"Oh Alec, that's sweet. But you're right, I need to get back into the workforce, get a place again….Tell my family that I've broken up with you. Ha!" She shook her head. "I don't think I can bring myself to tell my mom the truth. Maybe one day."
I laughed. "Yeah it was pretty ridiculous, wasn't it?"
Myra gave me a strange look. "Well, it wasn't all ridiculous. We had some fun along the way, I'd say."
"We sure did. Thank you, Myra. You've…taught me a lot about myself. I'm glad you are moving on to greater things, but I am going to be sad to see you go. This little act we were putting on felt kind of nice."
Myra frowned and I backtracked. "I mean, it was fun you know, bringing you to parties and seeing you get all dressed up. I hope you sort of had fun sometimes."
Myra giggled. "I did. I mostly liked the champagne."
I laughed along with her, savoring the moment. I was going to miss her terribly.
17
Myra
It seemed like forever since I had worn one of my business suits, and somehow I must have gone up a half size or something because every single one of them felt tight in areas where they didn't before. I frowned, adjusting my skirt as I made my way in for the first interview I had been invited to. I was excited to be getting back to where I’d left off, but at the same time I had a nagging sadness that there were too many ends left undone with Alec.
Only I didn't know what those loose ends even were. Everything that needed to be said had been said, and technically we were nothing but roommates now. I didn't know what I thought needed to happen between us, but it still just didn't feel right to be leaving and moving forward with life as if we had never met. I felt over-analytical about every single little thing lately, and I told myself that I would calm down when my life was back to normal.
I took a deep breath, clutching the leather folder that contained my resumé. Hopefully this interview would go well and the first step to getting my old life back would be checked off. I knew not to count my eggs before they hatched, though. Anything could happen in here, and I'd already experienced one setback when I tried on my office wardrobe. It didn't make any sense that I had gained weight when I was eating like a princess at Alec's house, as opposed to eating junk food in front of my television many nights before I’d moved in with him.
I rode up to the thirty-fifth floor of the office building downtown and found the suite I was looking for. It was beautifully decorated with a modern flair. I stepped up to the receptionist. "Hi, I'm Myra Edwards. I'm here for a two o'clock interview with Mr. Flanagan."
The receptionist, not smiling, nodded at me and then picked up the phone. "Mr. Flanagan, your two o'clock is here." She hung up. "He'll be right out. You can have a seat." She turned back to her computer.
I sat, unimpressed with my first impression of the administrative staff. A bored and unfriendly receptionist was usually a bad sign.
As soon as I sat down the fatigue hit me, making me fight to keep my eyes open. I discreetly pinched myself, trying to stay alert. I didn't see a coffee pot in the lobby, to my dismay. I'd slept for ten hours the night before, and still didn't feel like I had gotten nearly enough sleep. I definitely had to remedy this situation if I were going to start working full-time again. I assumed that being off of a set schedule had just ruined my circadian rhythm. Whatever the cause, being tired all the time was not too fun.
I finally got up and asked the receptionist if there was coffee to be found anywhere in the office. She nodded, standing up and disappearing without smiling once again. She returned quickly, a plain white mug of steaming coffee in her hand for me.
"Thank you so much," I said, genuinely grateful.
"Of course," she answered in a monotone.
I took a sip of the coffee and say back down. No sooner had the taste and smell mingled together that my stomach decided to rebel. I set the mug on the side table, suddenly repulsed by the smell and feeling the now familiar nausea creeping up.
Not now, I silently pleaded.
It was happening. My hand flew to my mouth and I leaned over, hoping to will away the urge to puke but to no avail.
My lunch was coming up fast. Desperate, I grabbed a nearby wastebasket just in time. When the act was over, I lifted my head to see Mr. Flanagan standing over me.
"I think it's best if we reschedule." He said, looking at me with a mix of confusion and disgust.
I was utterly mortified. On top of that, I was starving and I was tired. I drove home in defeat with tears in my eyes. When I stopped at a red light, I cringed and adjusted in the driver's seat of my car, finally giving up and loosening the zipper on the side of my skirt.
Maybe it was time I saw a doctor. This stomach ailment and my constant bloating and fatigue was starting to worry me, and had now cost me a job interview. Everybody knew that if you had to reschedule an interview, you were automatically out of the running. It didn’t matter the reason. CEOs that worked in finance weren't known for being an understanding bunch, and Mr. Flanagan was as old school as they came.
I tried to tell myself that I didn't want to work there anyway, but that wasn't true. I wanted to work somewhere. I wanted to get my life back, so I could stop lying to my family and so I could just put all of this behind me.
I was beginning to feel hopeless.
“No, Myra,” I scolded myself out loud in my car. "Pick yourself up and get your shit together. This is not how you're going to go down." I pulled over into the parking lot of a drug store and got my phone out. I was going to call Mr. Flanagan and reschedule. I didn't care what he thought, the worst that could happen would be that he’d say no, and it's not like I had any other prospects. If I wanted to get myself out of this mess, I was going to have to fight.
I opened the calendar app on my phone out of habit before I called, just to check and see when a good day to reschedule might be. I didn't want anything else to possibly interfere with my success next time, like getting my period or some other stupid bodily function.
I checked the date and started to mentally recite what I would say to Mr. Flanagan to make him think that I really had just come down with something and that I wasn't actually a recovering drug addict with withdrawal sickness. As my eyes scanned the calendar, a horrible realization washed over me.
Frantic, I scrolled back through the previous month, checking to see when I’d last had a period.
It had been eight weeks. I had completely skipped a cycle and not even noticed, probably due to the stress of the engagement that never happened, and everything else. My heart beat a little faster, my first thought being that I was dying.
The sickness, the fatigue, the missed cycle. There was something seriously wrong with me and I needed to see a doctor immediately. I started to call Alec to see if he could get me an appointment with his doctor on short notice. Then I paused, and went over my symptoms again.
No. No, it couldn’t be. I was dying. That was all. I wasn't pregnant. No way.
I looked toward the drug store that I had pulled over in front of. There was only one way to put this ridiculous notion to rest. I went inside and bought a pregnancy test, opting for the most expensive one even though I had no idea if that would make a difference. I had never done this before, and there was probably no reason to do it now. I just needed to confirm, for my own peace of mind, that I wasn't pregnant. Things like getting pregnant happened to other people, not to me. I'd only had sex with Alec once, what were the odds?
My heart pounded as I unwrapped the plastic stick with trembling hands. I re-read the directions again, for at least the tenth time since I had walked into my room. If I was so sure that I wasn't pregnant, then why was I so nervous?
I just needed to get it over with so I could go back to my certainty that I had a life-threatening illness. Somehow that seemed more comforting than pregnancy. There was comfort in certainty. There was no comfort in being pregnant with a baby from my fake boyfriend who now wasn't even that anymore now that I wasn't needed.
> I took a deep breath, trying to steady my hands as I carefully followed the instructions on the package. I did the deed, my heart pounding the entire time as I carefully set the stick on the counter and watched the timer on my phone count down the three minutes until I could peek. I made sure to keep my eyes on my phone and focus on my breathing, otherwise I felt like I would have an actual heart attack from the suspense.
The phone's alarm finally went off, signaling the longest three minutes of my life. Feeling sick, not from nausea but from fear this time, I closed my eyes and picked up the test. I kept my eyes squeezed shut and held it in my hand for a moment. Finally I was able to will my eyes to open, and I found myself staring at two pink lines in the little window.
My heart sank. Two lines meant that I was…pregnant.
I could swear there was a marching band parading around the house, pounding on a deep bass drum, but in actuality it was my own heart as the news sank in.
This couldn't be right. I sank to the floor, my back against the wall, my forehead resting against my knees. The positive test was sitting on the floor next to me where it had landed after I dropped it. I didn't even want to look at it again, but I did. There were still two lines. The positive test hadn't changed its mind after it saw how upset I was.
Damn that thing.
Maybe it was a faulty test. I got to my knees, then pushed myself up, taking the second test out of the box. I repeated the process, this time silently pleading for a different answer.
The same thing happened again. Now I had four pink lines staring at me from the bathroom counter telling me that I was pregnant with a baby that I made with Alec Slade, my fake boyfriend turned roommate, now turned daddy.
This couldn't be happening.
Anger flushed through me, suddenly and without warning. I felt like smashing everything in his perfect fucking house. How dare he take this moment away from me? I had always dreamed that I would find out that I was pregnant with my loving husband standing by my side. It was supposed to be a joyous moment. I wasn’t supposed to be alone, jobless, standing in the bathroom of a mansion that wasn't mine, pregnant by a man who also wasn't mine.
I sank to the floor and sobbed, touching my stomach in awe. I gathered my strength, telling myself that it didn't matter that the father of this baby was never going to be my husband. I would care for this baby and do everything that I was supposed to do as a mother.
I washed my face, and tucked the positive tests into my makeup bag. I needed to talk to someone, to let the weight of all of these lies off my chest.
I dialed my brother's number. He was the only one in my family who would be able to find humor in this situation, and humor was what I needed at a time like this. I needed someone to tell me I would get through this, even though I had fucked up my life royally.
My brother didn't answer, even though I knew he was done with work by then. He always bragged about how he would get to work remotely for his company and finished his work day by three in the afternoon because he didn't have to bother with a commute anymore. I rolled my eyes and called him again. I needed him right now.
“Pick up Dylan," I said out loud, annoyed.
"What's up sis?" He answered in his usual chipper voice.
"Why didn't you pick up a second ago?" was my response.
"Chill out, I was on the crapper. What's so urgent that you had to interrupt my precious bathroom time?"
"Gross," I replied. "I didn't need to know that."
"But you asked," he pointed out.
"Whatever," I said, exasperated. "I have bigger news to tell you. Are you sitting down? You're going to need to sit down for this."
"Ohh," Dylan said, "I love drama. Okay, I'm pouring a drink and sitting down." I heard some rustle coming from his end of the line. "Alright, I'm ready. This better be juicy."
"I'm pregnant," I blurted out.
"You're kidding me," Dylan said. "Wait a minute, is this from Alec Slade? Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" He squealed. "You're pregnant with a socialite baby. We're all going to be famous! Finally! You know, Myra, I never thought you of all people would be my ticket to stardom but you've finally come through for this family. "Dylan laughed. "I mean, congratulations, sis. Seriously, though, I am so happy for you. I'm going to get to be an uncle. A famous uncle. This is so exciting. Have you told Mom and Dad yet? You must not have because my phone would be blowing up by now if you had. Oh and also, in that case, can I be there when you tell them? I want to see the look on their faces when they find out, please?"
"Dylan can you stop talking for like thirty seconds please? Geez, no I haven’t told them and you'd better not too. There's more to the story." I took a deep breath.
"Spill it Myra, I don't have much of my cocktail left, and I may need it."
"Oh you will," I promised. "So…you know how I said that I was planning to get engaged to Alec? Well, that isn't happening anymore."
"Oh crap, you're breaking up? No! Why? Did he cheat on you? I may be small but I'll beat his…"
"No, listen to me Dylan. Let me talk." I stalled, then finally just spit it out. "We were never even together. The whole thing was a set-up. It was meant to fool the public and his father into thinking that he had cleaned up his act and was ready to settle down. We were in a fake relationship."
"So you are pregnant with his fake baby? Myra, I am so confused right now."
"So am I," I said sadly. "But no, the baby is real. We…hooked up for real a couple times. It wasn't part of the deal and it wasn't supposed to happen, but there was chemistry there and well…"
"Yeah I get it. There’s no need to get into detail," Dylan said.
I proceeded to explain everything else to him, all the way back from when I lost my job. Dylan was quiet, listening to every detail, trying to make sense of it alongside with me.
I finally finished my bizarre tale. "Well, anyway, his father didn't care that he had cleaned up his act. He told him he still wasn't getting a part of the family business, and so Alec has called the whole fake engagement thing off."
"But you still have a very real baby growing in you?"
"Yes. And I am supposed to be moving out of here soon and getting a new job."
Dylan let out a low whistle. "Wow. Well you know I'll support you in every way that I can. I promise everything is going to be just fine. And not to bring up money, but if you had to be pregnant under these circumstances, at least the father is a billionaire. I mean, he isn't going to ditch you on child support and let that get to the public."
Leave it to Dylan to come up with a bright side. "Yeah, well, I'm not going to sue him or anything. That's not me."
"I'm just saying…Do what you have to do. I'm here for you."
"The worst part of all of this isn't that I need to find a new place and a new job all while pregnant. The worst part about all of this is that I think I really do love him. For real."
Saying that out loud made me feel strangely better.
18
Alec
It was days like these that I really missed my mother. I didn't allow myself to feel it too often, but lately it had been coming up more and more. She would have known what to tell me to get me out of this funk that I was in.
Even Sophie would have been a help in a situation like this. I was so thankful to her for bringing Myra into my life, even though now she was going to be leaving it. I had been avoiding her all week, just because I couldn't bear to watch her getting dressed up for job interviews and shopping for a new apartment. She'd be packing her things and walking out of my life forever any day now, and there wasn't anything I could do to stop it. I knew she couldn't wait to leave, and I couldn't blame her for it.
She had put her whole life plan on hold to help me, and all for nothing. Once she was gone, this place was going to go real dark, real fast. I'd be turning thirty with no woman, no career, no parents, not even my brothers would be available like they are now. They'd be busy running their new company without me.
&nbs
p; A trick that I had once learned from my mother to find some hope in a bad situation was to first envision exactly how I wished things to be, and then break that down into parts. I would then start chipping away at changing each part from how it was into what I wanted it to be instead.
I tried doing just that and the first thing that came to mind was that I wished I really was getting engaged to Myra. That was a bit of a pipe dream, but she’d admitted that she had feelings for me at one point. I knew she felt something other than just a business obligation to fulfill. She said it herself.
My phone rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. It was Marcus, probably calling to tell me some more news about our father. Of course, I was always the last to be informed of anything. I guess it's to be expected, being the youngest. Carter was always the closest to Dad, followed by Marcus, and then there was me, who was simply tolerated. Back in the day, I used to even kind of like it. The lack of focus on me allowed me to get away with things that would have otherwise been noticed, but now that I was an adult it just meant that I was cut out of any important decision making.
"Hi Marcus," I answered.
"Alec, how are you doing?" Marcus asked. "I just was talking with Amanda about you and thought I'd call to chat for a minute."
"Amanda?" I asked. "What did she say?"
Great, Marcus was probably pissed off at me for talking to her about the engagement. She had likely read him the riot act for not proposing to her in all this time and now he was going to blame it on me for bringing it up.
"If this is about the whole engagement thing, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stir up any trouble and I had no idea that she was so gung-ho about-"
"No, this isn't about that," Marcus laughed. "Although that did come up once or twice. She showed me the earrings that you bought for her as a thank you for her help, then she kept talking about all the rings that she noticed in that jeweler that would look fabulous with this or that." He did a spot on impression of his girlfriend. "I've got too many other things on my plate to worry about that right now."
Forbidden Neighbor: A Contemporary Romance Boxset (Forbidden Saga Book 2) Page 27