One Night

It wasn’t the typical pickup line. There was something more to his advances. The man was charming and smooth, but his eyes held a desperate yearning.

Normally, she would have ignored the alcohol induced sweet nothings from a total stranger, but something compelled her to listen. To give in. To invite him to her apartment and be done with it. As their lust had been quelled, and they laid quietly in the afterglow of their passions, she studied the man. They hadn’t exchanged names, or any sort of information. It was a simple carnal need that urged them both to find physical fulfillment in each other.

But now that the haze was clearing, she looked upon her one night lover with curiosity. He looked disheveled, and not just from their lovemaking. He was a touch too thin. He carried a wariness about him. Even now as he lay comfortably on her bed, he looked as if he could spring into action at any moment. It was his alertness that gave her the most absurd notion.

“You’re a spy aren’t you? Or some sort of agent,” she whispered.

The man startled for a moment, then gave a gruff laugh. “What makes you think that?” He eyed her curiously.

“You just seem like you know a lot of things. You seem burdened.” She laid her observations bare. She was never averse to being honest.

“Do I?” he barked out a laugh again. “I guess it would seem that way.”

“You don’t have to tell me anything.” She knew he was hiding something. “I’m just a random nobody. I’m sure your enemies would never even give me a second glance.”

He raised a brow in surprise. “My enemies?”

She smiled, “Well of course. I’m sure bad people are after you as we speak.”

The man chuckled, and was in amazement at how close to the truth this lovely muggle was. “And how do you know I’m not the bad guy?”

She smiled, “Bad guys never seem particularly troubled. Now good guys? Oh,” she sighed, “they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. It is because a conscience makes it so.”

He gave her a soft smile, “You are quite something my dear.”

She gave him a wicked smile in return. “So are you. One of the best I’ve ever had.”

He started, then made a wolfish grin. “The best you’ll ever have. I’m sure of it.” He waggled his brows and was filled with masculine pride as he took in her fresh blush and lust filled eyes.

“Well let me sample you one more time then,” she whispered, her voice laden with desire.

“I’ll have you several more times.” He hovered over her and slowly licked her neck. “You are delicious.” She shivered with pleasure.

The night was filled with the sounds of their passion. By the time she woke late the next morning, the mystery man was gone. The only evidence of him ever being there were the aches she felt throughout her body. She luxuriated in bed, then stretched to relive her aching body.

“That was one hell of a man,” she thought as she smiled. She laid there for a few minutes before getting up.

She could hear her roommate walking around already. Her door flew open and startled her. “Hannah, tell me who that god of a man was?” her roommate practically shouted.

Hannah rolled her eyes and continued moving about her room, grabbing her clothes. “I have to shower Kate, let me tell you after.”

Kate huffed, “Fine but hurry, I’m dying over here.”

Hannah laughed and made her way out of her room and straight to the bathroom she and Kate shared. She sighed as the hot water hit her body and closed her eyes contentedly. Hannah was nearing the fifteen-minute mark when Kate started banging on the door.

“Don’t use all of the hot water,” she hollered.

“I’m almost finished.” Hannah was loath to leave the blessed water, but she knew Kate was growing impatient, and she actually needed to be careful not to use all of the hot water. She stepped out in her robe, her hair rolled up snug in a towel and was immediately jumped upon.

“So how was it? It was good wasn’t it?” Kate sighed as she remembered the handsome man who quietly left the apartment.

Hannah chuckled, “It was very good. And that is all you will be hearing about it.”

“Aww come on,” Kate pouted, “at least tell me his name.”

Hannah paused, “I don’t know his name.” She continued on to her room.

“Oh,” Kate watched as her roommate left and gave a soft huff. “That’s too bad.”

“Yeah, it is too bad,” Hannah whispered. “Oh well.”

The girls went about their day, Hannah rushing to complete some emails for work that she left from the weekend, Kate was gone at her bartending job. Nothing was amiss, there weren’t any strange occurrences and the day passed just like any other day.

As the weeks rolled by, Hannah thought less and less of the dark-haired beauty that she had shared her bed with. Her daily tasks and tedious secretarial job took up much of her time, so much in fact that Hannah had missed something important. It was small, and it was not anything too significant, but after an entire month and a half passed, sweet Hannah finally realized what she was missing. Her period.

“Shit,” was all Hannah could say.

She could not believe that she had been so careless. She racked her head, desperately trying to remember if they had used a condom. To her dismay, she realized they hadn’t. And to make matters worse, she hadn’t been on the pill that week. The birth control she had been taking were making her hormones go out of whack and so she had been taking a break from them. She didn’t think she would meet such an irresistible man right as she was weaning off the pill.

Hannah sighed and decided that a test had to be done, a home kit first, then she’d go to the doctor. After initially crying once her home test confirmed that she was pregnant, she tried to rationalize and calm herself down.

“I have a stable job,” she told herself, “I’m done with school, I’m not in debt. I’m going to be okay.” She repeated her mantra, “I will be okay, I will be okay.”

She tried her best to convince herself that all would be well, but she was terrified of parenthood. Particularly when she’d have to be a single parent. She had no way of knowing how to contact the man that impregnated her. He would be impossible to track down. She briefly thought about terminating the fetus. It would be as if it never happened. The only problem was that she would know. And she would have to live with that.

She felt that she couldn’t. She knew that some could, but not her. She concluded that she’d just have to stick it out. She’d have to be brave and be responsible for a human being for the first time in her life. Hannah stared at her stomach, it didn’t look any different. And for that day and many days after, she was able to pretend that it didn’t exist. That it wasn’t happening. Denial was sweet, and it was working wonderfully.

Then the morning sickness started, and she knew she could not live in willful ignorance. Hannah Parish needed to pull herself up. It was the only way she could move forward. To live on.