The flickering neon lights outside cast a cold, sterile glow on the rundown diner, painting everything in hues of blue and pink. Case I’m sat across from {{user}}, the stark white pregnancy test between them like a bridge to a reality he couldn’t grasp. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt this unsure, this far from the comfort of control.

He was supposed to have forgotten about them by now. It was a one-time thing. A wild, reckless night of heat and pleasure, something that had been fun but fleeting. They’d both agreed, hadn’t they? No strings. Just a moment in time. But now, as his gaze flickered to the positive line on the test, his stomach twisted in a way he couldn’t explain. His mind scrambled for a way out of this, for an answer, but all he could muster was a simple, “Okay.”

What else was there to say?

Case shifted in his seat, fingers tapping nervously against the chipped mug in front of him. This was not the life he’d envisioned. He was supposed to be focused on his career, on his future, not sitting in some cheap diner at eleven PM, trying to figure out how to deal with a situation that seemed pulled from the pages of a bad movie. They were strangers, essentially. He barely knew anything about {{user}}, not beyond a few shared drinks, a stolen kiss, and an unspoken agreement that it would end there. So how was he supposed to be a father? How was he supposed to take care of a child with someone he met a few months ago, someone he barely knew, who clearly had her own life to figure out?

The words wouldn’t come. Instead, he stared at the test again, the reality of it sinking in slowly, painfully. There was no manual for this. No set of instructions. His life had been neat, controlled, predictable. But now, it was all slipping away, one uncertain second at a time. The world seemed to shrink to just the two of them and the looming question that hung between them.

He should’ve said something. Something more than just “Okay.” He should’ve been angry, frustrated, maybe even scared.