Looking over at me, he asks, “Do you need me to rub your feet?”
“Oliver,” I sigh. “I’m only a few weeks pregnant. I’ve hardly gained weight. My feet don’t hurt. I’m fine.”
“I was just offering,” he scoffs, making a show out of rolling his eyes at me. “After your appointment, I think we should begin planting the seeds.”
“The seeds of?”
“Your pregnancy,” he scoffs again, this time as if I should know exactly what he’s thinking as if it’s my job to read his mind.
“And how exactly do we plant the seeds of that? Get caught going to the OBGYN together?”
“No. That’s too in-your-face. Plus, there could be other reasons for that,” he says.
“So, what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that...” he trails off, getting lost in his thoughts as he tries to figure out what the best course of action should be.
While he thinks, I get an idea.
I think about whether or not I should just come out with it at first, but I finally just say it.
“We could go shopping for baby clothes. It plants enough seeds but doesn’t confirm anything. At least not yet.”
His brows knit together as he listens to my idea, humming over it before nodding.
“You know what? I like that idea, Cassidy. We can go baby clothes shopping after your next appointment, alright?” He says happily. “I’ll figure out the best place for us to go and we’ll go from there.”
“Perfect.”
He reaches out and puts his hand on my calf. Weeks ago, the gesture would make me uncomfortable. Not because I hate him touching me, but because of what that means for us. Now, I’m getting used to Oliver touching me again. I realize how much I’ve been missing the feeling of his skin against mine.
I could easily chalk it all up to hormones, but I know that’s not what this is. I know that this is solely because of my feelings toward him.
“Are you feeling any better about this?” he asks me, not moving his hand. I’m glad that he doesn’t.
“About the pregnancy or faking our relationship?”
“Both.”
“I guess,” I shrug. “I’m getting more used to the idea of both of them. It all feels very dreamlike and surreal. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to handle all of it as it progresses, but I’m okay right now.”
He nods.
“You’ll tell me if things change? If you start to feel uncomfortable?”
“Of course.”
“Good.”
We turn our attention back to the TV that’s been softly playing in the background. I realize that there’s no reason for us to be spending time together right now. Nobody is going to take photos of us in my apartment. Nobody can see us right now. It’s just the two of us.
And I like it like this. Letting go of the idea of boundaries was probably the best - or the worst - thing I’ve done lately. Best, because it makes all of this so much easier. Worst because it’s making it really hard to remind myself that I can’t fall for him all over again.
I know that we haven’t really been faking it. I probably realized this sooner, but it really settles in for me at that moment. Nothing between us has felt forced or strained. It’s all comes naturally. Oliver keeps his hand on my calf, and we watch TV until my eyes start to feel heavy.
I stop myself from falling asleep right then and there.
“We’re going to have to start doing things during daytime hours,” I say with a sigh, sitting up a bit more on the couch to stop myself from falling asleep completely.
“Getting tired on me?” Oliver asks with a grin.
“A bit.”
“I’ll make a mental note for us to start hanging out during the daytime, that way I get more time with you,” he smiles and I find myself smiling back.
I can’t help myself. I realize just how weak I am for this man.
Just like he promised, Oliver is with me for my next doctor’s appointment. I feel a little less awkward sitting in the waiting room with him, which is thankfully empty. I can’t imagine having to sit inside with other people, people who could take photos, leak it all before we’re ready to. When the doctor calls us back, she seems surprised to see Oliver with me but keeps it professional.
The checkup goes smoothly. Our baby is growing perfectly, the heartbeat sounds fine and Oliver asks her three times to confirm that it was just one baby and we weren’t having surprise triplets.
After the appointment, we grab lunch at a small food cart near the doctor’s office. We sit on a bench and eat together in silence. Until Oliver breaks it.
“I’m glad everything is going smoothly. Your doctor seems nice as well.”
“If she wasn’t nice would you make me change doctors?”
“Absolutely. I considered getting you to change as soon as I found out that you were pregnant. We have doctors we prefer to see for these types of things, ones we trust. We’d prefer to keep control over it.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” I ask with a laugh. “So, I’m not going to have to change?”
He shakes his head.
“No. I like her.”
Good. Because I don’t think I’d change doctors even if he wanted me to. I like keeping control over this situation, over myself, because I know that if I let them, the Windsor family would take over everything. They love power and control, something I refuse to give them completely.
“I’m glad.”
“Me too.”
Oliver parks in a nearby parking garage. He helps me out and then our fingers lace together as we walk towards the street. “Nervous?” he asks, looking down at me with a grin.
“More than you’ll ever comprehend,” I murmur up to him.
This is a big moment. It’s not an official announcement, but it’s the thing that will make people murmur. It will spur all the rumors moving forward about our future.
He squeezes my hand in that comforting way he always tends to do.
“It’ll be fine,” he says, sounding so sure of himself.
I’ve always found Oliver’s confidence contagious. It rubs off on me with ease, so as soon as he says it, I start to believe him. It’ll be fine.
We step out onto the sidewalk. Cameras aren’t flashing immediately, and people aren’t following us. For a minute, I feel like we are a normal couple. There’s no pretending between us, the weight of the world isn’t weighing on our shoulders. That may be a touch dramatic, but that’s certainly how it feels.
Little Sprout’s is one of the city’s finest baby stores. It’s very boutique-like, and stepping inside, I instantly feel uncomfortable with the atmosphere. It’s sleek and modern. As soon as a brunette sales girl sees us enter, she steps toward us immediately.
“Hey!” she greets us with a wide smile. “Welcome to Little Sprout’s.”
She looks us up and down, clearly taking us in. She’s either making sure that one of us is pregnant or deciding how much money she can get out of us. I think she likes what she sees.
“I take it that you’re expecting? Do you know the gender yet?”
Oliver and I exchange looks. Not for another month. He’s convinced it’s a boy though, and I happen to agree with him. Noelle is the sole person on the ‘Team Girl’ side of the line.
“Not yet,” Oliver tells her, shaking his head. “We were just planning to glance at a few gender-neutral items. We want to get a head start on things.”
He offers her one of those charming smiles of his.
For a moment, I feel jealous. I shouldn’t. It’s just a smile. Someone can’t be possessive over a damn smile. But I like it when those smiles are reserved just for me. As if sensing my feelings, Oliver squeezes my hand and pulls me closer to his side.
“Oh,” the salesgirl nods. “We actually just got in some new items...”
Oliver shakes his head.
“If you don’t mind, we’re just going to walk around and glance at a few things. If we have any que
stions, we’ll be sure to find you...” he pauses, eying her up and down, “Lisa. You’ll be the first person we ask.”
He smiles again and I’m amazed at how well he handled the situation.
I’ve never had it in me to tell a salesperson to back off, but Oliver did it so skillfully and surprisingly politely. Without waiting for a response from her, he lets go of my hand and wraps his arm around my waist. My heart rate speeds up. It’s a new sensation between the two of us, a new boundary we hadn’t crossed yet. Now that we have, a part of me doesn’t want to go back.
I don’t say anything as Oliver leads me off to the side and away from Lisa. He keeps me close to him, not quite letting go of me as I begin to browse the rack of onesies next to us. I’m out of my element. We don’t know the gender of our child; I don’t know what color they’re going to like. I don’t know anything about them. I realize that I’m overthinking this whole thing. I just need to buy the baby a few cute onesies to wear.
Like before, I think Oliver senses how out of my element I feel. He lets go of me; I immediately miss the warmth of his arm on my skin. He leans over me and grabs one of the onesies from the rack. It’s white with what appears to be olive leaves all over it.
“Too on the nose?” he asks me with a smirk.
Reaching up, I take it from him.
“I like it,” I decide.
We continue through the store, staying close together, grabbing outfits and onesies, and little booties. We haven’t begun to talk about custody, but I’m assuming our child is going to need two wardrobes. One at Oliver’s place and one at my apartment. We could always transfer clothes back and forth, but a part of me feels like that’s not the Windsor way.
Oliver pays for our baby clothes haul without question, carrying the bag for me on the way out of the store. I try not to look around us as we leave, try not to notice who is and who isn’t part of the paparazzi. I don’t know if this was all in vain or not, but I don’t care anymore. Whether this leaks to the press or not is no longer important, I enjoyed the time I got to spend with Oliver.
I wake up the next morning and my phone is full of messages and missed calls. Most from colleagues I haven’t spoken to in years, a few from Noelle, a lot from my mother, and even one from Gavin. I decide that Noelle would be the safest bet and I open her text first.
‘Looks like your plan is working.’
And then there’s a link to an article. I click on it and the second it opens, there’s a photo of Oliver and myself on my phone. It was taken through the window of Little Sprout’s. He has one arm around me while the other is holding up a onesie. In bold the headline reads, ‘Oliver Windsor...expecting with PR representative?’
It’s hard not to roll my eyes at the title. I don’t even get named. I’m just a ‘PR representative’. God forbid I be known nationally for handling the scandal in Georgia and balancing the circus that was Alan’s murder trial. Curiosity gets the best of me and I decide to read more of the article,
“Spotted downtown yesterday, Oliver Windsor was shopping with rumored girlfriend and Windsor family PR representative, Cassidy Hanson. The two have been close over the past few weeks but took it to a new level yesterday. They entered a baby boutique together, Little Sprout’s, where they proceeded to look at baby clothes and even walked out with a bag full. Nothing has been confirmed and while it’s entirely possible the two were buying for a friend...could we finally see Oliver settling down? Or was this an ‘oops’ that his family is making him own up to?’
Wow. They really pegged him on the latter, didn’t they? I exit the article and go back to my text messages. I reply to Noelle, ignore most of my colleagues hounding me with questions, and call my mother back.
This is the conversation I’ve been dreading. I know I should have told her sooner, but I got caught up in everything else going on in my life. Shitty excuse. It’s gonna sound even worse when I tell that to her. Here’s hoping she’s in the mood to be forgiving.
The phone rings once before she picks up.
“Cassidy Amber Hanson!” shrieks my mom. “You explain to me right away what’s going on. All my friends were sending me this article this morning about you being pregnant, congratulating me on being a grandmother when I know nothing about this.”
I wince as soon as she uses my middle name.
“Mom...”
But I don’t know where to start. My mom has been incredibly understanding throughout my life. I was never the type to get into much trouble as a teen, so she never had to give me lectures. We’ve always been close, and I’ve always kept an open and honest relationship with her. Until now.
“I was waiting to tell you, just in case.”
Wrong words.
“Waiting to tell me?! Cassidy...you’re not...”
I take a deep breath.
“I just wanted to make sure it was going to be viable. No one else really knew except for Oliver. We were just in the area yesterday and decided to stop in...”
“I thought you and Oliver split?” she asks. My mom clearly sounds panicked on the other end and I’m beginning to worry that this news is taking years off of her life. “Next thing I know, you’re pregnant with his child? Is that what you’re telling me, Cassidy? You’re pregnant?”
I want to sink down into my bed, let the mattress swallow me up so I no longer have to deal with this conversation.
“Yes,” I mutter. “I’m pregnant, mom. I was going to tell you, I swear. I just wanted to make it to the second trimester and then I got so caught up with work and I’m not even showing yet and...”
My mom cuts me off.
“You’re okay, right?” her voice is soft. “You’ve been doing alright?”
“I’ve been fine, mom. I’ve been really tired and nauseous, but I’m handling it. Oliver has been great about it, a lot better than I expected.”
“Are you two together again then?”
I don’t know how to answer her question. I don’t want to lie to my mom more than I already have been, but this one is for the best. I can’t imagine her stress if I were to tell her ‘no.’
“We got back together a few weeks before I found out,” I lie. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know if it was going to last, but the pregnancy pulled us closer together. He offered to fly you out when I was really sick in the beginning, but I told him not to worry you.”
“Sweetie, you should have let him. I would’ve taken care of you without an issue. And Cassidy, you know you can tell me anything,” she says. “I worry about you. You’re my only child, I want what’s best for you. Even if I may not agree with all your choices, like Oliver. I guess I’ve never really given him a chance.”
I sigh, running a hand through my hair. There’s no point in her giving him a chance. Oliver isn’t the man for me, even if I wish he was. I’m too weary to get attached to him like that again, but that’s just another thing I have to hide from my mother.
“I know, mom. I get it.”
She pauses on the other end before speaking again.
“Why don’t I fly out next weekend? I can meet Oliver and give him a fair chance and get to see you again?”
I want to say ‘no.’ Things are messy and I don’t want her to get involved, but the truth is that I miss her. I haven’t seen her since I moved to New York.
“I’ll talk to Oliver,” I say after a minute. “He can schedule you a flight out here, so you don’t have to spend all that money on a ticket.”
“Cassidy...”
“Mom,” I interrupt her, “he doesn’t mind. I’ll get back to you about it. He’s going to be the father of your grandchild, let him do this for you.”
I can’t believe I just said that. Every day, the whole pregnancy dawns on me more and more and I don’t quite know how to deal with it. It’s such a weird thing to process.
She sighs on the other end.
“Alright. I’ll let you handle this. Just tell me what I need to do.”
“Let me talk to him an
d I’ll get back to you. Just plan to be out here next weekend and we’ll go from there, alright?”
“Alright.”
“I gotta get ready for work, Mom. I’ll be in touch. I love you.”
“I love you too, Cassidy.”
I can hear the smile in her voice, and it makes me feel much better about lying.
Now I have to figure out how to handle things now that my mom is involved in my relationship with Oliver. All while the whole world now thinks that I’m pregnant with his child.
This is going to be fun.
Chapter Nine
I’ve never seen Oliver look so panicked. Not even when I told him that I was pregnant.
“Your mother’s coming out? Next weekend?” His grey eyes are wide, like a deer in headlights.
“Yes,” I say simply. I found him in the conference room at the office, waiting for a meeting. I ambushed him with this, mostly so we wouldn’t have time to discuss it. “If you’ll fly her out.”
He blinks once, twice, before acknowledging what I’ve said.
“Of course, I’ll fly her out,” he says. “Just give me the details and I’ll work it out.”
“So, you’re okay with meeting her?”
“You’ve dealt with my family. I think I can meet your mom.”
What Oliver doesn’t know is that my mom may be a little bit more than he’s used to handling. Since I’m her only child, I know that she’s going to be extra vicious, especially when she hasn’t been his biggest fan since the beginning.
“Okay, great.”
“Is that all?”
I blink at him before shrugging a shoulder.
“I think so.”
“Can we talk about the next step then?”
“...the next step?”
“Cassidy, the whole world pretty much knows that you’re pregnant now. I think it’s time for us to confirm it.”
Right. A part of me wishes that the news article was all it would take. That the idea of me possibly being pregnant was enough for people to accept it and move on. That’s not how it works though. We need an actual announcement.
Fake Love Rich Boss Series Page 24