Professor Cumberbatch

Part 26

"Hey Martin," I called as I walked into the record shop, seeing him going through some stacks. It was a few days after Christmas and I had not yet been to see him. "Long time no see."

Martin looked up and smiled wide when he saw it was me. "Amelia, how are you?" He came forward and gave me a big hug. "It's so good to see you."

"I'm doing well, I guess. I'm sorry I didn't come in sooner, but a lot has happened and I'm still trying to learn to deal with it all."

We walked over to the listening area and sat down in some comfy chairs to talk.

"Are you and Benedict still...?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, no it's not that. We're definitely still together. Have you talked to him at all recently though?"

Martin hummed for a second whilst he was thinking and then shook his head. "Not since the beginning of December. He messaged me on Christmas, but he's normally busy during break and we don't talk much. Why?"

I let out a deep sigh and fiddled with my thumbs. "Only one other person besides Benedict knows, and he doesn't know that I'm telling you, but I'm sure he won't mind... Martin, I'm pregnant."

"Oh, wow..." He looked a bit shocked and at a loss for words. "Congratulations, if that's what you want? I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing..."

"That's the thing... I don't know. Benedict sounded excited, but I couldn't really tell over the phone. And I still can't tell if I'm more excited or nervous. We're trying to decide what we're going to do, but it's really hard..." My voice cracked at the end as I started crying.

Martin immediately got up to get me some tissues before coming back and kneeling down in front of me. "Amelia, don't cry. Please don't cry."

"What should we do?" I sobbed.

He sighed and rubbed his chin. "Look... I can't tell you what to do. But I can tell you what I think, if that helps. I've known Benedict for a long time. I know that he's wanted children for most of his life, so I'm sure that he's thrilled right now. I also know that he loves you very much and doesn't want to put you in any compromising position. But with you being so young and your families not knowing about your relationship in the first place, this is one of those compromising positions. I think that if you decide to get rid of it, Benedict will understand completely. He wants you to be happy, have an education and to make a life for yourself. Of course, you can still do all that with a child, it'll just be more complicated. So if you decide to keep it, you can still have the life you want, but you'll have to work for it. And you'll have to tell your families about everything because it's not right to keep them in the dark."

I listened to everything he said and took it to heart. After letting it digest for a minute,
I thanked him for the advice. "Thank you, Martin. I'll have to think more about it, but I don't know if it'll be as hard of a decision now that I see it that way."

"Well I'm glad I could be of some help," he chuckled softly. "So tell me, how are you really doing right now?"

I gently rubbed my stomach over the slightly swollen bump. "I'm getting through it. I've been sneaking out to the doctor when I'm supposed to have check ups and they say we're both doing fine. And as you can tell, I'm getting rather emotional. Hungry too. I've had to start buying extra snacks to hide in my room because my mum would flip if she knew how much I was eating. And the morning sickness is awful."

"Well I'm glad I'm not a woman," Martin laughed as he moved from the floor to his chair. "I don't know how you do it."

I let out a laugh at that and then leaned back in my chair. "Can I ask you something else?"

"Of course. There's no need to ask first."

"Have you met Benedict's parents? If so, what are they like? He hasn't really told me much about them. But I also haven't asked."

He smiled warmly. "Tim and Wanda are lovely. Some of the nicest people I've ever met. I don't know why he doesn't talk about them more. You should ask him about them. I'm sure he'd love to tell you."

"Well, they know about us. Apparently Benedict blabbed about everything on Christmas. Not about the pregnancy though, thank God. He said that they weren't very happy, but they would accept it because he was happy."

"I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit surprised they're only just now finding out about you. Benedict is a bit of a mummy's boy and tells her everything. But knowing them, if they ever get to meet you, they're going to love you. I promise."

"That's good to hear," I blushed. "It makes me less nervous that they know."

Martin and I kept talking, as I didn't have anything planned for the rest of the day and we wanted to catch up. Thankfully, it was extremely slow, so only a few customers came in during that time. We eventually ordered food through Deliveroo because I got hungry, and we had a lot of fun.

By the time I left, I felt more relaxed than I had been in a long time. And I had an idea of what my decision was going to be.

END OF CHAPTER