TRAVELS, PART FOUR.

Note: Yep, it's another installment to my newest fiction piece. It's been awhile and my new goal is to have a new installment written (not necessarily published/posted) each month. I'm not always the best at keeping up with my goals, but you can always hope, right? Anyway, you can catch up (or refresh yourself) with chapter one, chapter two, and chapter three.

image via Unsplash.

"So, I guess a congratulations is in order?" Jeremy replied, looking down at my stomach.

A simple "thanks" was all I could muster out of my mouth. What was I supposed to say next? It was the truth and it wasn't a lie. Jeremy could have easily made a joke of it, but I could tell he knew I wasn't joking around this time.

10 weeks along and no idea what I was doing. 10 weeks along and there was a human growing inside of me. A human who I had no idea how I was going to raise on my own.

"So do you know if it's a girl or boy?" he asked innocently. I could tell he was trying to lessen the tension, trying to make light of the sudden turn in our conversation.

"Not yet. I don't think I'll actually be able to know for a little while now." My eyes met his and that same sparkle was there, just not as bright anymore.

"So now that I've let the cat out of the bag..."

"Yeah..." he scratched the back of his head and I heard the buzz of his phone.

"You probably just want to stick some headphones into your ears and answer that text, right?" I asked.

He turned his phone upside down and laid it down on the tray that was open over his lap.

"If there's one thing my mom always taught me, it's that you don't leave a conversation with a girl on an awkward note." 

I smiled and our eyes met again. This time when they met, we both blushed and looked away.

My phone dinged this time and I looked at the screen and then put it down again. There was no way I was going to let a text from Drew interrupt us this time.

"So let's de-awkward-ize this conversation, shall we?"

I looked over at our seatmate at the far end of our row, still asleep and then I whispered, I wonder if he's pretending to be asleep but is really listening to our entire conversation."

Jeremy leaned in closer and responded by saying, "Well, if he really is asleep, he's missed out on quite the conversation." 

"Quite the conversation indeed." I looked at the older man again, and then changed the subject. 

"So what do you do for a living? I mean, what's out in California for you?" 

"Well, I'm actually not quite sure. I was invited to come out to California to participate in a gallery showing. I'm a photographer and was asked to show some of my photos out in a small gallery in Santa Barbara. There's a photography school out there, I think, and I'd love to get more involved out there."

"Wow, that's awesome," I started. 

"Awesome in terms of adventure? Yes. But wow? Not so much. I made it sound a lot more fascinating than it really is. I'm not exactly getting paid the big bucks to be out here, but it's something and I need any money I can get to help out my siblings. Help them go to school, you know?"

"Yeah, sure," I replied. Jeremy was starting to sound more and more like the perfect guy and this was going to make the descent down to the tarmac that much harder for me.