Stacy went into the bedroom and shut the door. If this were a real relationship, I'd swear that'd be her way of saying 'sleep on the fucking couch'.
Giving her an explanation was out of the question. She was only an employee, a vessel for my baby. Nothing else.
But then... as I began to walk down the hallway, I couldn't tear myself away from that hurt look on her face.
Stacy was young, gentle, yet smart and feisty. She wasn't the general stereotype I'd see everyday.
And that alone meant I owed her some sort of explanation.
I walked over to my bedroom door and turned the knob. It was locked.
I jiggled it a few times to see if Stacy would hear and let me in. No, this was the library all over again. I sucked my teeth and pulled out my master key.
She opened the door a crack, staring up at me with her big blue eyes. Carmen's presence alone must've disturbed her.
"I'm sorry, Stacy." The word sorry was foreign to me. Stacy opened the door more and walked to the bed where she threw herself onto it and buried her head in a pillow.
"I didn't like her. You had bad taste in women. I'm disappointed," Stacy scolded.
I laughed and straightened my collar.
"I did indeed. But she was never my girlfriend."
"A fling?" Stacy asked.
"Almost. But something about her turned me off. Way off."
I sat on the bed next to her and rubbed her back.
This was time for a back massage. Maybe I could get her to do anything with a good enough massage.
Stacy let me knead in her back and shoulders for a few minutes until she jumped up.
"I have to take a shower, I feel dirty."
Those words stung me.
"Did I make you feel that way?" I asked, holding my breath. I wasn't used to rejection. Not from someone like Stacy who was slowly but surely breaking all my rules and making me break my own.
"No, today I walked through so much smog and dust, and grass and such. Plus, we had sex not too long ago."
I smirked. "Does that mean I can join you?"
"I don't think so. I might get dirty again," she said, winking.
Stacy left her covers behind and walked into the bathroom with a slow switch.
Her ass was perfect. Everything about her was perfect, and there was no more denying it. Fuck it all.
She wasn't just an employee or some carrying case for my child.
She was mine, and I was going to keep her.
No woman ever put this dull ache in my heart before.
She was the first. And my last.
Four weeks later…
We had decided to wait a little before we went to the doctors to see if she was pregnant. Stacy kept putting it off, and a tiny voice inside me wouldn’t stop speaking.
Was it mine?
After all, she did have a nasty habit of slipping out at night. Which I was going to address soon.
I was sitting in the living room, looking over more proposals and budgets for my company. Stacy whizzed by with her back pack and pounded on the elevator button to go down.
“What are you in a rush for? I have my driver drive you every day.”
“Yeah, but your driver isn’t immune to bad traffic. Plus, I’m still going to be late.” Stacy smoothed her hair back and sighed. “And I have midterms today.”
I got up and went to her side, rubbing her back, I left a kiss on her forehead.
“Woah, what was that for? You’re not the tender kind.” Stacy rubbed her forehead with wonder.
“Ouch, that hurt. I have a soft side too. Not many people witness it.”
“I can believe that,” she said with an airy chuckle.
The elevator bell rang and the golden doors opened.
“Before you leave, you forgot this.” I handed her the phone I had given her earlier. She often would leave it. It was a mistake.
But it irked the hell out of me.
“Oh, thanks! Sorry. Have a good day.” She jumped into the elevator and the doors closed, whisking her down to the floor level.
My phone rang back in the living room, and I jogged over to get it. It was my lawyer, Mr. Greene.
“Mr. Greene, how are you?”
“Grant? Grant Carter, is that you? Why you sound… jovial.”
“I do?”
“That young girl leaving an impression on you?”
I cleared my throat. “What were you calling about again?”
“About that. That credit card you got for her, the company called, said that she was spending a high amount. Might wanna deduct it from—”
“How much?” I said, cutting in.
“Well, for the two weeks she had the card, she went through almost three hundred thousand. Some of it was school tuition I gather. But then there are a lot of cash pull outs.”
“Cash pull outs?”
The voice in my head spoke aloud again. Surely Stacy was an exception to what I thought about women.
“Yeah, I don’t have the total yet, but it’s got to be over ten grand,” Mr. Green said, coughing. He needed to lay off the cigars.
“Okay, thank you for informing me. Anything else?”
“Is the girl pregnant yet?” Mr. Greene asked without hesitation.
“I don’t know. We find out this week. Stacy hates doctors, but she has no choice on this one,” I said, sitting down on the sofa and relaxing back into the memory foam.
“Well then, be merry Grant.”
“You too.”
I hung up and dove back into my work.
The questions wouldn’t stop.
The fears rekindled themselves to a stronger flame. I remember how my mother did my father. The cheating, the lies, the heartbreak. My heartbreak.
***
I spent the rest of the day fighting myself.
It wasn't fair to judge others based on one unique person. It didn't help that other women seemed to confirm what I thought about them as a whole.
Except Stacy.
She was going to be back in a few hours.
And I was going to find out what she was doing with that money, and who she was meeting.
Maybe this was a plan for her all along. To make me fall for her, take my money, my son, maybe ruin me for good.
I sat on the couch and moped about my living room. The office called, concerned that I didnt come in.
I told them I was fine and remained where I was until...
The elevator doors opened and I snapped my head up in attention.
"Good afternoon," Stacy chimed.
"You're home early."
Stacy sat her back pack down by the sofa and folded her arms. "You sound surprised."
"Of course. You've been gone for so long these past weeks." My voice grew firm. She knew where this was going.
"Well, now that midterms are over, I won't have to do that anymore."
That wasn't going to get her out of this.
"Tell me, I want to know."
"Know what?" she asked, tilting her head.
"Tell me who you've been seeing these past few nights."
"Seeing?" Stacy frowned. "Please don't tell me you're thinking what I think you are."
"Stacy, you're out way too late at night. You're spending a lot of money--"
"You said I could do it," she bit back, pointing her finger at my face.
"And that's fine, but I want to know to who and why. You're not in any trouble are you?"
She whipped around and threw her hands in the air.
"Oh my god. Now you're trying to act like you care!"
I put my foot down. "I do care! That's why I have to know."
"Well, you need to know that I'm not your little sister too. I'm not gonna be carted away by anyone--"
"This has nothing to do with that and you know it," I said, raising my voice. Not yelling, I didn't want to hurt her, but I wanted my point made.
"Then what?" Stacy asked, holding her hands out.
"I'm skeptical as to why you won't tell me. Don't you trust me?"
Stacy stayed silent. No yes or nos. She was undecided.
"I'm still trying to answer that question myself. You're a nice guy, Grant--"
"Don't give me any of that," I dismissed, waving my hand in the air. I threw myself back on the sofa I had planted myself in all day today.
Stacy was holding something back, and all the negative thoughts in me pointed in the direction of another lover.
She had me, but did I have her?
Stacy doubled over and vomitted all over the floor.
"Stacy!" I shouted, running to her aid.
"Are you okay?"
"Yea--" she thew up again before she could finish speaking.
"We need to get you to the doctor's office," I said, scooping her up into my arms.
"No, I hate--"
"Hush, you. These are the signs of being pregnant," I reminded her.
I ran over to the elevator with her firm in my arms. Stacy rested her had on my shoulder, her breath shaky from nausea. "You're going to be okay."
"Ew, I hope so. I heard pregnancy isn't such a wonderful ride."
"That's because of the guys who got them pregnant. I'll make sure you have the best."
The elevator opened and I made sure to press the emergency button so I could get down to my car garage quicker.
"Oh god, are we going faster? Put me down, I'm gonna—" I positioned Stacy so she could throw up into the small bin I had inside the elevator.
"Gross, I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize for anything, this is only natural," I said, wiping her mouth with my sleeve.
"I do trust you, you know," Stacy revealed, her eyes glittering up at mine.
"That is wise of you."
Stacy sighed. "But you don't trust me. Do you?"
“I won’t lie. It’s hard when you don’t tell me the truth,” I admitted.
“I know…”
I drove her to the hospital where I had a private wing take her in. The nurses wheeled her away and told me to wait a few for the doctor to see her.
I wasn’t the one to wait around for things, I wanted answers now.
But the nurses here were just as tough as I was and I didn’t feel like fighting any nurses.
I paced the small private waiting room that I personally had designed for the utmost comfort.
But right now the only thing I felt was anxiety.
What if Stacy was lying?
What if the baby wasn't healthy?
Why the fuck did I feel vulnerable? I was Grant Carter, I was invincible, God.
Yet this one girl, Stacy, brings me back to mortal form. Along with all the maladies that came with it.
Love, worry, concern, and the worst of all, pain.
The nurses approached me with coffee and water to see if they could calm me down.
"Sir, would you like to take this? It will make you calmer," a nurse said with a silver plate of a small paper cup and a tiny yellow pill.
"No thank you. I'm good."
No God needed medication.
The doctor strode out with his pad. I willed myself to stay calm and met the doctor with a good handshake.
"Hello Mr. Carter, we're giving Ms. Endow liquids and making sure she's well and hydrated. She says she might be pregnant. We'll be doing the test shortly."
"So she's okay for now? Can I see her?"
The doctor nodded his head with a smile. "Of course. Follow me."
Following the doctor my phone buzzed in my pocket. The doctor stopped and turned around to see me take out my phone.
“Room twenty three,” he whispered, walking off.
I nodded my head to let him know I understood and answered the call.
“Mr. Greene, twice in one day. Something wrong?” I leaned on the wall next to Stacy’s room. I contemplated about going in while I was on the phone, but in her state that’d be tacky and stupid of me.
I didn’t do either of those.
"I have some information that I have gathered at your request. That is, if you still want to hear it."
I told Mr. Greene a week ago to have Stacy followed, find out where and who she was talking with.
I held off on finding out through my resources though. If anything, I wanted to have Stacy tell me the truth.
She said she trusted me, but obviously that was a lie too.
She didn't tell me for a reason. Either she's lying about not having a boyfriend, or she's in danger.
But she wasn't going to.
And I had to let go of that false idea that kept me hanging in the air by a drawstring. I needed the truth or else my business would suffer from the lack of my full attention.
"What is it, Mr. Greene. Tell me everything."
Mr. Greene's chair creaked in the background as he shifted his weight. Clearing his throat, I heard him shuffle some papers around. "The people she talks to are very secretive. We couldn't get any info out of them. But there's this restaurant she's going to every night. There's a guy there that chats her up--"
"A guy?!" I said, perking up off the wall. My heart began to quicken. Had I fallen that weak that I lost my morals?
"Did they touch?" I barked.
"No. Just talking. Him and another girl."
My head began to pound and blood rushed through my veins like a roller coaster ride.
"Anything else?"
"No, I had the black market checked to see if she was marked or anything. But everything checks out. The only thing is," Mr. Greene coughed and cleared his throat, "is that her mother has lost her job, and was behind on rent. I guess that could account for all those cash withdrawals," Mr. Greene pointed out.
The only thing on my mind now was who the hell this guy was.