“Bullshit.” She smiles and I tap her on the lip with my finger.
“Not bullshit. Real talk. Right, son?” I say, pressing my lips near her belly button. “Right.”
“You’re going to be disappointed, we’re having a girl.”
“Says who?”
“The mother-to-be. The person with the baby growing inside her trumps your less than reliable psychic abilities.”
“We’ll see.”
“In four months you’ll see I’m right. Call it mother’s intuition.”
I smile back at her and move my hand around her small baby bump. She’s almost five months but you wouldn’t know she was pregnant unless she’s wearing a fitted shirt like the one she has on now. She usually wears loose clothing to work to hide her stomach. She hasn’t told me this but I figured it out. The only time she ever wears anything fitted anymore is inside or when Ava’s around. I think she wants Chris to see she’s pregnant without her actually telling him. No need to say the words if you can see it with your own eyes. She puts her hands on my neck, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“Don’t worry, the baby’s fine; you’ll feel it move soon.” She creases her brow. “It feels wrong calling my baby it, we’re going to say she from now on.”
“He,” I correct her.
“You can say he and I’ll say she. Well see who’s right in a few months.”
“Yes we will.”
“Seriously though, the doctor said everything was fine at our last prenatal visit. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not.” I’m lying. A month before Kate lost the baby her doctor told her everything was good, and look what happened a month later. I wasn’t this worried the last time around. When you don’t know the things that could go wrong during pregnancy your ignorance is truly bliss. Too much googling and web MD disturbs that bliss. I had to back away from the laptop, I felt like the information that was supposed to make me feel better by informing me was attacking me. Talk about information overload.
“Nick.”
“Yeah, babe.”
“Is there a reason you feel so strongly this baby is going to be a boy?”
I hear the hesitation in her voice. She’s probably thinking it has something to do with Kate and the baby.
“I just have a feeling. It has nothing to do with transferring my feelings from one situation to another. This is our baby, this is a new start for the both of us. I want you to enjoy being pregnant as much as you can with as little stress as possible.”
“I’m trying.”
She runs her fingers through my hair and goes to the kitchen for a glass of water. She wanted to say something else but she didn’t. I scroll through my phone checking messages till I hear the doorbell ring.
I walk into the kitchen and she’s standing by the door fidgeting with her hands.
“Maybe I should change my shirt? Wear one that doesn’t show so much?”
I hold her hands steady, pulling her to me. “You look great. I’m right here with you.”
She pulls one hand away and I hold on to the other one, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She takes a deep breath and opens the door.
“Hi, Chris.”
I watch her bite the corner of her lip nervously waiting for Chris to say something. He doesn’t say anything for a long time. In those minutes seven different emotions cross his face. The most recognizable one for me is, I’m going to beat your ass. I’m putting out my “damn- sure-not-without-a-fight look, even if I might deserve it for being stupid and getting her pregnant.
“What the fuck is this? Is this what you called me over here for!” He clenches his fist at his side and holds up a hand when I start to say something. His whole body tenses and he looks like he’s going to charge at me at any second. Cat moves forward, but I don’t let her hand go, I hold it firmly to keep her from moving closer to him. I haven’t seen him this angry in a long time. This is going to be a disaster.
“I know what this is, I just can’t believe you did this fucked-up shit again.” He’s looking at both of us when he talks. He steps back and shakes his head. “Un-fucking-believable!”
Cat puts her other hand on her stomach and tries to take another step toward him. I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I remember how Jay reacted in the hospital when he grabbed her. Brother or not, if that happens again I’m going to lose it and kick Chris’s ass down these steps. I hold her hand and take my eyes off him. She looks at me with a sad half smile. The look in her eyes makes me want to slam the door, shut her family out, and tell her she doesn’t need to do this shit. I’m getting angry and that’s not a good thing for me and Chris to be with each other when she’s around.
In a soft voice she tells me, “Nick, it’s okay.”
I look at Chris who’s staring at me with his fists clenched ready to knock me out.
“Chris?” Cat says his name, her voice wavering. His eyes drop to her stomach and he shakes his head, coming to a decision. He unclenches his hands and looks in her eyes before he shakes his head and looks away.
She pulls her hand out of mine and I reluctantly let her. Putting her hands around his waist she hugs him, her face pressed against his chest. “Please don’t be mad. You’re the only family still speaking to me, I need you and him. Give him a chance and let him explain. It wasn’t him alone.”
He puts his arm around her and hugs her back. “I’m telling you, there’s a chance no one will accept this, Cat.”
“I already know.”
She steps to the side and he follows me into my office.
Inside my office I tell him if he wants to hit me to do so. I deserve it, I fucked up big time with Kate and Cat. I can’t take any of it back, I wouldn’t because if I did I wouldn’t have Cat here with me now.
“I love your sister—”
“Which one?”
“Come on, man.”
“Ugh, man!” He turns his back to me and rubs the flat of his hand over his forehead and plops down in the chair by my desk.
“You know how I’ve always felt about her. She was young, we were young. I didn’t want to cross a line with our friendship. You’re like my brother. We’ve gone through a lot together—”
“I didn’t think you would go through my sisters.”
“What are you more upset about, Chris?”
“What am I not upset about? I have one sister just putting herself back together because of you and another one out there… I don’t even know what’s going on with her. You didn’t just have sex with my sisters, you screwed my entire family. And you’re telling me you love her?”
“You know I do.”
“I know! But your love keeps hurting her and the rest of my family.”
“What do you want me to do? Stop loving her? I can’t. She’s pregnant with my child. You want me to leave her? We both know that’s not going to happen.”
“Man, I don’t know what to do with this.”
An hour later, we still don’t know what to do. He’s still extremely mad with me and not so happy with Cat either. We manage to come to an agreement not to make this any harder for Cat by chewing each other out and stressing her out even more than she already is. We both know what it’s going to be like when she tells the rest of her family about us.
Cat
I couldn’t stop walking around the whole time Chris was in Nick’s office. I didn’t know what was going on, except hearing a few raised voices. I was relieved when Chris came out and no punches were thrown, and no blood was shed. It went way better than I thought. I was hoping their friendship would keep them from going at each other. I was hoping, I wasn’t sure.
We sit down in the living room, my legs curled under me facing Chris.
“I’m scared to tell them.”
“Don’t be, I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, I’ll be there if you want and Nick will be there with you.”
I run a finger over my brow. “I’m more scared at him being there than the actual telling them part. You know Nick has
a temper at times but he’s good at keeping it in check. I also noticed since we’ve been together if the situation involves me it kicks his temper up a notch.”
“He’s always been that way, you just never noticed that among other things. I think you should find somewhere neutral to tell them and think about doing it without Nick.”
“I don’t know where neutral ground is to them. I tried to convince Nick to let me tell them by myself but he’s not going for that. He made it clear we’re going to tell them together. He and Jay together in the same room, no good can come of that. One of them is going to end up in the ER in critical condition.”
“You’re right about that.”
“Chris, you’re not supposed to agree with me, you’re supposed to try to make me feel better.”
He pats my knee with his big hand and smiles more to himself than me. “Don’t worry, I’m going to be there to help contain the situation. I won’t let them kill each other. I will however let Jay get a few jabs in, that would make me feel a lot better.”
I can’t believe him. I lean over and pinch him on the leg as hard as I can. “You better not let that happen!”
“Ouch, Cat! Take it easy, I’m not going to let that happen,” he says disgruntled, rubbing his thigh.
“You better not. I thought you two talked. You didn’t seem too angry when you came out, what did you talk about?” I rest my head in my hand, my elbow on the back of the couch.
“Don’t worry about it, we talked.” He swipes his hand over the back of his head and mutters under his breath, “I still can’t wrap my head around this, both of my sisters pregnant for this fucker!”
I let out a sigh and look down. I know this is hard for him. His little sister and his best friend. He’s stuck in the middle between us and my family, especially Kate.
“Kate’s going to be devastated. She’s starting to get back on track, but this is going to set her back. You got everything she wanted: the baby, the man—”
I raise my head and look at him. “And the love of the man. He really does love me.”
“I know. I guess you can’t change what’s obviously meant to be as hard as you may try.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” I say.
“Why haven’t you called Jay back?”
“I wasn’t ready yet but I will. Vanessa calls once in a while and she lets me talk to Sasha. Vanessa manages to slip in his name during our conversations but I don’t ask about him.”
“You’re family, you should reach out to him.”
“We’ll talk soon enough.” I don’t want to talk about Jay. God knows what he’s going to call me this time when he finds out I’m pregnant. He’ll probably tar and feather me for the trollop I am.
“Sophie says hi.”
“A call to Sophie is long overdue. I didn’t want to call her until I could tell her about the baby. She’s going to demand to see me the minute she finds out. The baby is changing everything before it’s born. I don’t even know if I’ll have my family around me when he or she is born.”
He sits back with his legs apart, his head on the back of the couch. “Are you ready for this?”
“No, this was a total surprise.”
He smiles at me. “Then you shouldn’t be having sex.”
I smile and feel my cheeks heat up. “You know what I mean.”
“If you mean going bareback and hoping for the best, yeah.”
My cheeks are really on fire.
“No need for you to be embarrassed, too late for that.”
I clear my throat and put my hand on the couch, the other in my lap. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Being you.” He looks at me unsure of what I’m saying. “The you you’ve always been to me. It gives me hope the rest of the family will be somewhat understanding.”
“Yeah, I don’t know about that.”
“Me either, but a girl can dream, can’t she?”
He puts his hand on my stomach and smiles. “Sure she can.”
I come out of the bathroom in one of Nick’s T-shirts and crawl into bed with him after I turn off the lights. I lie on my side, and following his new nightly habit, Nick puts his arm around me until he falls asleep.
“How you feeling?”
“Better now that at least one person in my family knows. I’ll be able to stop wearing loose-fitting clothes to hide my bump.”
“I noticed.”
“Of course you did. What else did you notice?”
“You and Chris talking and laughing on the couch. You had a real sister-brother bonding thing going on.”
“We did. I miss being with my family. Laughing with them.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry for?”
“Chris said some things to me, I feel a little responsible for you not being with your family like the way you were today with Chris.”
I look into his eyes that I could get lost in and kiss him on the mouth.
“The night I left the Christmas ball Kate came outside. She said some stuff about you not choosing me over your child and it would be like choosing her over me every time.” He wants to say something and I stop him with another kiss. “Don’t say anything. That’s the way it should be. You should put your child first. I understand more so now that we’re having one. What I’m saying is, you showed up for me without me asking, you made me feel good, wanted. It was as if you were saying to Kate she was wrong without you even knowing, because for one night, my night, you chose me and I didn’t have to say a word. You made me feel good.
“It was the worst birthday I could remember; I felt hollow and alone, but I was surrounded by my family who loved me…at the time. It was a shitty end to a not-so-great day before you showed up in my apartment. Being with you made me happy. Not my family, you. I would love to have all the people I love together and happy, but if I can’t, I choose you.”
“You shouldn’t have to choose, but if you do, I’m glad it’s me.”
He kisses me on the forehead and I snuggle closer to him, taking in his clean fresh smell and the way he feels, I love it. I start to drift off to sleep in his arms.
“Babe.”
“Yeah,” I mumble, my eyelids heavy.
“I have to go out of town on business next week. The same day we are supposed to meet my mother. Would it be okay if we did it this week?”
“Hmm, hmm. Sure, this week.” I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. I hear him laughing softly.
“Don’t laugh at me.”
He kisses me on the forehead saying, “Go to sleep, I love you.”
I don’t remember anything after that, I fall sound asleep.
Dinner at Nick’s mother’s was good. She made great food, all my favorites. Nick told her what I liked and what didn’t make me nauseated, which was great, but I overate and made myself nauseous. Nick took me to his old room to lie down and brought me a bottle of seltzer water. I sit up on his bed and he brushes my hair back while I sip my water.
“You feel better now?”
“Yes. You really shouldn’t have let me eat so much.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. You know I can’t eat too much food at one time.”
“I’m not taking the blame because you couldn’t control yourself. You were sucking up everything in sight, I was afraid to put my hand on the table.”
“Shut up! That is not true,” I say shocked, but laughing. “That is a blatant lie, I was not.”
“Maybe, but I was pleased to see you eating a substantial amount of food for the first time since you’ve been pregnant.”
“God, I hope this is not the next phase of my pregnancy, I’m going to be as big as a house if it is.”
“I don’t care how big you get, as long as you’re eating and both of you are healthy, I’m happy, I’ll just get a forklift to move you around. I already put the order in for it when I was at the table.”
I press my lips together to keep myself from
laughing. “I’m going to strangle you.” He taps the tip of my nose with his finger and I turn my head to look around the room. “This was your room, huh. Typical boy’s room, trophies and awards, the only thing that’s missing is the pinup poster of the half-naked girls.”
“Not my style.”
“Who needs them when you had all the girls—real live naked ones like Samantha Owens? Was it here on this bed?” I say, making myself bounce up on the bed once.
“Don’t be jealous.”
“Me jealous? Please. Why should I be jealous when you had your girlfriends up here doing God knows what, but not once did you have me, your friend, up here?”
He gives me a cocky smile I want to rub off his face. I was jealous in high school when the tarts he used to go out with would traipse down the stairs from his room looking disheveled and happy. I wanted to bitch slap them and him.
“There’s a reason for that.”
“Which is?” I ask him, trying to keep the slight teenage jealousy from back then out of my voice.
“You wouldn’t have walked out a virgin.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh and ooh and aah. I would have had you out of your clothes and up against the wall pumping into you before the door was shut. You don’t know what danger lay ahead of you up here.”
“It’s a good thing I didn’t accidentally wonder up here, then.” I thought about doing it once or twice.
“Well, you’re here now and you’re not underage.” He opens his mouth on my neck and runs his tongue back and forth on one sensitive spot, making me shiver.
“Nick.” My voice changes and I close my eyes when he moves his hand between my bare legs, back up to my thighs and presses his lips to my ear.
“I would have traded all those girls in a moment to have you in here once, laid out on my bed butt naked, waiting for me to slide into your hot wet pussy.”
“Oh my God, Nick—” His hand is between my legs, pulling my panties to the side. A pulse beats between them, I’m wet already. “Your mother’s downstairs.”
“She knows we have sex.”
Imperfections Come To Light (The Imperfection Series Book 2) Page 12