After Nick left, Amanda talked to him almost every day. They spent hours on skype, sharing details of their now separated lives. And then Amanda found out she was pregnant.
She dodged his calls. She would see the blue notification pop up in the corner of her computer screen, and she would pretend she couldn't hear its obnoxious sound. Eventually, he stopped trying.
She didn't want to explain to him that she was pregnant. With another man's child. So that was it. A few months passed. Amanda started showing; her center of mass shifting to her belly. At this point, she really wasn't going to talk to him. Before, it was just her fear and nerves that were preventing her from reaching out. Now it was her baby bump. No hiding it anymore.
Then Amanda went into labor. And Declan came back from Serbia, and did tried to help in every way he knew how. Their daughter—Charlotte—she was so beautiful. So happy and healthy. Amanda forgot about Nick.
At the hospital, the doctor and nurse were going through a last-minute checklist with Amanda, and answering any lingering questions.
They were off, Charlotte sleeping tenderly in her new car seat. A soft tuft of blonde hair peaked out from under a pink hat. Declan had never driven so carefully in his life, and Amanda had decided to ride in the backseat next to the baby. She didn't wake the during the ride home, but at one point she stretched her arms and gave a silent yawn before settling again. Not even a week old, and she had already captivated every ounce of Amanda and Declan's hearts.
They reached Amanda's apartment. Declan carried her things and Amanda held the baby. Once they had put the baby down, once they had readjusted, they rested together in silence. Declan was unsure if he should stay or leave, but seeing that Amanda, who had insisted she was fine, had fallen asleep, obviously exhausted, he decided to stay.
He carried the woman who had given him his daughter into her bedroom and laid her down to sleep. The day faded into night, and the night into weeks. Soon, Amanda was nearing the end of her maternity leave.
She and Declan had fallen into a nice cycle. He would come over in the evenings, after work, and help with whatever he could. At first, Amanda was anxious and unsure, but she learned to relax and to trust him. He was, after all, Charlotte's father.
They had been uncertain of how to greet each other; how to say goodbye. Should they kiss? Hug? With time, the awkwardness faded away and Amanda would give him a loving hug when he departed.
One evening, just as the sun was retreating in the sky, Amanda heard a knock at the door. Declan, at this point, had a key, so he usually just came right in, but Amanda had asked him to go out and get a new stroller, as Frannie the dog had broken theirs, so she figured his hands were full.
When she opened the door, baby lying against her shoulder over a yellow and white burp cloth, she was greeted by a familiar face.
Nick.
He looked as if he had been planning out this conversation in his head. "Amanda! It's great to—" he said before stopping short.
His eyes fell on the quiet but awake baby in Amanda's arms.
"Whose baby is that?"
Amanda hesitated. "Come inside, Nick," she said.
He followed her into her small apartment, overrun by baby things. She led him to the couch, where they sat down together.
"Nick, this," Amanda began, turning her daughter to face him, "Is Charlotte. My daughter." Nick's features softened with the view of the infant.
"Nick, about a month after you left, I found out I was pregnant."
"Right when you stopped returning my calls," Nick said, running his hand across his jaw. "Why didn't you tell me, Amanda? That I was going to be a father again?" He wanted to maintain eye contact with Amanda but his eyes kept fluttering to the wide-eyed baby.
Amanda cringed. "Nick, she's not yours."
"Amanda, you don't have to pretend," he said.
"No, Nick, seriously."
"If not mine, then whose?" He was frustrated. Upset that Amanda had kept this from him, conflicted that it wasn't his baby. On one hand, he already had two children by two different women; on the other, this meant that while he was seeing Amanda, she wasn't being exclusive to him as he was to her.
Amanda heard the key turn in the lock, and cursed internally. There could not be a more inconvenient time for Declan to come home.
"Hey, Amanda, sorry it took so long, the cashier was some teenage kid who couldn't get the machine to work," Declan said, hanging up his coat and not making eye contact.
As he put the large box containing the new stroller down on the floor, he glanced up and saw Nick. "Am I interrupting something?"