Genevieve: Day 2 (Revising the Script)

Another day, another breakfast. The sky outside is wet and grey, but at least yesterday’s rain is over. You can see the sidewalks and grass outside are still icy from last night’s freeze, but neither you nor Rebekah need to go out today anyway. Maybe that’s for the best. After Freya’s interview and Rebekah revealing she was pregnant, the rest of the day passed… quietly, but awkwardly. You’d almost blown up at her demand that you continue in College Spread and neither one of you seemed to want to broach the subject after that. At least, not immediately.

Rebekah spent half the day streaming and half the day working on a paper. You had your own work to do, but it seemed to be less than Rebekah’s, so you also took care of the meals. Finally, around 10pm, you went to bed and cuddled quietly, intimate but not passionate, as the weight of what had happened lay on you both.

She’s certainly outdone herself this morning, you think as you wolf down another piece of bacon. Mostly breakfasts have been cereal, pancakes, or maybe eggs and bacon. Today there's all of that and a fruit salad she made to go with it. You barely remember seeing some of the ingredients in the fridge, but you’re certainly glad to start the day with a hearty meal.

Something pricks at your attention. It takes a moment to take your mind off how good the food tastes but then you realize you’re the only one eating. You turn and see Rebekah staring directly at you. She’s not smiling — not exactly. But she looks… What? Content? Relieved?

“Thanks,” she says.

“I should be thanking you,” you reply. “This is delicious.”

“I hope so. I wanted to make you something to say thank you for yesterday.”

“For what?” you ask. “I yelled at you when you pushed me to continue in the game. I’m sorry about that.”

She shrugs, looking away for a moment. “It’s fine. I’ve taken worse than that, believe me. But you stayed.”

“Huh?” You stare at her, confused. “What else was I gonna do?”

The look on her face tells you she can't believe you even asked that. You pause a moment in thought. Sure, you've heard the tales. Men who walk out on their girlfriends when they get pregnant. Or worse, accuse the woman of cheating on them. You always assumed that was just the worst of men, but Rebekah’s incredulity makes you think your worldview has been biased by your own family.

“Rebekah,” you say quietly. “I'm not leaving you. I love you and we're going to raise our child together.”

It takes several seconds for her to speak again. “And you're okay with this?”

You bite your lip as you consider your answer. Honesty is the only way forward.

“It's… it's gonna be hard,“ you say. “I know you're close to finishing school, but you need to be with our baby. So I'm gonna have to do it and get some kind of job.”

She pushes her phone towards you, turning it to show you her PayPal account. It shows several deposits this week, all on days she streamed. Most are small - a few dollars here, a twenty there - but there's also a hundred dollar addition and another for two hundred.

“Not necessarily,” she says. “Streaming’s taken off since we got second place at Nationals. I wasn't just pinning my hopes on nothing when I said I wanted to focus on Fluorescence. It's not a massive amount yet, but after Worlds it should be enough to live on. And our sponsors have offered some promotion opportunities too.”

Suddenly you find yourself reassessing things. Perhaps there really is more to streaming than you thought and she's focused on an intentionally popular esport. There is one question still on your mind about it though.

“Do they know you're pregnant?”

Rebekah nods. “I messaged Deborah—”

“Deborah?”

“Their CFO. She provided my kit to me and she says it should be okay. She wants to talk to me today to go over a new deal.”

“Really? That's amazing.”

Rebekah shifts her chair towards you, gazing into your eyes. She takes her own fork, still unused, and lifts a piece of egg to your lips. You chuckle and open your mouth for her to put it inside. As you chew she brushes a strand of hair from your face.

“You’re really amazing,” she says. “I couldn’t do this without you, you know? Thanks for being you.”

She looks down, avoiding your gaze and you can read the insecurity on her face as if it was graffiti on a wall. Given her history, perhaps it’s not surprising she’s so relieved. Using one finger, you raise her chin and lean in for a kiss. It’s intensely tender, a commitment to her, to your baby and to your future together.

“Hey, I’m the lucky one. You’ve been helping me with this game nonsense all year, even when you’ve got your own stuff going on. And you have me. No matter what, Rebekah, I’m there for you.”

Your eyes drift to her belly as you lay a hand there.

“And so does our child.”

For several minutes the two of you sit in silence. The rest of your breakfast goes untouched, forgotten as you relax in the security of each other’s company. That morning you both avoid any mention of school, the game or even Fluorescence, choosing to take time together and watch sappy movies instead. It's not really something either you or Rebekah are into and you end up making fun of everything the characters do, but it feels appropriate after what's happened. Finally, after lunch, you get on with your school work and she goes to stream for a while.

You send a message to Dr. Rousseau telling her you choose her card in College Spread and asking if she'd be down for a challenge. You're surprised when you get a reply just ten minutes later.

“Good. Meet me on the stage. Friday. 7pm. Bring Rebekah.”

You immediately let Rebekah know and she agrees, fascinated to see what is going to happen. You've never had a lady of the deck take such a lead before. It's always been you, or you and Rebekah, who have come up with ideas. This late in the game though it's clear everyone in the deck has been chosen at least once so they all know what it’s about.

Whatever Dr. Rousseau is thinking, though, will have to wait. There is one critical call you must make: your parents. You stare at the phone, trying to get up the courage to call them. You can imagine the concern etched on their faces as they consider what this could do to you both. The well-meaning but judgmental questions as to why the hell you didn’t use protection. A whole slew of questions without answers.

You pick up the phone, put it back on your desk again, and pick it up again.

You can’t do it. Sooner or later you’ll have to, but you tell yourself it can wait until you finish your college work. After all, nothing they can say will change anything but this paper’s due in two days. So you push the phone away, turning it face down in guilt at not facing them sooner.

The sun is setting as you work on one of your sociology papers. Rebekah has gone upstairs to take a call when suddenly you hear her cry out. You race upstairs, hoping she isn’t hurt. When you reach the bedroom you find her sitting there, still on the phone, grinning and apologizing. She’s talking to the Impulse Group CFO, you realize, and so stay silent until the call ends. You’re not sure exactly what’s happened but it seems good.

“So?” you ask as she hangs up.

She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes with a smile. For several seconds she sits there, seemingly composing herself or enjoying what happened.

“They want to hire us to make advertising videos, do reviews and so on. I mean it’s not going to be consistent or massive pay, but they seem really eager to work with us.”

“So they’re okay with you being pregnant?”

She snorts her very Rebekah laugh. “Okay? They love it. Deborah says we can bring the perspective not just of straight people but gay, bi, and now representation of a pregnant woman and then new mother. They’re looking to be inclusive and say we can bring a lot of that.”

You wonder for a moment just how important that would be in selling sex toys, but realize they are the experts here. You’re still bluffing your way through performing sex challenges with women. Besides, they probably do videos too and there it might be important to have reviewers with varied backgrounds.

“Do you know how much they’re paying?” you ask.

“Well… it depends,” says Rebekah. “She did say that they’d pay more if we win the Worlds Tournament than if we lose. It makes sense, really. We’ll be bigger names then. That gives them more viewers, more readers, more profit. I mean it is a business…”

You nod. “I guess, yeah. And however much it is, it’ll be a big help. For the rest of the team too.”

“I know,” she says, grabbing her phone again. “Look, I gotta clear this with the rest of the team. And then we need to arrange some more frequent training sessions. We NEED Worlds now!”

You give her a kiss and let her get on with her calls.