One Night...

Chapter 15

A week had passed since Scarlett had run into Gabbie with Ryland, and a week since she and Andrew had talked about their exes. It was a pivotal moment in their strange friendship, and neither had really talked about it since. Scarlett didn't know what to say, as she'd never felt more intimate with someone who wasn't a romantic partner in her life. If she was honest with herself, she and Andrew had formed a deeper and closer bond in the few months they'd known each other than she'd ever had with Rowe, and she had planned to marry him. It was crazy, and Scarlett wondered if it was because of the baby or not. She didn't know, but she worried that the intense feelings she had for Andrew were because of their bond over the baby, and that maybe she was mistaking it for something else.

Andrew, on the other hand, didn't say a word to Scarlett about what had happened between them, sure he'd ruin whatever it was they had if he professed what he now knew was his complete and utter love for her. He'd told Shane about it one day while they rode in Andrew's car back to the house after filming, and Shane was understandably concerned. Shane had thrown out the possibility that the baby was clouding their judgment, and Andrew thought it was possibly the case for Scarlett, given her hormones and her worries about being a single mom, but it wasn't for him. He had never been in love before, and he knew Shane was right that the baby made everything strange and heightened, but he was absolutely sure that he was madly in love with her, and every day they spent together he was in deeper and deeper. Shane had encouraged him to level with Scarlett, telling Andrew that this wouldn't end well and that he deserved to be happy too. But Andrew couldn't bear to risk it.

"Shane, I can't tell her that," Andrew told him that day in the car, eyes on the road so he wouldn't make eye contact with his best friend. "You don't understand, if you tell a friend you love them, and they don't feel the same way, you generally just, you know... drift away and stop being friends. It's too awkward, no one can be around that," he'd said frankly, raking a hand through his mop of red hair nervously. "But with me and Scarlett, like... we can't drift away, or at least I can't. I have to be around her because of the baby," he told Shane earnestly, and Shane thought back to the day they'd met at his house. "She would never keep you from the baby, Andrew," he told his red-headed friend quietly. "What's your alternative? Keep living in this world where you're absolutely inseparable with this girl, yet you're not together? What if she starts dating someone? Are you just never gonna date anyone else? This isn't realistic buddy," Shane said, trying his best to push Andrew to do something about this situation before it became toxic and unhealthy, but Andrew couldn't do it. He said it was because of the baby, but deep down, he knew Shane was right. Scarlett would never keep the baby from him, no matter what happened between them. He didn't say anything to her because he couldn't bear the thought of not being around her, even if it was just as her friend and, well, whatever they were.

Instead of focusing on their strange relationship, the two focused on their upcoming appointment with Dr. Brown. They talked about it throughout the entire week, and while they both agreed on how excited they were to see the baby again on screen, they couldn't agree about one little thing... Scarlett wanted to find out if the baby was a boy or girl. Andrew... did not. The morning of the appointment, Andrew picked Scarlett up from her apartment to ride to Beverly Hills and see the doctor, and he was nervous, wanting to make sure the baby was healthy and that everything was progressing. She came out of her apartment dressed in leggings and a t-shirt, and for the first time since she'd told him she was pregnant, she looked a tiny bit... well, pregnant, her tiny little belly poking out from under the shirt. He smiled to himself a little, thinking about how beautiful she looked, but he knew better than to say anything about it. Instead, he focused on the question hanging over their head.

"Did you... um, did you decide whether you want to find out the gender?" he asked timidly, and Scarlett sighed a little, laughing at how sweet he was. "I don't know, Andrew, I still feel like we should find out. I mean, I'm a planner, and I want to buy everything the Bean will need. This is already anxiety-inducing enough, I don't know about adding another surprise to the equation." Andrew paused a little, deciding whether to tell her his thoughts about it again for the millionth time. "You know, Scar..." he started, and she rolled her eyes. "I know, I know, Andrew, this is one of life's greatest surprises," she said, both annoyed because he'd told her this so many times before and also charmed by how adorable he was. He really wanted it to be a surprise, and she honestly didn't know why, but something about it made her heart turn to mush. "Listen, why don't you just let me find out, and you can step out during that part? I'll keep it a secret from you and you can find out when the Bean arrives? That way, we can both get our way?" Scarlett pitched, and Andrew scrunched his eyebrows together.