“Why’d you have to go and get yourself mixed up with that guy Brandy?”
“We’ve been over this before Rich. Maybe if you’d have asked me out when Chad first dumped me instead of waiting forever to do it we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
“I was too nervous to ask you out then. I thought you were too beautiful for a guy like me. I still think you are.”
“Don’t give me that shit Rich. A guy like you. You have a pretty good job and you’re going to have a better one soon. You’ll be able to take care of us just fine until I can go back to work after I’ve had the baby. And.” She gave him a kiss. “I happen to think you’re sexy as hell.”
“Thanks. That guy gives me the creeps.”
Headlights flashed across the front window. Rich almost dumped her off of his lap he was in such a hurry to get up.
Rich pulled the curtain back and looked outside. “Mother fucker. I should have known he’d be back. I’m calling the cops.”
She put a hand on his arm. “There’s not shit they can do if he bought that house and you know it. Especially since we’re probably living in another house that he bought, rent free. I’ll go talk to him. Tell him to get the hell out of here.”
“No way Brandy. If anyone is going over there it’s going to be me.”
“Well, since I’m not letting you go over there, and you’re not letting me go over there, I guess no one is going over there, huh? Wait, I have an idea Rich. Come on, we’re going to have sex on the front porch.”
“No way. We’ll probably get arrested.”
“We live here right? Everyone else in the neighborhood is asleep. Gabe’s the only one that would see anything. He’s not likely to call the cops.”
“I don’t know Brandy. Brenda has kids. What if one of her kids was to wake up and see us?”
“Brenda has four kids with four different fathers and a lot of boyfriends. They’re all teenagers anyway, so I’m pretty sure they know all about sex. Come on Rich. I want him to go away. We don’t even have to use a condom anymore since I’m already pregnant.”
“I don’t think that doing it in front of him is going to make Gabe go away. He’s a weirdo. He probably likes that kind of stuff.”
“So we’ll make sure that it’s you he sees and not me. Doesn’t it kind of turn you? It kinda turns me on. I never did it outside before. Well, besides in the backseat of a car and that doesn’t really count.”
“Thinking of having sex with you always turns me on.”
“Come on then. Take your clothes off sexy.”
“Fine. But if we get arrested, I’m telling the cops it was your idea.”
Brandy laughed. “I told you Gabe’s not going to tell the cops. Brenda wouldn’t either. You know how bad she’s wanted to see you naked since you moved in here.”
“Ha ha.”
“I love you Rich.”
“I love you too, Brandy. Even if sometimes I do wonder if you’re just as crazy as Gabe.”
“Hey,” she said.
But then he kissed her and it was all right again. Rich could always make everything all right she thought. Even if her ex-lover had decided it would be a good idea to really start stalking her.
They stripped and then went outside to the lounge chair that sat on their porch. Brandy glanced across the street, seeing that Gabe was still there. He looked at her and gave her a wide grin. He seemed to think that it was funny that she was naked with her boyfriend on her front porch. She resisted the urge to flip him off and lay down on the chair, trying to ignore the fact that it was cold out.
Once Rich’s warm body was atop of hers though, all other thoughts were shut out of her head. She was only aware of his mouth on hers.
When he was inside of her he said “Oh Brandy. You feel so good. I forgot how much better it was to do it without a condom.”
The sex was quick. Brandy was glad because she was quickly becoming aware of the cold, hard pad of the lounge chair underneath her.
He helped her to her feet and she said “Will you still love me when I’m all pregnant and fat?”
“Of course I will. I’ll always love you Brandy.”
“You promise?”
“I promise. Now can we go inside? It’s freezing out here.”
When they moved towards the door, Gabe flashed his headlights at them. Without turning, she flipped him off. Gabe honked. As Rich opened the door, she heard Gabe’s truck start.
“I told you it would make him go away.”
“I guess. I’m going to go take a shower. You comin’ with?”
“Yeah. Rich, will you really always love me? Or are you just saying that because you think it will make me happy?”
“Why are you so unsure of yourself all of a sudden babe? I love you. You’re the most special woman I’ve ever met and it’s not just because you’re so beautiful. You’re funny. You’re kind, and you’re a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for. I’m going to buy you that engagement ring that you liked as soon as they give me my bonus at work. I knew that I wanted to marry you the first time you said you’d go out with me.”
She smiled. “You mean the night that I kissed you in the parking lot of the bar and gave you my house key to piss Gabe off? Then when I got home, I kept you up all night making love even though you had to work the next day.”
“Now you’re making me unsure of myself. I don’t want to be your man because it pisses Gabe off that he can’t get down your pants anymore. I want to be your man because you want me to be your man, because you love me.”
“I do love you Rich. I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love someone. Don’t ever doubt that I love you. If I knew this was your baby, I’d be the happiest woman in the world.”
“It could still be mine. You never know.”
She sighed. “He told me that he poked a hole in every condom that he used with me.”
“That’s bullshit. That means that he tricked you.”
“I know. It doesn’t matter. We’re going to figure this out somehow Rich. If you’ll stick by me, I know that I can make it through anything.”
He squeezed her hand. “I promise you that I’ll be by your side no matter what.”
“Thank you.”
Suddenly afraid that she was going to cry, Brandy put her arms around him. He held her tightly for a long time. Finally, she pulled away slightly and said “Will you make love to me again? I need to feel close to you right now.”
He grinned. “I’ll make love to all night again if you want.”
“I knew there was some reason I loved you,” she said teasingly.
“Come on baby. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”
He took her hand and led her back to their bedroom.
Chapter 8
Brandy woke up a little after one o’clock the next afternoon, glad that she didn’t have to work that day either. Rich had kept his promise and made love to her for hours. When they’d showered together for the second time and decided that it was time to go to sleep it had been after seven in the morning.
She looked at Rich who was lying naked beside her on his stomach, and smiled. She wanted to curl up next to him and go back to sleep herself, but she really needed to pee.
She got up and used the bathroom. When she had finished, she washed her hands and then made a face at herself in the mirror. She thought that her face was already starting to look puffy and realized again just how much she wasn’t looking forward to being pregnant again.
She’d gained a ton of weight with Joey, and had to go on three different crash diets to get rid of all the weight after she had him. She thought that she would at least be more okay with it if she was pregnant with the child of the man she loved instead of a man she was starting to despise more and more. But there was nothing she could do about that now she thought with a sigh.
When she went back to the bedroom, there was a knock at the door. She grabbed her robe from where it was hanging on the door of the clo
set and pulled it around her. The knocking got louder. She was afraid for a minute that it would be Gabe.
She opened the door. “Oh. Hi, Brenda.”
“Hi Brandy. They delivered these to the wrong house.”
Brenda practically shoved a vase full of roses and a small velvet jewelry box into Brandy’s hands. She had turned to go when Brandy said “What’s wrong Brenda?”
“I’m sorry Brandy. I’m stressed out. My daughter thinks she’s pregnant. I’m so afraid to buy her the test because I’m afraid she is, too. Then, when they delivered these to my house by mistake I thought at first that they were from Rob. But I guess I was fooling myself again thinking that I actually got it right this time. When I told him about my daughter he said there was no way in hell he was going to play grandpa.” Brenda sighed. “Why can’t I meet a nice guy like Rich who will send me flowers?”
Brandy bit her tongue. She had a feeling the flowers weren’t from Rich. It wasn’t likely that he had dragged his butt out of bed and ordered them for her she thought. “You’ll find someone Brenda. And don’t worry about your daughter. I’m sure she’ll be fine. She seems like a really nice, smart girl.”
“She is. But she’s convinced herself that she’s in love with this guy. I’m too young to be a grandma Brandy.”
“My mom thought so, too. I don’t think you’d give your daughter’s kid away like my parents did with mine though.”
“Oh Brandy. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. Thank you for bringing these to me. Good luck to you and you daughter. If I can help in any way, just let me know. I just found out I’m pregnant too.”
“Congratulations. Rich must be thrilled.”
Brandy bit her tongue again. “He is. Have a nice day Brenda.”
“Thanks. You too. Uh Brandy, there was one more question that I wanted to ask you.”
“Yeah?”
“You and Rich didn’t happen to have sex on your front porch last night did you? My son swore to his younger brother at breakfast this morning that he woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and looked out his window and saw you two going at it like the rest of the world didn’t exist.”
Brandy felt her cheeks color. “Yeah, we did. I’m sorry. We won’t do it again, I promise.”
Brenda laughed. “I’ll tell him he was seeing things. It’s okay Brandy. I know how it feels to be young and in love. I think I’ve done it just about everywhere in my house, except my kids’ rooms of course. The backyard included. Just don’t tell my younger daughter that an old boyfriend of mine and me did it in the tree house when she wasn’t old enough for it and her brother had outgrown it. She’s thirteen and would probably never set foot in there again if she knew. I’ll let you get back to Rich now.”
Brandy laughed. “Okay.”
“I was so glad to see Rich move in with you. He’s so much better for you than Gabe. So many girls have gotten mixed up with him in the short time that he’s been here.”
“Um. . .” Brandy didn’t know what to say.
“It’s okay hon. You’re only human. That Gabe is a good looking man. I tried for a job at the bar when they first moved here but he wouldn’t hire me. I guess I must be too old for his tastes.”
“You’re not old Brenda.”
“You try being the mother of four teenagers and not feeling old.” Brenda laughed. “You take care sweetie. Tell Rich that I said he’s got great tastes in flowers. I’ve never seen roses that color.”
The roses were a deep, dark blue. Brandy was sure she would have thought they were beautiful herself if they weren’t from Gabe, like she still had a bad feeling they were.
“Thank you Brenda. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye hon.”
Brandy watched her neighbor walk back to her house, and then went back into the house, shutting and locking the door behind her. She was tempted to throw the flowers away, but there was a part of her that wanted to know what the card said.
She opened the envelope and read “Spectacular show you put on last night. It only would have been better if you had put it on with me instead of Rich. All my love, Gabe.”
She crumpled the note up and tossed it towards the trash can, not caring that she missed. She had sat down on the couch and was opening the jewelry box when Rich came out of the bedroom, yawning.
“Good morning baby.”
Then he looked at the box in her hand and said “What’s that?”
That, she thought, was the engagement ring that Rich had promised to buy her. The one she’d admired when she’d dragged him into the jewelry store the week before to tease him when she’d figured their marriage was going to be a little further down the line.
She handed him the box. “What the fuck?”
“I’m willing to bet that Gabe has people in every store, every restaurant and every apartment building in town that he pays to spy for him. Now I can’t even have the ring I wanted anymore, because he ruined it. Oh, Rich.” She was suddenly crying. “Why does he have to ruin everything?”
“Oh, baby. We’ll get you another ring. I’ll get you one custom made. Didn’t you say you’d like one with your birthstone in it instead of some generic diamond like everyone else has anyway?”
She wiped her eyes. “That will cost too much Rich. You know anything custom made costs more.”
“I already got my bonus at work and it was bigger than I expected. I was going to surprise with you a ring. We’ll go to the store right now and order one for you. I’ll get you anything you want no matter how much it costs.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I love you too much to let you be unhappy.”
“I love you too, Rich. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’ll never have to worry about that. Let’s go baby.”
He led her back to the bedroom and they got dressed. Once they were on their way to the jewelry store, she felt better. Rich was so sweet she thought and there was no way she was going to let Gabe spoil this for her.
It took forever at the store, because the salesman kept trying to sell them a premade engagement ring even though Rich kept explaining over and over that she wanted something different. Brandy figured that for some reason he must have gotten less of a commission off of the custom made jewelry and managed to wait patiently until Rich finally convinced the guy that yes, Brandy really was sure she wanted a custom made ring.
When the salesman pulled up a picture of what her ring was going to look like, she almost wanted to cry again. It was so much more beautiful with the aquamarine of her birthstone and the setting that she chose that she was almost glad that Gabe had bought the expensive, though ordinary, engagement ring she had previously admired.
They said her ring would take about two weeks to finish and that the store would call them when it was ready.
After they had walked away from the store Brandy said “Thank you so much, Rich. You were right. That ring is going to be so pretty. Fuck Gabe and that stupid ring.”
Rich laughed. “You’re welcome babe. Do you want to get something to eat? I’m starving.”
“Yes please.”
They ate at the town’s only truly expensive restaurant; an Italian restaurant that while Brandy thought the food was good, still thought was overpriced. But Rich seemed so happy to be able to take her there that she shut up and enjoyed her meal.
When they got home from the restaurant she made Rich take both the flowers and the ring out to the dumpster in the alley behind their house. He’d tried to convince her that she should give the ring back to Gabe at first. But she’d been adamant about getting rid of it because the ring had upset her so much that she had almost let it her spoil her engagement with Rich and she didn’t want anything to spoil it for her. She thought she was going to be the proudest wife in the world.
Gabe seemed content to leave her alone at work more. She was afraid that it was because he was becoming even more involved with Chloe. She was pissed off at t
he very thought, because Chloe had told her she didn’t want to be with him anymore on more than one occasion. She tried to talk her pretty, dark haired, green eyed, fellow bartender into telling Gabe to leave her alone, but Chloe shook her head every time and told Brandy that she was fine.
She was certainly glad that Gabe was leaving her alone and hadn’t sat outside her house again because it still scared her to think that he could take what she had always thought of her and Rich’s baby away from them. But after the first night nothing more was said about it and little was said between her and Gabe at all.
It was a little over a week later. When her phone rang a few minutes after her shift started, Brandy wanted to groan. She glanced at the screen, and seeing that it was her mother, she pressed the button to answer. “Just a minute Mom. Let me get somewhere where I can hear you.”
She walked down the length of the bar to where Sabrina was chatting with Chloe and said “I have to use the restroom. I might be awhile. My stomach isn’t feeling so hot.”
Sabrina made a face and Chloe said “Go. It’s not exactly busy right now.”
“Thanks. I’ll take a shorter break later.”
Chloe shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. What Gabe doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Brandy stifled a laugh, thinking that Gabe seemed to know everything and started down the hallway to the bathroom. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t told Chloe that her Mom was on the phone instead of lying. Even though they technically weren’t supposed to take calls except during breaks, she had seen Todd, Chloe and even the prissy Sabrina do it on occasion. She just didn’t want it getting back to Gabe.
She shut the bathroom door behind her and pulled out her phone, wondering why her mother was calling her. “Mom, I’m here. Sorry about that.”
“We’ve received some strange phone calls lately Brandylynn. The first was from the people that adopted Joseph. They were asking about you. Asking strange questions about you wanting to regain custody of your son. You know that you have no rights to do that don’t you Brandy? And even if you aren’t using anymore, I hardly think that working in a bar counts as straightening your life out.”
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