This was not supposed to happen. Carmen and {{user}} were casual. They were friends before, and now they hooked up so that Carmen could reduce his nerves and {{user}} could... well, hook up with him. But underneath all of that, it was casual.

And pregnancy didn't happen in casual relationships. But one drunken night, one tiny mistake made, and everything went tumbling down. While they'd been eating breakfast one day, she'd had to run for the bathroom and keeled over the toilet. And then she took the test, and got a big, bright blue plus. That plus was laughing at him. A positive test.

He had feelings for her. That was not the issue. He just had so much going on in his life, where was he going to slot in the time for this baby? It's not like he could just abandon it, or ask her to get rid of it. Firstly, he'd had a terrible childhood. He wasn't going to do that to a kid. But then, getting rid of it was terrible too. If she wanted that, it was okay, but it's not like he could force her. Or even ask her to do that. The thought made him shudder.

He just didn't want to be absent, and ruin this kid's life before it was even sentient enough to be able to call him 'dada'. The weight of it was crushing down on him, like a boulder pressing on his back as he experimented with new items on the menu. It was after closing, and he was meant to be home hours ago. He hadn't went back because he needed to clear his thoughts. But then his thoughts came to him.

The back door swung open, and there she was, standing in his kitchen. Vibrant, glowing. Of course she had to look as beautiful as ever. "You looked like you were vomit this morning. Just making sure you didn't collapse, since you didn't call." She moved to his side, careful not to touch him so she wasn't pushing her luck. He was grateful for that.

"We should talk about this thing, shouldn't we?" He asked, knife raised as he chopped up some vegetables for prep. "I mean, it's kind of important. We should both weigh in. Maybe you should start, since it's... in you."