HOW WILL HE GET HIMSELF OUT OF THIS ONE?

As a background to this story, a man flew into the city where he had grown up for a 20 year school reunion, hired a Toyota Aurion and checked into a motel near the venue where the reunion was being held. Unbeknownst to him at the time, his high school girlfriend was there and she was barely recognisable from her high school days. The two of them had checked into separate rooms at the same motel, and they went back to the man’s room for a drink, which led to them making love three times over the weekend and leaving the motel separately on the Sunday and flying back to their respective cities. The man is now married with two kids.

The Wednesday morning began like any other. Gary and his family rose at 7am, and he shaved and showered before donning a crisp white shirt, a red tie and dark grey suit pants before joining his wife and kids, a daughter aged eight and a son age five, for breakfast. He poured some milk into a mug before adding some of the black coffee that his wife had in the percolator and pouring some more milk over his cereal and consuming it, and toast topped with scrambled eggs before brushing his teeth, taking his suit jacket off the hanger and picking up his briefcase. He gave his wife a peck on the cheek, rumpled his son’s hair before telling him to be good and kissed his daughter before hurrying down the stairs towards the garage and starting the car. The car’s radio came on and the final riff of a popular song was just being played before the voice of the announcer could be heard, announcing the news of the morning. Gary paid little attention to this as he drove down his quiet suburban street to join the throng of slow-moving traffic heading towards the Central Business District.

He reached his office on the fifth floor of the glass covered building at 8:20am, and after placing his coat on the stand in his office, removed his distance glasses and replaced them with a pair of reading glasses from his shirt pocket, turned on his computer to check his emails and then turned to the papers that occupied the other part of his desk. He had to see a client at 10am, and then he had some emails to send and two deadlines to meet before his next at 2pm.

The rest of his day seemed uneventful, so it was a surprise that just as he was in his second deadline, his phone rang. He heard the voice of his secretary asking if he could take a call. “Not at the moment,” he replied somewhat tersely, “Could you ask them to call back in an hour?”

“They said it’s urgent.”

“Well, so is this deadline. Get them to call me back in an hour, please.”

Just as he clicked “Send” on the document, his secretary knocked on his door. “That caller from before has called back.”

“Put the call through.”

The phone on his desk tinkled. “Gary Mathieson.”

“Gary, it’s Michelle,” came a tearful voice at the other end.

“Hello. What’s wrong?”

“I need to talk.”

“You’ll have to make it quick.”

“I don’t know how to tell you this.”

“Tell me what?”

“I’m pregnant.”

“But, but you said that you -.”

“I don’t.”

“Well, you can’t be.”

“I went and saw the doctor after doing an at home test, and I am.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“It’s yours.”

“What?!”

This is a fictional story, but it was inspired by some events in my life (at the time I wrote the story that was the inspiration for this, it had been 20 years since I’d left school. Now, it’s over 30 years). I wonder how people would feel if that happened to them and what they would do.