Play the Game.
One.
I sat in the bathroom of the hotel and washed my face before deciding I had to tell Paul and Stephanie.
I walked out of the room and they were both on the phone, and Colby was pacing in the hotel room.
"What's going on?" I asked Colby.
"She leaked my nudes, my God damn ex-fiancee leaked my nudes on Twitter," he said.
"What the fuck," I said, "Why would she do that?"
"Because she's pissed, because she's crazy, because she thinks I cheated on her, I don't know."
Suddenly, my news wasn't as important. But I knew I had to tell them.
"Well uh, when they're off the phone will you tell them that I really need to talk to them?" I asked.
"Yeah, of course sweetheart," he said.
I gave him a small smile then went into my room of the suite. I sat on my bed for almost an hour before Paul and Stephanie knocked on my door.
"Hey, is everything alright? Colby said you really needed to talk to us?" Stephanie asked.
"Uh, no, everything's not alright actually. Uh, can you guys sit down?" I asked.
"Yeah," Paul said and they both sat down on my bed with me, concern on their faces.
"What's going on sweetie?" Stephanie asked as she immediately saw the tears swelling up in my eyes.
"Guys I screwed up. I screwed up really bad. And you're going to be so mad at me. And I'm sorry. Because you two have been so great to me through everything and you've always tried to make sure I ended up on the right path and I screwed up so bad," I said as I began to cry.
"Sam, honey, what happened?" Stephanie asked again.
I picked up my book that sat on the nightstand and pulled my make-shift bookmark out of the pages and set it in front of them.
Paul picked it up and looked at the vertical set of photos.
"You're pregnant," Paul said.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I tried to be objective and look at all of my options. I even went to an abortion clinic and I sat there and I couldn't do it. And I just... I don't know what I'm supposed to do and I can't hide it anymore because I feel awful, I feel like I keep lying to you guys and I cant do it anymore, I can't keep feeling like I'm lying," I said.
"Sam, Sam, Sam," Paul said, "Calm down. Everything's going to be okay. We aren't angry with you, okay? In fact we kind of thought something was going on, what with the baggy clothing and the random flights back home in the middle of the week. We were going to ask you about what was going on but everything else just kept coming up, and I'm sorry that we didn't ask you earlier."
"You're not mad?"
"No, sweetie," Stephanie said, "A baby is a blessing. No matter what."
"How far along are you?" Paul asked.
"Almost 5 months... I found out about 3 months ago..."
"You've kept this a secret for 3 months? Sam you could have told us earlier, we could have been helping you this whole time," Stephanie said.
"I know," I nodded, "I just... Every time I tried it seemed like a bad time to drop it on you and I didn't want to do that."
"Wait, who did you sleep with 5 months ago?" Paul asked.
I bit down on my lower lip and looked down at my hands.
"Sam..." Paul said.
"The only person I've slept with in the last year has been Jon..." I said quietly.
They both sighed.
"Does he know?" Stephanie asked.
"No, he and Renee have been happy. I didn't want to come between that."
Paul sighed again, "Okay. Here's what we're going to do, alright? You are going to go relax, and spend time with Kelsey in Hawaii. And we are going to deal with everything here, sound good?"
"Well, I assume I don't have much of a choice anyways, so yeah it sounds good."
"Alright, I'll arrange the flight, pack your bags."
I nodded and stood up. Paul stood up and kissed my forehead and gave me a hug. Stephanie hugged me and rubbed my belly for a moment before they both left the room. As I was packing, I called Kelsey.
"Hey beautiful, what's up? How are you feeling?" she answered.
"Hey, I'm packing my bags right now. I told Paul and Stephanie."
"They're sending you home?"
"They're sending me to you. They aren't mad."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Paul thinks I need to relax since I've been keeping it a secret and whatnot for so long. I think he just wants me to separate myself from everyone for a bit so they can sort everything out. I told them that it's Jon."
"Ohh yeah they probably want to be the one to talk to him. Well, text me your flight info and I'll pick you up at the airport alright?"
"Alright, I will as soon as Paul gives me it."
"Okay, I love you pregs."
"I love you too. Bye."
"Bye."
I hung up and finished packing my bags. Paul and Stephanie drove me to the airport about an hour later.
"We'll figure everything out, alright? Text us when you land, and we'll update you on the situation," Paul said.
I nodded, "When you tell Jon... Will you tell him I'm sorry for not telling him earlier... And that I'm sorry for not telling him myself..."
"Of course," Stephanie said, "Just take some time for yourself right now to relax. Buy whatever you need on your credit cards. We'll handle everything here."
I nodded, "Thank you guys."
"Of course. Now go on, you've got a flight to catch," Paul said as he hugged me, "I love you princess."
"I love you too."
I hugged Stephanie and she kissed the top of my head. I pulled my bags behind me as I went into the airport.
I took off my sweater in the airplane and I just wore my Triple H shirt, which fit snug over my clearly pregnant belly. I put my headphones in my ear and started listening to music on my phone.
My flight from Charlotte, NC to Honolulu was 12 hours long, and I slept for a lot of it. When we landed, Kelsey was waiting for me outside of security.
"Oh come here mama," she said as she pulled me into a hug, "How was your flight?"
"Oh you know, it was 12 hours long and I had a heavy set dude sitting next to me eating nonstop," I said.
"Ouch, well come on. Let's get your bags and head home so you can get dressed in something more comfortable."
"Yeah, that's the thing. I don't really have many comfortable clothes at this point," I said.
"Well then, to the mall we go," she said with a smile.
We got my bags, and went to the car. I texted Paul and Stephanie saying that we landed and they said they were about to talk to Jon. I put my phone away when we got to the mall.
"Alright, now let's shop till we drop. Not literally though, a fall would not be very good for you," Kelsey said.
We shopped for a few hours, then I finally checked my phone when we got back to Kelsey's house. I had a bunch of missed calls from Stephanie, Paul and Glenn.
"Uh oh, I missed something important apparently," I said as I walked out to the back area, which was right on the beach.
"How many missed calls?"
"20 in total from Paul, Stephanie and Glenn."
"Damn."
I called Paul and sat down on a lounge chair.
"He went AWOL," Paul said as he answered.
"Wait what? Who went AWOL?"
"Jon did. And okay he didn't actually go AWOL, he told us he was leaving, but he didn't say where he was going or how long he was going to be gone. I tried to tell him he couldn't do that and he said that I could fire him if that's what had to be done, but he needed to leave."
"You're not going to fire him are you?" I asked.
"No of course not, we wouldn't fire the father of my sister's child and besides it's hardly a big enough breach of contract to fire him," he said.
I sighed, "Look, I'll try to get a hold of him and figure out where he is and what he's doing."
"Thank you."
"But, how did he take it? Was he mad or what?"
"No, he didn't seem mad at all. He seemed concerned and worried because we were telling him and not you, and it only seemed to get worse when we told him that we sent you to Honolulu."
"Wait you told him where I went?"
"Yes why- Ohhh, okay well now we know where he's going."
"I'll tell you if he shows up. I'm going to eat something and try to relax before he shows up."
"Alright, I love you. Call us when he gets there."
"I will, I love you too."
I hung up the phone.
"So, Jon is on his way?" Kelsey asked.
"Probably," I nodded and sent him a text that contained my location with the caption in case you needed to find me.
Kelsey and I had some lunch before we changed into our bikinis and laid in the sun after Kelsey forced me to use an absurd amount of sun screen.
The next morning, I got dressed early and walked down to the little coffee shop down the street and got myself some decaf coffee. I drank it there and then walked back to Kelsey's. As I reached the driveway, I saw Kelsey and Jon sitting on the front porch.
"Jon," I said as I walked up, causing him to stand up quickly.
"Sam," he said.
"What are you guys doing out here?"
"I wouldn't let him in the house without you here," she said, "I have no way of knowing if he's going to go ballistic and wreck shit and you have that weird way of calming people down no matter what."
I nodded, "Alright, well let's go inside then."
"You didn't even bring me coffee you're evil," Kelsey said as she opened the door.
"You have coffee here," I said.
"Yes, but you went out to get coffee."
"Because you don't have decaf."
"Who cares if you have caffeine the kids going to be crazy as it is, bouncing off the walls and shit, do you not remember how you were as a child?"
"Doesn't mean I have to stunt the growth prematurely," I said.
"Alright," Kelsey clapped her hands together, "I'm going to make myself some breakfast. Anyone else hungry?"
"Yes," Jon and I both nodded.
"Alright. I'll go do that now."
She walked away and I looked at Jon.
"Uh, let's go talk outside," I said.
He nodded and left his bags to follow me outside. I walked right up to the beach, taking my sandals off and putting my feet into the water.
"It's beautiful here," Jon said as he pulled his shoes off.
"It really is," I said.
"So, I'm sorry," he said.
"For what? I'm the one who's supposed to apologize here."
"No," he shook his head, "I didn't think about how my actions after we slept together would effect you and I didn't care enough to check up on you and that's wrong because I actually care about you a lot, Sam. And I'm sorry for showing up here out of nowhere and I'm sorry for everything, for not talking to you when everyone could tell something was going on with you. I was just being selfish and I'm sorry."
I shook my head, "Jon. I want you to understand that no matter what Paul and Stephanie said to you, I expect nothing from you. You know now, and that's all I really wanted. Was just for you to know that this is happening, and this child exists. Beyond that, it's up to you and I expect nothing. But I'm sorry, that I didn't tell you earlier and that you didn't even find out from me. If I could change that I would but it's done and I can't do anything about it now."
"It's okay. I'm not mad about any of this. I just want to be here for you. I want to be here for the baby. I'm all in, Sam."
I looked over at him and he just looked at me.
I nodded, "Okay, so am I."
I walked out of the room and they were both on the phone, and Colby was pacing in the hotel room.
"What's going on?" I asked Colby.
"She leaked my nudes, my God damn ex-fiancee leaked my nudes on Twitter," he said.
"What the fuck," I said, "Why would she do that?"
"Because she's pissed, because she's crazy, because she thinks I cheated on her, I don't know."
Suddenly, my news wasn't as important. But I knew I had to tell them.
"Well uh, when they're off the phone will you tell them that I really need to talk to them?" I asked.
"Yeah, of course sweetheart," he said.
I gave him a small smile then went into my room of the suite. I sat on my bed for almost an hour before Paul and Stephanie knocked on my door.
"Hey, is everything alright? Colby said you really needed to talk to us?" Stephanie asked.
"Uh, no, everything's not alright actually. Uh, can you guys sit down?" I asked.
"Yeah," Paul said and they both sat down on my bed with me, concern on their faces.
"What's going on sweetie?" Stephanie asked as she immediately saw the tears swelling up in my eyes.
"Guys I screwed up. I screwed up really bad. And you're going to be so mad at me. And I'm sorry. Because you two have been so great to me through everything and you've always tried to make sure I ended up on the right path and I screwed up so bad," I said as I began to cry.
"Sam, honey, what happened?" Stephanie asked again.
I picked up my book that sat on the nightstand and pulled my make-shift bookmark out of the pages and set it in front of them.
Paul picked it up and looked at the vertical set of photos.
"You're pregnant," Paul said.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I tried to be objective and look at all of my options. I even went to an abortion clinic and I sat there and I couldn't do it. And I just... I don't know what I'm supposed to do and I can't hide it anymore because I feel awful, I feel like I keep lying to you guys and I cant do it anymore, I can't keep feeling like I'm lying," I said.
"Sam, Sam, Sam," Paul said, "Calm down. Everything's going to be okay. We aren't angry with you, okay? In fact we kind of thought something was going on, what with the baggy clothing and the random flights back home in the middle of the week. We were going to ask you about what was going on but everything else just kept coming up, and I'm sorry that we didn't ask you earlier."
"You're not mad?"
"No, sweetie," Stephanie said, "A baby is a blessing. No matter what."
"How far along are you?" Paul asked.
"Almost 5 months... I found out about 3 months ago..."
"You've kept this a secret for 3 months? Sam you could have told us earlier, we could have been helping you this whole time," Stephanie said.
"I know," I nodded, "I just... Every time I tried it seemed like a bad time to drop it on you and I didn't want to do that."
"Wait, who did you sleep with 5 months ago?" Paul asked.
I bit down on my lower lip and looked down at my hands.
"Sam..." Paul said.
"The only person I've slept with in the last year has been Jon..." I said quietly.
They both sighed.
"Does he know?" Stephanie asked.
"No, he and Renee have been happy. I didn't want to come between that."
Paul sighed again, "Okay. Here's what we're going to do, alright? You are going to go relax, and spend time with Kelsey in Hawaii. And we are going to deal with everything here, sound good?"
"Well, I assume I don't have much of a choice anyways, so yeah it sounds good."
"Alright, I'll arrange the flight, pack your bags."
I nodded and stood up. Paul stood up and kissed my forehead and gave me a hug. Stephanie hugged me and rubbed my belly for a moment before they both left the room. As I was packing, I called Kelsey.
"Hey beautiful, what's up? How are you feeling?" she answered.
"Hey, I'm packing my bags right now. I told Paul and Stephanie."
"They're sending you home?"
"They're sending me to you. They aren't mad."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Paul thinks I need to relax since I've been keeping it a secret and whatnot for so long. I think he just wants me to separate myself from everyone for a bit so they can sort everything out. I told them that it's Jon."
"Ohh yeah they probably want to be the one to talk to him. Well, text me your flight info and I'll pick you up at the airport alright?"
"Alright, I will as soon as Paul gives me it."
"Okay, I love you pregs."
"I love you too. Bye."
"Bye."
I hung up and finished packing my bags. Paul and Stephanie drove me to the airport about an hour later.
"We'll figure everything out, alright? Text us when you land, and we'll update you on the situation," Paul said.
I nodded, "When you tell Jon... Will you tell him I'm sorry for not telling him earlier... And that I'm sorry for not telling him myself..."
"Of course," Stephanie said, "Just take some time for yourself right now to relax. Buy whatever you need on your credit cards. We'll handle everything here."
I nodded, "Thank you guys."
"Of course. Now go on, you've got a flight to catch," Paul said as he hugged me, "I love you princess."
"I love you too."
I hugged Stephanie and she kissed the top of my head. I pulled my bags behind me as I went into the airport.
I took off my sweater in the airplane and I just wore my Triple H shirt, which fit snug over my clearly pregnant belly. I put my headphones in my ear and started listening to music on my phone.
My flight from Charlotte, NC to Honolulu was 12 hours long, and I slept for a lot of it. When we landed, Kelsey was waiting for me outside of security.
"Oh come here mama," she said as she pulled me into a hug, "How was your flight?"
"Oh you know, it was 12 hours long and I had a heavy set dude sitting next to me eating nonstop," I said.
"Ouch, well come on. Let's get your bags and head home so you can get dressed in something more comfortable."
"Yeah, that's the thing. I don't really have many comfortable clothes at this point," I said.
"Well then, to the mall we go," she said with a smile.
We got my bags, and went to the car. I texted Paul and Stephanie saying that we landed and they said they were about to talk to Jon. I put my phone away when we got to the mall.
"Alright, now let's shop till we drop. Not literally though, a fall would not be very good for you," Kelsey said.
We shopped for a few hours, then I finally checked my phone when we got back to Kelsey's house. I had a bunch of missed calls from Stephanie, Paul and Glenn.
"Uh oh, I missed something important apparently," I said as I walked out to the back area, which was right on the beach.
"How many missed calls?"
"20 in total from Paul, Stephanie and Glenn."
"Damn."
I called Paul and sat down on a lounge chair.
"He went AWOL," Paul said as he answered.
"Wait what? Who went AWOL?"
"Jon did. And okay he didn't actually go AWOL, he told us he was leaving, but he didn't say where he was going or how long he was going to be gone. I tried to tell him he couldn't do that and he said that I could fire him if that's what had to be done, but he needed to leave."
"You're not going to fire him are you?" I asked.
"No of course not, we wouldn't fire the father of my sister's child and besides it's hardly a big enough breach of contract to fire him," he said.
I sighed, "Look, I'll try to get a hold of him and figure out where he is and what he's doing."
"Thank you."
"But, how did he take it? Was he mad or what?"
"No, he didn't seem mad at all. He seemed concerned and worried because we were telling him and not you, and it only seemed to get worse when we told him that we sent you to Honolulu."
"Wait you told him where I went?"
"Yes why- Ohhh, okay well now we know where he's going."
"I'll tell you if he shows up. I'm going to eat something and try to relax before he shows up."
"Alright, I love you. Call us when he gets there."
"I will, I love you too."
I hung up the phone.
"So, Jon is on his way?" Kelsey asked.
"Probably," I nodded and sent him a text that contained my location with the caption in case you needed to find me.
Kelsey and I had some lunch before we changed into our bikinis and laid in the sun after Kelsey forced me to use an absurd amount of sun screen.
The next morning, I got dressed early and walked down to the little coffee shop down the street and got myself some decaf coffee. I drank it there and then walked back to Kelsey's. As I reached the driveway, I saw Kelsey and Jon sitting on the front porch.
"Jon," I said as I walked up, causing him to stand up quickly.
"Sam," he said.
"What are you guys doing out here?"
"I wouldn't let him in the house without you here," she said, "I have no way of knowing if he's going to go ballistic and wreck shit and you have that weird way of calming people down no matter what."
I nodded, "Alright, well let's go inside then."
"You didn't even bring me coffee you're evil," Kelsey said as she opened the door.
"You have coffee here," I said.
"Yes, but you went out to get coffee."
"Because you don't have decaf."
"Who cares if you have caffeine the kids going to be crazy as it is, bouncing off the walls and shit, do you not remember how you were as a child?"
"Doesn't mean I have to stunt the growth prematurely," I said.
"Alright," Kelsey clapped her hands together, "I'm going to make myself some breakfast. Anyone else hungry?"
"Yes," Jon and I both nodded.
"Alright. I'll go do that now."
She walked away and I looked at Jon.
"Uh, let's go talk outside," I said.
He nodded and left his bags to follow me outside. I walked right up to the beach, taking my sandals off and putting my feet into the water.
"It's beautiful here," Jon said as he pulled his shoes off.
"It really is," I said.
"So, I'm sorry," he said.
"For what? I'm the one who's supposed to apologize here."
"No," he shook his head, "I didn't think about how my actions after we slept together would effect you and I didn't care enough to check up on you and that's wrong because I actually care about you a lot, Sam. And I'm sorry for showing up here out of nowhere and I'm sorry for everything, for not talking to you when everyone could tell something was going on with you. I was just being selfish and I'm sorry."
I shook my head, "Jon. I want you to understand that no matter what Paul and Stephanie said to you, I expect nothing from you. You know now, and that's all I really wanted. Was just for you to know that this is happening, and this child exists. Beyond that, it's up to you and I expect nothing. But I'm sorry, that I didn't tell you earlier and that you didn't even find out from me. If I could change that I would but it's done and I can't do anything about it now."
"It's okay. I'm not mad about any of this. I just want to be here for you. I want to be here for the baby. I'm all in, Sam."
I looked over at him and he just looked at me.
I nodded, "Okay, so am I."