Three weeks later - Thanksgiving Day

"I got everything you asked for." Justin spoke, entering the kitchen with bags in his hands. "I hope that's everything. I gotta go pick up Tara from the gallery. She's trying to do some finishing touches." He spoke to his mother.

"Okay. I will see you soon." He turned and ambled out of the kitchen.

Tara stood in the middle of her art gallery observing the wall of paintings. "Hmm." She bit her lip in thought, resting her hands on her hips. "Damn. I hope they like it." She mumbled.

"I love what you did with the bathrooms." Sun spoke, ambling towards her.

"Yeah. And remember, they're only used for going to the restroom. Not for fornicating use." She stuck her middle finger up at her. "Ahaha. I'm serious. I better not catch you having sex with some stranger in there."

"That was that ONE time. Jeez!" She took a seat on the sofa. "I'm surprised your boyfriend invited me over to dinner. Did you tell him yet?" She shook her head no. "And why not? You are gonna make things worse. I'm telling you. It's been a month and you having told him you're pregnant."

"I will tell him--at the right time." She laughed hilariously.

"Right time? The right time was the moment you found out. That was the right time. Now I know you don't like taking advice from me but I believe I'm right on this. The man impregnated you. He has a right to know. What? You think he's gonna break up with you if he finds out?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know. I just don't think he'll be too happy. And I don't think he'll look at me the same way after I tell him. I will be just like those women who he operate on. I won't be sexy to him anymore."

"You're stupid. I tell you what's gonna happen. When he finds out from a different source, he will be so upset. He probably will break up with you for keeping it to yourself."

"You really think so?" She asked, feeling nervous all of a sudden.

"Yes. Or he may just want space from you because he'll be so pissed to talk to you. Regardless, the end results won't be nice. You could be going by this the wrong way. He may be happy when he finds out. But you will never know unless you tell the man."

"I think you maybe right. Maybe I'll tell him tonight. Tomorrow is the grand opening of my art gallery. I'm so stressed. I'm surprised I didn't have a miscarriage yet." She heard the sound of a door being opened.

"Ladies!" They quickly looked away to gaze at Justin who entered the building, removing his shades. "You ready? Mom is at the house waiting."

"Yes." She stood up, brushing down her skirt. "Just making sure everything is ready here for tomorrow."

"Everything looks nice." He spoke, eying the place. "You did a great job decorating the place. It doesn't even look like the old abandoned warehouse it was before. Ahaha."

"I know."

"Well..." He looked away, meeting her gaze. "We should head out." He grasped her hand, leading her towards the exit.

"Justin, you have quite a cute ass." Sun teased on their way out of the building.

"I told you about staring at my butt. You won't like it if I looked at yours, now would you?" He knew that was a rhetorical question when it came to Sun.

"I would LOVE it. Look away. You can take a picture of it if you want." Tara rolled her eyes playfully.

"You guys are crazy." After locking up the warehouse, they all hopped in his car.

"I want you to be on your best behavior, Sun. No talking about sex around my mother." Justin spoke from the drivers side.

"Aye, aye captain." He chuckled, looking away to gaze at Tara who sat on the passengers side keeping to herself.

"You okay?" He asked, immediately getting her attention.

"Um--" She gawked to the side to meet his gaze. "I'm fine." She answered with a smile. "Thank you." He reached out, resting his hand on her thigh.

"You guys are so cute together. You should just get it over with and get married. Maybe have a few kids, if you know what I mean." Tara quickly looked over her shoulder to stare at her, flashing her a warning look.

"That would be nice, huh?" She asked, lowering her eyes at her.

"I'm not rushing." Justin spoke up.

"When they made it to the house, Tara and Sun met up with Lynn who was in the kitchen preparing dinner. "How's my beautiful daughter-in-law? Well daughter-in-law to be." Tara chuckled softly.

"I'm good. How are you?" She asked, embracing her in a hug. She pulled back to stare at her.

"I've been great." She scanned her figure for a moment before looking away to gaze at Sun. "And who is this beautiful girl?"

"This is Sun, my best friend I was telling you about. The one who shares the birthday with me--unfortunately. Ahaha."

"Hi." She spoke, shaking her hand.

"Hello. What a beautiful girl. I'm glad you both could join us for dinner."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." Tara replied, looking back to gaze at Justin who entered the kitchen.

"I hope this will do. I got it from out of the closet." He held up a table cloth. "I think it's from last year. Ahaha."

"That'll do. Can you set up the table in the dining room?"

"I'll do it." Tara assured, taking the table cloth from him. "Have a seat." She suggested. "I'll take care of it." He flashed her a surprised look.

"You sure? I don't mind." She leaned in, pecking him on the lips.

"I got it." She walked pass him and departed the kitchen.

"I'm just gonna go help her." Sun spoke, following the way she went. Lynn stood against the counter flashing Justin a smirk.

"It looks like you guys got very close since the last time I saw you. Something's different though. Tara--she looks different." He returned a questioning look.

"What do you mean?" He asked, taking a seat at the table. Her eyebrows raised in confusion. She immediately knew he had no idea his girlfriend was pregnant but she knew the moment she saw her. She looked very radiant.

"Nothing. Maybe I'm--seeing things." She turned to face the counter where a cutting board full of chopped up vegetables remained.

"Why? What did you notice differently about her?" She shook her head, chopping up onions and tomatoes.

"Nothing. It's nothing, dear." He shrugged his shoulders and stood to his feet.

"Okay. Well, I'm gonna go upstairs and take a shower. I'll be down in a few." He leaned in, pecking her on the cheek. "I missed you. I'm glad you could come down."

"Anytime, son." He turned and headed out of the kitchen.

"I'm so nervous. And Miss Lynn was staring at me very oddly." Tara spoke, spreading the table cloth over the table. "I think she knows."

"That's impossible."

"It's not impossible. Women like her have been through it. They know how a pregnant woman looks like. She's old and wise and I'm pretty sure she knows." She happened to look up to notice Lynn standing in the door way. "Miss Lynn? Oh--you scared me. I didn't--realize you were standing there."

"Justin has no idea, does he?" Her heart skipped a beat that instant.

"I told you." She spoke to Sun, watching Lynn enter the dining room.

"I know it's hard, dear. Finding out you're gonna be a mother. You have no idea how much Justin loves you. He calls me every week just to tell me how fortunate he is to have you in his life. He talks about a family. Having one with you one day. I know this is probably one of the reasons why you haven't told him yet. You think he's gonna break up with you but I can assure you, that's not what he's gonna do. I can't tell you what he will do if you decide to wait longer to tell him." She held her head down, feeling guilt all over. "Just tell him. I'm pretty sure he would understand. This is his doing too. It took a man a woman to make this baby."

"I tried to warn her." Sun spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You don't understand. We haven't even been together for six months. I doubt he's ready for a baby."

"You won't know until you tell him. You may never know. He could react differently then what you think." She chewed on her inner lip in thought. "I'm gonna go check on the food. Just think about what I said. The sooner you tell him, the better." She watched her turn and head out of the room. Sun stood there, shaking her head pathetically.

"You should've listened to me, tramp."

"Shut up, Sun."

Meanwhile

"Justin?" Tara entered the bedroom, immediately focusing in on Justin who stood in front of the mirror fiddling with his shirt. "Hey." He looked away to stare at her.

"Hey, baby. How's everything?" She shut the door behind her and ambled towards him. She stood behind him, eying him through the mirror.

"I guess everything's okay. Except for one thing." He turned to face her with a questioning look on his face.

"What's wrong? Are you still feeling stressed? Nervous about the grand opening tomorrow. Ahaha." She shook her head, never cracking a smile. "Well what's wrong?"

"Um--" She paused, sighing heavily. "You might wanna sit down for this." She warned, watching his facial expression quickly change. He seemed more worried now.

"Tara--" She held her head down, fiddling with her fingers nervously. "What's wrong?" She bit down on her lip, trying so hard not to get emotional. "Baby?" He reached out, lifting her head up by her chin. She peered in his concerned eyes. "You always get me with that look. You look like a little girl afraid to tell her parents that she lost her virginity or something. Ha-ha. What's wrong? Feeling okay?" She shook her head no.

"There's a reason for my change of appetite."

"I know. You've been stressed about this grand opening for weeks. I understand."

"No, Justin." She disagreed. "It's not just about the grand opening." He stepped back, resting his back against the dresser. "There's more to it. I not only lost my appetite but I've been puking up my food too. Not intentionally." She could feel her heart pounding erratically. She was so nervous and afraid to continue.

"Okay. So--why have you been puking? Why aren't you eating like the normal? Are you on some--weird diet or something?" She shook her head no once again. "Then what's the problem?"

"I--" She looked away, her eyes slowly building up with tears. "I--I'm--" A faint laugh escaped his lips.

"We're gonna be here all day if you don't just spill it."

"I'm pregnant." She spoke, never looking in his direction. She turned and ambled towards the bed where she took a seat.

"I'm sorry?" She held her head down, blinded by her tears at this point. "You're pregnant?" She nodded meekly. "But how? How is this even possible? I've been using the pull out technique every time we've done it." She shook her head, disagreeing with him.

"You may have--slipped up a couple of times." She sniffled, wiping underneath her teary eyes. He walked over to where she was sitting and took a seat beside her. "I know this isn't what you want. I mean, I found out a month ago and I wasn't going to tell you. I only--"

"What do you mean you weren't gonna tell me? You don't think I had a right to know this?" She could hear the change of tone in his voice. How hurt and upset he became.

"I--I was gonna get an abortion." He flashed his eyes at her. "I know we can't afford a baby right now and--"

"Oh, so you KNOW how I feel about this already? I'm assuming." She finally gawked to the side to peer in his heated eyes. This was actually the first time she'd ever seen him this upset and it was beginning to make her nervous. "I don't understand your way of thinking. I mean, I had sex with you and got you pregnant but you believe that the RIGHT thing to do was keep it from me. You felt the right thing to do was go behind my back and get an abortion without even talking to me about it. Do you even care how I feel about this or what I think?"

"I do." She answered, the tears slowly pouring down her face.

"Obviously you don't. I just--I don't understand how you could be so heartless." She watched him stand to his feet.

"Excuse me? I'm being heartless? I was trying to SAVE us from a big responsibility. We're not even married! We've only been together for a few months. There's NO way we're ready for a baby!" She raised her voice.

"No. Don't you dare sit there and tell me what I'm not ready for you. YOU'RE not ready." He pointed to her. "You know what your problem is? You're afraid of commitment. You're afraid of anybody loving you or being supportive to you. You've been against marriage from the get go. You were gonna get rid of this baby because you didn't want to be tied down to me. That's why."

"How dare you." She stood to her feet, taking a few steps towards him with this evil look in her eyes. "How could you say something like that? Just because I don't like you spending money on me doesn't mean I don't want you to be supportive. I JUST WANNA BE INDEPENDENT! I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO DEPEND ON A MAN!"

"Yeah." He nodded. "A man. You have some weird--hatred thing going on with men. I can't buy you anything. I can't help pay your bills until you get on your feet. I can't do shit for you because whenever I do, you're ready to bite my fucking head off! I've NEVER met a woman so stubborn as you. Where I'm from, people who love each other HELP each other. They're THERE for each other. Not fighting and doing anything to make sure that person doesn't help support them. I had to beg you to keep that warehouse. Then you have the nerve to SIT HERE and tell me that you were gonna get a fucking abortion without telling me! The father!" He raised his voice angrily. "Do you even know how that makes me feel? What the hell am I gonna have to do to show you how much I care about you? I really love you and I wanna make it work but you're making it hard to even tolerate you." She peered in his diluted eyes, feeling completely bad. She could tell she really hurt him from the tears forming in his eyes. "You don't wanna be with me that bad? Huh?"

"I do--"

"Whatever. Just go get the stupid abortion. All you had to say was you weren't planning on staying with me. Instead, you just led me on. Pretending like you care about me."

"I do care about you. Justin--" She reached out for him, watching him back away from her. He treated her as if she was some kind of disease. "Justin--" He looked away, resting his hands on his hips as the tears built up in his eyes.

"I can't believe you were gonna do this. You were gonna get an abortion without telling me? How do you even know if I wanted the baby or not? I told you I was very passionate about having a family. I love you. Why wouldn't I want a baby with you?" She bit down on her trembling lip. "You're so clueless sometimes. Sometimes I actually think it's hard for you to even take a hint. I don't know what I'm gonna have to do to show you how serious I am about you. Am I gonna have to chop my arm off or something? What the fuck do you want me to do?"

"I just want you to love me." He shook his head.

"No. You don't. I tried doing that and look where it got me. You lied to me for weeks! So don't you say that you want someone to love you! You don't want anyone to love you. You want me to treat you like shit. You want me to treat you like you're less than a human being. Because when I tried treating you like the queen you are, you shut me down. You bashed me for buying you things and--" She covered her mouth with her hand, forcing the sobs from escaping her lips. "You don't want someone to love you. You want someone to beat on you and call you out your name. You don't want me."

"Justin, I--" He turned and headed towards the bedroom door. "I love you, Justin."

"Not enough to tell me the truth. How could you keep something like this from me for a whole month?" He yanked the door open and exited the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Oh god." She sobbed, sitting back on the bed in tears.