Boss’s Secret Baby for Christmas

by Black, Natasha L.

  “Okay,” Wendell said. “Is it maybe less to do with Mindy and more to do with the fact that Kelly dragged you back into court?” He held up both of his hands. “Not trying to suggest anything, just making sure that we’ve looked at all the possibilities.”

  I shook my head. “Kelly has nothing to do with it,” I said. As I said it, I realized how true that was. For the first time since I had met Kelly, since I had fallen in love with her, I wasn’t thinking about her at all as I made my decisions for my future. In a way, that was a relief. In another way, that was terrifying, and I felt like I was free-falling into the unknown.

  “I can’t stop thinking about Mindy,” I told Wendell. “I mean, I keep thinking about her at the most random times. Everything somehow seems to bring me back to her. That pisses me off. The fact that I have to find another bar pisses me off. It’s just all so… frustrating.”

  It sounded so lame when I said it, but Wendell was still nodding, looking sympathetic. “Well, she’s already a third of the way through her internship,” he reminded me.

  “Then, what, I can forget about her?” I asked humorlessly.

  “That’s an option, I guess,” Wendell said, shrugging. “I meant more that at the end of that six months, either she’ll no longer be working for the company, or she will at least no longer be dependent on you for a long-term job. It’ll open up the possibility of the two of you dating.” He shrugged again. “I don’t know, that’s what I’m waiting for with Vera, the other intern.”

  That surprised me, and I found myself trying to picture Wendell with the other intern. To be honest, though, she hadn’t made enough of an impression on me that I could remember even the basics of what she looked like. I had only had eyes for Mindy.

  In any case, I had girl troubles enough that I didn’t have the energy to focus on Wendell’s as well as my own. I knew I had to pull things together quickly if I didn’t want to screw up everything I had built. Things were shaky enough for me at work at the moment after everything with Kelly that I knew I couldn’t dig the grave any deeper than it already was.

  “I think she might actually resent me now,” I said to Wendell. “I don’t know what the hell I did or didn’t do, but she really seems mad. I thought we left things on friendly terms, but she’s just been cold to me ever since I came back to work.”

  Wendell frowned, and I could tell he was trying to think if there was something that I could have done differently. He finally shrugged. “I mean, it’s probably better that it’s that way for now anyway, isn’t it?” he said. “You don’t want to date her while she’s still an intern anyway.”

  “I know,” I sighed. The trouble was I was afraid that once she was no longer an intern, I really would never see her again. After all, I didn’t feel as though I had really shown her the best sides of myself. There was no reason for her to want to give me a chance at something more.

  I mean, shit, I had taken advantage of her in her most vulnerable state. Then I hadn’t called her at all over that weekend, and then I had pretty much ignored her at work until she approached me. She deserved better.

  In any case, beating myself up for the way things had gotten between us wasn’t helping anything. What was I going to do to make sure I was less of an ogre at work? That was the important thing. As Wendell had pointed out, I couldn’t date her at the moment anyway.

  How could I get past my tense frustration? I couldn’t sleep with her again.

  Lunch brought no solutions, but I had to admit that I did feel marginally better with some food in me. Wendell didn’t walk back to the office with me because he had a couple of errands he needed to run for the company, so we parted on the sidewalk. It felt good knowing that I could talk to him about Mindy now, though. Not that I would abuse the privilege, but he was my friend. It was good to know I didn’t have to keep this all to myself.

  When I got back to work, though, my good mood all but vanished. Mindy was there at the front desk, and not only was the image of her in that pretty green dress going to stick with me for the rest of the day—in particular the way that it hugged her shapely ass—but I felt a spike of jealousy the moment I saw her.

  Because she was leaning over the desk chatting with the security guard, grinning at him and laughing. Who knew what the hell they were talking about, but it took everything I had to keep from marching over there. I knew what flirting looked like. I was staring right at it now.

  I marched past as though I hadn’t seen them, angrily punching the buttons on the elevator panel. It made me even more frustrated that the whole time I waited for the elevator, she didn’t so much as glance over at me.

  19

  Mindy

  I was leaving my morning shift at the coffeehouse when it happened.

  Later on, I would always wonder exactly how it had happened. But no matter how much I replayed it in my mind, substituting the details that I knew from the police report, I couldn’t remember that instant before the car hit me.

  The general feelings from that morning were still there. I had been excited to get home and devour a piece of Risa’s mom’s apple pie. She had promised to bring me a slice, and I had been drooling ever since I got the message. That pie was legendary, a family recipe that would live and die with the older woman since Risa showed no inclination to ever start baking for herself.

  I remembered thinking that I should give a call to Mom and invite her to come visit me so that she could join me at the next doctor’s appointment. She was almost comically excited about the fact that she was going to become a grandmother, and she had already sent me pictures showing that she had started knitting a baby blanket and some adorable little booties, in spite of the fact that the baby wasn’t due for another few months.

  She’d like to go to the appointment with me, I was sure. But as it turned out, that next appointment would be a lot sooner than I had expected.

  I never saw the car coming. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hospital with pain in the lower half of my body. I felt groggy, and I had the feeling that even though I was still in a lot of pain, they must have put me on some sort of painkillers. There was a doctor there asking me all sorts of questions, but I could barely hear him over the sound of blood rushing through my ears.

  Finally, in increments, I became more aware of what was going on around me. I was in the hospital. Instinctively, I put a hand on my stomach. “The baby?” I asked, scared beyond belief. Did they even realize that I was pregnant? Did they have my records, and did they know who I was? Was the baby going to be alright?

  I couldn’t imagine what I would do if something had happened to the baby. I felt like I had just gotten used to the idea that I was going to be a mother, only to possibly have it snatched away from me. What a dreadful way to lose it, too.

  The doctor gave me a sympathetic look. “We still have to do some more tests to make sure the fetus is healthy,” she told me gently.

  I nodded, tears forming in my eyes. The doctor marked a few more things on her clipboard and started to leave. The only thing I could think about was how much I didn’t want to be alone just then. I grabbed the woman’s arm. “My phone?” I asked, desperation in my tone.

  The doctor handed me a bag with my things in it. I immediately dug out my cell phone. I intended to call my mom, but instead, I found myself clicking on Adam’s name, knowing that all of his weekend calls got rerouted to his personal phone. As I listened to the dial tone, I was tempted to hang up. It wasn’t too late…

  Mom was so far away, though. Adam could be here in a second. Really, I should be calling Risa. Before I could finish that thought, however, Adam picked up. “Hello?” He sounded confused. I wondered if he knew that it was me who had called him.

  “Adam? I need you.” The words were barely a whisper as they slipped out of my mouth.

  I knew it probably wasn’t right to ask him to be there for me for this. After all, he didn’t even know about the baby. What a way for him to find out. Still, if anyone was going to
understand what it felt like for me to possibly lose this baby, it was the other person responsible for the baby’s creation. Not only that, but I needed his strength now. He had something that Risa didn’t have, and he was close by.

  “Where are you?” he asked immediately, and something settled inside of me. I gave him the name of the hospital, and he promised to be there right away.

  Right away turned out to be as I was being wheeled back from the ultrasound that told me that the baby was going to be alright. That it was healthy and that its heart was still beating strongly inside of me. I might be bruised and exhausted, but somehow, we were okay.

  It only made me more certain than ever that I had to do everything in my power to give this child the world. I would do whatever it took to be a good mother.

  I had to tell Adam about the baby. He deserved to know, and it wouldn’t be right for me to keep it from him, no matter how nervous I was about what his reaction would be.

  Adam watched as they wheeled my bed back into my room. Once the nurses had me all hooked up, he was by my side. “What happened?” he asked, sounding worried. He looked adorably flustered, as though he’d been running his hands back through his hair over and over again while he waited for information on my condition.

  I tried to smile weakly at him, but the next thing I knew, that expression had crumbled into tears.

  Adam waited for me to calm down. He didn’t embrace me, but I tried not to take that personally. It would have been difficult with the way I was all hooked up anyway. He did put his hand over mine, his fingers lightly stroking my skin. Somehow, that coupled with the outpouring of tears made me feel a lot better. I felt more solid than I had in all the time since I had first found out that I was pregnant.

  I tried to explain to him what the cops had told the doctors. “I was coming out of work and, I don’t know, I guess a car slammed into this other one and pushed it up onto the sidewalk and it hit me,” I babbled.

  “Oh Mindy,” Adam said sorrowfully. “Are you all right? Any broken bones? If you’re worried about work, I’m sure we can figure things out.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t care about work,” I said. I felt horrified the second the words came out of my mouth. “I mean, you know that I care about work. What I mean is that that’s not what’s worrying me at the moment.”

  Adam looked like he was trying not to laugh, even though his eyes were still crinkled with concern. “I know what you’re trying to say,” he said.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” I continued. “I’m okay, and…” I trailed off before I could say that the baby was okay as well. That was the most important thing, but he didn’t even know I was pregnant. How did I tell him?

  I looked up into his eyes, that stunning blue gaze that had captivated me since the first time I’d seen it. I had to tell him. I was more sure of that fact than I had been of anything in my whole life.

  Still, just because I was sure, that didn’t make it any easier. I ducked my head, staring at the crinkly hospital blanket that covered my body. It was still too early for me to start showing, but I wondered if he could somehow already tell what I was about to say. Did he have some sixth sense for the baby that was growing inside me?

  I peeked up at him. The secret was killing me. Besides, if this was the thing that got me fired from the internship, well, it was only a matter of time anyway.

  Adam’s hand still rested on top of mine. I looked down at it for a moment. This might be the last kind touch that I ever received from him. I could only imagine how he would react when he heard the news. I took a deep breath.

  “Adam, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  20

  Adam

  I stared down at Mindy, noticing how sad nervous looked beneath the pain. I squeezed her hand more tightly, sure that nothing she could say right now would make me leave that room.

  I had been shocked to get the phone call from her saying that she needed me. I had rushed over straightaway, though, worried sick about her. What had happened? I still didn’t really know why I was the person she had decided to turn to in the aftermath of the accident. Why not her roommate, or even Vera? But I supposed a near-death experience could have strange effects on a person.

  That still didn’t explain why she was looking up at me with such naked trepidation now. Just what kind of secret was she keeping from me?

  I didn’t want to pressure her because I didn’t want her to clam up in her nervousness. At the same time, I waited impatiently for her to say whatever it was that was bothering her, certain that whatever she said held the truth of our future.

  I could never have expected the words that came out of her mouth though.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  For a moment, I simply stared at her, trying desperately to process. But the question that I finally blurted out was, “Mine?”

  Mindy sighed and stared up at me, a hint of challenge in her gaze. There was something of a relief in seeing that old expression finally return to her face. At the same time, though, I couldn’t dwell on that now. She was pregnant? Was this why she had been avoiding me?

  It felt as though all the pieces were finally falling into place, even as it simultaneously felt like my whole world had been shaken apart by her declaration.

  “Of course it’s yours,” Mindy said tartly. “Despite what happened between us, I don’t make it a point to jump into bed with every guy I meet.”

  When I continued to gape at her, she narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Look, before you say anything stupid, I wasn’t trying to get pregnant. It was the last thing on my mind that night.”

  Things had just happened so quickly that night. I hadn’t been at all prepared. And admittedly, I had realized through all the one-night stands I’d had that most women were on birth control and didn’t care anyway. I might have become a bit lax lately. Usually not without having that conversation first, but of course, things didn’t usually happen the way that they had with Mindy.

  I stood up and started pacing, unable to sit still any longer. She was pregnant. With my child.

  It felt as though my entire world had been turned upside down. Suddenly, I understood the glares I had been getting from her roommate. And from Vera. Did everyone know except for me? I couldn’t blame her for that, though. I would have been just as nervous if I was in her shoes. The important thing was that she had told me now.

  I went back to her side and took her hand again. Mindy eyed me warily, like she didn’t have the faintest idea of what was going through my head at the moment.

  To be honest, I wasn’t even really sure what I was thinking right then. There were so many things going through my head all at once that I could barely seem to hold on to a single one of those ideas.

  Suddenly, though, one thought struck me harder than all the rest. I felt my blood run cold. “Is the baby okay?” I asked. Jesus, Mindy was pregnant, and she had been hit by a car. The idea that I might never even get a chance to know my baby… I swallowed hard. How crazy was it that I had just learned about the existence of him or her, and yet already I wanted so fiercely to care for them?

  Mindy nodded slowly. “Yeah, I had the ultrasound right before you got here.” She paused. “They should have the picture to show you. I told them that the father was coming.” She blushed and looked away from me, and I suddenly wanted to kiss her.

  I wasn’t sure we were ready for that yet, though. One step at a time. Just because she was pregnant with my child, it didn’t mean that that one night was anything more than that one night. Even if we did decide that we wanted more, where did this leave us? She was still an intern at the company I was president of.

  Suddenly that didn’t seem to matter so much, though. If I had to, I would give it all up to make things right between us. I wasn’t sure what exactly either of us wanted, or what I was going to have to do to actually make things right, but I was going to make sure that this child, and of course its mother, had whatever they needed in this life.<
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  I took a deep breath and pulled up a chair next to her bedside. “Okay,” I said. “We have a lot to talk about, but let’s start with the most recent things, and we’ll work our way back. Did the police get whoever did this? And when are you getting discharged? Everything is okay, right?”

  I felt like I could murder whoever had done this to Mindy, even if it hadn’t been intentional. I’d been upset to hear that she had been involved in an accident even before I found out that she was carrying my child. Now, I didn’t even have the words to explain how I felt.

  Mindy shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “To either of those questions, I don’t know. The doctors said that the baby and I were both fine, but I didn’t even think to ask when I could get out of here.”

  I could hear the mild distress in her voice, and I ran my thumb across her knuckles. “That’s okay,” I said. “Will you be okay here on your own for a minute while I go track down one of the doctors?” In my head, I was already making plans to take her home to my place. I didn’t want to let her out of my sight, even long enough to find a doctor.

  Which was ridiculous, really. Here in the middle of the hospital, it was hardly as if something might happen to her. The doctors had already told her that she and the baby were going to be fine, and I trusted them to know what they were talking about. If she somehow managed to take a turn for the worse, though, she was hooked up to all sorts of machines that would alert every medical professional in the area.

  She was going to be fine. It was still hard to drag myself away from her, though.

  There was no way I was letting her go back to her own place. Even if she had a roommate there, I would go crazy with worry if she was out of my sight. What if she didn’t call me next time she was in trouble? I hated the thought of that more than anything.

  Abruptly I leaned in and brushed my lips against her forehead. I hung there for a moment, pressing my own forehead against hers. She was safe. She was here, and she was safe, and she had called me when she wound up in the hospital. That had to mean something, right?