Pregnant. Its amazing how one word can change a life so completely. Alexandra thought of this as she sat in the doctor's, soon to be obstetrician's office. It was 3 years and 1 week exactly after her official high school graduation and 2 years since she and her boyfriend had lived in the same town for any amount of time. Alex couldn't believe that at 21, she, the girl everyone thought would wait to get pregnant, was having a baby.
Many many, extraordinary things had happened since graduating from highschool. Alex and her friend Julia had both gotten jobs working with TIME magazine. Alex worked as a photographer and Julia as a writer. They worked as a team on most stories. They were the "star" journalists of TIME and as a result had traveled all over the world.
As she thought about all she had accomplished in that short span of time Alex was proud of herself. And while she didn't not want the baby she also didn't want the baby to totally ruin her life and career.
Pregnant. As Alex sat on the bench in Central Park, that word ran over and over through her head, like a song you just can't get out of your mind. Bicyclers were all about and the noise of children playing in the chilly air, surrounded her. Children, I'm going to have one of those. Alex thought to herself and laid a hand over her growing stomach while staring into space. She was in despair. Alex knew that she wanted this child, but she was also almost positive that her boyfriend would not want it. Things had been pretty rocky between them lately and she knew that adding a child into the mix would not help.
On top of this Alex didn't know how she could tell everybody, her grandma father, and brother especially. She sat on the bench and stared, in the cold with my jacket wrapped around her and tears rolling down her cheeks. Later Alex wouldn't remember how long she sat there like that. All of a sudden there was a shadow standing over me. "Ma'am? Are you all right?" a vaguely familiar male voice said. There were several clues so Alex could tell that this mysterious stranger wasn't from New York, 1- he called her ma'am. Almost all self-respecting New Yorker Men would have said ''hey lady you gotta a problem?" if they said anything at all. Also he didn't have any sort of an accent associated with living in New York.
He had a very sympathetic look on his face which wasn't surprising since her face was tear-streaked and basically all around pathetic looking. "Do you need help?" the tall young man asked. Alex just looked up at him and blinked, not answering. He sat down beside me and asked, "Do you speak english?" That made her smile. He smiled too a beautiful smile with perfect white teeth, it actually took Alex's breath away. Alex somehow managed to compose herself "Yes I do speak english. Who are you?"
"My name's Nick. I don't normally run across beautiful young women in the park crying so I thought that I better come over here and see what was wrong." Nick replied. He looke so familiar to Alex but she couldn't seem to place him, or recall a time that she had ever met him.
"You know, now is really not the best time to try pick-up lines on me. I'm having a bad day." I said wryly.
Nick couldn't believe it. This beautiful young woman didn't even know who he was. Anyone who didn't live in a bubble knew who the Backstreet Boys were. Nick just figured that she was under a lot of stress and it would probably click in her mind later.
"I bet that's an understatement. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Are you sure you want to hear about it? And why do you care? In fact why should I be sitting here talking to a total stranger? You might be a murderer, or a rapist." Alex said getting up and ready to leave. Nick stood up and gently grabbed her arm. "Please don't drive like this. You're upset and will probably get in an accident." There was something about him that made Alex want to trust him. Even though about 5 seconds ago she had been ready to leave because she thought he could be dangerous. The fact that she had her pepper spray combined with the fact that she thought she could trust him helped sway her decision to let him drive her back to her office.
"And who's that?" Julia inquired when she met Alex at the door. "Nick." Alex replied. "Oh thanks, that helps tons." Julia said sarcastically. "Okay, okay I'll give you details but not right now. Darren's going to be here soon to pick us up for supper anyway." As if on cue Darren's sporty little black car rounded the corner. "Hello ladies!" Darren called while getting out of the car. "So where are ya takin' us buddy?" Alex asked Darren.
"I'm going to take the 2 most beautiful ladies in New York out for a night of dancing and fine dining." Darren said smiling. Julia said, "Well then me and Alex better get out of here. We wouldn't want you to miss your hot date." Alex and Julia turned around and pretended to walk away. Darren jumped in front of them, obviously more than a little exapserated. "Do you guys mind if I go home and get changed first? I'll meet you at the Rainbow Room as soon as I get finished, I just really need to freshen up." Alex asked Darren and Julia.
"Sure no prob. We'll see you there and save you a seat." Darren said with a smile. Alex waved and the walked to the corner to flag down a cab.
Once home Alex had a quick shower and decided to leave her hair down in its natural waves. Alex put on her favourite blue dress. It was one of those dresses that was about knee length and the bodice crossed over the one side. It was all different shades of blue and really pretty.
Alex walked into their favourite restaurant, The Rainbow Room about 20 minutes later. As she spoke to the maitre d and handed him her coat, her eyes scanned the room for Julia and Darren. Alex spotted them at the far end of the restaurant near a window. Alex weaved her way through the tables with a serious expression on her face.
As soon as she got there Julia said, "Okay I want to know what is going on right now. And don't say nothing and insult my intelligence. I know you better than that."
"We're just worried about you." Darren added. "All right I didn't want to worry you guys. So here goes; you know how I went to the doctor's this afternoon right?" Julia and Darren both nodded so Alex continued, "Well it turns out that I am.. pregnant." she said. Julia and Darren both wore matching looks of shock.
"You're what?"
"Did you just say what I think you said?" they asked at the same time, after recovering somewhat from their shock.
"I am exactly two months pregnant." Alex said to them.
"Exactly to the day that David left I'm guessing." Darren said knowingly.
"I don't know what I'm going to do." Alex said with tears in her eyes.
"Don't worry we'll be there to support you." Julia said comfortingly.
"It's not you and Darren that I'm worried about, it's David. I know for a fact that David doesn't want children, but there is no way that I am giving up this baby."
"Don't worry I will talk to David if you want to." Darren said. He and David used to be best friends before they parted ways.
Later on Julia and Darren were off dancing and Alex was sitting at their table staring off into space when suddenly she heard a barely recognizable male voice say, "You know what? You need to smile more often." Alex was about to tell this guy off for his impertinance when she looked up to see who it was. She smiled when she saw that it was Nick, the man that she had met in the park earlier. Again the feeling that she knew him from somewhere nagged at the edges of her conciousness but she pushed it to the side, knowing it would make her crazy if she thought about it too long.
"Are you stalking me?" Alex asked suspiciously.
"I could ask you the same thing. But actually I was just here having dinner with some friends." he said as he pointed to a group of people at another table.
"Well at least I know that you're not just some street bum." Alex said to him. Nick just gave her a look, "So are you going to dance with me or not?" Nick asked her just as Darren and Julia came back to the table. Julia looked at her questioningly, Alex just mouthed 'later' as she took Nick's hand and was lead out onto the dance floor. Alex and Nick had just started dancing when a the slow, rather sedated song that had been playing came to and end. The next song that came on was a favourite of both Alex and Nick, it was a song by Des'ree and Babyface called "Fire".
Alex and Nick began to dance to the faster-paced rhythm of the song and both admired the others dancing skills.
Julia and Darren watched from across the room as Nick made his best attempt yet to make Alex smile.
"So how do you think David's going to react to the news?" Julia asked Darren worriedly.
"I think Alex is right. He's not going to react well." Darren replied with a frown.
"Well no wonder she has seemed so upset tonight." Julia said just as Nick said something to make her smile. "I wonder who he is?"
"I really don't care as long as he can take her mind off the situation for at least tonight." Darren said.
"You're so sweet." Julia said to one of her best friends. "I know I am." Darren replied with a smirk on his face. Julia smacked him in the stomach to shut him up.
When Julia had seen Alex smile Nick had been trying his best pick up lines on her. "If you were a flower I'd plant a whole field of ya! Hunh hunh? Come on! That was good! Admit it!" Nick said eagerly. Alex just started laughing again and shook her head. The song finished but Alex didn't really want to part company with Nick yet so she asked him to come sit at her table with Julia and Darren. "Are you sure?" he asked her.
"Of course, we just have to hide your smarmy side." Alex said with another laugh. Nick just gave her a look and said, "Well when you put it that way how can I refuse?" That made Alex laugh.
He went over to tell his other friends that he was going to sit with Alex and her friends then headed with her to Julia and Darren, who were deep in conversation. "Hi guys. This is my new friend Nick. I met him just a couple of hours ago." Alex said as Nick and her stood next to the table. Julia nodded, "Yeah I thought you looked familiar, you're the guy that dropped Alex off earlier right?"
"Yes that's right. I found Alex here sitting on a park bench in Central Park. She had a lot on her mind." Nick said shooting me a concerned look. "Well how calm would you be if you just found out that you were pregnant." Alex said, forgetting that she hadn't already told Nick that she was pregnant, until after she said it. Nick handled it in stride though and only said, "I don't think that there is much of a chance of that happening." Julia and Darren covered their mouths clearly trying to hide the fact that they were laughing. Alex just stuck her tongue out at all of them.
Nick spent the next few hours with them, talking and getting to know Alex and her friends better. Alex strictly told Nick that if they were going to have any relationship that it would be completely platonic and nothing else. Even though her instincts were screaming at her to say otherwise she stuck to her guns.
