Best Mistake

I sighed heavily as I pulled into the garage, shutting the door behind me. I'd just gotten home from my first day back at work since my vacation, and I was unusually exhausted.

As I walked through the door, I heard Alex speaking to someone. I rounded the corner and saw him standing at the island, his phone pressed against his ear. He smiled when he saw me.

"Yeah man, alright," he said into the phone. "Whit just got home, so I'm gonna go. We'll talk about this some more later," he said before hanging up.

"Was that Jack?" I asked, placing my keys on the counter.

"Rian," he said.

My eyes darted in his direction. "Rian knows about me?"

He smiled, pulling me closer. "Everyone knows about you now. Girlfriend, remember?" he asked, pointing at me.

I blushed and stood on my tip toes to kiss him. "Well is everything ok? You sounded a little concerned on the phone."

He shrugged and opened his mouth to answer when I winced, a sharp pain shooting through my back.

"What is it?!" he asked, panic smeared across his face.

I took a deep breath and shook my head. "I'm ok. I took a few days off of work and fell out of shape," I chuckled.

Alex frowned and turned me around, pushing me over so I was leaning on the island. I moaned loudly while he massaged my back.

"I don't think you need to work anymore, Whit," he said, pushing against my muscles.

"It's not that bad," I protested. "I just need to get back into the swing of things. I'm a little rusty."

"No offense," he started, "but I think the problem is that your a lot pregnant. You're almost at eight months. You need to be taking it easy."

I shook my head, twisting my back a little so he'd reach a spot that was bothering me. "How am I going to afford the bills?"

Alex scoffed. "Don't worry about the bills."

It was my turn to scoff. "If I don't, who will?"

He stopped massaging me for a second. "Me."

I stood straight, turning to face him while shaking my head. "No. Absolutely not, Alex."

He frowned, letting his arms fall heavily to his side. "You don't need to be stressing yourself out worrying about that shit. Let me handle it. Please."

I stared at him, shaking my head. "I'm sorry. I just can't let you do that."

He quickly grabbed my face in his hands, crashing his lips down to mine. I was so surprised by his spontaneous gesture that it took me a second before I could kiss him bad. He moved his hands into my hair, making me moan as his tongue entered my mouth.

His body was as close to mine as possible, but still he found a way to push his hips closer. I felt his slight erection through his basketball shorts and inwardly gasped, my blood boiling through my veins. He pulled his mouth away a little, his lips still parted. I nearly lost it when he gently bit down on my bottom lip.

His kisses trailed from my mouth to my cheek, then my ear, then my jaw, then down to my neck. I moaned his name as he licked and sucked and bit down on a patch of skin. Suddenly, he pulled away, seeming completely unphased.

"What about now?" he asked, a smirk playing on his lips.

I scoffed, a little embarrassed by how riled up he'd gotten me. "That was mean," I frowned.

He shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'll pick up where I left off when you quit your job."

I glared at him a little. "You're used to getting what you want aren't you?" I asked.

He shook his head slowly. "No, actually. But I figured I'd try the art of seduction this time."

I nodded once. "Fine. I'll think about it."

He rose his eyebrows, pleased with himself. "I can't believe that worked a little."

"Yeah, well," I huffed, not in the mood to finish my sentence and walking into the living room.

"Speaking of work," Alex said from behind me while I flipped through channels on the tv. I turned to look at him.

"I have to go to LA tomorrow," he said.

I frowned a little, placing he remote on the arm of the couch. "That's sudden. Is everything ok?"

He shrugged, nodding. "Yeah. Me and the guys have to meet up with the label to talk about the new album."

"How long will you be gone?" I asked.

"Three days," he said quietly. "I'll be back late Thursday night."

I nodded slowly. "Ok. Well I hope everything goes well."

We went to bed shortly after that. I was much too exhausted to stay up much later, and Alex had to be up early for his flight.

He woke me up the next morning, gently shaking my shoulder.

"Are you leaving?" I croacked.

"Yeah, Jack's here. We're riding to the airport together."

I nodded, barely able to keep my eyes open. "I'll see you Thursday."

He gently rubbed my cheek with his thumb. "Are you going to be ok here by yourself?"

I nodded again, rolling over onto my back. "If I need anything I'll call Megan."

"Ok," he smiled, kissing me sweetly. "I'll be back before you know it."

I smiled back and waved lazily. "Bye. Be safe. Have fun." Thankfully I caught myself before the words "I love you" tumbled absentmindedly from my lips. I mentally slapped my own mouth.

"Bye, Whit," he waved back.

As much as I would have loved to have gone back to sleep, I couldn't. Knowing Alex was on his way to another state for a couple of days made me feel lonely, and the bed I was in seemed unnecessarily big when it was just me in it.

I got up and piddled around the house until it was time to go to work. I blushed the whole drive there, thinking about what Alex did the night before. My potential reward for quitting my job was almost enough to make me call in at that moment.

I huffed when I parked my car outside the restaurant. I looked up at the huge neon sign and sighed. It was getting harder and harder to find motivation to go in the further along into the pregnancy that I got. Maybe Alex was right. Maybe I did need to take it easy.

My shift went by at turtle speed, and I was so ready to get out of there once my time was up. On my way home, I considered Alex's proposal very carefully.

On one hand, it would be nice to be able to relax during my last month of pregnancy. I knew the worst was yet to come in terms of my physical stamina, and the last thing I wanted was to put too much stress on the baby or slow the restaurant down.

On the other hand, I hated handouts. I was sure Alex didn't intend for it to seem that way, but I couldn't shake the idea of it coming off as such. For the most part, I was pretty independent. I was still a little surprised that he convinced me to move in with him so quickly.

I got home and quickly went into the bathroom, stripping and getting into the shower. I let the hot water wash over my tense body and sighed in satisfaction when I felt myself easing up a bit. I got out, dried off quickly, and put on some comfy pajamas.

The laundry from the weekend was in a pile at the foot bed. I sighed heavily and threw it all into a laundry basket, hauling it to the laundry room. I loaded it in the dryer, adjusted the settings and pressed start.

While waiting for the clothes to wash, I decided to browse through my phone. When I wasn't pregnant, it was pretty easy for me to hop up and sit on high surfaces. Being in the state I was though, I tried and struggled and failed, opting for one of the barstools at the island.

I opened my phone to a notification from Instagram. I opened the app, clicked on the news section, and saw that Alex tagged me in a photo.

"What?" I asked aloud.

I hesitantly clicked on the notification and gasped when the picture pulled up.

I was staring at a picture of our sonogram. It blew my mind that Alex posted that. So much for keeping it a secret. I scrolled down to read the caption.

Surprise, everyone!
Almost 8 months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting this extremely wonderful woman. I haven't told her this yet, but that night I was really hoping something would come along that would connect me to her for a long time. Guess I got my wish right? :-)
Whitney, you are the most ridiculously amazing person I've ever met. I feel truly honored to be able to spend this portion of my life with you. I know I haven't always been there for you throughout this process, but I'm declaring it to the world that I will never let you down like that again. I'll never be able to tell you enough how sorry I am for that. I've only been away from you for 12 hours, but I already miss you and our son so much. I haven't told you how scared I am, because I don't want to worry you. But I'm fucking terrified, Whit. I'm really fucking terrified. I want nothing more than to be the man you need and the father our son deserves. I've come so close to having so many anxiety attacks thinking about this, but all it takes is one smile from you and my worries dissipate. You ease my soul, baby. You and me, girl. We got this together.
#itsaboy #dadlife #workingonthedadbod

I was in tears by the end of the post. That was the most heartfelt thing anyone had ever said to me.

Curiously, I scrolled through the abundance of comments. As expected, some were good, wishing us well and congratulating us. Some, however, were bad.

I was accused a lot of times for being the girl that ruined Alex's and Sophia's relationship. It hurt to read all of the mean things the fans were saying about me, but I couldn't blame them. I was guilty, after all.

It was quite relieving that for every mean comment, there a few nice ones following it. The balance was somewhat soothing and I scrolled more, stopping when I saw Jack's name.

"Can he please call me Uncle Buck," he commented, and I laughed.

Notes