Chapter 40

            As Alex walked into the room and uttered his question, three pairs of eyes looked up from their previous fixations and settled onto him instead, causing an awkward and slightly terrifying feeling to come over him. He traipsed over to the chair that was positioned across from the couch and sat down, waiting for an answer. When he didn’t get one, he asked his question again, this time in a little more annoyed tone which the other three people in the room didn’t appreciate considering the situation he had gotten himself into.

            “Don’t even start,” Nick said, his voice icy and harsh. “You are in absolutely no position to make us think we are putting you out.”

            AJ wanted to lash back at him, but nodded his head in agreement instead. “Sorry, you’re right. I just want to know what’s going on and nobody is talking.”

            “I think you’re the one who needs to do some talking first,” Nick retorted, his voice still portraying the angst and frustration he was feeling toward his band mate.

            “Listen Nicky, I know--”

            “Don’t call me that, not now. At this point I’m not sure you’ll ever be able to call me Nicky again.” His eyes were filled with hurt and anger and his face was turning a dark shade of red as he spoke.

            “Okay….Nick, I know you think I am the biggest asshole in the world right now, and I’m starting to think I am too, but please just hear me out,” AJ responded, his stomach turning in knots and self-disapproval running rapid throughout his body. “I did not mean to do this to you, or to Annie, or to Andrea, or to anybody else that got hurt by my selfishness and carelessness.” He turned his eyes from Nick to Andrea. “I don’t know what happened—I just started seeing you in a different way and the feelings overwhelmed me. I felt out of control and no matter what I tried, I could not get you out of my head.”

            “So you just felt like you should kiss her and that would help you?” Nick asked bitterly as he tried to break the eye contact between his wife and his new nemesis. AJ obliged, his eyes shifting back to him band mate.

            “I don’t know what you want me to say Nick. I can’t explain why I did it or what I thought would come from it. I could say that I was hoping she would leave you and come to me, I could say that I hoped you would never find out and this would all go away, and I could say that I am sorry, that I wished this never would have happened, but it wouldn’t do any good. You’re just going to need time to get over this.” He looked back at Andrea and then at Annie. “We are all just going to need time to get over this.”

            “We don’t have that much time Alex,” Annie interpolated.

            “I know we are supposed to get married in a week--”

            “Supposed to get married next week?” Annie asked sourly as her eyes filled with tears. “You don’t even want to marry me now?”
           
            “Annie, I love you. I do want to marry you, I’m just not sure that it would be a good idea to do it next week. We have so much to work out and I’m pretty sure we just lost half of our wedding party,” he said as he looked over at Nick and Andrea. “I just think maybe we should postpone it and then when things have settled down and I’m,
I’m--”

            “Not still hung up on my wife,” Nick threw in, using AJ’s loss for words as another avenue to get a personal jab in at him.

            “Yeah, Nick, when I’m not still hung up on your wife,” AJ shot back, sarcasm and disdain filling his voice.

            Nick jumped off from the couch and lunged at his band mate, his fist balled up and ready to fly. Alex stood up and walked so close to Nick their noses were almost touching. “Do it,” he challenged his old friend. “I dare you.”

            Annie lifted herself off the floor quickly and pushed Nick and AJ apart, stepping in between them. “Calm down before you do something else you will regret,” she shouted, her statement aimed more at Alex than at Nick.

            “Annie, get out of the way. You are not in the condition to be breaking up fights,” Andrea yelled at her cousin as she stood up to grab her cousin and move her out of harm’s way. When Annie resisted, she became frustrated and scared for the well being of her soon to “niece”. “**** it Annie, you have more than yourself to think about now!
Think about the bab--” She stopped abruptly as the word “baby” came out of her mouth.

            Alex back away from Nick, the color draining out of his face as he stumbled back into the chair. “What?” he asked, his voice cracking.

            “I’m pregnant,” Annie answered quietly. She was not sure how he would react, but she was hoping he would be happy. She saw his mouth open and knew his response was coming. The moment of truth, she thought to herself. When my son or daughter asks what daddy said when he found out mommy was pregnant—

            “How? You were supposed to be on birth control?” he asked, bringing her out of the internal monologue she was engrossed in.

            “I had to stop taking them,” she whispered, knowing she was going to have to explain herself to him and admit to him that she did it on purpose. I’m sorry baby, mommy didn’t mean to bring you into the world like this, she said as she ran her hand across her stomach. “Alex, I think we need to talk in private.”