about a baby.”
“Maybe it was meant to be,” she said, trying to be philosophical about it, but Adam didn't want to hear it.
“This was not meant to be. This was both of us being sloppy.”
“Maybe. But I love you, and even if you leave me right now, I'm having this baby.” She had dug her heels in and she wasn't moving an inch. The sonogram had done it. She was not killing their kid.
“I don't want a baby, Maggie.” He tried to reason with her.
“I'm not sure I do either, but that's what we've got. Or what I've got.” She sounded calm and unhappy. It was a lot to deal with, for both of them.
“I'm going to Vegas this weekend,” he said miserably. “We'll talk about it when I get back. Let's take a break from it till then. Let's both think some more, and maybe you'll change your mind.”
“I won't.” She was a mother lion defending her young.
“Don't be so stubborn.”
“Don't be so mean.” She looked at him sadly.
“I'm not being mean. I'm trying to be a good sport about this, but you're not making it easy. It's mean to have a baby that no one wants. I'm just not prepared to have a baby, Maggie. I don't want to get married again. I don't want a baby. I'm too old.”
“You're just too mean. You'd rather kill it,” she said, bursting into tears, and he wanted to cry himself.
“I'm not mean!” he shouted after her as she ran into the bathroom again, as much to hide from him as to be sick.
The rest of the week was no better. They stayed off the subject, but it hung between them like a nuclear bomb ready to go off. He was relieved to leave for Vegas on Thursday. He needed to get out. He stayed over on Sunday night. He was waiting for her when she got back from work on Monday. He was sitting in a chair with a look of resignation.
“How was your weekend?” she asked, but didn't come over to kiss him. She had been upset all weekend, and wondered if he was cheating on her because he was upset. She hadn't left the apartment, and she had cried herself to sleep every night, thinking that he hated her and would probably leave her and she'd be alone with their baby, and never see him again.
“It was fine. I did a lot of thinking.” Her heart nearly stopped as she waited for him to tell her that she had to move out. She had become an embarrassment to him.
“I think we should get married. You can come out to Vegas with me next week. I have to go back anyway. We'll get married quietly, and that'll be that.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “What do you mean, 'that'll be that'? Then I leave, but the baby is legal?” She had thought of a thousand terrible scenarios, and not one good one. He had.
“No, then we're married, we have the baby, and we live our life. Together. With the baby. Okay? Now are you happy?” He didn't look happy either, but he was trying to do the right thing. “Besides, I love you.”
“ 'Besides,' I love you too, but I'm not going to marry you.” She looked quiet and determined.
“You're not? Why not?” He looked stunned. “I thought that was what you wanted.”
“I never said that. I said I was having the baby. I didn't say I wanted to get married,” she said resolutely as he stared at her.
“You don't want to get married?”
“No, I don't.”
“But what about the baby? Why don't you want to get married?”
“I'm not going to force you to marry me, Adam. And I don't want to get married 'quietly.' When I get married, I want to make a lot of noise. And I want to marry someone who wants to marry me, not someone who has to. Thank you very much, but my answer is no.”
“Please tell me you're joking,” he said, dropping his head into his hands.
“I'm not joking. I'm not asking you for money, and I'm not going to marry you. I'm going to take care of myself.”
“Are you leaving me?” He looked genuinely horrified at the thought.
“Of course not. I love you. Why would I leave you?”
“Because you said I was mean last week.”
“You're mean if you want to kill our baby. But you're not mean if you ask me to marry you. Thank you for that. I just don't want