Gabe laughed. “I think that Nick was too hot to get inside of you with his manhood to worry about offering you that divine pleasure. Maybe he doesn’t care for it. Some men don’t. I love it though. The taste of a woman is like no other.”
Ami made a face at him. “I wouldn’t give a shit if a guy never went down on me again in my life, as long you stayed the hell away from me.”
Gabe shook his head. "Fine. If you must hit rock bottom in pain with your current lover to realize what you have right in front of you, then you must I suppose. But guys like Nick will always disappoint you in the end."
"You’re not exactly a blue ribbon either in case you haven’t noticed. I find you to be rather pathetic myself.”
"If you say so. When true love is staring you in the face and you still turn away, that seems rather pathetic in my opinion."
"What do I have to say or do to make you go away?"
"I’ll never go away."
"You are going to drive me to kill myself."
"You’d never do that to your son. But you wonder why I watch you when you say things that make you sound unstable?"
"I wouldn't be unstable if you weren't bothering me all the time."
"I’ll go. If you wish, I will stop watching you. On one condition."
"This condition had better not have anything to do with my son and you’d better leave him the hell alone."
"I won’t involve your son. If you weren’t so stubborn he could already be back in your life the way he should be. But if you insist, I will not mention Charlie again and will not interfere. I will leave and not come here, if you will promise to answer every text message that I send to you and be civil."
"I thought that it turned you on when I was mean to you.”
He laughed. "It does. Promise me that you'll always answer me and I'll go away until you tell me to come back."
"Yeah, right."
"I promise."
"Your promise means nothing."
"Okay. Then I will continue to play with your boyfriend. I will continue to sit outside your apartment. I will leave you a note every day and I will talk Bobby out of hiring you. I will pay your aunt a substantial amount of money and I will move your son into my empty house whether you are ready or not. I’m sure he’d much rather be raised by you than some nameless nanny though."
"Fuck you. I said my son is not part of this. The fact that I was dumb enough to sleep with you has nothing to do with Charlie. I only slept with you because I hadn’t gotten laid in seven years, you know that right? And I was thinking of Nick the whole time."
Gabe made a face. She thought that she’d finally managed to get through to him, if only a little, but he suddenly shoved a piece of paper into her hand.
It was a check for $5,000. "What the hell?" She started to ball the check up and throw it back in his face, but then she paused. "So now you're owning up and paying for the damage that you did, huh?"
"My back up plan."
"Fuck you and your back up plan.” But she knew the money would cover her car and more than cover Nick's window.
"I'm not saying that I caused the damage.” But his grin was so cocky that she wanted to smack it right off of his face. "I just figured that if anyone could afford to take care of it, it was me."
"Your money doesn't impress me.”
He shrugged. "It should since you have a kid to put through college. But then again, I'd give you any amount of money you wanted if you married me. I’d adopt Charlie too, and we’d have beautiful children of our own. I’m sure you were even more beautiful when you were with child."
Ami made a face. "I’ll never have your child. I’d rather die."
He smiled. "What would you say if I told you I poked a hole in the condom I used with you?"
Her first instinct was to reach out and wring his neck. Instead, she lit a cigarette. "You're lying.”
He frowned. "Though I suppose if you were pregnant there would be a chance it could be Nick’s child as well."
She stamped her cigarette out under her foot and spit in his face. "Fuck you."
He laughed and reached into the glove compartment. He withdrew a handkerchief and wiped his face. "That was uncalled for Ami. I only like your spit when it's in my mouth, with your tongue."
"If I was pregnant with your child, I would give myself an at home abortion and hopefully kill myself in the process."
"And you accuse me of being an unfit parent. Charlie would miss you. You’ve already let him down so much; you can’t continue to let him down."
"Fuck you. And you said my son’s name again. Shut the hell up about my kid or I’ll make sure that you continue to let your kids down because they’ll never see you again.”
Gabe snorted. "So you did fuck Nick without a condom."
"You know what Gabe, any deal we had is off. Sit out here every night for the rest of your life and fucking rot. Take your check back. You wouldn't have anything if it weren't for your wife anyway."
"Really Ami?"
"Really Gabriel. And yes, I did fuck Nick without a condom. Twice. So if I was pregnant there wouldn't be much chance it was yours."
"I wouldn't care. I would raise the child as if it were my own."
"You are brain dead. I have told you over and over again that I want nothing to do with you. I wouldn't let you near my baby even if it were yours."
"I thought you would abort it."
"I don't want you now nor will I ever. Go away and leave me the fuck alone."
"Do we have a deal then?"
"Wow. I have no idea how your wife has lived with you this long."
"Leslie and I have an arrangement."
"One that I have absolutely no interest in learning about. You know what? We do have a deal. You leave right now and promise not to come back, I will answer every pathetic text message that you send me."
"You promise?" He looked so earnest; she wanted to spit in his face again.
She sighed. "Yes Gabe. I promise."
"Wonderful. Goodnight Ami. I love you."
"Goodnight Gabe," she said with a tight smile. "I'll never love you."
She turned and started to walk away. She controlled herself and was able to barely pause when he said "I really did poke a hole in the condom. I've become quite skilled at it over the years."
She was steaming when she got back across the street. Nick was sitting on the hood of his car, talking quietly on his phone. He looked up when he saw her and said quickly "She's back. I've got to go."
"Who was that?"
She felt like a cartoon with steam coming out of her ears. She wanted to beat the crap out of Gabe. How could he have done that to her she wondered?
"Carson. Why?"
"Never mind." She glanced across the street and saw that Gabe was leaving. "You can go home and go to sleep now. And he won't be coming back so you don't have to worry about staying out here anymore."
He snorted. "Why in the hell would you trust anything he said?"
"We made a deal."
"You might as well have made a deal with the devil Ami."
"I'm tired Nick. Go home. And give me back the money that I gave you please."
"Okay," he said slowly. "Why?"
"Because Gabe admitted that he fucked up my car and stole the money and broke your damned window. He wrote me a check for $5,000."
"Okay."
“I’ll cash it in the morning and give you the money for your window. I hope Gabe keeps his word.”
Nick chuckled. "You could do almost anything and that guy would still think he's in love with you."
"Did you really have to remind me Nick?"
"I'm sorry hon. Go upstairs and go to sleep. You look tired."
"I am tired. But I'm not going upstairs until you tell me that you're going home."
"I am. But you call me if he comes back."
"He won't come back."
"Sure he won't. Ami?"
"What?"
"You look even more upset with
Gabe than usual. Did he say or do something?"
"I don't want to talk about it Nick. Goodnight."
"Okay." He had a look on his face like he knew she would tell Ali and Ali would tell Carson, who would tell him. "Goodnight Ami."
"I'll get you the money as soon as I get to the bank in the morning.”
“I’ll take you when I take you to get your tires. I'll see you later. Call me if you need anything."
"Uh huh."
"Seriously Ami. I'd like to think that we could be friends."
She wanted to laugh, but she nodded. "Sure."
Then she walked away.
Once upstairs, she put her pajamas on and climbed into bed. She sighed. A baby she thought. She wasn't ready to take care of the child she already had, let alone another one.
She rolled over and tried to shut off her thoughts. It didn't work, though. She woke up at two a.m. She'd had a dream that she'd had a baby and Nick and Gabe had fought over it in the hospital and ripped the baby apart. She woke up sweating and sick to her stomach. She hoped she wasn't pregnant even more now.
She climbed out of bed and went to the living room. She lit a cigarette, leaning her head against the back of the couch and closing her eyes. By the time she’d finished her cigarette and put it out, she was too tired to go back to the bedroom, so she curled up and went to sleep on the couch.
Chapter 18
The next morning, she awoke to the sound of her phone chiming. It was 8:30. She reached for her phone, and saw that she had a voicemail. She lit a cigarette and pushed the button to dial her voicemail. It was Nick. He’d be there to pick her up in half an hour.
She dressed quickly, and had lit her second cigarette of the day when he knocked on the door.
She wasn’t looking forward to the discussion she had to have with him.
“Hi,” he said. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah.” She nodded, grabbing her purse and following him out the door.
Once they were in the car he said “What’s wrong Ami?”
She sighed. “Do I really have to get into this now?”
“You’ve got about five minutes before we get to the tire place. Spit it out.”
“I don’t want to. It’s terrible.”
Nick groaned. “Ami. Gabe is stalking you. He buys you a car one week and then busts yours up the next. What kind of terrible are we talking about here?”
“It’s worse.”
“Great. So tell me so I can help you Ami.”
“I can’t tell you.”
Nick sighed, and then pulled over into the parking lot of a pet store that wasn’t open yet. “You are going to talk to me if it takes all day Ami. If something is bugging you worse than the fact that Gabe is stalking you, you really need to tell someone. I’d let you tell Ali, but you know that it would eventually get back to me anyway so you might as well just tell me now and get it over with.”
“It involves you.”
“All the more reason to tell me then. Ami please tell me. No matter what mixed up feelings we have for each other, I do care about you.”
“I know.” She took a deep breath. “If I were to be pregnant, there would be a chance not only that it could be yours but that it could be Gabe’s.”
Nick was silent for a minute. Ami watched a lot of emotions cross his face. He lit a cigarette, absently passing the pack to her. She took one and lit it. Finally he said “I thought you used protection with Gabe.”
“I did. He told me last night that he poked a hole in the condom.”
“That’s not funny Ami.”
“No shit? How do you think I feel?”
“There’s no way in hell that if you’re pregnant you’re going to let Gabe anywhere near the kid. I will raise it, even if it’s not mine. Gabe never has to know.”
“Are you kidding me? Gabe would demand a DNA test.”
“So we’ll move away. We’ll get married and we’ll get custody of your son back. No one here has to know that you were ever pregnant.”
“That’s not right. Gabe would have a right to know.”
“Seriously Ami? When he willfully deceived you? When he won’t leave you alone when you’ve told him over and over again that you don’t want him?”
“That’s different. Never mind. I shouldn’t have told you. I’m sure I’m not pregnant anyway.”
“I’m glad you told me. Then I can be prepared.”
“You wouldn’t marry me Nick. You’re too honorable.”
Nick snorted. “How would it not be honorable to marry a woman that is pregnant with your child?”
“Because you have this whole picture painted of how everything will go.”
“Yes, I have an idea of how I want things to go in my life. They may go that way, they may not. Things happen. I knew what I was doing when I had unprotected sex with you the other night and I was okay with it. What Gabe did was different. He lied to you. He made you believe one thing while he was planning another. It’s no different than a woman not taking her birth control or telling her man that it will be safe to have unprotected sex because it’s a certain day of the month. His goal is to trap you because he knows that you would do the right thing. The only thing he’s got wrong is that when your baby daddy is a complete and total psycho, you don’t have to let him be a part of your child’s life.”
“He wouldn’t harm the baby. I still don’t think he’ll ever do anything to hurt me.”
“Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter. You told him in no uncertain terms that you didn’t want to be with him.”
“Then I told him he could text me.”
Nick sighed. “Please just tell me that if you are pregnant, you will consider what I said.”
“I’ll consider it.”
“Thank you Ami. We’ll go to the tire shop and then the bank okay?”
“Yeah.”
The rest of the morning was filled with uncomfortable silences. While she wanted Nick to give up on his idea of a perfectly planned relationship, she didn’t want him to want to marry her for all the wrong reasons. She also didn’t know if she could walk away from everything if she was pregnant.
When they got to the bank, she cashed the check and Nick decided again that he didn’t want to take the money. She tried to hand it to him, and when he wouldn’t take it, she shoved it into his back pocket and they had another uncomfortable moment. She wanted to kiss him very badly but didn’t because their relationship was getting even more complicated.
Chapter 19
Her first day at the bowling alley went smoothly, though every time she turned around she felt like Nick was looking over her shoulder. Her second day, Gabe bought the house across the street, where he’d been parked the day of Carson and Ali’s wedding. But after a brief appearance, he seemed to stay away.
After her first few weeks at the bowling alley, Nick seemed to stay away as well. He no longer scheduled her so that she was always working with him once it seemed clear that Gabe was going to leave her alone. Gabe still texted her almost every day, telling her how much he loved her and never failing to mention that he would divorce Leslie whenever she was ready. He was forever reminding her that her SUV was still waiting for her.
On Halloween, she went trick-or-treating with Ali and Elijah since a disappointed Carson had to work late. It was a fun night. Elijah made an adorable super hero and he obviously adored his stepmother. The feeling was very mutual, though since Ali was even more pregnant; Ami got to carry Eli when he got tired after they’d made their stops at what felt like half the houses in town.
Even though she’d gotten her period right on time, and was happy that she wasn’t pregnant with Gabe’s child, when she was carrying her best friend’s stepson in her arms, she wondered when she would carry her own child again.
She spent Thanksgiving with Ali, Carson, Elijah and Nick. It only served to remind her of how much she wanted a real relationship with Nick. He wasn’t seeing anyone that she knew of, but he still didn’t seem ready to s
tart a relationship with her. She was frustrated even more because he’d seemed almost disappointed when she told him she wasn’t pregnant. She had decided that she was going to go out of town for Christmas because she not only didn’t want to intrude on Ali and Carson; she didn’t think she could stand to spend another holiday with Nick.
Chapter 20
Life was busy after that. The bowling alley was busy and she was spending a lot of time with Ali, shopping for baby items and Christmas presents, but things were still not entirely comfortable between her and Nick.
She spent Christmas Eve watching movies and sleeping. She was depressed. She was also afraid that Ali was going to keep trying to talk her into spending Christmas with them, so she decided to go for a drive, feeling that getting out of town for a while might be a good idea.
She dressed and went down to her, driving aimlessly, hoping that something would take her mind of off all of the things in her life that she didn’t want to deal with, Gabe and Nick included. Two hours later she arrived in a town called Welton and decided to pull over. She wouldn’t think that she’d be tired since she’d been sleeping half the day, but she was.
She pulled over into a motel that had ‘vacany’ lit on the sign. A tired, bored looking girl who had a mouth full of bubble gum and an annoying habit of snapping it, took her money and gave her a key. Ami went to her room, and unlocked the door, wondering what Charlie was doing right now. She felt bad that she had sent Lisa money to get him a present instead of being able to pick something out for him herself, but she figured that that couldn’t be helped at the moment.
She fell into a dreamless sleep, and was awoken early the next morning to a knock at the door. She rolled over in bed and groaned, figuring it was the maid and cursing herself for not putting a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door.
She called out “Just a minute,” and got out of bed, pulling her jeans on.
When she opened the door, it wasn’t a maid standing there, but Gabe. She almost shut the door in his face, but he held up his hand. “Please Ami, I need to talk to you and it was better if it wasn’t done over the phone.”
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