The Free Pass

Chapter 13

Shawn

I hated the idea of lying to my best friends.

I'd invited them to spend a weekend at my condo. We did this from time to time. We'd eat delivery food, listen to music, watch shitty movies, and drink unnatural amounts of alcohol.

The guys were all in college, but they'd agreed to meet up in Toronto.

I spent all day Friday getting ready. That didn't mean cleaning house. They didn't care about that, and the place was just going to need a good cleaning after they left. Getting ready meant hitting the liquor store and grocery store.

The way I saw it, this was essentially my bachelor party. The guys had no idea I was engaged, but I was going to tell them when they got here. Did that make it a surprise bachelor party? There weren't many open weekends between now and the wedding, since I'd be in Virginia for two of them and I had a live performance another weekend. This was my last big hurrah before I was a married man. I doubted Mallory would want me doing this with her and the baby around.

Everyone arrived Friday night. I had the bar set up, and within an hour we were all feeling pretty good. This was the time to tell them about what was going on with me. I wanted them comfortably buzzed, and I needed the booze to boost my courage. I couldn't wait until we were drunk because that was just plain stupid.

We refreshed our drinks and were all sitting in my living room.

"So, uh, I need to tell you guys some stuff," I said cautiously.

"You've got the floor, brother," Matt said, tipping his glass towards me.

"You guys know that Mallory and I went public with our relationship."

Ian scoffed. "You posted one picture. That's not exactly a press release."

"Everyone got the point, though," Brian said. "It was subtle but effective."

I cleared my throat. "So anyway...our relationship is pretty serious."

Everyone just stared at me. I'd never been serious with anyone before. I understood why they were surprised.

Finally Matt spoke. "How serious?"

I'd rehearsed this in my mind two ways. The first way was to tell them about the engagement and then bring up the pregnancy as an aside. That implied that we weren't just getting married because of the baby. The other option was to lead with the pregnancy, which would then explain the upcoming marriage.

Neither choice included the whole mess with Mr. Everett's threats and assault allegations. That sordid detail was staying buried.

The whole reason Andrew wanted the engagement announced first was so that the public got option one. It made me look better and made our relationship look stronger.

But these were my best friends. I felt like I owed them the truth, or at least part of the truth.

I went with choice B.

"Mallory's pregnant."

Ian set down his drink. "Yeah, that's pretty fucking serious."

"Are you okay with this?" Matt asked.

I took a swig of my bourbon. "It was a shock at first, but as the pregnancy has progressed, I've gotten pretty excited about it."

"You're going to be a dad," Brian stated.

"I am. In June, actually."

"Hold the fucking phone," Ian said. "She's pretty goddamned pregnant. When did you find out about this? We saw you over Christmas and again in January. Did you know?"