Read Coco Pinchard, the Consequences of Love and Sex: A Funny, Feel-Good, Romantic Comedy for Free Online Page A

the hospital.
    ‘You’re right Cokes. She was a crap spot,’ said Chris.
    ‘I didn’t say that.’
    ‘You didn’t have to say it,’ he sighed. ‘I’ve had so much time to think since I moved out here. What will be my legacy? I have to make this career work as a film director, because I have nothing else. I’m hideously old . ’
    ‘You’re only forty-five.’
    ‘Exactly. In gay years that’s geriatric… And you aren’t getting any younger Cokes.’
    ‘Thanks.’
    ‘No you look great, but you were always my Plan B. The one I thought I could have a baby with and now, well, no offence. I doubt a miracle could happen – you’ll soon be forty-five.’
    He took me off guard. I forced out a little laugh. He went on,
    ‘And Marika’s womb is spoken for. She sounds very serious about this Milan guy.’
    I was now rounding the corner that would take me back home.
    ‘Look, I’m sorry Chris. I have to go. I’m out with Rocco,’ I said.
    ‘Yes, you go… Maybe I’ll get a dog. A dog would give my life purpose… but my carpets are white…’
    ‘I’ll call you in the next day or so. Love you,’ I said. I rang off as the sun came out. The park was transformed, sun glinting off the water and making it all come alive. Rocco came bounding up and gave my hand a lick, before running off again. I couldn’t get Chris’s word out of my head.  
    Miracle.  
    I arrived home as Adam was folding up the duvet.  
    ‘Are you okay?’ he asked.
    ‘I’ve got a scan at nine-thirty.’
    We looked at each other for a long moment.
    ‘Do you want me to cancel it?’ he asked. I could see he was clamping up every emotion inside him. I tapped my phone against my teeth.
    ‘No. I should go,’ I said quickly, and then scuttled off to the bathroom. I spent a long time zoned-out under the water until Adam started knocking, saying he’d ordered a taxi.  

    It was a short ride to University College Hospital. We rode in silence, holding hands.  
    We took a lift up to the maternity unit, and we were shown straight away into the consulting room. The sonographer was a thin woman in white, with long grey hair wound up in a bun.  
    ‘Right, would you like to hop up onto the table please,’ she asked, pulling a roll of paper out for me to lie on. I swung myself up on the examination table and hitched up my jumper. I remembered the smell of the disinfectant and the feel of the rough paper sheet under my back from all those years ago. The sonographer pulled over a trolley with wires hanging from a monitor.
    ‘The gel might be a bit cold,’ she said. Her voice was soft and soothing. She squeezed a bottle and gel plopped out on my stomach, on top of the faded stretch marks from when I’d had Rosencrantz.  
    Adam was sitting beside me and grabbed my hand as she began to slowly smooth out the gel on my stomach with the scanner.
    ‘It’s quite overwhelming, being pregnant,’ she said softly. ‘It happens every day, but it never ceases to be wonderful.’
    A loud whoomping echoing sound, like a ball bouncing around a tunnel came out of the speakers.
    ‘And that’s the heartbeat,’ she smiled as she carried on smoothing the scanner across my stomach. Adam and I were speechless. It was so quick and strong and vital.
    ‘Right, I’m just doing a check to see that everything is okay.’ There was a silence as she peered at the screen, a few minutes ticked past.  
    ‘Everything looks…. Perfectly normal,’ she said turning the monitor round to face us. The liquid black screen had what looked like a shard of light illuminating the profile of a baby. It was lying on its back with a big round head and little feet sticking up in the air. I couldn’t believe how detailed it was.
    ‘That’s in here?’ I asked, pointing from the screen to my stomach. The sonographer smiled and nodded.
    ‘You can see a nose and a mouth,’ said Adam his voice catching in his throat. ‘A head! And a body! Look Coco, the mouth is moving.’ Just