Ginger walked into Panera at twelve forty-five that day, where she had planned to meet Kris for lunch. Kris was already there (surprisingly enough, but Ginger had said to be there at twelve thirty and was late herself) and got up to greet her sister, but stopped halfway there.
"You're pregnant."
"No, Kris, I'm just a little hefty around the waistline. Thanks for noticing," Ginger kidded. Kris's eyes were wide in surprise and she hugged her sister before bringing her to sit down at a table she had already gotten. "Geez, Kris, you'd think I had two heads or something."
"How come you didn't tell me?" Kris asked.
"It's not the kind of thing I wanted to say over the phone," Ginger said, brushing away a bit of her hair from her face. "It's not the kind of thing I really want to discuss at all."
"Does Zac know?" Ginger shook her head. "Rosemary!"
"Zac doesn�t want to talk to me, Kris. If he doesn't want to talk to me, he doesn't need to know I'm having his kid."
"Oh, so you know it's his?" Kris asked. It wasn't a loaded statement; it was just a surprised question.
"Of course it's his!" Ginger said. "I never slept with Taylor." Kris looked at her, even more shocked. "I never let that happen." Kris nodded. "No, it's definitely Zac's. Actually, I just came from the ob-gyn."
"Really? What'd she say?"
"I'm having a girl."
"Oh my God! That's wonderful! Did you get a picture?" Ginger nodded. She dug through her purse and pulled a picture, showing it to Kris. "This is so precious. Have you thought about what you're going to name her?"
"Jennifer."
"Jennifer what?"
"Jennifer Kristina." Kris froze. "I'd decided on the name quite a bit ago and although I thought you'd never talk to me again, I wanted her to know her Auntie Kristina." Kris's eyes filled with tears. "Please! Don't cry! I cried enough for one day at the doctor!"
"Honey�I can't believe it!" Ginger shrugged. "That is so wonderful!"
"But, whatever you do," Ginger said. "Don't tell Zac."
"I don't talk to Zac. Not after what he did to you."
"Still. Don't tell Taylor because Taylor's going to tell somebody, I don't know, Diana, which is another story in and of itself, who'll tell Zac and I don't want him to know, all right?" Kris nodded.
"All right, all right. I won't say anything."
"Good."
"Rose?" Ginger looked up. "Is this going to be weird? I mean I know you don't want to see Taylor and it's going to be hard to be around each other if he's around. I don't want to end up having to separate you from him." Ginger shook her head.
"You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, Kris. If you don't want to separate me and Taylor, fine. Don't. I don't know if I'm ready to talk to him yet but if you want us all to be happy, we'll fake it. It's not hard to do." Kris smiled. "Just on the rare occasions when the rest of his family would be around, don't invite me."
"All right."
"So, how have you been? How's college?"
"It's stupid. I don't know why I ever wanted a career. I don't like it. But I'm not important. How are you doing? What's your job like?"
"It's stupid too. I'm a secretary for David's older brother at his law firm." Kris looked confused. "You remember David? My ex?" Kris's eyes lit up.
"Oh�yeah I remember him! Where is he?"
"I don't know. Bob doesn't talk about him." Kris shrugged. "Anyway, this job couldn't be easier. I'm getting paid good money and Bob is giving me maternity leave. I wouldn't even be working for him for a whole year and he's already giving me maternity leave! I think he's just doing this because he knows I need it. He says he's got plenty of money through the firm and he might as well pay me good, otherwise he'll end up spending it on things he doesn't need."
"Hey, that's good. Getting paid is good."
"Yeah. I haven't seen a dime of it, though. Everything's going to furniture for the apartment and what's not going to that is going towards a car."
"You don't have a car?" Ginger shook her head. "How do you get around?"
"I used to walk, but I'm getting too big for that. I take the bus and sometimes if I have to go somewhere specific, like here, I take a cab. I really need a car, though. This place isn't the kind of city that's good for public transportation."
"No it's not. You're not taking a cab home. I'm taking you there."
"I'm fine, Kris."
"No you're not. You need a car."
"I'm getting there, Kris. I don't get all the money in the world, you know. There are bills to pay and things to save up for. A baby is a lot of money and I don't know if I'm prepared for it. Bob said he'd pay me even while I'm gone but I don't know if that'll be enough to handle. As soon as I'm back up to par I'm going back to work and I'm going to have to hire a nanny or something."
"I'll be your nanny," Kris said. Ginger gave her a look. "No! I'm serious! I'll do it. Me and Mom. I won't be home all the time but when I'm not she is and we can take care of Jennifer for you, just until she's old enough to go to day care."
"Kris, I couldn't ask you to do that. You don't understand how much pressure this is going to be on you. A baby's a big responsibility and it's really costly. Even if you did take care of her and I paid for it, you'd still be spending money on her. No, I'll get a professional one. She'll know what to do."
"I still think I should do it."
"No, Kris."
"Fine. If you don't want Auntie Kristina helping out I just won't. You can do this all by yourself. Like always. You never let anybody take care of you."
"I don't need anybody to take care of me, Kris," Ginger said. "I'm getting along perfectly fine on my own. You said it yourself. Rosemary is strong. Rosemary pulls through everything."
"Well maybe I was wrong," Kris said.
"I'm starving," Ginger said. "I need to eat something. My baby is just dying for food." Kris and Ginger got up to order, waited a moment for it to be filled, and then went back to their table. Ginger began to eat and Kris looked at her, taking her time. "What?" Ginger asked, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
"It's just weird seeing you like this," she said. "You're pregnant."
"Yeah. It's a trip. The mood swings are great." Kris rolled her eyes. "It's the worst thing in the world, Kris. I'm so gassy�"
"Just what I wanted to hear."
"Shut up. I'm also horny," Ginger said. "Honestly, I have never been this horny in my life. And I've been horny before."
"Sorry, dear, I can't help you out with anything there."
"It's unbelievable. I'm ready to jump the next guy who walks in the door." Ginger looked towards the door and froze. "Holy shit, I did not mean that." Kris looked over to the door then back to Ginger.
"That's David!"
"I know!"
"Did you know he was in town?"
"No! The last I heard of him he was still in Michigan! Oh my God�" She hit herself as much as a bright red-haired pregnant woman could. David passed behind them. He was tall with brown hair the same color as his brother's. He had blue eyes and was skinny. After he passed, Ginger looked at him. He was more built than he was when she dated him but he was still just as skinny. "Of all the places in the world to be."
"I know, imagine that."
"Well, eat quickly, hopefully he won't sit over here."
"But I want to talk to you!"
"We can talk when you're driving me back to my place. I'll even show you around. I hope he doesn't see me. The last thing I need is for an ex-boyfriend to see me pregnant and still single." They ate quickly.
"Could you imagine that?" Ginger said, unlocking the door to her apartment. Kris was behind her, looking around. "Seeing David there."
"I know," Kris said. They went inside and Ginger closed the door behind Kris after she walked in. "So, this is your place?"
"I know; it's terrible. It's in a bad part of town and its probably the cheapest cheap can buy but I signed a contract for a year and right now it's all I can afford. I know I'm not going to spend the rest of my life here. There's no way in hell I'm doing that. As soon as I get the money and once Jenny's in preschool I'll move into a nicer place. I don't have a problem with being in an apartment, but I don't want my daughter growing up in a piece of shit hole like this."
"It's not that bad, Rose. It's better than where I am. I'm still living at home with the parents." Ginger put her keys down on the table.
"You're nineteen years old. You should be. It's not supposed to be this way. I'm not supposed to be living on my own with a baby on the way in a crappy job I don't want." Ginger shook her head and pressed the button on her answering machine to listen to her messages.
"Hey Rose, it's yourself," Ginger's voice said over the answering machine. Kris gave her sister a look. Ginger only returned it. "Just a reminder to check out childbirth classes, get your folic acid vitamins, and go shopping for baby stuff!"
"You need to go shopping for baby stuff?" Kris asked.
"Yeah. I kind of don't have anything and I'm almost halfway through my pregnancy."
"Can I go with you?"
"Sure."
"Yay." Kris began to wander through the apartment. Ginger put her purse down and opened the refrigerator. She poured herself a glass of juice and watched as Kris absently wandered through the rooms. Kris fell backwards onto Ginger's bed.
"Hey bitch," Ginger said, walking into her bedroom. "Get off of my bed."
"This is comfy," Kris said, rolling around in the bed just to spite her sister.
"Kris!"
"I'm just playing, I'll fix it when I get off," she said. "You know what you should do?" Ginger raised an eyebrow. "You should go out looking for guys."
"Oh, yeah, Kris. That'll be a sight. Five months pregnant. Hey, you're hot, would you like to be my baby's father? That'll attract a lot of guys."
"You don't have to get a man! You just need to get laid. You said you were horny."
"I don't think anyone wants to get with a pregnant chick. The majority of guys out there don't know if it's okay to have sex during pregnancy anyway."
"I could lend you Taylor."
"No way," Ginger said, taking a sip of her juice. "He's what got me into this mess to begin with. If it weren't for him, I'd be back home in Tulsa laying in Zac's arms and discussing how excited we are to have a little girl." Ginger's eyes welled up and she turned away, taking another long drink from her juice.
"You still love him, don't you?" Kris asked.
"Of course I still love him," Ginger said. "Something stupid like my absolute betrayal and our break up isn't going to get in the way of that." She shook her head and wiped a tear from her eye. "God, Kris, how could I have been so stupid?"
"You're just human, Rose," Kris said. "Taylor kept pressuring you and pressuring you�after a while of course you were going to give in."
"You don't understand, Kris," Ginger said. She walked over to her sister and sat next to her on the bed. "You don't know the whole story. When I was in Tulsa the first time, when Zac took me away from Alex, Zac had somewhere to go and he left me at home with the family. At that point he didn't suspect anything. I was only there for a couple of days and I'd only known Zac for maybe a week. Taylor was talking to me�Taylor was just the person I needed while I was there. Things were changing .I knew everything was changing now and they'd never be the same. That's a lot to handle. Taylor was there. He listened to me. He sympathized with me. Before I knew what was going on we were making out, then we were doing other stuff�then were having sex."
"You slept with him?" Kris asked. "I thought you said�"
"No, I said I wouldn't sleep with him again. I did it that first time I was at their place. I guess that just kind of fueled it for him. He must have thought that if I did it the first time I would want to do it again, but trust me when I say Kris I didn't want to do anything with him again. I got out of that situation as soon as I possibly could because I knew it was wrong and I knew it was going places I didn't want it to go. So I left. I came to live with you. Then he started showing up again and he was just like, 'come on, it's all right, you and me and just hook up one more time. Don't worry about Zac. I'm not breaking up with Kris and I don't expect you to break up with Zac. Let's just do it.' I gave in just to shut him up."
"So it was him," Kris said. "I knew it."
"It wasn't all him," Ginger said. "Don't blame it all on him, all right? There was some of me in there too. I could have gone straight to Zac and told him what was happening but I didn't do that. I just tried to handle it myself and eventually I just gave in."
"Don't blame yourself for this, Rose."
"Why not? Zac did."
"He doesn't know what the hell he's talking about." Ginger smiled.
"Thanks, Kris," Ginger said. "You don't know how much this means to me that you don't hate me."
"You're my sister, Rose," Kris said, putting her arms around Ginger. "I could never hate you."