She paused. “That’s why he got that penthouse apartment, you know. We have a beautiful house out in the suburbs, but of course he can’t bring his bimbos back there. So he takes them to his apartment and pretends like he’s this sad divorcée who just needs to be loved. We’re still married, though.”
I shook my head. “I don’t believe you,” I said, but even I could hear that my voice lacked conviction. “Everyone says you cheated on him.”
“How could I?” she asked impatiently. “Adam’s as jealous and possessive as they come. Did you know he doesn’t even let me have control of my own finances? Anything that I need, that money needs to be approved by him first.”
I frowned. I didn’t want to believe any of this. And what’s more, the more she talked, the less believable it all seemed. None of this sounded like the Adam I knew. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was totally ridiculous. Maybe there was a reason that Adam hadn’t really wanted to talk about what would happen after the baby was born. Maybe there was a reason he was trying to buy himself time by saying we would talk about all of it when my internship was over.
“Look at this,” the woman continued, whipping out her phone and showing me a few pictures. It sure did seem like she was telling the truth. “Honestly, I’m just trying to look out for you,” the blonde said sympathetically. “You’re not the first woman he’s done this to. You seem like a nice girl, too. I’m sorry you got caught up in all of this.”
I stared at her for a moment. If this really was Kelly, then she had every reason to be jealous. I didn’t know how the hell she had found out that I was sleeping with Adam, but then again, if he was still married to her, he might even have told her.
Yet again, I couldn’t forget how little I really knew about Adam. I liked to think he was one of the good guys, but then again, weren’t the bad guys always the smoothest talkers? Not to mention the fact that if Adam really was one of the good guys, wouldn’t he have known better than to let passion get the best of him when it came to his intern?
Still, I didn’t like what I was hearing, and there was a part of me that resented Kelly for coming here to tell me this, even if it was the truth. Right when things started to feel normal again, I had to deal with something like this.
There were only two possible scenarios: either what Kelly was saying was right, in which case the father of my baby was a misogynistic asshole; or else Kelly was lying and the father of my baby had been married to a jealous psychopath who might try to harm us.
I felt a chill go through me. The worst part of it all was that the only person who could tell me the truth was Adam, and at the moment, I didn’t know if I could trust him. Could I even believe him if he promised me that he and Kelly were through?
I folded my arms defensively across my chest. “I’ve heard enough,” I said to Kelly, my tone frosty. “Get away from me.”
Kelly held up both of her hands. “Just trying to help you out,” she repeated, before turning and walking away.
I headed back inside the coffee shop but didn’t make it far before I slumped into a seat, staring blindly at the floor. To think that I had been feeling so much better about everything, too. To think that I was going to meet up with Adam once this shift was over. Suddenly, it felt like everything was in turmoil, and I wasn’t sure what to do.
“Mindy, are you okay?” my coworker asked worriedly.
I sighed and pushed myself painfully to my feet, my aches seeming to have increased tenfold in the amount of time that I’d been outside. I knew it was all in my head, but then again, this idea of a future with Adam might be all in my head as well.
“I’m alright,” I promised Lucy.
“Who was that?” she asked with concern, looking out the door toward where Kelly had disappeared.
“I don’t know,” I lied, shaking my head. “Just some crazy, I guess. I asked her not to come back.”
I had to wonder if I would see Kelly again, though. I had a sinking feeling that this was only the first time she would try to meddle in this thing with Adam and me.
28
Adam
I knew that I probably shouldn’t have asked Mindy to meet up after she was done with work for the day, that I was tempting fate. I couldn’t get her out of my mind, though. I wanted to make sure that she was doing okay, and I had the troubling doubt in the back of my mind that she was downplaying her injuries over text. Plus, I liked the idea of spending some time with her away from the office.
The truth was that I wanted her to be mine, and that meant first and foremost that I had to get to know her. What better way to do that than to take her on an unofficial date? There was also a part of me that just wanted her to know that I was going to treat her right. That I would take care of her and take her out on dates and give her everything she deserved.
When I got to her work, I was surprised to find out from one of her coworkers that she had already gone home for the day. I frowned, double-checking the time on the text that she had said she was working until. I was a little bit earlier than that, even. I supposed it made sense that she might have gone home early, though. I knew she wasn’t feeling 100 percent yet.
“Did something happen?” I asked.
“I think she was just tired. But I don’t know, some crazy lady came in here talking about cheating husbands, and Mindy didn’t seem to take it very well,” the employee said, shrugging. “Might have something to do with the accident last week? Are you a friend of hers?”
“Yeah,” I said faintly, my heart sinking. The whole “crazy lady with a cheating husband” had me worried. Could it possibly be… I swallowed hard, my feet automatically turning toward the door. I walked briskly to Mindy’s apartment, internally cussing the whole way.
It would be just like Kelly to show up and start spouting lies to Mindy. Fuck.
I had suspected for a while now that Kelly had someone keeping tabs on me. It would have been too easy for her to find out about Mindy. We hadn’t exactly been discreet when I had met her at the bar the first night I’d taken her home. Nor had we hidden the fact that she was staying with me after the accident. I felt terrible now, though. What had she said to Mindy? It must have upset her if she had left work early because of it.
I knocked on her apartment door. For a moment, I didn’t think anyone was going to answer. I was just about to whip out my phone to call her when Risa finally opened the door with the chain still on. She was back to glaring at me, and it was clear that she didn’t want to let me in.
“Is Mindy here?” I asked immediately.
“She doesn’t want to see you right now,” Risa said icily.
I sighed and leaned my forehead against the doorframe. “Look, I don’t know what happened today, and I don’t know what she told you,” I said carefully. “You know that I don’t want to do anything to upset Mindy, though. I really care about her.”
Risa stared at me for a long moment, her lips pursed. Finally, she undid the chain and let me in. “Whatever’s going on between the two of you, fix it,” she said. “I’m only letting you in because I appreciate your being there for her in the hospital when I couldn’t be. I don’t want to be in the middle of you, though.”
“Thanks, Risa,” I said gratefully. “Where is she?”
Risa pointed, and I immediately strode across the apartment, giving a cursory knock before entering Mindy’s room. What I saw brought me up short. She was lying in her bed on her side, facing away from the door. In her hands was the ultrasound picture from the hospital. Suddenly, I felt a pang of worry go through me. I had been so caught up in what her coworker had said about a crazy lady that I hadn’t thought about the other possibilities.
What if something had happened? The accident was just a week ago, and besides, there were plenty of other things that could go wrong with a pregnancy. What if she’d had a miscarriage?
“What happened?” I asked, unable to keep the panic out of my voice. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“Yeah,”
Mindy sighed quietly, forcing herself into a sitting position. She would barely look at me as I sat on the edge of the bed beside her. I wondered what had happened to make her so withdrawn like this. Finally, she looked up. “Tell me about your wife,” she said, an unmistakable bitterness to her voice.
I winced, but I wasn’t totally surprised. So Kelly had shown up at the coffee shop, then. I could murder her. Except that making sure that Mindy was okay was more important to me, right then and there, than venting any sort of frustrations that I had about Kelly. I should have told Mindy more about her before we ever got to this point. I hadn’t wanted to talk about my ex with her, but now I was afraid that Mindy must think I didn’t trust her.
Or worse, that some of the things that Kelly had said to her were actually true.
“We were married for two years,” I explained. “But we’ve been divorced for nearly a year now.”
“That’s a lie,” Mindy said, shaking her head. “Or at least, that’s not the full truth. Everyone knows that you were still in court with her last month.”
“The divorce was finalized almost a year ago,” I said gently, hoping she would believe me. “She tried to sue me for more alimony last month because I got a bonus and she wanted to use my money to go on vacation. She lost.”
“Your money,” Mindy said, making a face.
“Yes, my money,” I said viciously, forgetting for a moment that it wasn’t Kelly I was fighting with here. I immediately grimaced, realizing how that must sound to someone who didn’t know the backstory, though.
“Look, I’m all for what’s mine is yours,” I explained to Mindy. “I just think that that concept goes out the window when you find out that your spouse cheated on you. Which Kelly did. She spent the whole divorce, and the whole last month, trying to take me for everything that I’ve got, in spite of the fact that Designed by You is my business and she hasn’t worked a day since we got engaged.”
Mindy was still frowning, and I wondered what was going through her head. “If you and I were…” She trailed off, though, flushing. Clearly whatever she’d been about to ask, it wasn’t something she was comfortable with right now. I wanted to press her to ask anyway, but I didn’t want to make her more upset.
“What Kelly and I had is done,” I told her firmly. “The papers have been signed, and if I have my way, I won’t ever even have to see her again.”
Mindy was quiet for a long moment. “Why didn’t you tell me about her?” she finally asked.
I sighed. “Everyone has a history,” I said.
“Hmm,” was all she said.
I ran a hand back through my hair. “I was afraid,” I admitted. “There’s a part of me that’s still reeling from everything with Kelly, and I didn’t want to talk about all of the details with you.”
“Great, but today she showed up at my work and made a scene,” Mindy said, and I could tell she was starting to get frustrated with me. As much as I wanted to say that I preferred that frustration to the sadness I had seen when I initially entered the room, there was a part of me that was shit scared that I was losing her as the seconds went by.
All I could think about was how pissed off I was at Kelly for ruining this, too.
“I really need to think about all of this,” Mindy said. “Can you leave?”
I nodded numbly, even though leaving was the last thing I wanted. I wanted to lie down with her and hug her. I wanted to assure her that Kelly was nothing to me anymore, outside of a constant source of irritation. I couldn’t face the idea that I might have lost any chance that I’d had with Mindy.
There was, of course, a part of my brain that still held out hope. After all, we had said that we were going to revisit the idea of a relationship in three months, once her internship was over. I still had time to win her back before the baby was born.
Except that if she didn’t want to be won back, she could refuse to ever have anything to do with me again. It would be within her rights to do so. I was still firm on the idea that I wasn’t going to go to court with her over custody of our baby. If she didn’t want me to have anything to do with him or her, then I was going to have to accept that.
Even if losing the baby, let alone losing Mindy, felt like tearing open a huge hole in my chest.
I had hoped that this afternoon would be stress-free and fun, a way for me to show Mindy how much I cared about her. I had wanted to make it easier for us come Monday in the office, when we had to pretend that we were just coworkers again. Instead, I seemed to have made things all the more difficult.
I left her apartment wondering if that was the end.
29
Mindy
After Adam left, I spent pretty much the rest of the weekend in bed. It wasn’t the responsible thing to do. I knew that Risa was worried. I was supposed to go into work on Sunday but called in sick, and I was sure they were all worried, too. I was supposed to be an adult now; I was having a baby. But I couldn’t seem to handle my feelings, and that meant that all I wanted to do was wallow.
It was just as difficult for me to get out of bed on Monday morning. I tried to tell myself all the reasons why I couldn’t just call in sick at Designed by You. Regardless of what had happened between me and Adam, I wanted that job. I wanted to be a designer. I couldn’t quit now.
Not only that, but I didn’t want to give Adam the satisfaction. I was pissed at him, but I didn’t really want him to know it. Let him think that I was the bigger person. Let him think that none of this bothered me.
Really, I just wanted to cry. Here I had thought that things with Adam were if not good, then at least okay. He had taken the news about the pregnancy remarkably well. As much as I had tried to remind myself that we were nothing to one another, I had definitely had more than one wild fantasy about what it would be like to move in with him and raise our baby together.
I had caught myself at odd times thinking about what a great father he would be. Now, I wasn’t sure that I would ever know.
The thing was, Adam had seemed sincere when he showed up at the apartment. He had seemed like he was telling the truth. On the other hand, if I believed him and he wasn’t telling the truth, I was setting myself up for a world of pain. In fact, I was already feeling some serious heartache, and he and I hadn’t even truly been in a relationship.
I wasn’t sure if I could handle the risk. Especially not since he was my boss as well as the father of my child. It was all a little too much to bear.
“You can do this,” I muttered when I saw my reflection in the mirror on Monday morning. I had to do this; I hadn’t ever given up before, and I wasn’t about to start that habit now.
I got dressed in a comfortable but classy outfit. Was it just my imagination, or was it already a little tighter? Then again, with how much my weight had fluctuated since I had found out that I was pregnant, I wasn’t sure I still remembered what normal felt like.
When I got to work, Vera had tea for me again, and she gave me a big hug which almost made me cry. Fucking hormones. I hated how out of whack I felt all the time now. That said, I really did appreciate the gesture from Vera. It was good to see her again.
“I’m so glad you’re feeling better,” Vera said. “I think I already said that, but seriously. So glad.”
“Why, we have a lot of work to do?” I teased.
“Ha, I wish,” Vera said. “To be honest, there’s pretty much nothing to do at the moment. We’re waiting to hear back from a few clients. I think things got held up because Adam has been in the office so scarcely lately. I was thinking maybe we could apply to some jobs and do a little interview prep. Can you believe we’re already almost halfway through this internship?”
“I thought you were still holding out hope of getting hired on full-time here,” I said in surprise.
“Oh, I’d love to, don’t get me wrong,” Vera said, beaming. “It’s always good to have backup offers, though. Just in case.” There was something else in the way that she said it, but I couldn’t figure out what
.
I shook my head. “You’re lying,” I said. “You’re not trying to get hired here anymore. What happened?” I really hoped she wasn’t worried they wouldn’t keep her around because of my whole situation with Adam and the fact that Vera was my friend.
Vera leaned forward and lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Well, you know I have kind of a crush on Wendell,” she said, waggling her eyebrows. “I figure if I want any sort of shot at him, I’d better not be working here. Too much drama otherwise.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“And I guess for you, you’re looking for some freelance positions so that you can stay at home with the little one after it’s born, right?” she asked matter-of-factly.
I sighed. That all was so far in the future now. Who knew what things might look like by then.
“Uh-oh, what happened?” Vera asked, giving my belly a look. “Is everything okay?”
I shook my head. “Yes, everything’s okay. I just don’t know what life’s going to look like once this baby is born,” I admitted. “I might have to move back home for a little while. Chicago is an expensive place to live if you don’t have any sort of income.”
“Aww, I’m sure you-know-who will help out with some of the costs, at least until you’re back on your feet again,” Vera said. She leaned in even closer. “It is Adam, isn’t it? He’s the father?”
I frowned. “How did you know?” I finally asked, seeing no point to denying it.
Vera shrugged, grinning wickedly at me. “The sexual tension is pretty obvious,” she said.
I sighed. “Was,” I corrected.
“What happened?” Vera pressed.
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