Excerpt: Best Kept Secrets

Morgan moved and grabbed a beer from the fridge and a soda for herself, closing the door with her hip. She walked over to the ashtray that sat on her atrocious avocado green countertop and ashed her cigarette, then taking another drag, before setting it down in the ashtray and bringing Arthur the beer. She took a deep breath, handing over the beer and then sitting down on the opposite end of the couch, turning to face him. She moved and twisted the cap on the bottle of soda, listening to the little fizzing sound it made as she broke the seal.
"Alright, well I'm not quite sure where to begin this. So I guess I'm just going to be blunt here. Remember last October, when we were in New York?"
"Yes, your mother's funeral. You'd asked me to escort you, since it was your grandparent's wishes that you have an older man take you."
"Yeah, remember what else we did?"
"Of course. You do know Morgan, there's not a lot of women who would be calling me over for, as it's put nowadays, a booty call."
She groans and shakes her head. "Look, I'm not calling you over for a booty call." She watches Arthur's face seem to get a very slight hint of disappointment within his eyes, as he takes a drink from the beer bottle. "No no no, it's not like that. You're a reasonably attractive man, who I've already slept with once before, and as I recall, it was rather enjoyable and while I would be up for it again, that's not why I asked you here. I asked you here because of the results of that particular little fling"
Arthur watches her very closely. He raises the beer to his lips and takes another sip, glancing over to the video collection once more. His friend, The Duke, had already told him that something had been altered about his fate, and he had a feeling he was about to find out from Morgan's lips what that was. "Morgan, get to the point."
She takes another deep breath. She knew that Arthur wasn't reading her thoughts, or at least she figured with her knowledge of the mind arcanum she would feel him there. But she also knew he wasn't a stupid man. "Fine. The point is, well I ended up pregnant. A month ago I gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby girl. Her name is Alexis Maeb Williams. And after getting a DNA sample from you, I was able to pull some strings at the Bedlam Hospital to have a DNA test ran. Congratulations, you’re a father."