Dr. Leon walked around to the front of the screen, interrupting Steven’s thoughts. He squeezed Tammy’s hand as the doctor spoke. “It looks like the baby is developing just fine, and from the size of the fetus, I would estimate that you’re about three months along, which gives you a due date around the end of November or early December.”
Tammy calculated the time in her head. “Wow! That’s only six months away.”
“Yes, it is,” the doctor replied. “Now, let’s listen to the heartbeat to make sure it sounds okay and there are no abnormalities.”
Experiencing a love she’d never experienced before—the love between a mother and child—fear suddenly consumed Tammy. “Okay.”
Strung with nerves, Tammy and Steven anxiously watched Dr. Leon prepare the equipment to listen to the heartbeat. Holding her breath, Tammy closely watched the doctor’s face while she listened to the heart of the baby with some kind of fancy monitor. After a few moments, she smiled and removed the earpiece. “Everything sounds fine. The baby has a nice strong heartbeat, and it is beating normally.”
Tammy let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Do you want to hear it?” the doctor asked.
Tammy’s face lit up. “Can we?” she turned to Steven and beamed a radiant smile. Steven smiled back at Tammy—both stunned that they were about to hear the heartbeat of their unborn child for the first time.
“Sure. Just be real quiet so we can hear it, okay?” Dr. Leon instructed.
In silence, Tammy and Steven gripped onto each other’s hands, anxiously waiting for the sound of their baby’s heartbeat to come through the speakers. Seconds later, they heard the soothing, rhythmic beat of its tiny little heart. Sobbing tears of joy, Tammy held her hand up to her chest as she heard the magical sound of her child, alive and well, inside of her. It sounded healthy, just like the doctor had said. “Honey, do you hear that?” she whispered softly to Steven.
“I do, babe. I can’t believe it.” He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too, Steven. We’re going to be good parents, aren’t we?”
“The best. I won’t let you down, I promise.”
Dr. Leon turned down the sound and smiled. “So, how was that?”
“Thank you, Doctor. That was awesome. It seems so real now. There’s actually a baby growing in here,” Tammy said, pointing to her stomach. She wiped her eyes with a tissue that Steven handed to her.
“Yes, there is. Which means you must take care of yourself. Watch what you eat, exercise daily, and get plenty of rest.” The doctor turned, picked up the clipboard from the counter, and glanced over Tammy’s chart. “You’re scheduled to see Dr. Davis in a month. Until then, just take care of yourself and the baby. Okay?”
“Oh, I will, Doctor,” Tammy said, rubbing her stomach.
“Okay then, I’ll let you get dressed, and good luck with everything,” the doctor said as she reached over and shook both their hands before exiting the room.
As soon as they were alone, Steven hurried toward the door. “Hey, Tammy, I have to use the bathroom really bad. I’ll let you get dressed. Meet me in the lobby when you’re done, okay?” he said, bouncing up and down on the spot in the partly open doorway.
“Sure, that’s fine,” Tammy replied, giggling at his display of desperation to get to the bathroom. Really, deep down, she was feeling disappointed. She’d hoped they would be able to discuss the magical moment they’d just shared together. But she didn’t want to spoil the moment by protesting against his leaving, so she simply smiled and waved him on his way.
Pacing the lobby while waiting for Steven to return, Tammy found herself growing impatient. She glanced down at her watch; he had been gone almost twenty minutes. “What could be taking him so long?” she mumbled under her breath. Tired of waiting, she decided to go look for him. Just as she turned to head for the bathroom, she spotted him trotting down the corridor toward her. Frustrated from all the waiting, she spoke with a sharp tone. “Did you get lost or something? You’ve been gone for almost half an hour.”
“Jeez! Sorry, when you gotta go, you gotta go. I didn’t know I had a time limit,” Steven replied with a smirk.
With narrowed eyes, Tammy looked at him suspiciously. He seemed different. She couldn’t quite put a finger on it. He was acting cocky and rude and his face was smothered with that horrible grin she’d grown to detest. She’d seen this side of him before and had questioned it then, too. Why had his mannerisms suddenly changed? She didn’t have answers then, and she had no answers now. “I’m not going to argue with you, Steven. Let’s just go. I have to drop you off at work.” Tammy turned toward the exit and picked up her pace, leaving Steven to follow behind.
Five minutes into the ride, Tammy turned to him to say something and was surprised to find him sleeping. She nudged his arm. “Hey, are you okay?” Steven didn’t stir. Raising her voice slightly, Tammy nudged his arm again. “Steven…wake up!”
Startling Tammy, Steven bolted into an upright position, his upper body standing to attention as he shook his head from side to side and blinked his eyes rapidly before rubbing them with his palms. “What? What! I’m fine!”
“You were sleeping.”
“Jeez, isn’t a guy allowed to sleep?” he said in the same annoying, cocky voice he used at the hospital. “Must be from all the excitement of today.”
“You don’t see me falling asleep, do you?”
“Get off my fucking case, Tammy. Okay?” Steven snarled.
“God, I’m sorry! No need to bite my head off. This is supposed to be a happy time for us. Why the fuck are we fighting?”
“Look, I’m sorry. I just have a lot on my mind right now,” he told her as she pulled up to the back door of the restaurant and yanked the car into park. Without any further explanations or words of apology, Steven flung open the car door and stepped out. He leaned his head down into the open doorway to face her. “I gotta go. I’ll see you tonight, okay?”
“Yeah, okay. Bye.” Tammy answered in a flat, emotionless voice and waited for him to close the door.
After dropping Steven off, Tammy decided to go straight home and call her dad and Joanne about the ultrasound. She parked her car in her assigned parking space, grabbed her purse, locked the car door, and walked toward her apartment. From a distance, she noticed there was a note pinned to her front door. Thinking it might be a congratulations note from a friend on the baby, Tammy quickened her pace to read the joyous message. But, to her horror, it was nothing of the kind—it was an eviction notice for non-payment of rent. “What the fuck!” she yelled.
Chapter 30
Using one hand, she ripped the notice from the door and read it while her hands shook with anger and confusion. In bold red letters, the words “Eviction Notice” jumped out at her. Wondering how many other tenants had seen the notice, she felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment at the thought. “This has to be a mistake?” she said in a panic while fumbling with her apartment key. After several attempts, she managed to unlock the door and quickly rushed inside, slamming the door behind her. Needing answers, she threw her purse on the couch and immediately hurried over to the phone to call the landlord.
While the phone rang, Tammy tried to calm her heavy breathing. After four rings, Bill answered. “Hello. Bill speaking.”
“Hi, Bill, it’s Tammy Mellows from apartment 2A. I just found an eviction notice on my front door. Surely there must be some sort of mistake?” she asked, trying not to sound too desperate.
“I can assure you there’s no mistake.” His tone was sharp and unfriendly. “I’ve not received any rent from you two since you moved in. I’ve left phone messages and previous notices on your door but still no payment. I rented the apartment to you on good faith without running any background checks. Now I see that I was a fool. I’ll never do that again, that’s for sure!”
Shocked by what Bill was telling her, Tammy intervened. “Bill, I swear I had no idea. Steve
n was supposed to be paying the rent and I assumed he was.”
“What about all the previous phone messages and notices I’ve left? Are you telling me you never received any of them?”
Tammy was becoming frantic. “No, I haven’t, I promise. You must believe me,” she begged. Suddenly, Tammy had a horrifying thought. Steven must have found the notices and hidden them from her or thrown them away. He must have erased the phone messages too. How could he? Why hasn’t he been paying the rent? She didn’t understand. “I’ll talk to him, Bill. I’ll see what we can do.”
“No, I’m sorry, Tammy. Enough is enough. I want you both out by the end of the month, which is in just under two weeks’ time. I’m not sure if you’re telling me the truth about not knowing anything, but if you are, you need to talk to that boyfriend of yours.”
“Please, Bill, I’m having a baby. Can’t we work something out? I swear I knew nothing about this.” Tammy could hear the desperation in her voice as she continued to plead with him.
“No, I’m sorry, I can’t. Please be out by the end of the month. I have to go now,” he said, not an ounce of empathy in his voice. He hung up, leaving nothing but silence on the other end of the line.
Tammy was shaking in shock and disbelief. Still clinging to the phone, using the wall as a brace, she slid down on her knees and wept. An hour ago, she’d been on top of the world, feeling elated about the baby and becoming a real family with Steven. Now she felt like she didn’t even know him. How could he be so deceitful? It was quite obvious he’d purposely been hiding the landlord’s notices and keeping the phone message from her so she wouldn’t know he hadn’t been paying the rent. Missing a month’s rent, she could understand, but they’ve been in the apartment for three months and Bill swore Steven hadn’t paid anything. What was he doing with all his money? It made no sense.
Startled by the loud beeping noises coming from the phone, she realized she’d forgotten to hang it up. Pulling herself up off her knees, she placed the phone back on the cradle and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. She didn’t know what was going to happen now. Where would they go? She needed answers from Steven. How could he justify not paying the rent? What was more important to him than their home?
With her head in turmoil, Tammy lulled around the apartment for the rest of the day trying to make sense of it all, but she came up empty. Unable to rationalize Steven’s actions, her anger bubbled away inside of her as the day wore on.
Steven finally returned home after ten that evening. Having had all day to stew over her discoveries, Tammy’s anger had reached boiling point. With a piercing stare and a frown of disapproval, she glared at him from the couch when he walked through the door. No words were needed to express her apparent fury. Her stony silence, folded arms, and crossed legs were more than enough to convey her feelings.
Steven was in no state to question her about her foul mood. With his hands shaking and sweat beginning to form on his forehead, he needed to take care of himself first. “Hey, babe, I’ll be right there. I have to use the bathroom,” he said as he scurried past Tammy, careful to avoid any kind of eye contact.
“Fine,” Tammy replied in a stern voice, now refusing to so much as even look in his direction.
Fifteen minutes later, he finally emerged. Tammy hadn’t shifted from her seat, and Steven approached her with caution, feeling all too aware of the tension between them.
His attention was drawn to a piece of paper lying on the coffee table in front of her. He instantly recognized it as an eviction notice, just like the other three he had torn down from the door and destroyed. “Oh crap…I-I can explain,” he blurted out in a breath of hurried stutters. Really, he had no idea what he was going to say next. He couldn’t tell her the truth. She just wouldn’t understand.
Tammy remained seated with her arms still folded as she leaned back and gave him another piercing stare. “How are you going to explain not paying our rent for three months?” she yelled in a high-pitched voice. “What the fuck were you thinking? Do you know how embarrassing this is for me?”
Unable to look at her, Steven glanced at the floor and sat beside her with a forlorn look. He reached for her hand. “I’m sorry.”
Tammy smacked his hand away with a harsh swing and stood up. Enraged, she placed her hands on her hips and began pacing the room. “Where the hell did all your money go, Steven? The only thing you had to pay was the rent. I pay for everything else. How could you be so goddamn irresponsible?”
Steven shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. It kind of just went.”
“On what for God’s sake?” she screamed, fast losing her patience with his lame excuses. The thought of having to look at him made her stomach churn. She despised him. All this time he had kept this from her. How could he? What was going to happen now? She certainly didn’t have three months’ rent, and neither did he—obviously. “Answer me! It went on WHAT Steven? You haven’t brought anything home that costs nearly as much as even one month’s rent.”
“I don’t know, just stuff,” he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders.
“Stuff? What the…I don’t get it! How did you not pay our rent? Did you just decide you couldn’t be bothered? Did you forget?” Steven was still looking at the floor and simply shrugged his shoulders again.
“What the hell are we supposed to do now, Steven? Oh yes, I talked to Bill, and guess what? He wants us out by the end of the month. Do you have any idea where we’ll go when we’re homeless, hmm?” Tammy knew he didn’t have any answers. At a loss, she stood in the middle of the room and covered her face, allowing the pent-up frustrations of the day to drain away as she wept into her trembling hands.
Steven knew he had to fix the mess he’d created. This was their first major argument, and he couldn’t stand seeing her so upset. He’d planned to catch up with the rent before she found out, but the months and the paychecks came and went so quickly; he just couldn’t do it. Knowing he had to do something to comfort Tammy, he raised himself off the couch, walked over to her, and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. “I’m really sorry,” he said, his voice riddled with apprehension. “I thought I would be able to get caught up. I swear.”
“Don’t touch me!” Tammy yelled, shoving him away. “How could you do this?”
Steven approached her again, with a little more caution this time, and attempted to embrace the mother of his unborn child. “Shh, it’s going to be okay.”
This time, Tammy didn’t push him away. She felt herself weakening and melting into his touch. He sounded sincere and genuinely sorry for what he’d done. She relaxed her body and nuzzled her face into his chest as she continued to cry. “Let me make some phone calls,” Steven said, stroking the back of her hair. “I’ll see what I can come up with, okay? I’ll take care of this, I promise.”
She looked up at him, her eyes now swollen and red, her nose running onto her sleeve. “Who are you going to call, Steven? I’m scared. We have nowhere to go and we’re having a baby,” she mumbled in between sniffs.
He held her face in his hands, gently kissed her on the lips, and brushed away the tears from her cheeks. “I’ll think of something, okay? Just leave it to me. I fucked up but I’ll fix it. Trust me.”
She’d already trusted him to pay the rent in the first place and he’d failed. Could she trust him again? Tammy didn’t know. But, right at that moment, she felt she had no other choice.
Chapter 31
Trying to keep her stress under wraps while at work or visiting her parents was becoming a challenge for Tammy. As the end of the week drew near, panic was beginning to set in. Steven still hadn’t come up with a solution. On the occasions she’d asked him what his plans were, he’d simply brushed her off, telling her not to worry and that he was working on it. But how could she not worry? Time was running out.
Tired of Steven’s feeble excuses, Tammy had lost her patience and was finding him intolerable. With only a week left before they had to vacate the apartment, she needed answers and
she needed them now. Enough of this bullshit, she thought. She needed to know what he had planned for them. Even though she was fueled by a huge burden of anger and fear, she had to remind herself that Steven was the baby’s father and now was not the time to abandon him. They were going to be a family and were in this together.
A few hours later, her questions were answered. Tammy was sneaking in a nap on the couch while Steven was at work, only to be jolted out of a deep sleep by the sound of someone barging through the front door. Startled and still exhausted, she sat up straight, her muscles tense with fear. “God, Steven, I was sleeping,” she said as she patted her chest to calm her nerves, quickly realizing she wasn’t in any danger. “You scared the hell out of me. Why all the noise?”
Throwing down his duffle bag by the door, he rushed over to the couch and dropped to his knees beside her. “Sorry, babe. Listen, I’ve got some great news.” He beamed. “I’ve found us a place to live.” He grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight. “We can move in right away!”
Her eyes lost all signs of tiredness and sparkled with anticipation. Now he had her full attention. “Really? Where?”
Steven hesitated. “Seattle.”
Flabbergasted, Tammy pushed Steven’s hand away as a look of horror masked her face. “Seattle?” she screamed, unable to control her anger. “We can’t move to bloody Seattle. Are you out of your fucking mind?” This was by far the stupidest thing she’d ever heard.
Steven grabbed her shoulders in an attempt to hold her interest. “Hear me out, okay. We can make this work. Look at it like a fresh start.”
Tammy wasn’t going to listen to him. She had no intentions of moving hundreds of miles away to another state. Pushing him away with the palms of her hands, she leapt up from the couch. “I’m not moving to Seattle, Steven. What about our jobs? And my dad? I can’t just pack up and leave. It’s just ridiculous. You can’t be serious, surely?”
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