on,’ Dominic said to Victoria, because there was no chance of having an uninterrupted conversation here in the pub.
They stepped out into the street but that wasn’t the ideal location either.
‘We could go to mine,’ Victoria offered, but Dominic shook his head.
Given what had happened with Lorna he did not want to get closer to Victoria in the least. He did not want to see where she lived and sit and have a cosy chat. ‘There’s no need for that,’ Dominic said. ‘We can say everything we need to here.’
Victoria frowned. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Quite sure.’
So she went ahead and told him in her usual succinct way. ‘I’m eight weeks pregnant.’
And what had taken place between them was six weeks ago, but she guessed, given his qualifications, that she didn’t have to tell him that they added on two weeks.
Or maybe she did, because he was giving her a somewhat quizzical look, and so she clarified things in order that there could be no doubt.
‘It’s yours.’
Dominic said nothing.
What was there to say?
He hadn’t even thought to have that discussion with Lorna.
Dominic had trusted his girlfriend completely and look how that had turned out.
How the hell could he even come close to believing someone with whom he’d had sex with on impulse, who carried condoms and who, by her own revelation that night, had just finished with someone else.
No, he would not be fooled twice.
‘I’ve got to reschedule my ultrasound,’ Victoria said. ‘I wasn’t sure if you might want to be present.’
He gave a snort as he recalled the last time he’d been at an ultrasound and all that had transpired then—listening as the doctor gave the dates and asking her to repeat them, then trying to catch Lorna’s eyes as she turned away.
And Victoria saw the look he gave and interpreted it correctly. ‘I don’t need you to hold my hand, Dominic. I meant, I accept it might be hard to believe it is yours but the ultrasound will confirm the dates for you.’
‘No, it won’t—you say that you’re eight weeks pregnant. Well, that means they can only give parameters between five to seven days...’
‘Thanks for that.’ Victoria sneered at the implication.
‘We used protection,’ Dominic pointed out.
‘I’m not about to try and convince you,’ Victoria said. ‘I know it’s yours but I accept that you might not believe that it is,’ she said. ‘Whatever way, I felt that you had a right to know and now you do.’
Dominic just stood there, for once unsure what to say. She was as factual and direct as always, but he had been let down so badly before that there was no way he would be letting down his guard again.
He would be keeping his distance until he was certain.
‘When the baby is born, arrange for a DNA and, if it’s confirmed as mine, then we’ll speak about things.’
‘That’s it?’ Victoria checked.
‘What else do you want?’
‘With that attitude I don’t want anything from you,’ Victoria said, and walked off.
He watched her hitch up her bag and cross the street, and she was about to disappear into the underground when Dominic found himself running after her.
‘Wait!’ he called out.
She didn’t.
Victoria stepped onto one of the escalators but she didn’t stand and let it carry her down. Instead she walked quickly but knew Dominic was fast and so he caught up with her at the bottom.
‘Victoria, wait.’
‘No.’ It was just as busy here as it had been in the pub and so it was a hopeless place for conversation and, given his attitude, she would not be asking him again to come back to her flat. ‘I’m tired, Dominic. It’s been a helluva long day and right now I just want to get home and go to bed.’
He could see that she was tired and he thought of the day she had had. And he recalled the anger he had felt when she’d raced forward to grab that child.
No, not anger.
It had been fear that he had felt.
He moved her aside and she stood straight rather than lean against the wall; he put up an arm that buffeted them from the people that passed.
‘Have you told work?’ Dominic asked, already guessing the answer.
‘Not yet,’ Victoria said. ‘My crewmate knows.’
‘Work needs to know.’ He thought of her today and the hell of that fire, and not just that—it was a dangerous job indeed. ‘Victoria!’
‘I’ll make that choice,’ Victoria said.
It wasn’t really a choice; as soon as she knew she was pregnant she should tell them, but Victoria was still unable to get her head around things and had been putting it off.
‘Look...’ Dominic started, but she shook her head and made to leave.
‘I’m not discussing this here. You were the one who chose to be told out on the street.’
He had been.
But to stop her from dashing off he told her some of his truth.
‘Do you know how I know about date parameters?’
‘Well, you’re a doctor...’
‘I know about them,’ Dominic interrupted, ‘because I’d been reading up on things in the baby books. A few months ago I sat in on an ultrasound with my ex and found out that the baby we were expecting couldn’t possibly be mine, because I was in India at the time it was conceived. That’s why I moved down to London.’
She looked at him, right at him, but instead of a sympathetic response Victoria told Dominic a truth. ‘I’m not your ex.’
And then she ducked under his arm and was gone.
NO, SHE CERTAINLY wasn’t his ex.
Two days later Dominic sat in the back of the lecture theatre and watched as a very efficient Victoria took to the stage.
She was wearing a grey linen dress with flat pumps and her
