by London Casey
But this wasn’t that world, and I wasn’t that woman.
I looked at Cody and he showed his hands. “Sorry. Just going with the sparks.”
“Sparks?”
“You and me. I keep thinking about you in that towel. I owe you an apology.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked.
“I made a comment about you from behind. I like the front too. I like the pregnant look. It works for me.”
I had flashbacks to that horrible date with the guy obsessed with my belly and breastmilk.
“Cody, please don’t…”
“What? Let’s role play it. You like my dirty names, right? How about I’m Dr. Labiadrip and you’re Miss Swollen. You’re visiting me because you have a need…”
“This isn’t funny at all,” I said. “Please don’t make me call Cole.”
“Running to the boss, huh?” Cody asked.
“He’s in a meeting right now and I really don’t want to bother him.”
“I don’t want him bothered either. I need him to keep working. Someone has to pay the bills, right?”
Cody laughed.
I curled my lip.
He reached into his pocket and took out two pills and tossed them into his mouth.
He swiped my bottle of water off my desk and washed the pills down.
“There,” he said. “That’ll take the tension out of the room.”
“Cody, why don’t you sit down,” I said. “Or even get on the floor and close your eyes.”
“Are you going to ride me?” he asked. “I can’t stop thinking about it, Maya. Oh, and that name too. Maya. How about you get on my-a cock-a?”
I cringed.
Cody laughed.
“I’m calling Cole,” I said.
Cody jumped at the desk and slammed his hands down. “No, you’re not. Want to know why I’m here?”
I stepped back. “Why?”
“Cole sent me. You’ve been stealing money.”
“What?”
“He’s on to you. He knows what you’ve been doing.”
“I don’t believe you for a second.”
“Maya, be real with me here,” Cody said. “If Cole was going to track down someone who is fucking him over, he would call me. Why do you think I’m here? This deal he’s got going on… something is fishy about it. There’s money missing. You took it. I mean, you’re a secretary and you’re drinking a five-dollar bottle of water. And that coffee cup in your trashcan? That’s a six-dollar cup of coffee. And those clothes… don’t get me wrong, you know how to work the maternity look, but those clothes are really expensive brands. So just tell me… how much did you take? Where is the extra cash?”
I shook my head. “No, Cody. You’re wrong. I didn’t take anything. I don’t believe you. Cole doesn’t think I took anything either. You have no idea what you’re saying. You just want to know if there’s cash lingering around.”
“Let me check your bag then,” he said.
He opened his eyes big.
He was getting more messed up by the second.
“Get out of here,” I said. “Or I’ll call the police. I’ll tell them to check your pockets.”
Cody curled his lip and studied me.
He looked over his shoulder and then let out a laugh.
“Wait… I just figured it out…”
“What did you figure out?” I asked.
He pushed from my desk and pointed to my stomach. “You’re pregnant.”
“Wow. You just figured that out?”
“No, no, no,” Cody said. “Your tone. The way you’re defending him. You’re too casual around here. The clothes. The water. The coffee. I bet your bag is even one of those thousand-dollar bags too. Just hearing his name on your lips…”
“What are you getting at?” I asked.
Cody looked at me. “Who’s the father of your baby?”
“That’s none of your business,” I said.
“Yes, it is,” Cody said. “You don’t have any rings on your fingers, Maya. That means you aren’t married or engaged.”
“So what?”
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
“Again, that’s none of your business,” I said.
I casually reached for my phone with my right hand.
But Cody was smarter than me. At least when it came to this shady stuff.
He grabbed my phone and swiped to unlock the screen.
“Let’s see something… ah…”
“You fucking asshole,” I yelled. “Put my fucking phone down now.”
Cody grinned and opened his hand.
My phone fell to the floor. “Happy?”
“Get the fuck out of here.”
“Make me,” he said. “I want the cash, or I tell the truth.”
“What cash?”
“My brother is worth millions,” Cody said. “Of course, he’s the successful one. That’s how it always was. But now I have the upper hand. I know there’s a box of cash somewhere around here.”
“There isn’t, Cody. You need help.”
Cody laughed. “You do, Maya. So does my brother. He really put the moves on his fucking secretary? Seriously? Does he not realize how dumb that is?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The baby… it’s Cole’s baby.”
“No, it’s not,” I said, trying to keep a straight face.
“No, it’s not,” Cody mocked me. “Yes, it is. You fucked your boss and got pregnant.” Cody clapped his hands together. “Now that’s job security. How many people around here know the truth?”
“Cody, stop talking. You have no idea what you’re saying right now.”
“Yes, I do,” he said. “Cole hired you. Then he wanted to fuck you. He’s a piece of shit like me. At least I just take pills and lay low. His addiction is different. It’s weak women like you. Except this time, he went too far. He blew his load in you and you got pregnant. Oh, this is perfect. Oh, this is a juicy story. It’s got to be worth a few bucks, right?”
“No,” I said. “Nobody is going to listen to you. Look at you.”
“Look at me?” Cody asked. “Look at you. Carrying some fucking baby you didn’t want. My brother’s baby. Are you kidding me? You think he’s going to be faithful to you? I wonder how many women he’s fucked since you got pregnant.”
“Fuck off,” I snapped. Cody had touched on a raw nerve. “You’re a junkie. And a loser. And nobody cares about you. Do you hear me, Cody? Nobody cares about you. You’re nothing but a burden to your brother. He’s worked his ass off to make a name for himself and all you do is bring him down. He only gives you money to keep you quiet. You’re a piece of dog shit on the bottom of someone’s shoe. You know nothing about Cole and me. What we really are. So you think you can come here and bully a pregnant woman for money? I’ll kick you so hard in the balls you’ll find pubic hair in your mouth for a month.”
Did that even make sense?
Who cares?
I already said it.
“Keep going, Maya,” Cody said. “I think I’m getting hard.”
“At least Cole was able to move on from what your father did,” I said, going for the lowest blow I could find. Cody’s face dropped. “Oh, what? You didn’t think I would know that? I know everything, Cody. You want to call here and be Dr. Assholelicker? Or Mr. Areolabiter? That’s all you’ve got. Cheap and stupid jokes that nobody laughs at. You’re afraid of heights? You should be afraid of being alone, because that’s all you are and all you’ll ever be.”
Cody reached into his pocket and took out two more pills.
He threw them into his mouth and chomped on them without drinking water.
“Then I guess I’ll say goodbye,” he said. “And go tell my story to everyone…”
Cody left the office and I hurried around my desk to get my phone.
I started to shake as I fumbled to text Cole.
I heard Cody’s voice booming through the office, announcing that my pregnancy was beca
use of Cole.
I told myself to hold it together until Cole arrived.
But when I touched my stomach, I lost it.
How did my life become this messy?
Chapter Forty
Cole
Cody was here. It was bad. He knows everything. Need you!
I read the text message as I was a block from the office.
The car came to a stop in traffic and I jumped out to run the rest of the way to the office.
I called Cody’s cell, but he didn’t pick up.
I tried to text him while running and the message was a garbled mess of words and letters.
It was amazing how autocorrect could continually change fucking to ducking yet when I was in a real pinch here, it couldn’t figure out what I was trying to text Cody.
I ended up just calling him again.
Again, no answer.
This wasn’t a good thing.
Cody being alone in this city, pissed off, hurt, high, whatever…
“Fuck,” I growled under my breath.
I turned the corner and loosened my tie again and ripped it off over my head.
I tossed it into the air and picked up speed.
When I blasted through the front doors of the building, everyone inside looked at me.
At the elevator, I punched the button over and over.
I had no time to wait.
I ran to the back stairs and took those.
My legs allowed me to take them three at a time, my right hand grabbing the railing and pulling myself as I ran up the stairs.
When I made it to the office, I tore open the door and froze.
A handful of people stared at me.
They looked surprised. Shocked.
Their faces red.
Like they were embarrassed for me.
Which meant Cody had been here and was gone.
I didn’t give a shit what anyone thought.
I hurried through the office and went to find Maya.
My office was empty, so I went to hers.
I found her sitting on the floor, tears running down her cheeks.
What the hell had my brother done to her?
I helped Maya to her feet and she reached to hug me.
I wrapped my arms around her and shut my eyes for a second.
Between us, I felt the baby kick.
I begged my heart to remind me this was my world. My only world. The only world that actually mattered.
But that didn’t happen.
My heart and brain were split into pieces.
Cody. Mr. Pickle. The deal. Danielle. Maya. The baby. What everyone in the office knew or didn’t know.
“Maya,” I whispered. I took a step back and touched her arms. “What happened?”
“He showed up and was a mess, Cole,” she said. “I tried to keep him here. I didn’t want to bother you. I knew you were in a meeting.”
“You should have bothered me,” I said. “Dammit. My brother is not your chore. He’s not your business.”
“I was just helping…”
“Not with that,” I said.
In my mind I pictured Danielle topless.
Not in that way, but in the way that as I was in a room with a paid-for, topless woman, trying to close a deal, Maya was here dealing with my brother.
It angered me in a way I wasn’t sure I could explain to anyone.
“What did he do or say?” I asked.
“First, he tried to kiss me.”
“He… what?”
“Then he started to tell me you sent him here to spy on me because I stole money from you. He thought there was some kind of cash safe or something somewhere in the office. That’s what he wanted, Cole. And he kept taking pills. Two different times he reached into his pocket and took pills.”
“Fuck,” I said.
“Then something in him snapped. And he suddenly put everything together. He pointed out my water bottle and coffee cup in the trash… my clothes… he knew that my salary could never afford that stuff. He just started talking about you and I together. You getting me pregnant. It was just so fast and mean…”
Maya gasped for a breath.
I rubbed her arms. “Come on, love, hold it together for a second. I need to know everything so I can figure out what to do and where to go.”
“Where to go?”
“I have to find him, Maya.”
“Are you serious?” she asked. “Why? He wants to hurt you, Cole.”
“He’s my brother,” I said.
“But you can’t keep doing this for him,” I said. “You have other responsibilities in life now. Bigger things in life. More important things in life.”
“Don’t tell me my priorities,” I said.
I backed away from Maya.
“Okay,” she said. “He said he was going to tell everyone. And he did. When he left, he started screaming it to everyone. That you fucked me and got me pregnant. That I set you up to get me pregnant. Basically, that I’m a whore and you’re addicted to women.”
I put my head back and groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“He said he was going to find someone to talk to,” Maya said. “That he could sell the story for a few bucks or something.”
I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.
My brother had done a lot of dumb stuff… bad stuff… but this?
I looked at Maya again. “And he left?”
“He ran out of here and I texted you.”
I opened my mouth and my heart tried to stop my mind…
“And you just let him leave?”
Maya’s face dropped.
No. No. No. No.
“What did you just say?” Maya asked.
“You should have texted me the second he showed up,” I said.
“You were in a meeting.”
“I was just talking to Mr. Pickle. And he turned out to be a prick himself.”
“What happened with him?”
“Nothing, Maya,” I said.
She jumped at me and grabbed my arm. “Tell me, Cole. This isn’t just about you anymore. This is about us. Our life. Whether you like it or not, we’re in this together.”
“Together?” I asked. My anger level rose again. I felt everything cracking around me. “Together…” I took a breath. “You have no idea what I’m up against, Maya. I showed up to meet with Mr. Pickle and you know what he did? He brought in two women. One for him. One for me. The appeal of me to him was that I was free and able to enjoy life. That I enjoyed that type of life. But that’s been taken from me, hasn’t it?”
Cole, stop.
“Taken?” Maya asked. “You son of a-”
“He left me alone with a woman with one intention,” I said. “One, Maya. One. And you know what I did? I gave her my suit jacket to keep her clothed.”
“She was naked?” Maya asked.
“Not naked,” I said. “Topless. For a few seconds.”
Maya pushed at me. “I hate you.”
“I’m telling you I wanted nothing to do with her. Because of you. And the entire time you were here falling for my brother’s bullshit games. Because you don’t know how to deal with him.”
“I’m sorry,” Maya yelled. “The job description didn’t have the section where I needed training in how to deal with my boss’s junkie of a brother.”
“Don’t call him that!” I roared. “You have no idea…”
“Oh, I have an idea,” she said. “You keep feeding his problems and look what happens.”
“You did this, Maya,” I said. “You let him in… let him stay. You played into him. You let him believe whatever his mind was telling him.”
“And is the truth that bad of a thing at this point, Cole?” Maya asked. “Or am I going to be a dirty secret for good? Are we going to sneak into the hospital through a secret backdoor and have all the nurses sign NDA’s so nobody knows that you got me pregnant? Who do you think you are?”
“I’m the one taking
care of everyone and everything,” I said. “I’m the one who makes sure everyone has a job, a paycheck, food, a place to sleep…”
“What about me?” Maya asked. “And the baby? What about us? Just us? Forget the rest of the world for a second, Cole. What are you going to do? Keep chasing Cody around, giving him money to make him happy? He’s like a spoiled child. And you enable it.”
“You’re one to talk,” I said. “Go buy more clothes you can’t afford. Go buy another two-hundred-dollar blanket for the baby to throw up on. Do you feel good about yourself? Pretending to be rich?”
I hated myself for the words leaving my mouth.
Maya’s face turned red.
She grabbed her shirt and ripped it up over her head.
She wore a tank top under her maternity shirt that wrapped around her belly.
“What are you doing?” I asked, wondering if she was going to strip naked in her office.
My head and heart were fighting a war… and now my cock decided to pop in, like the drunk guy getting between two people fighting, bringing drinks and peace signs, looking for some fun.
Maya balled up her maternity shirt and threw it at me.
“Take it back then,” she said. “Take everything back. Fuck you, Cole.”
I clutched the shirt tight. “Don’t put this on me, Maya. This is why I don’t do relationships. Look at this shit right now.”
“You don’t do relationships?” Maya asked. “You had no problem stuffing your cock into me at that cabin that night, didn’t you?”
“It wasn’t like your pussy wasn’t begging for it,” I threw back.
“You got me pregnant, Cole,” she said.
“You should have protected yourself,” I said.
Maya laughed as her eyes filled with tears. “There it is. It’s all my fault. I’m the slut secretary who fucked her boss to get pregnant because that’s the easy way through life.”
I tossed the maternity shirt to the floor.
If I stayed, we were going to keep tearing each other apart.
If I left, both of our hearts were going to be broken.
It was a losing position to be in.
But sometimes, like in business, that was just the way life went.