“Are you certain?”, Austin asked after staring at her for a moment, and she felt guilty for lying to him, but if this was the only way he could pay attention to her, then so be it

“Yes. I'm about six, seven weeks along”, she said the first thing that came to her mind, the dates had to be around the time they started being intimate after his accident. She expected to see some sort of reverse reaction from him, but it never came. He withdrew from her and pocketed his hands, to her disappointment.

“What's wrong?”, she asked not to give away her disappointment. “Aren't you happy that we're going to have a baby?”

“Of course I am Mira”, he tried not to show that he wasn't exactly thrilled. His thoughts were colliding on the whole matter. He was aware they've been sleeping together occasionally these past few weeks, but it didn't mean anything to him, it was just sex. Each time he ended up drunk at night, she just happened to be there to curve his sexual desires, and he thought she'll be clever enough to be some kind of contraceptive.

“It's just that I wasn't expecting this, you know?”

“We're going to start our own family”, she reached out to him, and he folded his arms across his chest

“I feel like we should have talked about this first”, he was running out of things to say. “What about your modeling career? It's going to be put on hold because of this baby”.

“It doesn't matter, surely it would be such a bad thing to be missing in action for a couple of months to live my own life and raise a baby, right?”

“I guess not”, he gave a short smile and put out both his hands at her, and she placed hers in his. “I didn't mean to seem ungratefulto ”, he tried his best to sound enthusiastic. “I'm just shocked to say the least”

“I was expecting that”, she laughed nervously. Her heart skipped a beat as he pressed his lips against hers and engulfed her in a warm hug, her body relaxing under his touch.

“Thank you”, he whispered against her ear and as much as the lie was already weighting down on her, she didn't regret lying to him. This would bring them closer to each other. Her lips turned up in a sly smile.

“You're welcome”

Austin checked his wrist watch again as he waited patiently for them. Abigail was bringing Emily over for the weekend, and she was an hour late. He puffed aloud as he rested his face on his fisted hand on the armrest of the sofa and waited. He was about to check on his wrist watch again but the sound of the doorbell ringing bought him quickly up on his feet.

He pulled the door open. His lips turned into a smile as he saw the most important people in his life, with Emily sleeping soundly in Abigail's arms.

“I'm sorry I'm late. I lost track of time”, she explained as she got inside, and he took Emily in his arms.

“It's okay”, he reassured softly as he took her by the hand. “Come, let's go put her to bed”, they walked up the stairs to Emily's room and they both tucked her in

“Sweet dreams pumpkin”, she watched as he kissed her forehead and a smile played involuntarily on her lips. He closed the door behind them, and she ran her hand through her hair and sighed in exhaustion as they descended the stairs.

“Long day?”

“You have no idea. My back is killing me”, she let out a laugh before she looked around.

“Where's Mira?”, there was no sign of her anywhere

“She's away for a couple of days due to a direct booking. She wanted to get it over and done with before she starts showing”, his last statement made her eyebrows knit in confusion.

“Showing, as in she's expecting?”

He nodded with his face. He couldn't even bring it to himself to admit with his own mouth to her. She was a bit surprised at his revelation, but surprisingly, she didn't feel even feel a tinge of sadness or jealousy. She actually was happy he was actually starting a family with her.

“Congratulations”

“Thanks”, he scratched the back of his neck nervously. He didn't want to talk about his Mira or any issue related to his marriage with her. It just made things awkward for him.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?”, he decided to change the topic

“It's really late”, Abigail gave a nervous smile

“Do you have any plans tonight?”

“Not really”, she shrugged,  Ian was also away on a business trip. Stephanie had a date night with Luther at his place.

“So, stay for dinner”

She hesitated for a minute, thinking for and against the motion all at once. She had no plans for the night but also the idea of being alone with him wasn't going to leave a good impression. However, she also didn't look forward to a dull long night on her own.

“Sure. Why not?”

After dinner, they sat on the couch, reminiscing about the old times together over a bottle of wine. This was a conversation she would by all costs avoid having, but she had no control of her mouth in her intoxicated state. She spoke her mind openly. She knew she would regret this evening the following day, but she didn't care. She was enjoying this moment. So was he as he couldn't peel his eyes off her as she talked and laughed. It reminded him of the time when they were madly in love with each other. Being together at proximity meant everything to the both of them at one point.

“We were so good for each other Abbie”, he admitted after their laughter died down. She gave a light shrug before they stared into each other's eyes, and it dawned at her what was going on.

“I should get going”, she quickly stood to her feet and she lost her balance because the wine had definitely kicked in. He caught her in his arms and quickly switched positions so that she doesn't have a bad fall, and she landed on top of him on the floor. They paused for a second before they giggled uncontrollably, clearly both of them were intoxicated by then.

Abigail rolled onto her back and ran her hands though her face as they both looked up at the ceiling

“Remember the night we got drunk at Jason's party when we were sixteen?”, she started and Austin laughed out loud besides her as he recalled the events of that day

“I had to sneak you into my room that night because you couldn't go back home in that state”

“We couldn't even walk straight, but we eventually stumbled into your house”

“You were blabbing to yourself so loudly I even had to put my hand over your mouth. You kept telling me to keep quiet as if I was the one who was making noise”, he said causing her to giggle again.

“I was always a mess when I was drunk”

“A beautiful mess”, he chipped and they both turned their heads to look at each other. This moment felt so wrong and yet so right, being lost in each other's eyes again.

“I should go”, she pushed herself up, ruining their moment abruptly, and he stood up to his feet soon after

“I really enjoyed spending time with you”

“Yeah”, she was still finding her feet, but she felt lightheaded, finding herself into his arms again and giggled

“We're being ridiculous here, aren't we?”

He didn't say anything as he was occupied with savoring the sight of her being that close to him. Her chocolate brown eyes fully dilated as she stared at him. One simple moment of him leaning to lock their lips together was it took for them to be weakened by the compromising situation they found themselves in. Neither of them thinking about the consequences of their actions. They were both overwhelmed by emotion as piece by piece their clothing fell onto the floor.

It was until the early hours of the morning that it actually dawned on her what had happened as she saw him in almost nothing sleeping soundly next to her. She cursed aloud as she gathered her clothes and quickly got dressed and tip-toed out of the house quietly.

She couldn't wrap her head around what happened the night before since she didn't remember how things accelerated to them sleeping together. She felt weak, defeated. How was will she face Ian after what she had done?

She managed to ruin the beginning of spending the rest of their lives together even before it started