by Alyse Zaftig
When I got to my door, Jimmy was standing there.
Savile Row
Amelia
My purse fell to the floor, landing with a thud. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you."
I looked at him. My first impression was that he was a sight for sore eyes. He was much paler than he had been, and he wasn't smiling, but something inside of me twisted and was happy to see him.
Then I looked more closely at his clothes.
"Why do you have Savile Row tailoring? That suit is custom made." I could tell from the way the cloth sat around his powerful shoulders. Bespoke suits were expensive.
"Can I come in?" He dodged the question neatly. "It's been a long day."
I looked at my phone. It was after 11 PM. "Yeah, of course." I picked up my purse and unlocked my door. "Come on in."
A little bit of shame burned in my cheeks when I looked through my apartment through his eyes. There were piles of boxes, since I had not really unpacked yet. I was living out of a suitcase. I had not picked up a dresser yet, just my little bed. I was eating standing over the kitchen sink when I did eat. It wasn't ready yet, but I knew that I would make my apartment more welcoming.
I bristled a little bit. How could he ask to come inside when I was nowhere near ready?
I had let my apartment stay like this for the past two months. It was my own fault that it was so bare. It didn't feel like a home. It was just a place to keep my stuff.
"Can I get you some water? I don't really have anything else."
"Water is fine."
I got out one of my disposable clear cups, and I got him some water. He leaned against my granite counter.
"What are you doing here?" I tried not to notice the beautiful, clean lines of his body. He was hot naked. He was hot in flannel. But Jimmy Fox dressed in a suit and tie made my panties melt.
"I wanted to see you." There were dark shadows under his eyes. He stopped. "I missed you." He acted like he didn't want to. He looked like he wasn't that glad to see me.
"I missed you, too." I looked into his eyes. "Do you want to move here? I know that my apartment doesn't look like very much, but maybe we could make it work."
"No, I'm not moving here."
"I can clean it up. I mean, I just need to move around some stuff and..."
"No." Jimmy took a sip of water. "I meant it when I asked you to marry me. I came here to talk to your dad today."
My back stiffened up. This was the reason why my dad had thrown me at him. "Oh?"
"We met with his board of directors. I'm all set to take over his position. I just need to take the reins from him. He'll help me transition, then he'll retire for a while. He'll still be the chairman of the board, but his chemo won't get in the way of the business."
I felt empty inside. "Good." I couldn't care less about Dad's business. "Well, if that's all..." I brushed past him to open the door. "You can leave, then."
He put his cup of water down. "You know that is not the only reason why I came."
I glared at him, as much as I could, which, given the circumstances, was with the heat of a candle flame, not a roaring fire. "Yeah?" I quashed the little flame of hope inside of my body.
"I want to marry you."
There it was again. I felt my eyes burn with tears. All there was to me was my dad's desire to see me married to this gigantic, handsome, good-smelling man. What I wanted wasn't part of it. I'd spent half days at the school helping the English Language Learner kids. I'd gotten more and more patient. I had my own job.
"We've already..." I put a hand over my mouth. I ran for the bathroom.
Jimmy followed me in as I worshipped the porcelain god.
"Are you sick?"
I felt my eyes get moist from the humiliating experience of having him come back to me, only for him to propose to me for the sake of my father's business. "None of your business."
I stood up and rinsed my mouth out with water from the sink. I swished around a little mouthwash. I hated being vulnerable in front of him. I saw his eyes drift down to my exposed skin, the swell of my hips, and I wished that I could cover up. Too much of me was showing, and it wasn't really about the skin.
"I think that you're pregnant."
My eyes snapped up to his face. "Are you calling me fat?"
"No. I like your body. I can also tell that you've gained a little. It looks good on you."
"You are calling me fat. Get out." I tugged on his arm, pulling him towards the door.
"No." His hand came out and touched my stomach, probing it a little bit. "Can you feel it? If you had gained wait, it would be on your lower stomach. This is a little higher."
"What are you like an OBGYN now?"
"No, but I know my way around a barn. I know what pregnancy looks like. Cows don't throw up when they are pregnant, but human women do."
"Don't you think that I would know if I were pregnant?" I touched my stomach. Did it really feel like it was a little firmer up above?
I felt nauseous again. "I've drunk alcohol.”
"We need to talk to a doctor."
I locked up my apartment, and I walked down with him.
"Ok Google, search for the nearest urgent care facility."
His phone got us to the nearest urgent care center. They took us right away, especially after he flashed his credit card. I was rummaging around in my purse for mints. My mouth still felt kind of gross.
I sat in the exam room, and I answered the nurse's intrusive questions about my habits. I changed into a paper gown. The doctor came in. She was a woman.
"What seems to be the problem?"
"I threw up, and Dopey here thought that I needed to come in."
"She's pregnant."
The doctor motioned for me to lay on the bed in the room. "Could you get up here, please?" I went to the bed, and she lifted my gown to put cold gel on my stomach.
"I used to be an OBGYN."
"Oh?"
"Yes. Lot of random hours. Working late doesn't come into it. Babies come whenever they want to come."
She got out an ultrasound machine, and she put it on my stomach. On the screen, we could see my insides in black and white.
"Congratulations. You're having a baby."
Shock ripped through my body. I was glad that I was already laying down.
"A baby?" It had been a possibility before, but this was reality right here, right now. "But I'm on birth control. Or I was."
The doctor raised an eyebrow. "If you don't take your pill regularly, you can get pregnant. Surely you know that."
I flushed a little bit. "How far am I along?"
"About two months."
It had to have happened when I was in Wisconsin. I was scared. "I've been drinking a lot. Do you think it's hurt the baby?"
"How much is a lot?"
"Every night."
"Yeah, that could hurt the baby."
"I don't drink that much. It's just often, I guess. I share my drinks with Amanda. The point of going out isn't to get drunk. It's more to have fun."
"All of the studies about fetal alcohol syndrome were done with mothers who were bona fide alcoholics. Yes, alcohol can potentially harm a baby, but a few sips won't hurt the baby. If anything hurts the baby, you would have already had a miscarriage in your first trimester. Is this your first pregnancy?"
I touched my stomach, still covered in gel. "Yes."
"You need to be aware of the high probability of miscarriage here." I cradled my minuscule bump.
"No."
"Yes. You could lose this baby. Expecting mothers need to be careful."
"I will be." I didn't want to do anything that would hurt my little one.
"Is he the father?"
Before I could answer, Jimmy blurted, "Yes, I am."
I glared at him. "It's complicated."
"Complicated, as in your relationship with this man is complicated, or complicated, as in you don't know who the father is?”
I cl
osed my eyes and breathed in a deep breath. "I know who the father is. It's him."
"Okay, then it's the first option. Here is the phone number of my old practice. They are booked a month in advance, but tell them that Dr. Hawker sent you, and they will find a way to squeeze you in." She gave me a piece of paper, and Jimmy snatched it out of my fingers to tuck away in a pocket. "You should have someone look at you soon. I'm just an urgent care doctor. Someone with the right equipment is going to be able to help you more."
Jimmy paid as we walked out, and I went and sat in the car with my mind absolutely dazed by the idea that I was going to be a mother.
Parents
Amelia
"We are going to be parents."
I looked at him. "Yeah."
"We need to get married."
I shook my head. "Plenty of women my age have children out of wedlock. It's not shameful anymore. You can fly into DC. With that suit, it really looks like you can afford it. I'll pay for it if you can't. I..."
"You think that you would be allowed to raise my child this far away from me? You're insane. My child is going to grow up where there is fresh air. DC is not the safest or best place for a baby."
I turned to face the window with stony silence. I wasn't ready for this. It was too much in one night.
We got back to my apartment, and he parked the car.
"You don't need to park. Thanks for driving me home. Thanks for taking me to the doctor. I appreciate it." I got out and closed my door.
He followed me into my apartment building. Obstinate man.
"Good night," I said, and I unlocked my door.
He followed me into my apartment.
"Please go away. I don't have the patience for you right now."
"This isn't optional. You are going to be my wife. I already got your dad's consent to marry you."
I glared at him. "Daddy has no say in whom I choose to marry. I do."
"We can get married tomorrow. I can take you home with me."
"No." I shook my head. "You can see the baby as much as you want, but the baby is going to be raised right here in DC. It wasn't bad for me. Virginia is just fine."
His fists clenched. "My child is a Fox. Foxes have always grown up in Wisconsin."
"Your child doesn't have to be a Fox. I am more than capable of taking care of this child on my own."
"You're barely capable of taking care of yourself on your own." He gestured around the apartment. "Look around."
A tear dropped from my eye. "Please go."
"Don't cry."
My tears fell anyway. I sniffed to try to suck it back in.
"You don't need to be here. I'm fine. I will talk to you tomorrow after work."
"Tomorrow isn't going to cut it." He took my shoulders and shook me a little. "Honestly, Amelia, do you really think that you could do a better job raising a baby alone than we could together?"
I stared down at my hands. I needed a new manicure. Were the fumes that you got from nail polish bad for babies?
I felt dizzy and overwhelmed. I didn't know the first thing about babies, but here I was, on my way to having one in seven months anyway.
I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. "I can't deal with this."
"You have to. This isn't optional. It isn't about you and me. It is about both of us and the baby."
I felt something snap inside of me. "Don't you think that I already know that I am going to have to take care of the baby?"
"Are you going to abort the baby?" His voice was very low. A second of silence passed between us.
"No. That baby is real to me now, and he or she has been since I saw the little body inside of mine on that ultrasound monitor."
A big breath came out of Jimmy in a whoosh. "Good."
I shook my head. "If you think I would kill my own child, you don't know me at all. You should go home."
"Not until you agree to marry me." I could see the fierce determination in the blue eyes meeting mine. "I can provide for you and the baby."
"In your home in Wisconsin." I spat the last like a curse word.
"Yes. In Wisconsin. It won't be so bad."
I wiped away the tear that I couldn't hold back. How could I be so selfish as to deprive my baby of having a father? I knew that Jimmy would fight me tooth and claw for the baby. He had already made it clear that being allowed to see the baby whenever he wanted to swing by DC would never be enough.
I didn't want to leave behind the life I had built for myself. I looked around my apartment. I had never acclimated to this little apartment fully. I had not made it into a real home for myself. Most of my stuff was in boxes anyway. I hadn't bothered to take it all out.
I sucked in a breath. "I get to come back to DC any time that I want."
"Done. You can come back when you want."
I felt like an ice cube was sliding down my spine, and I blinked back my tears.
"Okay. I'll marry you." I wiped my eyes with my forearm.
Just Married
Amelia
I sat in a car that said Just Married in roses on the back window. It was probably a safety hazard. I was wearing an off-the-rack Vera Wang wedding dress. It was not something that I would even touch normally, but then most brides normally had more than a few hours to prepare for their wedding day.
I looked at the bouquet of pink roses in my hand. Jimmy had certainly tried to make it right, to give me a wedding day that I would remember, even if it was hurried. I had my dad and a ton of my friends. They had come for the party that we threw, the reception that was completely spontaneous. It had an open bar, and people brought their friends, ones I had never met before, by the truckload. Daddy was covering the cost.
The ceremony had been quick and quiet. I knew that my baby was going to be born a little early after this ceremony. Why waste time? Jimmy certainly had not. We had a marriage license and a ceremony in what felt like a split second.
I pulled a petal out of one of my roses and watched it flutter to the floor of the car, next to my silver YSL high heels.
Jimmy joined me in the car, and the chauffeur took us away. There was nobody waiting at the curbside. It was just us. We left the alcohol-fueled party behind us.
"Are you happy?" Jimmy touched my chin, and he made me turn my face towards him. "You don't look so great under all that makeup."
Thanks for noticing, Jimmy. "I'm fine." I gave him a fake smile. "It's the happiest day of my life." And if that last sentence had a touch of bitterness in it, so be it.
He let go of my chin, and I turned my face to look out the window. Somehow, it felt like moving to Wisconsin was a prison sentence.
We got into a private jet, but it wasn't my dad's Cessna CJ13.
"Whose plane is this?"
Jimmy cleared his throat. "It's mine."
"Ready, Mister Fox? And Mrs. Fox, are you okay?"
There was a pilot with silver hair who had just walked to our seats. "I just did my pre-flight checklist. We should be good to go very soon."
"Ready. Thank you, Captain Jones." The captain touched his hat, and he settled into the cockpit to fly us to Jimmy's home in Wisconsin.
"How can you afford a jet? You're a Wisconsin farmer. A Cheesehead."
Jimmy looked at me. "That's not all I am. There is a reason why your dad wanted me to be his successor, you know. I am a successful businessman."
I looked around at the leather seats and the mahogany trim of the interior cabin. "Okay."
I leaned back in my chair, and I closed my eyes. I felt Jimmy's arm come around me, and I was too sleepy to protest the intimacy. I just lay my head on his shoulder. I was tired enough to fall asleep right now. I had had a very momentous day. First the wedding, and now the revelation that Jimmy had as much money as Daddy. It was a lot of information to take in, and I was absolutely exhausted from the day that I had had.
Chicken Soup
Amelia
I woke up on Jimmy's chest when I felt the plane landing. I blinked
a few times. I looked at his white shirt.
"Oh my god, I've gotten my makeup on your shirt."
"Don't worry about it." He kissed my makeup-less forehead. "It'll come out in the wash."
I looked at him, stunned. I didn't know that he still felt affectionate about me. Maybe the arm around my shoulders was a hint.
My mouth compressed in a firm line. I shrugged my shoulders. He took the hint and unwrapped himself from me.
"We're going home."
He followed me out of the plane. I walked down the steps to the runway. There was a bit of chilly wind. It was substantially warmer two months later, but the cold breeze was enough to make me shiver.
"Here. Take my coat." He shrugged his off.
I didn't protest. I was just wearing my white wedding gown. I was going to freeze to death without anything else on. He looked so fine there in his suit.
That was the kind of thinking that had landed me here in the first place. Knocked up. Locked up.
I walked to the exit of the private airfield, and I saw a limo.
"Where's your truck?"
He looked sheepish. "I got us car service. I thought you might appreciate it."
I smiled. "I do. Thank you." I touched his arm, then I ducked inside of the car. I felt rather than saw him get in the car behind me.
It pulled out of the lot, and I looked out of the windows. Most of the snow was gone now, but there were still little bits by the edges of the road where the snowplows had heaped the snow earlier.
We got there faster, this time. I watched the wooden house with its battered paint job and the old barn come closer and closer. My new home.
We whizzed by it.
"Hey! Hey!" I banged on the dividing glass. The chauffeur lowered it. "You passed the house."
"No, he didn't." Jimmy's voice was quiet and embarrassed behind me. "That's not my home."
I turned around. "I'm pretty sure it is. That’s where I stayed last time. Did you think that I suddenly forgot or something?”