One Night Stand (New Yorker III)

by M. O. Kenyan

  Rich held her hair and knelt beside her as he rubbed her back. He thought that morning sickness was a normal thing, but when Catalella began heaving out air, he knew there was a problem. He picked her up, his heart breaking when she whimpered. He had to feed her something. Even though she was going to end up throwing it up, he knew he had to get some food into her system. He laid her on the bed and pulled off her work dress. He rushed into his room and grabbed a T-shirt. Once he had her dressed he went into the kitchen, praying to God that his assistant had stocked it up just as he had asked.

  The first thing he saw was a bottle of yogurt. He poured it into a cup and grabbed a spoon. He toyed with the idea of calling AJ—he knew how Catalella felt about her family seeing her weak, but he promised himself to call a doctor if it got worse. What Rich didn’t expect was that worse was waiting for him in the bedroom. Catalella was slumped over the bed. She had made an effort to go into the bathroom, but her strength had failed her.

  Rich settled her back on the bed, holding her against him, cradling her so that he could feed her. Each time he held a spoonful of yogurt near her lips, Catalella turned away. He didn’t want to use force but he had to think about her and his baby. Holding onto Catalella's chin he coaxed her until she swallowed the yogurt. But it hadn’t settled for a second before she started to heave again.

  Rich grabbed his phone and called Katherine, hoping that she wasn’t too busy to come and see Catalella. He combed his fingers through his hair in frustration as he explained to Katherine what the problem was. Once he was done, he settled into bed with Catalella, holding her against his body. A tear streaked down his cheek when he felt her frail fingers try to hold onto his shirt. “Help is coming, baby, hold on.”

  * * * *

  Rich watched as Katherine worked around Catalella’s frail body. His breath hitched in his chest when she retrieved a portable ultrasound from her medical bag. Part of him didn’t want to be in the room when she used it, just in case…

  But the father in him, the lover, wanted to know that his and Catalella’s child was all right, for her sake more than his. Rich didn’t realize he was holding his breath until a gasp escaped his lips. The thumping sound of his baby’s heartbeat filled his ears and shot straight to his heart, almost bringing him to his knees. He didn’t try to hide his fear, his relief or his emotion as a tear rolled down his cheek.

  “I knew you would be okay.” He moved next to Catalella and spoke to her belly, all the while not distracting Katherine from what she was doing.

  “The baby has got a strong heartbeat. But that’s to be expected—look who its parents are.” Katherine smiled at Rich. “You two are the strongest people I know.”

  “I thought that was me.” A voice boomed from the door.

  Rich looked up and caught the disapproving look in AJ’s eyes. He knew her brother would be angry with him, but Rich needed someone who would look at Catalella as a patient more than as a little, defenseless sister.

  “You should have told me,” AJ roared as he moved toward the bed with three determined, huge steps. “She’s my sister.”

  “She’s the mother of my child, and from now on, my responsibility,” Rich shot back.

  “Before I let you take any responsibility toward her, you need to do one important thing first,” AJ warned.

  Rich knew what he was talking about. But even though he and AJ had been friends for over five years, he couldn’t admit his mistake. He wasn’t sure how he felt about marriage to Catalella. He knew it wasn’t something he should be thinking about because one, he was still married to Ava—a little piece of information he hadn’t told AJ or Catalella yet—and two, Catalella seemed repulsed by the idea of marriage. He often saw her cringe when Harold, AJ or Adrian mentioned it.

  “I’m working on it,” he said in half-truth.

  The room went into silent anticipation when a moan escaped Catalella’s lips.

  * * * *

  Catalella felt the soft cotton on her skin. She could also hear voices around her, and there was an odd sensation in her arm. Not odd…familiar. She knew it all too well. In a panic she sat upright, her eyes flying open as a loud, heart-breaking ‘no’ escaped her lips.

  “Shhh, it’s all right.” She felt herself being pulled into a strong and yet comforting embrace. She didn’t fight when she was lowered back into the bed but turned her head into the pillow as she whimpered and cried. Catalella couldn’t figure out how she got there.

  She remembered walking into the apartment, going into her room and taking a nap in her bed. That was followed by the urge to throw up. She had shot from her bed to her bathroom and emptied everything she had eaten that day. But then she couldn’t get up when she was finished. Catalella remembered feeling weak and forcing herself not to cry because of it. She remembered holding onto the toilet bowl as she hurled each and every passing minute. When she was finally done she couldn’t get up, and darkness surrounded her. As she slipped in and out of consciousness she remembered hearing Rich’s voice, then someone forcing a spoon of yogurt into her mouth. She threw that up too.

  Chancing a glance she looked at her arm where the IV protruded. She hated the sensation of needles, the sight of bags with medicine and hated knowing that her body couldn’t provide for itself what it needed to survive. She was weak and she hated herself for that too. Her hand flew to her belly when she remembered the other person who would suffer from her weakness.

  “Our baby is fine,” she heard Rich say, his voice soft and filled with endearment.

  “Are you sure?” Catalella lifted her head and looked around for the first time. Katherine and AJ were here, and yet Rich was telling her that her baby was fine? She shook her head in disbelief. “I want to hear its heartbeat.”

  AJ stepped forward and, taking the scan from Katherine’s hand, he lifted Catalella’s shirt and pressed against her belly to where he knew he would find that glorious sound. Catalella bit down on her lip as she grabbed hold of Rich’s hand. She looked at him, and the adoration in his eyes staggered her. She only looked away when she heard the sound of her baby’s heartbeat. She cried out and fell into Rich’s embrace and laid her head on his chest.

  “Our baby is fine,” Rich said.

  Catalella nodded in agreement, afraid to trust herself to open her mouth. She felt her whole body shiver and Rich held her even tighter in response. After a couple of reassuring moments, she pulled out of his arms and turned towards the two doctors in the room.

  “If everything is fine I don’t need this IV,” she said, her voice cracked with emotion.

  “I can’t take it out, Lella,” Katherine said. “The baby is taking everything from you and until you’re able to get some fluids into your system without throwing up, the IV stays in.”

  Catalella gave up on Katherine and turned her appeal to AJ. “Please.” She knew he wouldn’t refuse her. AJ had a soft spot for her and she wasn’t too embarrassed to use it.

  “Peanut—”

  “No!” Rich’s voice was stern and firm. Shocked, Catalella turned towards him, but from the look in his eyes she knew he had already made up his mind. Despite this she opened her mouth to argue, but he silenced her. “I said no. As long as my baby is in there, I’m not taking any chances. I’m sorry, but until you’re able to keep some food down, Katherine will have to figure out some other way of nourishment.”

  “But—” He doesn’t understand, Catalella thought.

  “But I do,” he said, as if he had picked her thought right out of her mind. He cupped her cheek in his palm. When Catalella tried to pull away he held her in place. Looking her right in the eyes he said, “I can only imagine how having an IV in you makes you feel. But you wanted—I mean, we want this baby. We would do anything for it, right?” He paused as he waited for her to agree. She nodded in response. “I can’t bear to see you weak like that ever again. I wouldn’t survive it.” Catalella was shocked at the emotion in his voice. “Anyway, we need to do this for the baby. You need to do this for
our baby.”

  Catalella watched him intently in silent awe as he kissed her forehead before he stood and walked toward the door and AJ followed.

  “He loves you,” Katherine said.

  Catalella flinched and looked at Rich’s retreating body soon enough to see him flinch too. He’d had the same reaction to Katherine’s comment. But, for the life of her, Catalella didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. She lay back in bed as she tried to tolerate the bother in her arm and the odd flips that her heart seemed to be making.

  * * * *

  “Do you love my sister?”

  Rich froze in the middle of the living room as the question hit him like a ton of bricks. He swallowed hard, his hand resting at the back of his neck. Rich let out a moan of frustration as he felt fresh tears well up in his eyes. “Truthfully?” he asked as he turned to face his best friend, but all he saw was Catalella’s protective older brother. “I was excited to come home, knowing that she would be here waiting for me. And when I saw her lying—” his voice cracked and he faltered, “—when I saw her on the floor, barely awake, as pale as a ghost, I swear I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest.”

  “A yes or no answer would do just fine.”

  Rich stared at AJ as he stared back at him. A yes or no answer? It wasn’t that easy, especially when it was about him and Catalella. “Ava and I are still married.”

  “What?” AJ roared.

  Rich didn’t move as the six foot five muscle marched toward him and grabbed his shirt. “You’re playing house with my sister and you still have a wife?”

  “She left me five years ago. Right after my father took away my trust fund, my car and my apartment and named Harold guardian of the company. I had nothing and the second her Lamborghini was repossessed she left.”

  “She walked out?” AJ asked as he took a step back, releasing Rich.

  “She ran out. She was afraid my father was coming after her Jimmy Choos’ and her Versace.” Rich laughed bitterly. “My father died not long after that. They say it was a heart attack, but I’m sure it was from a broken heart. Disappointment was his COD. I’ve been trying to prove myself to a dead man ever since. But then your sister walked into my life. I don’t know if she told you about how we met.” Rich looked at AJ and he shook his head. “Let’s just say I insulted her and she gave as good as she got. Then she told me about Michael and I knew I had to stay away from her. But when I met her again that night, it was like I was caught in a whirlwind called Catalella. I didn’t want to leave that night.”

  “I don’t need to know the details about my sister’s sex life.” AJ frowned.

  Rich chuckled. “It’s probably for the best. I wouldn’t put it past you to toss me out of that window. Anyway I found out more about her and it scared me. I ran, like the coward that I was. I ran.”

  “She got pregnant that night,” AJ said, his voice softening.

  “I blew my top when she told me. I was under the impression she couldn’t get pregnant. I wasn’t ready for the added responsibility, plus this isn’t how I planned to have my first child.” Rich fell into a thoughtful silence. “I want to marry her out of honor and duty more than anything. But your sister is against marriage and there is Ava. I feel something for your sister, but I don’t know if it’s love.”

  “So the answer to my question is no?”

  “It’s I have no freaking idea.” Rich dropped onto the sofa next to him in an exhausted heap. “I want a life with her, but I don’t know.”

  “You better figure it out.”

  Rich watched as AJ and Katherine left the apartment. AJ had given him something to think about. He walked to Catalella’s room and watched as she rested in a peaceful sleep. He pulled his shirt off and lay next to her. He drew her against his chest and rested his hand on her belly where his baby was. After hours of just watching her sleep and listening to her soft breathing, he fell into a deep sleep.

  Chapter Nine

  Catalella leaned back in her office chair and sighed. She looked at the beautiful orchid flower on her desk and at the fruit bowl that had accompanied it. She peeled the note stuck to the top of the fruit bowl cover and read it out loud: “Feed my baby.”

  She hadn’t forgotten the scare that they had two months back. Although she couldn’t figure out what had happened to Rich when she was unconscious, she could see it in his eyes, in their uncertainty. The way he looked at her and studied her growing belly made her sad. She knew it wasn’t his intention to make her feel pitiful, but she had learned from her family. Whenever you see a person in a state of weakness, no matter how hard you try, you can never take that image away from your mind.

  But she desperately wanted Rich to look at her in a different way. Ever since that night he slept in her bed, his hand firmly pressed against her belly as if he was afraid if he let go the baby would disappear. Catalella felt that way every second of the day, which was why she had scheduled secret ultrasounds with Katherine every day at twelve. She had gotten out of the lunch dates with Rich, assuring him that she was trying to expand his business and networks. She was paranoid and Katherine had told her as much, but she just had to make sure her baby was fine.

  “Hey!”

  Darcy’s piercing voice pulled Catalella out of her thoughts. “What’s up?”

  “We are pretty much done for the day. Can I head out?”

  “But it’s three o’clock. Something else might come up,” Catalella said. The something else could be that she needed another chocolate or a glass of water, or her back to be massaged and Darcy knew it.

  “Well Richie Rich is downstairs waiting for you. It’s Friday…pleeeaaase!” Darcy begged.

  “Rich is here?” Catalella asked as she looked past Darcy.

  “He’s downstairs in his car and has asked me to escort you. Apparently you are going to your parents’ house today.”

  “Oh God. I forgot about that.” Catalella cursed. She was forgetting more and more as her pregnancy progressed. The next day was Katherine and AJ’s engagement party. Her mother had wanted Catalella there early so that she could rest before the next day’s festivities.

  Catalella grabbed her purse and looked over her desk, hoping she hadn’t forgotten anything. Once she was sure she had everything she rushed her six months’ pregnant body to the elevator, Darcy holding onto her arm as she moved. She got to Rich’s black Range Rover and was ushered into the back seat. There Rich was waiting for her with a smile on his lips and work papers littered all over his lap.

  “Hi, sweetheart,” he said as he kissed her cheek. Catalella realized that she was getting tired of this gesture.

  Although Rich had spent the past weeks in her bed, he would do nothing but hold her. She thought back to the one and only night when things almost got out of hand. He was sitting in his bed, his strong, beautiful chest bare. Catalella couldn’t resist the urge to stroke and kiss him. He responded to her, that much was obvious. But when she made her intentions known he pulled away from her, retreating to the office in his bedroom.

  “Hi.” She scanned the papers around him. “You really didn’t have to come with me today. You could have met me there tomorrow.” Rich shook his head in disagreement. “At least let me sit up front and give you some room.”

  “I don’t want you sitting in the front, just in case—the air bag could hurt you.”

  “You mean could hurt the baby.” Catalella snickered as she leaned back in the chair.

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing.”

  The rest of the trip proceeded in silence and when they finally arrived at her parents’ house in the dead of the night, Catalella feigned exhaustion—which wasn’t hard to do in her condition—and went to her room.

  * * * *

  “What’s wrong with you?” Lisette asked as she winced and rubbed the spot where the baby had probably kicked her.

  “Nothing.” Catalella groaned. More than anything she wanted to enjoy this ambiance. Her family was around h
er, her father’s friends and their children. Harold with his sons Harold Junior, the twins Christopher and Christian and his daughter Katherine and Dennis with DJ and Daniela were also there. Plus she had Rich and her little baby inside her. But the annoyance of Rich’s constant sexual rejection was eating at her. Throwing caution to the wind she leaned closer to her sister and asked: “Does Reno…” She faltered. “Do you and Reno…you know…do you do the deed when you’re pregnant?”

  Lisette’s laughter earned them an audience. Reno and Rich looked towards them, Reno with a smile for Lisette while Rich just studied her as he always did.

  “Of course we do. That man can’t keep his hands off me.” Lisette chuckled. “Why do you ask?” Catalella didn’t answer but Lisette went on. “It can be a bit tricky, but with some effort and experimenting you’ll find the perfect position for both of you.”

  “Yeah, right,” Catalella muttered under her breath. She blinked fiercely as she tried to hold the tears back. “He won’t touch me, and I think I disgust him.”

  Lisette sat upright. She stared at Catalella for a second before she jumped to her feet and marched toward the men. Catalella didn’t have time to react when she saw Lisette grab Rich by the ear and pull him into the house. Everyone watched in bewildered amusement. Getting up, she followed Reno in his pursuit.

  “What is wrong with you?” Catalella heard Lisette hiss.

  The surprised expression on Rich’s face told her that Lisette hadn’t let her secret out…she still had time to salvage the situation.

  * * * *

  Rich had to douse himself in a cold shower every night for the past two months before he crawled into bed with Catalella. He watched her with her sister and the loose white dress she wore wonderfully accentuated her new curves. Her wild hair was held back with a hair band, giving him a clear view of every inch of her face. But it was her full, juicy lips that called to him more. He always desired Catalella, but ever since she got pregnant his need became deliriously potent. Something about knowing that she was growing round with his child sent his libido into overdrive. Rich wanted her, but he didn’t dare try to have sex with her. He was worried that his desperate need would take over and he would end up hurting her and the baby.