Lily Montgomery stared at the little white stick lying on the floor at her feet.
Please, please, please, please she silently begged as she watched a faint line appear. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The line grew more distinct until there was no denying it was really there and not just her imagination.
She was pregnant.
How could this have happened? Okay, scrap that. Of course Lily knew how it happened, she was there, after all, and a willing participant. But she’d been careful. She’d used protection and made sure she was always up to date with her pills. She never missed one, not once. Ever.
But the stick didn’t seem to care, it still had two blue lines staring up at her.
Crap.
“You going to be much longer in there Lily? Have you died or something? I need you out on the floor!” The cause of her problem banged on the bathroom door and shouted at her. Unfortunately he was also her boss and between the hours of two p.m. and midnight, he owned her. Or at least he thought he did.
“Coming Simon,” she called, wiping the tears from her face. She picked up the offending stick off the floor, buried it at the bottom of the garbage can under the sink and washed her hands. She took one last look in the mirror. She was too pale and her eyes too big and red from the crying. Her hands strayed to her flat belly. It seemed outrageous that such major changes could be taking place inside her while on the outside the only evidence of something out of the ordinary were the tear stains on her cheeks. She quickly splashed cold water on her face to erase those as well. She pinched her cheeks and smoothed the wrinkles from her ugly two-tone brown, polyester uniform before pulling open the staff bathroom door.
Simon leaned on the wall outside in the corridor, waiting for her. “What took you so long? I have customers waiting while you take your sweet ass time going to the loo. It’s not even your break.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you saying I’m not allowed to use the toilet?”
Simon straightened away from the wall. “You know I can’t tell you that,” he said, taking a step closer to her. “Just don’t take so long Lily, I’ve got people waiting. Just because you’re pissed at me, doesn’t mean you can take it out on my business. Think about the others who’d be out of a job if I had to close.”
She’d started walking while he was talking but now stopped, turned around and looked at him. “You’re not going to have to close just because I went to the toilet outside of my break time, Si. You and I both know that.” She sighed, “Look, I’m sorry okay, I have an upset tummy tonight.” She turned and continued on her way down the hall again.
His arm shot out, blocking her escape. For someone wanting her to get back to work, he was slowing her progress back to the front of the floor considerably.
“What do you want Simon?” She could hear the weariness in her voice. She was so over having to deal with this night after night.
He caressed the bare skin of her arm. A shiver ran through her body. Lily jerked away from his touch. It no longer sent thrills through her. Now, when he touched her, all she wanted to do was take a bath.
Hurt flashed in his eyes when she pulled away. It quickly turned to anger. He slapped the wall with his hand and leaned close to her, anger glinting in his eyes. “Don’t think you can spend all night back here. And don’t think for a minute about making anyone sick.” He slapped the wall again and then stormed away from her, back to the front of the dinner.
She couldn’t stop herself from trembling at his sudden change of emotion. It was time she got out of here. She had someone else to think about now. Someone much more important.
*
Lily put the last of her things inside her old red truck, the one her grandpa gave her when she moved, shut the door and looked back at her apartment for the last time. She’d packed her stuff as soon as she got back from work, before Simon got home. When they split a month ago she couldn’t afford to move somewhere else. She’d been sleeping on the couch ever since.
She climbed into the pickup truck and turned the key. It rumbled to life and she pulled away from the curb. It was time to go home.
The three days it’d take her to drive there would give her plenty of time to think about her next move. And the note she left Simon.
Si,
I’ve decided it’s finally time for me to leave. I’m off home and I’ll ring when I get there. Thanks for letting me crash at your place for a while and I’m sorry if I’ve left you in the lurch at the diner. I’ll call soon.
Take care,
Lily x
She’d considered just disappearing without a word, but that didn’t seem right. As much as they weren’t getting along at the moment, he deserved to know where she was at least. She’d call him in a few weeks and let him know about the baby. She just couldn’t bring herself to tell him just yet. Part of her wanted to keep it as her own little secret and part of her wanted to shout it out to everyone she met. Her hand stroked her belly. She still couldn’t believe there was a little tiny human growing in there. A soft smile touched her lips.
Lily brought her attention back to the road and maneuvered through the heavy traffic to the dreaded Highway 401. There was a reason she barely ever went home to Alberta, and the reason was the 401. Well, actually it wasn’t the only reason, but it was the worst highway in the world. Not that she’d travelled on every highway in the world or anything, but the traffic was horrendous and she hated it. But once she got past Detroit, she knew the traffic would be much better and it’d be a much better drive the rest of the way.
She reached beside her and opened a bag of Doritos with one hand and shoved a couple into her mouth. She might as well get comfortable, she had days of driving ahead of her.
*
As much as she tried, Lily couldn’t stop herself from remembering the way she’d left Bassville eight years ago. She’d always said it was because she wanted to chase her dream, her dream of becoming an actress. But that wasn’t the only reason.
She’d spent the last eight years trying to block it from her memory, but the incident that had occurred in her family just months before she left was the main reason she hadn’t returned. Not that she hadn’t gone home to visit, she quickly argued with herself. I didn’t just drop off the face of the planet. And who could blame me for not wanting to show my face around town? But whenever she did go home for Christmas or Easter, she made damn sure that the visit was short and sweet. She was in and out of there so fast she barely had to show her face in town, most often only staying for a couple of nights before heading back to Toronto, making some excuse about having to get back to work. Ha! What a joke. It wasn’t as though she had any great career or anything. Anybody could wait tables.
For those last few months of high school before she moved, eyes would follow her as she walked down the street and people would whisper behind their hands as she went past. Her skin prickled with the memory. She wondered if anything had changed or if she’d still break out in a cold sweat walking down the main street. How her parents could still live there was beyond her comprehension. But she had nowhere