by London Casey
They didn’t know about Maya.
So now I was hiding things from my best friends. Which I never did.
Tonight, I was planning on telling them what was going on.
Of course, Jackson spotted Chrissy looking at us.
Lincoln and I were the only two single ones and I guess I had an image to keep alive.
So there I went, over to talk to Chrissy, who was out celebrating her friend’s engagement. Alone. Meaning she was jealous her friend got engaged. Meaning she was looking for someone to fuck her to make her forget about not having a committed boyfriend.
It was the perfect setup for me.
Simple.
Then Maya called and fucked with my head.
Asking me about who she was to me. What I was doing with her.
Hiding her?
I had no idea how to truthfully respond to that.
I wanted her in that apartment so she had space and didn’t have to smell the ink from her roommate’s t-shirt hobby.
Why the hell did she have to look into everything?
I told her what I-
“Are you listening to me, Cole?”
I looked at Chrissy.
I stood up from the bar stool.
“Not at all,” I said.
“What?”
I threw my glass back and downed the whiskey.
I flipped the glass over and put it on the bar.
“My only plan was to listen enough so I could fuck you,” I said. “But I’m not interested. So I won’t waste your time. There’s plenty of guys here for you to talk their ear off. As far as your friend goes, who the fuck cares? She’s engaged. You’re not. Deal with it.”
I walked away and felt Chrissy staring daggers at me.
As I approached Jackson, Liam, and Lincoln, they pointed and laughed at me.
“Strike out?” Liam asked.
“She wouldn’t shut up,” I said.
“Give her something to put in her mouth then,” Jackson said.
“I’m out of here,” I said.
“What?” Lincoln asked. “That’s it?”
“It’s a work thing,” I said. “This fucking deal… I’m telling you… it’s so close. But sometimes it feels far away.”
“What can you possibly have to do tonight?” Jackson asked. “You need to get laid. You can’t get your dick all worked up and then just leave it hanging.”
“Your concern for my dick… it kind of concerns me,” I said.
“That’s only because he wants to fuck that woman but can’t,” Liam said.
“He could fuck anyone he wants,” Lincoln said. “We’re all free men.”
I laughed. “If Jackson breathed on another woman, Callie would tie him down and cut his dick off inch by inch.”
“Do you know how long that would take her?” Jackson asked with a grin.
“Keep your dick in your pants,” I said to Jackson. “At least until you get home. I’ll talk to you assholes later.”
“Well, Lincoln, now it’s up to you,” Jackson said. “Let me fuck some strange pussy through your dick.”
“Do you want to go home with him too?” Liam asked. “You can stroke Lincoln’s dick until it’s hard and then guide him into some woman…”
“Jackson will never touch my dick,” Lincoln announced.
I shook my head.
I laughed.
Then I ditched my best friends to go see Maya.
I lifted my hand to knock but stopped.
This is my fucking apartment.
I unlocked the door and went inside.
The first thing that hit me was the smell of flowery soap.
And perfume.
“Maya?” I called out.
She popped out of the bathroom and gasped. “Cole?”
I looked her up and down.
Wearing tight jeans with holes in the knees. The kind that people bought that way. Wearing a spaghetti strap tank top that did nothing to hide her body.
Fuck. Me.
The white top made her scream with temptation and beauty.
Her tits looked amazing too.
To be fair, I had only had my hands on them for one night. And that one night I wasn’t exactly sober. But to me, they looked bigger. Which was obviously bound to happen because…
I looked at her belly.
“What are you doing here?” Maya asked.
I moved across the apartment. The smell of the shampoo and soap hit me harder. My mind began to offer images of her in the shower. My dick throbbed inside my pants.
“I wanted to come see you,” I said. “That a problem?”
“Yeah. It is. I’m just getting ready to leave.”
“Leave? Where?”
“None of your business.”
She turned and went back into the bathroom.
As she tried to shut the door, I ran toward the door and managed to get the big toe of my left foot in the way.
Maya slammed the door against my toe, but I didn’t let it shut.
“Go away, Cole,” she called out. “Please. Just go.”
“Where are you going?” I asked. “You look… beautiful.”
“Yeah, right,” she said. “I see the look in your eyes when you look at me. I know what you’re thinking.”
“Oh yeah? What am I thinking?”
“You look at me and see regret,” Maya said. “You know what? It doesn’t even matter. What are you doing here for real? I thought you were on a date?”
I gritted my teeth. “I wasn’t on a date, Maya. I was out with the guys.”
“I heard a woman’s voice. Don’t lie to me. We’re not together, right? So it doesn’t matter.”
“Maya, just open the door,” I said. “I don’t want to force it open.”
She ripped open the bathroom door.
The smell of her soap and shampoo hit me even harder.
I tried to keep my eyes from devouring her body but that was impossible.
The way her stomach pushed out was just… whoa.
“I was talking to someone,” I said.
“At a bar. I know the drill. If I hadn’t called, you would probably be having sex with her right now.”
“Maybe so,” I said. “But you cock blocked me. So now I’m here.”
“I’m leaving.”
“To go where?”
“I’m going out too,” she said. “And that’s not your business.”
Maya reached behind her and grabbed a black shirt.
I watched her put the shirt on, marveling at her chest.
She was… damn.
When she put the shirt on, she pulled her hair out from the shirt and then pulled at the front of the shirt. She bit her lip as she did so.
I nodded. “You’re trying to hide the baby bump.”
“Go away, Cole,” she said.
“I’m not going to go away, Maya. What are you trying to prove?”
Maya turned to face me. “You want to go out and date women? Fuck them? Fine. Go have fun. Guess what? I’m going to go do the same thing.”
“You’re going to go out and date and fuck women? I’m okay with that. Can I watch?”
Maya slapped me across the face.
I earned that one for sure.
Maya pushed by me and walked to the kitchen.
I followed.
“So just be real with me here,” I said. “You’re wearing that puffy looking shirt so you can hide the fact that you’re pregnant. Right?”
“What does it matter to you, Cole?”
“That’s my baby inside you.”
Maya laughed. “And that means you can control me, right? You call all the shots. Where I live. What lies I tell. What truths I can believe in.”
“Maya, don’t say it like that,” I said.
She opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water. “Want one?”
“Considering it’s my water, sure,” I said.
She twisted off the cap and took a big gulp.
Then
she coughed and spit into the top of the water bottle.
She put the cap back on, shook the water, and threw it at me.
I caught the water bottle and gritted my teeth. “You’re pushing it, Maya.”
“For what?” she asked. “What am I pushing, Cole? Here I thought maybe you cared about me. And the baby. This apartment is really nice. I wanted to say thanks for it. And then for a quick second… I don’t know, Cole, I thought maybe we could figure something out here. You’re a guy. You want to get laid, right? Guess what? I’m a woman and I want the same thing. You don’t think I…” She laughed. “What the hell am I saying right now?”
She took a step and I blocked her path. “Is that what this is? Sex? You want to have sex?”
“I have to go, Cole,” she said.
I touched her wrist. “I’m okay with it. Maya. You and I. We can have sex.”
She laughed. “Of course we can. Because you said so.”
“No. You have needs. I can take care of them.”
“For what?” she asked. “For me? You’re a hero, Cole. You can come over here and fuck your pregnant secretary as a gift, right? Then go wash your dick and balls clean and head out to a bar to find some skinny, non-pregnant woman to fuck.”
“I would never do that to you,” I said.
“Yes, you would,” Maya said with a laugh. “You can’t commit to one person. I should have figured that. I need to just crush all my dreams and focus on myself. And the baby. So, Cole, thank you for the apartment. This place is great. It’s much better than where I was. Just go now, okay? Go back to the bar. Find that woman. Have fun. I’m going out.”
“To do what?” I asked. “To let some guy fuck you? I don’t think so.”
“You don’t get to tell me what I can or can’t do with my body,” Maya said. “I know what I’m doing. I would never hurt our baby.”
“That’s what you really want to do?” I asked.
“Goodbye, Cole,” she said. “I’m going to be late for my date.”
Date…
Anger flowed through me.
Maya walked by me.
“You better fix your shirt again,” I said. “You look pregnant.”
I looked back and Maya was pulling at the front of her shirt again.
She walked to the door and turned her head. “Lock up when you leave. I don’t know when I’ll be back. Might not be until morning.”
She winked and left the apartment.
I stood frozen in place.
In one swift move, Maya cut my legs off… and cut my heart in half.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Maya
That’s right. I went on a dating app and got a date. So what?
I opened the door to the nice Italian style restaurant and looked around.
There were stringed lights along the top of the wall and the place smelled like warm garlic. The soft murmur of conversation welcomed me, as did a young woman hostess.
Before I could tell her what I was doing there, a man walked up to me and touched my arm.
“Maya?”
“Clyde?”
“That’s me,” he said.
He had a round face, slicked back hair, dark brown eyes, and was in need of a shave.
But he was company for the night.
And he…
He pointed to my stomach. “You look amazing.”
I smiled and blushed.
He knew that I was pregnant.
There really was no hiding it anymore.
I just wanted to make Cole think that I was able to hide it. I wanted him to writhe and seethe, thinking about another man touching me, kissing me, having me.
“I have us a table,” Clyde said.
He touched my back and led the way.
The table was in the corner of the restaurant near the front window.
It was probably the best place to sit.
He pointed to a bottle on the table.
“It’s white grape,” he said. “I figured we could drink it for fun.”
“You don’t have to drink that because of me,” I said. “I’m fine with water or soda.”
“No,” Clyde said. “I want to make a toast to you. To us. For tonight. Is that okay?”
“Sure,” I said.
He pulled my chair out and I sat down.
He lingered and stared down at my stomach.
Then he crouched down. “You’re glowing, Maya. You look stunning. It’s just such a radiant thing. You’re carrying life inside you. I mean, other guys… you know what? Take all your athletes and superheroes and have them. You’re the real superhero right now.”
I smiled and swallowed.
Okay… dude… ease up…
Clyde took his seat and poured us each a glass of white grape juice.
“A toast,” he said. “To us. To the three of us. Right?”
I gave him a weak laugh. “Yeah. The three of us…”
He took a sip of the white grape juice first.
Then I did.
I didn’t like the taste of it.
“This is gross,” he said.
“Right?” I asked.
“Sorry about that. I tried.”
“It’s fine. It was sweet. I liked the gesture of it.”
“You know what I like?” Clyde asked.
“What?”
“Your pregnant belly. I like it a lot, Maya.”
He stared at me.
He was dead serious.
Ut-fucking-oh.
I tried to shift the conversation to life.
To work. The city. Hobbies. Careers.
Anything but my stomach.
I realized really quick that the reason why Clyde was okay with me being pregnant was because pregnant women were his thing.
His fetish.
“Let me ask you something,” he said. “Did you know when it happened?”
“What?”
“When you got pregnant. Did you know?”
“Oh. Uh… no. I didn’t find out for a while. My roommate actually told me I was.”
“Ah, right,” Clyde said. “She could see the changes.”
“Changes?”
“Well, your breasts,” he said. “I mean, I hope I’m not stepping over the line here, but the shape. You can tell right where the milk is forming. I can easily picture what your normal breast is compared to now. And they’re only going to get bigger. Fuller. Heavier. Engorged with… milk…”
Clyde licked his lips.
I slowly smiled. “So, Clyde, you said you work in software. Is that fun or boring?”
“It’s a job,” he said. “It’s not who I am. I don’t work to have an image, you know? I know who I am inside and outside the office. Not many people can say that. Most people are chained to their desks. They forget about their true calling. Their wants, needs, their desires. Not me. What about you?”
“I understand that. I’m kind of the same. I have a normal office job. But when that’s over it’s-”
“We’re good together, Maya,” Clyde said. He reached across the table. “I don’t want to jump the gun, but this is going somewhere, right? I mean, you and I meeting on an app. How random? And you are exactly what I’ve been looking for. I know I can take care of you. You can feel it, right? You know nothing will worry me. Right? My best guess is we have… months… and then it’ll have to end. But I’ll be there until it happens. Imagine those last couple weeks. When your body is achy. And you’re so tired. And desperate… I want to be the one that’s there for you.”
“Clyde, I think you have the wrong impression of me,” I said. “I didn’t intend on…”
“Can I get you two lovebirds something to drink?”
I turned my head and looked up and gasped.
Cole stood at our table with a bottle of wine.
“She can’t drink,” Clyde said. “She’s pregnant. I’m not drinking either. In her honor.”
“What… uh…” I had no other words.
“That’s a
kind gesture from you,” Cole said to Clyde.
“Have you seen her?” Clyde asked. “How lucky am I to have met her?”
Cole looked at me. “I agree.”
Cole slipped away and I casually looked back to see him walking around the restaurant.
“What a nice staff they have here,” Clyde said. “You don’t see that much anymore. Everyone is all about rushing in life. Not me. I wish I could keep things slow… or in a certain time.”
My eyes followed as Cole moved to the table right behind Clyde.
I could see Cole. Cole could see me.
Clyde didn’t know that.
“Maya, did you hear me?” Clyde asked.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“I said, I wish I could stop in a certain time. Can I tell you what that time is?”
“Sure.”
“I’m picturing you eight months pregnant. Your stomach is the perfect size. Your breasts are extremely full and they are sore all the time. You’re tired and it’s hard to do much. All you want to do is relax. Rest. That’s my dream for you. To see you that way. Because we all know there’s one thing you really want… and I can take care of that…”
This guy was serious. He was picturing me eight months pregnant so he could picture having sex with me.
“Clyde,” I said.
He showed his hands. “I know. Too far. Dammit. Too fucking far.” He took a breath. “You know what? I’m already too far, so screw it. I hope to know the story. How you got pregnant. What happened to the guy. You’re alone, Maya. That’s not fair. Forgive me for being so upfront but I can’t picture you leaving and being alone.”
“Well, thank you,” I said.
I was saved by our waiter as our dinners arrived.
Two large helpings of the special raviolis. Gently coated in sauce. With fresh breadsticks that glistened with butter and garlic.
Pregnant or not, the meal looked like a dream in carb heaven.
“Maya,” Clyde said.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“You’re still glowing,” he said. “I can’t wait to eat and leave with you.”
I nervously smiled.
I needed someone to save me from this creep…
I met eyes with Cole for a second and looked away.
He sat with the chair facing our direction.