The new year came and went in a flash and before long Carla was back into the swing of things at the factory. The factory kept her mind preoccupied as she was constantly being urged by Michelle to tell Peter that she was carrying his baby. "Have you thought any more about Peter?" Michelle asked from across the desk. The working day had finished over half an hour ago and both Michelle and Carla had stayed late to catch up on any paperwork that needed to be done. Carla sighed at Michelle's question, it wasn't the first time today she'd asked this.
"How am I supposed to tell a married man that i'm having his baby?" Carla said raising her eyebrows at Michelle because Michelle was acting as though this was the easiest thing in the world.
"Despite how difficult you might find it, he's just as responsible as you." Michelle said.
"And what about Leanne and Simon? Do they deserve to have their life ripped apart?" Carla questioned looking at Michelle who clearly just wanted what was best for Carla.
"But do they deserve to be kept in the dark with all this?" Michelle said. "Besides you can't keep a baby hidden and if Peter finds out from someone else that you're pregnant he's going to have questions isn't he?"
"Not if I tell him it's not his." Carla said trying to think of any possible excuse to get out of this awful situation.
"Carla you can't do that!" Michelle said not too loudly because she didn't want to upset Carla. Carla bit her lip.
"I could just say it happened with some business man that's completely irrelevant to my life… Why would he question that?" Carla thought knowing it wouldn't be that easy and he'd surely question if he could possibly be the father.
"And what if he doesn't believe that?" Michelle then added.
"I don't know, Chelle." Carla sighed putting her head in her arms. "It would be so much easier if I couldn't go through with having the baby." Carla mused. Michelle looked at Carla and could see that despite the messy situation she was in, she already deeply loved her baby.
"It doesn't make you weak, you know." Michelle said.
"I never wanted a baby." Carla sighed. "I could've gone the rest of my life without being in this situation and I would've been just fine."
"Mother nature clearly had other plans." Michelle said. Carla just groaned. "Look, I know that you're scared but it's not fair if you don't tell Peter it even worse lie to him." Michelle added softly. Carla just nodded knowing that Michelle was right.
It was the following day and Carla was walking along the street in the direction of the factory. As she turned onto Coronation Street from Victoria Street she was met with no other that Peter himself. "Oh, hi." Peter said awkwardly as he knew Carla would do her best to avoid him if they were out and about. Peter was getting better everyday and was capable of being independent now and wasn't relying on Leanne to help him get around.
"Alright?" Carla said equally as awkward as Peter. Carla couldn't look at Peter directly.
"How's things?" Peter asked Carla who still wouldn't look at him.
"Good, yeah." Carla said. "It's good to see you up and about." She added.
"Yeah, I'm feeling much better too." Peter said lightly and just making general chit chat. Carla just nodded.
"Well, I better get back to the factory." She said as she went to walk away.
"Wait!" He called. "Look, I hate this, I hate how we can't even talk to eachother properly in the street anymore." He said honestly. Truthfully he missed Carla like crazy but knew it was his own fault as to why she ended things. She wanted commitment and he couldn't commit.
"What do you want me to say?" Carla asked as she turned around to face Peter. He sighed.
"I know what happened… Between us, ended badly but we were mates before all that can't we just go back to that?" He asked to which Carla just scoffed.
"I think it's a little late for that, mate." Carla said. "It's probably best we just stay out of each others way forever." Carla snapped feeling so annoyed that Peter could just move on.
Carla stormed into the factory. The machinists knew not to say anything to Carla when she looked like she could murder a puppy so continued with their work. Michelle was currently out on her lunch break so Carla just sulked into her chair. Carla didn't know how Peter could have the nerve to lead her on, make false promises and just expect her to want to be his friend. She hated even more that she still had feelings for him.
A short while later Michelle returned to the office with her lunch. She told her about her run in with Peter and Michelle was worried this would push her even further away from coming clean to Peter. "How can he just pretend like nothing happened?" She sighed.
"Because he's an idiot… But he's also completely clueless to the fact he's having another kid." Michelle said as she took a bite of her spicy chicken sandwich. Carla couldn't focus on the words Michelle was saying because the smell of the food was making her stomach turn. "Are you okay? You're looking a little pale." Michelle said as she noticed Carla had gone quiet. Carla grimaced and nodded trying her best to not feel sick but it was no use.
Carla only really suffered morning sickness shortly after she woke up of a morning but today it was somehow worse, maybe it was the stress of seeing Peter she thought. "Just feeling nauseous." She said as she sipped a glass of water from her desk. "I thought morning sickness was supposed to just be in the morning."
"Not always." Michelle said sympathetically. "Some people get it right up until birth."
"I can't go through another what… 7 months of this." Carla sighed.
"You could be lucky and it'll go away after 12 weeks." Michelle said not wanting to stress Carla out even more today. "Why don't you go home if you're not feeling great, there's not much left to do and well, it's nearly 5pm." Michelle suggested and surprisingly Carla agreed.
"I'm just gonna crawl up in bed until the morning." Carla said a she put on her coat and picked up her bag.
As Carla left the factory, she saw Leanne getting on a bus. Peter would more than likely be in the bookies. She had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that she knew would only go away if she told Peter, maybe now was the time. Before she had time to back out her legs had taken her in
the direction of the bookies. She briefly looked inside to see that Peter was behind the desk and the shop itself was empty. She took a deep breath and opened the door. Peter looked up and saw Carla. "What are you doing here? I thought you wanted nothing to do with me?" Peter frowned not knowing why Carla would just turn up out of the blue.
Carla suddenly felt very nervous. "Is there somewhere we could talk, in private?" She swallowed.
"What's this about?" He asked as she slowly walked up to the counter.
"There's something I need to talk to you about, please." She almost begged as she put her hands in her pockets so they weren't visibly shaking. Peter could see that something was bothering her. He walked from behind the counter and locked the door and put the closed sign up. He turned to face her.
"So is this about your drinking or-" Peter asked as he kept a large distance between them.
"Not it's not that." She said said, still not being able to say the words out loud to him.
"Then what is it? Only I am trying to run a business here." He huffed getting more annoyed by the second. She remained silent. Maybe now wasn't the right time considering she had been so adamant that she couldn't tell him. "Carla?" He said rather impatiently.
"I'm pregnant." She blurted out. "And it's yours." To say Peter looked like a deer in headlights would be an understatement, in fact he was certain he couldn't have heard her correctly.
"Wh-What?" He stammered. Carla's eyes were brimming with tears and she anticipated his reaction.
"I'm pregnant, Peter with your baby." She confirmed. Peter's mouth went dry, his legs felt as though they were going to collapse from underneath him. In fact he wanted the world to swallow him while right this second.
"Say something, Peter." Carla said nervously however he was in complete and utter shock.
Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter, I appreciate it so much. Do you like the length of these chapters or would you prefer them to be longer/shorter, please let me know?
Just to let you know this will be the last update this week, I'm busy everyday from tomorrow until sunday and just won't have the time to write anything so please bear with me on that.
like always please read and revieiw :)