“The morning sickness started about two-weeks later, and got progressively worse. A month later, I finally went to the family doctor, who ordered the blood work and later delivered the news.”

The young woman looked down at the table and took a deep, steadying breath.  After a few moments of silence, she finally looked up and continued, “It took me two days to stop crying and start thinking about what needed to be done. That’s when I decided to go to his place, hoping he’d take some responsibility. In fact, in my naïve thinking, I even thought he would be man enough to ask me to marry him so we could raise the child together. But when I got there, his fiancé opened the door. I just… I said I was sorry, that I had knocked on the wrong number… and I left.”

“Fucking pig,” mumbled the redhead under her breath. Her own anger at a man that had never done anything to her and that she didn’t even know existed five minutes ago caught her by surprise.

“After that, I confessed what had happened to my mother, and we decided that we didn’t need him in my life.” The tension that had built in Mary’s shoulders relaxed considerably. “I moved back to her place then and started to prepare my life for the arrival of my child.”

Jodi couldn’t help but feel admiration for this girl. “You’ve raised him all by yourself. I’m… more than impressed.”

“It wasn’t a superhuman feat,” Mary replied. “But it wasn’t easy either. It was three years of sleeping anywhere from two to three hours a night, having a full course load, working part-time and coming home not to rest, but to work even harder as a mother.” A rather self-satisfactory smile adorned her features. “But I did it. I graduated at the top of my class, managed to find a real job and moved to my own place about four months ago. But I can’t get all the credit though. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without my mother’s help. I am very grateful for her.”

The artist attempted to keep her facial expression neutral, but there was a lot of information to process in such a short time. There were so many other things she wanted to ask Mary. Was Mary still attracted to men? Had she been with a woman before? Did she just want to experiment with Jodi? Was bitterness over what happened four years ago what led her into pursuing a romantic relationship with her own gender?