Page 2 of Only a Gemini Will Do
I froze, my breath catching in my throat as I stared at the test on the corner of the sink. I inched forward, steps minced as I leaned into it to read the results.
“Positive,” I whispered in disbelief, staring at the two lines with a dazed look.
One night stand.
Two positive pink lines.
Every reason in the world to lose my fucking mind.
My hand flew over my parted lips. Butta continued to whine softly on the other side of the door, but I was too stuck on stupid to tend to him. Instead, I sank onto the toilet seat, knees turningto water beneath me, and let out a hard sigh as the harsh reality of my situation washed over me like a tsunami wave.
I was pregnant . . . by an escaped felon . . . who was on the run.
What in the Tubi movie is going on with my life?
My mind was a blur of disbelief as my eyes remained glued to the test in my trembling hand. I remembered everything vividly—from the minute I found him naked on my couch in the middle of a hurricane to the way I’d let him bend my body like a pretzel and beat my pussy into submission for the first time in months. Kareem was somehow charming and disrespectful at the same time, and gone by the end of the weekend. No regrets and no promises.
We were careful in the beginning. We used condoms. But then there was the goodbye bathroom sex in Tampa that sealed our fate. My stomach twisted into knots . . . not from queasiness, but from the slow, chilling realization that my entire life—no—my whole existence was about to change.
I finally found the strength to pull myself up and open the bathroom door. Butta raced in and quickly curled around my leg, as if hugging me. I had the feeling that somehow, he’d known all along.
“Well, Butta, it looks like you’re going to be a big brother,” I announced.
He was the only one I could tell. I wouldn’t dare breathe the news to anyone else, especially not until I was able to wrap my mind around what being pregnant by a man I’d probably never see again meant for me. I didn’t know where Kareem was. I didn’t even know if he’d care that I was pregnant. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted him to.
My throat tightened with guilt when I thought about the alternative. After all, there were other options available to me. But in the moment, they all felt like a noose more than a lifeline.
“I can do this. I mean, women raise babies by themselves every day, right?” I asked Butta, fully not expecting a response. “At least I have you to help. You can watch the baby while I run to pee, or let me know if it’s getting into things it shouldn’t be. You’re up for that, right? It won’t be easy, though. And what if we suck at being a good mom and big brother? Once we commit, we can’t go back.”
Butta cocked his head to the side before walking away. I huffed. Even my dog wouldn’t give me the vote of confidence I desperately needed. I pressed my palm against my flat stomach out of a mix of curiosity and fear. There was no basketball bump, no butterfly flutter. Just the knowledge that something foreign was growing inside me . . . something I hadn’t meant to go half on with a felon.
This wasn’t supposed to be my story, and yet, it was. And it was so very real.
I made my way down the hall and sat on the edge of the couch with the pregnancy test still in my hand as if it had been glued there. My small apartment was quiet except for the distant hum of the neighbor’s TV on the other side of the wall and Butta’s soft lapping from his water bowl. It felt like I hadn’t blinked in ten minutes—maybe more.
Kareem had been a moment—a flicker of passion in the middle of an unexpected storm. I remembered how he made me laugh almost as hard as he made me cum, how he made my cat run like a faucet, and how he touched me like I’d always been his. But he was gone, and had been for some time. I knew better than to ask for more than he was willing to give.
“I don’t even know what I’d say if I saw him again,” I mumbled, imagining how the awkward conversation would play out.
Hey, it’s me, the one whose apartment you broke into during the hurricane that one time. Guess what? I’m pregnant with your baby. Congrats!
It felt ridiculous. And yet, the truth felt like a ton of bricks on my chest.
I found my phone and hovered over the text thread with my best friends, then immediately locked the screen. No one could know, at least not until I couldn’t hide it anymore. I wasn’t ready to face the questions. The judgment. The unsolicited advice. I needed time to think of a plan about how I was going to handle the secret that was quietly growing in my belly.
“It’s just me. And you. And Butta,” I whispered as I curled up on the couch with my hand on my stomach. Butta instinctively jumped up beside me and rested his fuzzy head on my lap. I stroked his brown fur as my mind raced just thinking about important things like making doctor’s appointments, looking into my job’s maternity leave policies, going through childbirth alone, and the cost of formula and childcare in Jacksonville—all things that never mattered to me before those two pink lines showed up. But now, they were my new reality.
Chapter 2
Kareem
Present Day.
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The sun beganto set behind the rooftop of the furnished apartment building where Kadeem and I had been hiding out for the last three months since escaping Florida. We’d managed to carve out a quiet life for ourselves in the heart of Ipanema near the beach. Our place had the best view of the mountains and sunset, and was far enough away from the chaos to make me feel like we could breathe a bit easier, figuratively speaking. We kept shit low. No flashiness. No drama. Just surviving in peace.
Outside, the sky was painted in shades of coral, pink, and lavender, and the evening air was humid and thick with the kind of stickiness that stuck to your skin and made each breath feel heavier than the last. It was quiet aside from the sound of samba music playing from an open window of an apartment a few floors below. I leaned against the balcony, shirtless, with the tattoo ink on my chest fading from spending repeated days under the beaming, Brazilian sun. I had one foot in the present and theother lost in thought somewhere back in Florida, thinking about shawty while watching the sun dissolve into the Atlantic Ocean.