to his will.  Something desperate takes over me suddenly and I lower my mouth and drag my tongue up his throat, biting down softly on his chin, before flicking my tongue over his lips. 

He growls softly in response and then steps back from me and grabs my free hand, pulling me forcibly away from the car and into the dark. 

The start of the private road is gravel and rough beneath my feet, and the only light is the moon and the faint headlights from the car behind us now. He doesn't pull me very far, the gate is locked and behind it the road disappears into the black of the trees, but to the left of the gate is a large tree and he walks towards it at pace.  As we get closer to it he pulls me around and in front of him and then I feel the tree at my back.  Quickly, he reaches down and under my dress, yanking down my tights and underwear before he pushes his mouth back onto mine.  When I feel his fingers push inside me an instant later I moan and bite down hard on his lip, my knees weakening at his touch.

"It'll be quick and hard," he says roughly as he pulls back from my mouth.

"Thanks for the warning," I smile, panting now.  In the dark I see him smirk, the light of the moon falling over the dark ruffle of his hair and bearded mouth, his eyes still clear bright green pools of heat.  He drops his head down to my neck where he sucks hard and I then feel his free hand begin to work on the button of his jeans. 

When I hear the sound of his zip being pulled down I sink back further against the surface of the tree at my back.  He shoves his jeans down a little and presses himself against my nakedness, teasing me with his cock.  The bark of the tree pushes against my thighs and my behind but I don't register it as discomfort, it cools me, the soft night air about my lower half does the same.  His hands as they come back to my body are rough and demanding, pulling me into him and taunting my desire.  I feel breathless and faint, and like I may implode if he doesn't fuck me now.  I've never felt anything like the need I feel when we're like this.  When we're almost inside each other. Sometimes, most times, it feels as though my body aches whenever he isn't inside it, throbbing with a need and loss that only subsides when it has him.  Sometimes it feels pathetic, incapacitating, smothering, but other times, like right now, it feels like necessity — life affirming and rapturous.

He kisses me hard again before bringing his hand up to his mouth to drag his tongue over it.  Then it's gone and he begins stroking himself with the same hand, the fingers of his other hand still moving deep inside my body.  Pressing his upper body into mine, he raises one of my legs slightly to wrap it around his waist and gently removes his fingers from me.  Then, with one hard upward thrust, he pushes his cock deep inside me, keeping his eyes locked on mine as he does.  I gasp loud at the slight sting of pain that comes from the force and size of him.  He's fully hard and I'm not quite ready, but it's a delicious necessary kind of pain. He lowers his mouth back to my neck and begins to lick and suck as his upward thrusts begin immediately. 

"Is this what you wanted baby?" he asks after a moment, panting hard against my throat. 

"Yes," I manage.  "Yes."

He moans from the back of his throat and pounds harder, deep fast thrusts of his hips which take him deeper each time.  When he brings his mouth back to mine, it's greedy and rough and he bites down on my lower lip with a small grunt of pleasure.  "You're so tight, so fucking tight."  My legs feel weak, my balance unsteady, but I know he won't let me fall. With my body tightly held against his, his scent fills my nose as his cock fills my body and I drop my head back onto the tree and focus on each perfect hard thrust of his body into mine. 

For some reason my mind decides this is the moment to show me the image of him fucking Steph over that pool table, hard and rough exactly like this. I shake my head to clear it and bring my hands to the side of his head and force it up and pull his mouth down onto mine instead.  He's growling harder now, his breathing fast as his mouth covers mine in hungry desperate strokes of his tongue. His hands grip my behind harder to pull me deeper against him as he continues to fuck me hard. 

"I love you," I tell him between kisses.  "I love you..."

He makes a softer, more tender, noise then and I feel the start of his orgasm. The faster thrusts followed by a momentary stillness followed by the staccato jerk of his hips. Then comes the groan from his throat that sounds like he might be in pain, and the moans as he lets escape against my mouth.  He comes hard.  I feel him pour into me; hot spasms of wet heat exploding into my body from his. 

When his body stills completely, he withdraws, lowers my leg and takes a half step back from my body. As he buttons up and buckles his belt, I pull up my tights and knickers before stepping forward to kiss him. His breaths are still fast and short against my face and he moans tenderly against my lips. 

"Mm, well that was exciting," I smile. 

He nods.  "Yeah, it was.  You didn't come though - I'll have to make up for that when we get home."  He steps forward and wraps his arms around me, pressing his mouth to my forehead.

I smile harder. "Well, I wouldn't complain about that."

"You're so understanding," he sighs before we turn to walk back to the car, his arm firmly around my waist.

"I'm the perfect girlfriend really."

"A little boring though," he says before chuckling softly.  I turn to give him a look and he pulls me tighter bending his head to kiss me chastely on the lips.  "You are perfect - I'm a very lucky man," he sighs again.

He opens the driver door for me before walking around the front of the car to get in the passenger side.  After he's settled, I pull on my seatbelt and turn on the engine but I sense him looking at me, his gaze heavy.  When I turn to look at him his face has a look of mild wonderment on it.

"What?" I ask.

He shrugs.  "I was just thinking about how you're different to how I imagined you'd be, that's all. You know when I first saw you."

I have to bite back my smile.  "Oh, really?"

"Actually that's bullshit, because I always knew that behind that pristine, elegant, classy doctor appearance you'd be a fucking deviant."

I laugh out loud.  "Oh, is that right?"

"Yeah.  I always knew you'd be filthy." He winks, licking his lips temptingly.

"I am not filthy, I'm just.... very different with you." I blush.   

He smirks. "Never fucked outside before then?"

"Nope, which I'm sure you'll be very surprised to hear," I drawl sarcastically.  "There are lots of things I hadn't done before you.." I flush hotly and drop my eyes from his.  I feel embarrassed by it sometimes, my lack of experience always makes me feel slightly inferior with him.  Though I'm not sure why, because surely if I came to him with lots of experience then I'd be a completely different version of myself altogether.  When I lift my eyes he's looking at me intensely.

"Yeah. Same for me," he says.

"Oh really? Like what?  What exactly hadn't you done before me?" I give him a skeptical look.

His gaze intensifies.  "Cared about a woman.  Before you I had no idea what it felt like to want to love her and protect her and spend my life trying to make her happy.  Before you I had no fucking concept of what it meant to be in love with someone."

This time I do cry.  The tears well up quickly behind my eyes and slowly squeeze out and roll down my face.  He moves toward me but I shake my head and wipe them away with the back of my hand. 

"I feel the same way," I whisper quietly.

This man was now my whole world.  My very existence now revolved around him.  My happiness and will to live was in direct correlation to his.  To his safety and his happiness bloomed my own.  I'd never felt anything like it before with anyone.  My family were part of me, Rob was a part of me, but my love for Jake was all consuming.  It took over my body and soul and transformed me into someone else.   Every act and thought seemed to be affected by him, and I wasn't scared by that anymore.  I didn't feel like I was losing parts of myself because I loved him so deeply, it felt only that those parts were  strengthened, more defined. They worked better now.  

I need to tell him about the baby.  He needs to know right now.  I can't keep it from him a minute longer.  Steph and her words earlier had helped bring home this fact to me. She's uncertain because she's uncertain about Dan and herself.  I'm not.  I want Jake's baby.  Our baby.  I love him.  He loves me.   And I know that even if this isn't the right time he'll come round and learn to be happy about it. 

I'm having his baby and he needs to know because it might affect how he thinks and feels and what he does from now on.  

Only, how do I tell him? What words do I use? 

Quickly.  Two words.  The rest will follow.   I open my mouth.   He opens his. We speak in unison:

"Jake, I'm pregnant," I say.       
"Marry me," he says.