Adah pulled three more tissues from the box and dabbed at her face.  The tears just didn’t seem to want to stop not matter how hard she tried.  Her nose was running and she felt nauseous but she couldn’t stop crying.

“Hey, what’s up, Ace?”  Brett, Adah’s roommate and one of her best friends, ruffled her hair before claiming a seat next to her on the couch.  “Why the tears?”

“I don’t know.”  She hiccupped.  She felt like she was on an emotional roller coaster that she was stuck on for the next 32 weeks.  She hated roller coasters.  “Hormonal, I guess.”

“Oh, on the rag?”  He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him.  Brett, Adah, and Samantha had lived together for the past couple of years.  He was no stranger to women and their moods.

“Not exactly.”  She drawled, knowing that she had to break the news to her roommates.  She was almost relieved to be telling him, though, because she really needed someone on her side at the moment.  She was feeling pretty alone and desperate.  Her mother had passed away when she was in high school and she’d never met her father.  Brett and Sam were the only people she had in her life, well, not including this new baby.

“Okay, so what’s bugging you then, Ace?”

“I’m pregnant.”

She almost wanted to laugh at the way his eyes widened with her declaration. “It’s not mine, right?.”  At this she did laugh.

“Yeah, Brett, it is.  That one time you kissed me when we were drunk last year was enough to knock me up eight weeks ago.”

“How the hell did this happen, Adah?”  His fingers stroked through her hair and she let out a sigh.  “The last time I checked you were practically a nun.  I didn’t even know if you remembered what I penis was.”

“You’re fucking hilarious, my friend.”  She deadpanned.  “Remember that club we went to a couple of weeks ago?  The one over near Sam’s work?”

“Yeah, when we got into VIP.  I remember.”

“Well I went home with a guy that night and we slept together.  I had no trouble finding his penis, just so you know.”

“No shit?  Wow…so…who’s is it?”

“Justin Timberlake.”  The face he gave expressed his complete disbelief.  “I’m serious.”

“Yeah right, Ace.  Who’s the father?  It wasn’t that football player guy, was it?  The one with the shoulders that wouldn’t fit through a normal doorway?”

“Brett, it’s Justin Timberlake’s.”  He watched her, his stare measuring her expression.

“You’re serious.” His hands stopped running through her hair and he placed them on his own head.  “How the hell do you get yourself into situations like this one?”

“That’s not the best part, though.”

“Don’t tell me that you’re married to him or something.”  Adah snorted, rolling her eyes.

“No, not quite.  But I do work for him.”  She picked at a loose string on the couch.  “He’s the new client that I’m training for.  His dogs are adorable.”

“His dogs are adorable?”  It was Brett’s turn to snort.  “You’re having the man’s baby and all you can say is ‘his dogs are adorable’?  Ace, this is a huge deal.”

She looked at him with an incredulous stare.  “I’m well aware of that, thanks.”  The tears started to well up again, “What am I going to do?”  She leaned into his side letting him wrap her up into his arms.

Brett kissed Adah’s forehead.  “You need to start by telling him that you’re knocked up with his spawn.”  She laughed a little, wiping at her eyes.

“Just like that, huh?  Well, he already knows that I’m pregnant; he just doesn’t know it’s his.  I have no idea how I’m going to convince him that I’m not just some gold digger.  He doesn’t even remember me.”

“He has no idea that you two slept together?”  Brett moved himself down on the couch a little so Adah could lay across his stomach.

“He kept asking me if we’d met before, but you know how articulate I can be when I’m nervous.”

“So you stood there with your jaw on the floor?”  She punched his shoulder.

“Rhetorical question, B.  But yeah, I avoided saying anything about that night.  He’s probably going to put two and two together at some point.”

“You should tell him before that, Ace.  He really needs to know.”  He paused, not really wanting to ask this questions.  “You’re sure it’s his?”

“It can’t be anyone else’s.  I haven’t had sex with anyone else, not in the past two months.  Hell, not even in the past six months.  I’m sure it’s his, Brett.”  She started to sniffle again and Brett placed the box of tissues on her stomach.  He had no idea what to tell her at this point and he was sure that there really wasn’t anything that would make her feel better.

“Have you told Sam yet?  She should be home soon.”  Adah shook her head, blowing her nose a couple of times and taking a deep breath.

“No, I haven’t told her.  I just found out this morning.  I had my doctor’s appointment and then I went over to Justin’s house.  I puked in his bathroom.”

Brett’s nose wrinkled.  “You did?  Way to make a first impression, Ace.”

“He had just made coffee and I caught a whiff of the scent and I could barely keep it together in time to make it to the bathroom.  His cousin, Rachel, she was there and she figured it out pretty quickly.  I was hoping to maybe keep it a secret.”

There was a pause between them for a moment, “You mean not tell him at all?” Brett’s tone suggested his disdain.  “Are you talking about not keeping the baby?”

“No!”  She sat up, her eyes wide.  “That’s not what I meant at all.  I mean that I was thinking that I wouldn’t tell Justin at all.  When I first found out this morning I had no idea that I’d even see the man again.  It might be better off if he just doesn’t know.  I don’t want to ruin his career or anything like that.”

The sound that came from Brett’s mouth alerted Adah to the fact that she just said something he didn’t like.  “Ace, you need to tell him because it’s his baby too.  Forget the fact that he’s a musician, forget that he’s famous…he’s a man and he created a baby with you.  You. Need. To. Tell. Him.”

He gently lifted Adah so he could get off the couch and he left the room without another word.  She sat back on the couch letting his words ruminate in her brain.  She knew he was right, but that didn’t make this whole thing simple.  For all she knew, as soon as she told Justin he would deny the whole thing and refuse to have anything to do with her.  He didn’t know her at all and he would have every right to question the paternity. 

“Crap.”  She exhaled loudly.  Maybe Sam would be able to give her a little more insight into this whole dilemma.  Grabbing her phone she pressed the speed-dial button for Sam’s phone and waited.

“Hey darlin’, what’s up?”

“Where are you?”  Adah glanced at her nails, trying to keep from biting at them.

“I’m walking up the stairs.  Where are you?”

“Sitting on the couch waiting for your ass to get through the door.”  An easy grin slid across Adah’s face as the door swung open and crashed against the wall with a thud.  Sam appeared in the doorway with a mock scowl on her face.

“Impatient much?”  The petite blond threw her bags down on the floor and shuffled over to the couch to claim a spot next to her roommate.  “What’s going on?”  She studied Adah’s face for a minute, sure that something was wrong.

“I’m pregnant.”  Adah figured that straight-forward was the way to be.  Maybe all this practice with her roommates would help with telling Justin.

Samantha’s eyes widened, her eyebrows disappearing underneath her bangs.  “Run that by me one more time?”

“I’m pregnant.”  The words were almost starting to taste more familiar on her tongue.  Almost.

“Holy shit, Adah.  Who? What? When? How?”  Adah watched the confusion play out across her friend’s face along with a slew of other emotions. “You’re kidding, right?”

Sadly, Adah shook her head.  “I wish, Sammy.  Remember that club we went to a couple months ago?  The night I snuck off with that guy?”  Sam nodded her head, understanding dawning on her features.  “It was that night.  And the guy was Justin Timberlake.”

Laughter spilled out of Sam’s mouth in a musical manner.  She tilted her head back against the couch and Adah watched as the laughter grew from a few small chuckles to a full-blown belly laugh.  Sam clutched her stomach, her giggles shaking her body. 

“That was a good one, Ad.”  She caught the look on Adah’s face and sobered almost immediately.  “You’re serious?”

“As a heart attack.”  She started to bite at her nails and Sam pulled her hand out of her mouth.  “It gets worse, though.  I had a new client today and it just so happened to be the father of my unborn baby.”  Her face twisted as she spoke.  “Those words still seem totally unnatural coming out of my mouth.”

“Let me get this straight.  You’re pregnant with Justin Timberlake’s baby and now you’ve found out that you’re training his dogs?”

Adah nodded, “That sounds about right.”

“Well shit, Ads.”  She exhaled slowly, “This is a big deal.”  The thoughts settled themselves into her brain and Sam wondered how long it would take before they felt at home there.  “Did you tell him today?”

It was Adah’s turn to laugh.  “No, I was too busy puking in his bathroom.”

“Ew, that’s gross.”  Sam wrapped her arm over the back of the couch, rubbing Adah’s shoulders.  The tension was so visible in her friend that it made Sam’s own muscles ache.

“That’s what Brett said.”  Adah’s eyes closed at the relief Sam’s hands were bringing her.  “I’d say that I’m fucked, but I’m pretty sure we’re all aware of that fact now.”

Sam couldn’t help the giggle.  At least her friend had kept some of her sense of humor.  “It’ll be all right, Adah.  You’ve got me and Brett to help you out.  We can be with you when you tell Justin, if you want.”

“I haven’t really figured out how I’m going to tell him yet.”  She shrugged.  “I know I need to, I do.  It’s just not as easy as it sounds.  It’s not like he’s some regular Joe-Schmoe.  He’s this world famous pop-star and I don’t think it’ll look to good on him if it gets out that he’s having an illegitimate child.”

“He better not mention anything to you about getting rid of this baby.”  Sam paused, thinking for a moment before asking what was on her mind, “You are going to keep it, aren’t you?”

The tension returned to Adah’s shoulders.  “Yeah, I am.  I know that I need to tell Justin out of respect, because it is his baby.  But I want to make sure that he knows that I’m going to have this baby with or without his help.  With his help would be ideal, but I can understand if he doesn’t want to be a part of this.  It was only supposed to be a one night stand, anyway.”

There was silence between the roommates now as both tried to get a handle on this news.  It was a moment or two later when Brett emerged from his room, eyeing both of the girls sitting on the couch.

“Hey Auntie.”  He called, knowing by the intense looks on both of their faces that Adah broke the news to Sam.

“Hey Uncle.”

“Okay, you guys need to lay off that one for a while.  Please.  It just sounds way to strange and I don’t think I can handle that at the moment.”  Adah’s voice was filled with fatigue as she threw a glance to her two best friends.  The exhaustion was evident on her face and both Brett and Sam felt for her.  This couldn’t be an easy predicament.  “I think I’m going to go lie down.”

“I’ll wake you up when dinner’s ready.”  Sam offered her a small smile as she and Brett watched Adah pad out of the room and down the hall to her bedroom.  When the door closed with a soft click, the two roommates glanced at each other.

“Well fuck.”  Brett was the first to speak.

“Don’t say that word.  That’s what got her into trouble in the first place.”  Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sam couldn’t help but smile.  “Of course, now that she’s pregnant I suppose she could fuck all she wanted and it wouldn’t matter.”

“Way to be crude, Sam.”  He grabbed a sat in the recliner across the way from Sam.  “But you do make a good point.”

“Seriously, though,” the tone grew somber, “What is she going to do?  This is a big deal.”

Brett scratched the back of his head, a sigh leaving his mouth as he did so.  He lifted his shoulder’s in a shrug.  “There’s not much she can do until she tells Justin.”

“So, you really think he’s the father?”  Not that she thought her friend would be lying, but it was a pretty outrageous scenario for anyone to swallow.

“I don’t think she could make something like this up even if she wanted to.  I just feel so bad for the girl.  She can barely figure her own life out and now she’s got another one to worry about, too.”

Sam stood from her spot on the couch, stretching out her tired muscles.  “Yeah, I know what you mean.  Hopefully he’ll be receptive when she tells him.  I would hate to see her left on her own.  It’s not entirely her fault that she’s knocked up.”  Sam made her way out of the living room and into the kitchen, Brett not far behind.

“I’m not sure what to expect out of this guy, but I hope for Adah’s sake he’s as cool as all my girlfriend’s seem to think he is.”

Sam looked thoughtful for a minute.  “Do you know how much ass you could score if you toted around Justin Timberlake’s offspring?  That’s like fifty times better than having a cute puppy.”  She grinned as Brett’s laughter filled the kitchen.

“I’ll make sure to offer to babysit once the kid pops out.”

“We are so going to hell.”  Sam laughed along with her friend.

“At least we’ll have each other.”