19. Oscar

Chapter 19

Oscar

Being unemployed was the worst. Not just because of the lack of income but because it was so boring. Daxton was gone all day, and I could only clean so much. There wasn't a speck of dust to be found, and it was barely after nine in the morning.

I dropped onto the couch to rest for a minute, even though I'd only been awake for a few hours, and my eyes drifted shut. I'd gotten plenty of sleep last night, so it didn't make sense for me to be so sleepy, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open.

The regular ringtone on my phone woke me up. I rarely heard it because Daxton was the only person who called me, and he had a special ringtone. The generic beeps felt almost ominous as I carefully lifted the phone to my ear. "Hello."

"Oscar, great. I'm glad I caught you."

The voice on the other end of the line was familiar, but I had to pull the phone back and look at the caller ID to be sure. It was my ex-boss. "Ray? Um, hi."

"Hi, Oscar. I'm sorry to bother you, but I need to apologize."

"Apologize for what?" A sliver of hope built up inside me, but I tried to keep it at bay.

"For letting you go. That was a mistake." He chuckled to himself. "Our mistake, not yours."

"I don't understand."

"Randall had been stealing from the company for months. He was using your employee ID to procure items that he was reselling online. I'm sorry for not trusting you. It took a bit of digging, but after the audit, we realized the logins all came from his computer, not yours."

"Wow." I was surprised Randall had been using my ID for so long without me realizing it. Made me question how oblivious I'd been in the past. "I can't believe it."

"Yeah, me neither." Ray sighed, and I could hear the regret in his voice. "He had us all fooled, but he's admitted to it and promised to repay the $75,000 he embezzled."

"That's crazy, $75,000?" And I was feeling guilty about the $30 bulb I had to special order. "But thank you for letting me know. I've been pretty upset about the whole thing."

"I'm sure you were. No one likes to be wrongly accused, but I hope you'll consider coming back. With a raise, of course. And we'll pay you for the time you've been gone as if it were just an extended vacation." He paused for a moment, and my eyes began to well up from the relief I was feeling. "We just really need you, and I'm so sorry for the stress you've been through. Please come back."

"Yeah, of course." I cleared my throat to keep my voice from cracking. "Thank you. I appreciate it."

He chuckled in relief. "Well, hopefully you had a nice break, because with Randall gone, we're gonna be busy for a while."

"Thank you, Ray. Should I come in today?"

"Nah, enjoy the rest of your afternoon and come in tomorrow to pick up your badge and equipment. Everyone will be happy to have you back."

No one would be more happy than me. I was so relieved to have something to do during the day and access to AIDEN now and then. "See you tomorrow."

I decided to make a special dinner for Daxton to celebrate, so I sent him a quick text to let him know I'd be cooking and then headed out to pick up some groceries. The market was laid out with seafood along the wall when you walked in and meats and deli in the back. Produce was on the far side, so I started at the beginning, looking at the shrimp cocktail plates as an appetizer. At first glance, the shrimp looked delicious. But as I picked it up, the salty scent of the ocean, which I usually loved, turned my stomach, and I immediately retched. Luckily, my stomach was mostly empty, so nothing came up, but the way my body reacted was totally unexpected.

"How far along are you?" A man about my age took the shrimp from my hand and put it back in the refrigerated case.

"Huh?" My nausea was gone as quickly as it had appeared, and I felt totally fine. "Along what?"

"Your pregnancy. For the first few months, I couldn't even walk down this aisle without losing my lunch. But it's been fine after that. Hopefully, it doesn't last too long for you."

I still wasn't quite following. "When you were pregnant?"

He cocked his head and grinned. "Oh, is this news to you?" He chuckled and placed his hand on his huge belly. "Sorry, I shouldn't make assumptions, but…"

It was all starting to make a little more sense. "You think I'm pregnant?"

He shrugged. "Do you have an alpha?"

I nodded as tears began to form in my eyes. "Yes, but it's kinda new. We weren't planning a family yet or anything like that."

"Sometimes things just happen when they happen." He placed his hand on the edge of my cart and took a step forward. "Come on. I'll show you where the tests are. If you're puking, you're ready to test."

I followed him in a trance, unable to focus on anything other than the possibility of having Daxton's baby in my belly.

"I'm Jack, by the way." He glanced at me over his shoulder. "Did we go to middle school together?"

I looked at him a little closer and then grinned. "Yeah, Oak Grove, right? I remember you. I'm Oscar."

He chuckled and nodded. "The Grouch. That's right." He gave me a sheepish look. "Sorry about that nickname, by the way. I was a dumb kid."

It was hard to avoid being called Oscar the Grouch when that was your name. It wasn't something that ever bothered me. "It's fine. When I was little, I thought it would be cool to live in a trash can like on the show, so it wasn't much of an insult."

He laughed and turned down the pharmaceutical aisle. "Yeah, well, I got mine too. Jack also has a lot of nicknames that adolescent boys find hilarious." He mimed masturbation, and I had to laugh.

"Yeah, I can imagine that would have been hard too."

We stopped in front of a wall of fertility and pregnancy tests, and he picked up two boxes. "These are the ones I used. Not too expensive and obviously accurate." He rubbed his belly lovingly.

"Yeah, okay. I'll take both. Just to be sure."

"Exactly how I felt too." Jack tossed both into my cart. "How about you pay for these now and then take the test in the back, and I'll wait to see the results with you. Just in case you panic."

I was already panicking. "Thank you, Jack." I took the tests to the deli counter to pay for them there, away from prying eyes at the front registers. "I'm so glad I ran into you. I'm not sure I would have figured it out on my own…ever."

He seemed amused by that. "Well, if your alpha is anything like mine, he would sniff it out any day now. He might already notice the change in your scent. But even so, the puking and exhaustion usually give it away pretty quickly. You might have had a few more days of blissful ignorance, but not more than that."

I moved on auto-pilot as I paid and went into the restroom to take all four of the tests in the two boxes. I considered saving one for the future in case they were negative, but I was fairly confident they would be positive. I could practically feel the extra life blossoming inside me. When I came back out with the tests wrapped as discreetly as possible in paper towels, Jack was eagerly waiting with an open package of double-stuffed cream cookies. "I got hungry."

I used my non-pee-stick-holding hand to grab a few cookies from the package. "I'm not, but I like to stress eat."

"Stress…because you're so excited?" He raised an eyebrow. "Or because you aren't excited?"

And that was the question of the hour, wasn't it? "Excited, but um, terrified. That's normal, right?"

"Mmm-hmm." He swallowed his cookie and spoke with chocolate crumbs all over his teeth. "I was terrified. Afraid my alpha wasn't ready or would think I was trying to trap him or something. It's a normal response."

"And everything was good?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, eventually. I mean, it's their instinct to want to procreate, so yes, he was happy. We had to work out some details, but after that, it's been great."

Okay, I could do this. Whatever happened was gonna happen. I held up the pee-stick-holding hand and sighed. "So, is it time?"

"It's time." He placed his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "What does it say?"

I held my breath as I unwrapped the first stick. "It says…pregnant."