This Wasn't Suppose to Happen

I broke out into laughter as I thought back to that fateful night, oh boy, how wrong could a girl be? If I had only known then half of what I knew now, then everything might be a little bit different. I still didn’t understand it, we had done everything right. The condom was on, I knew it didn’t slip off, I had seen him pull it off when we were done. Hell, I was on the pill and I never missed a day. What were the odds?

It was pointless to waste anymore time thinking about that night, I had gone over and over it in my head trying to figure out what happened. The fact of the matter was that it happened and I was between a rock and a hard place. What was I going to do? I could barely make it on my own, let alone adding a child to the mix. I had managed to keep my job in spite of the recent cutbacks but I didn’t have job security since my one year contract had expired.

The sound of the apartment door snapped me out of my daze and I cursed myself for not locking it behind me. I ran out of my room and ran directly into Nate, sending us both stumbling and him squealing in fright.

“What the hell are you doing scaring me like that?” Nate asked in a shrill voice. God, he was so dramatic at times.

“What are you doing coming in without knocking?” I shot back as I walked to the door and ensured the deadbolt was locked before turning back to Nate who had flopped on the couch and was making himself at home with his feet propped up on the leather ottoman and TV remote in hand.

“By all means, make yourself at home”, I said as I dropped next to him and pulled my legs in under me as I wrapped my sweater tighter around my body.

Nate smiled and turned his head, “I found homeboys number”.

“What? You got his phone number? How?” Nate had achieved the impossible and I was impressed.
“I called the arena and said that I was the assistant to James Duthie from TSN and he had a scheduled phone interview with Sid and had misplaced his number. I have his personal cell number right here”, Nate said waving a piece of paper in front of me.
“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” I asked as I snatched the paper and stared at the numbers that were scribbled on it.

Nate laughed, “I know, I’m pretty fucking awesome”. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his iphone. “Its time”, he said as he passed the phone to me.

With shaking fingers, I tapped the numbers and closed my eyes for a moment. Opening them, I took a deep breath and hit ‘call’.

The phone rang and rang and I couldn’t help but feel some relief as each ring went unanswered. I was just about to hang up when I heard noise on the other end. “Hello?”

My throat constricted and I found it hard to catch my breath. “Hello?”

“Sid?” I managed to choke out, cursing myself for sounding like a school girl talking to her idol.

His tone immediately changed, “Yeah, who the hell is this?”

“Janelle…. Its Janelle”, I said as I tried to remember to keep breathing.

“How the fuck did you get this number?” he was mad and I couldn’t really blame him, I was sure he went to great lengths to keep his number and personal life private and here I was invading that privacy. If he only knew what I had to tell him, if he only knew that with two words I was going to change his life.

“Listen, I’m the girl from the bar, you spilled a drink on me and then we talked about our shitty days. Bringing back any memories?”

He was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, I remember”, he said in a soft voice. “What about it?”

Oh God, was I really going to do this? Was I really going to tell him this over the phone? I glanced at Nate and he nodded giving me a thumbs up.

“I have to talk to you, can we meet?”

Reluctantly he gave me a yes and we arranged to meet at Southpointe after his practice the next morning. “Wait in the stands until I shower and then we can talk”, he told me and I made a mental note of it.

The next morning, I got ready and made my way to Southpointe, arriving just in time to see the final shootout drill, Sid caught my eye and I couldn’t read the expression on his face. He wasn’t happy to see me but it wasn’t displeasure either. He was certainly a hard person to read.

The fans quickly left the building when the guys started leaving the ice, no doubt they were in a race to get to the front of the line in case the guys decided to stop and sign when they left. I sat there all alone in the stands and watched as the Zambonis cleared the ice surface, it seemed like forever before I saw Sid walking towards me with his hair still damp from his shower.

He climbed the steps to reach my perch in the last row; taking a seat next to me he gave me a small smile. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

“There’s no easy way to say this”, I started as my eyes filled with tears.

Sid shrugged, “it’s okay, just say it”, he said as his eyes locked on mine.

This was it, it was now or never. Avoiding his eyes, I glanced down at my feet and took a deep breath.

“I’m pregnant”.