Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake (A Brush with Love, #2)(35)
And through it all, Lizzie’s phone buzzed nonstop on her lap, rotating messages from Indira, Thu, and Harper flooding the group chat so aggressively Lizzie couldn’t comprehend how they were also carrying on a verbal conversation.
Indira
Lizzie, who is this guy?
Thu
what fresh hell is this dearest Elizabeth?
Harper
Lizzie!!!!! Do you have a boyfriend???
Thu
Indira, has Lizzie brought him to your apartment before?
Indira
I’ve never seen him. She’s never even mentioned him before
Indira
he hot AF tho
Thu
answer us Liz
When it became obvious Lizzie wasn’t going to answer their texts, Thu decided to slap her metaphorical dick on the table and get straight to it.
“So, how long have you two known each other?” she asked, taking a sip of wine.
Rake and Lizzie flashed each other a glance before looking down at their plates. “A few weeks,” Lizzie said, dragging her fork along the tablecloth.
“How’d you meet?” Harper said.
“At a bar,” Lizzie responded, craning her neck to look for their waitress. Having food to cram into her mouth would be ideal at this moment. She felt the truth scrambling out of her throat, and she instinctively knew its delivery would be less than ideal.
“Do you live in the city?” Dan asked Rake.
“I don’t, actually. I live in Sydney.”
Her friends shot her a curious look at that news.
“And what are your intentions with our lovely Elizabeth?” Indira said, a hint of a laugh in her voice. “You better not whisk her across the globe from me.”
Rake cleared his throat. “Uh. We…”
“What was that?” Thu pressed, sensing his discomfort and pouncing like a tiger on meat. Lizzie’s pulse started to punch painfully at her throat, her leg jiggling below the table.
“We’re … Lizzie and I…” Rake trailed off, looking at Lizzie.
“You’re…?” Thu repeated.
“I’m pregnant,” Lizzie blurted out. And the impact seemed to freeze her friends in place, a piece of bread falling from Indira’s fingers, Harper’s wineglass halfway to her mouth, Dan’s eyes large and dazed as he stared at a spot on the table.
Thu was the first to move, violently shaking her head as if she were removing water from her ears. “You’re what?” she said, her voice barely a whisper.
“Knocked up. Bun in the oven. Good ole Rake over here basted my turkey with that massive dong,” Lizzie said, nodding toward Rake on her right. She let out a booming laugh of discomfort that made everyone jump.
“What are you going to do?” Thu said, her voice rising. “What’s your plan? How long have you known? Why didn’t you tell us?”
Lizzie shrugged, dragging her thumbnail across the table.
“What are you going to do, Lizzie?” Thu repeated.
“Thu, come on,” Harper said quietly, putting a hand on Thu’s forearm. Thu whipped her arm away from her.
“Don’t give me that ‘come on.’ What am I supposed to say? Congratulations on your massive accident?”
“Hey!” Lizzie said, her voice rising. While, yes, le bébé was an accident, it was her accident. And she was already quite fond of said accident.
“No,” Thu pressed back, never one to beat around the bush or approach a subject with delicacy. “I’m not going to sit here and pretend with you all that this is some great news. You don’t even know this guy.”
“I know him!” Lizzie said.
“Yeah? What’s his middle name?”
Silence.
“How about his birthday? You know that one, Lizzie? Or does he have any siblings?”
Lizzie crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at her lap like a pouty child, shame pricking through her like needles.
“How did this happen?” Thu said.
“Well,” Lizzie said, eyes still fixed on her lap, “when a man and a woman get super horny and rub their naughty bits together—”
“Lizzie, stop.” Thu’s face was serious and stern. “You’re an adult. How do you not know the fundamental basics of not getting fucking pregnant?”
“Because I’m a moron, I guess!” Lizzie burst out, hot tears stinging at her eyes. “Because it never occurred to me to check the expiration date on a condom! It’s rubber, for fuck’s sake, not a carton of milk!”
“You have more sex than anyone I know. How did you even manage to let one expire?”
Lizzie opened her mouth to offer some weak excuse, but the low rumble of Rake’s voice cut her off.
“I think it’s time you stop talking.”
Lizzie’s head whipped around to look at him. He was staring straight at Thu, whose eyes widened in shock.
“Excuse me?” Thu said, fixing him with a terrifying glare.
“I mean this with as much respect as possible, but you need to stop. Now.”
The entire table was frozen in another stunned silence. Harper and Dan shared a similar mask of horror, while Indira’s jaw was almost resting on the table. No one ever told Thu to do anything, let alone stop talking. Rake had unwittingly stepped into a minefield.