The fire alarm at work was piercing through my skull, adding to the pounding headache I already had.

Meredith rolled her eyes at me and we stared at one another.

“Should we ignore it?” she asked and I nodded eagerly. The alarm went off at least once week, courtesy of some faulty wiring which the fire department had yet to fix even though this had been happening for over six months.

“Fuck it,” Meredith agreed and we tried to block out the noise and focus at the task at hand. We were nearing a breakthrough on a lung cancer drug which Meredith and I had both been working on for two straight years but it seemed like every time we got near solving the problem, we found another wrench in the development process.

“Ever wish you’d just gone into the arts?” Meredith cracked over the sound and I rolled my eyes.

“Every day,” I sighed. Blissfully, the noise stopped and I exhaled, trying to regain my hearing.

“Shit,” Meredith sighed. “I should have gone outside. Now I need a smoke.”

“I’ll come with you,” I told her. The alarm had thrown off my concentration and while I didn’t smoke, I wanted to stretch my legs.

“How’s your rug rat?” Meredith asked as we stepped into the lobby. She reached into her lab coat and pulled a pack of Marlborough’s from inside.

“He’s six and asking me for a MacBook.”

“Yeah, I remember when they started figuring out about stuff. I miss the toddler days, despite all the questions. At least you could lie to them and they didn’t know any better,” Meredith chuckled.

We barely made it outside before she lit up and blew some smoke rings.

“I don’t know how you do it, Blake. I mean, not to say my husband is any use at all but at least I could use him to ensure the kids didn’t die when I needed to sleep, you know?”

I smiled and shrugged.

“Jake’s a good kid,” I replied. “He takes care of himself mostly. Anyway, it’s a lot easier now that he’s in school.”

“I’ll bet. How much were you paying out for daycare? Like six hundred bucks a month?”

It had been more than that and I had borrowed more money from my parents than I wanted to admit but that was all in the past now.

“The deadbeat who spawned him should be paying, you know,” Meredith continued and I inhaled, steeling myself for the familiar lecture. I really didn’t want to hear it even though I knew Meredith meant well.

She had become a good friend in the past years and when I’d finally confessed my pregnancy to her, she’s stepped up on my behalf to ensure my job was waiting for me when I got back from maternity leave.

I owed her a lot, including the endless diatribes about how I should be slapping legal papers on Jake’s father and squeezing him of every last cent he had.

Truthfully, I didn’t think about Jake as having a father most of the time but every once in a while, the sun would catch his eye just right and I would see the grey in his blue eyes that was unmistakably Mal’s.

In some ways, he carried himself in the same cocksure manner as his father too but of course he was far too young to assess. He could still be anyone at his age. It was amazing watching my son grow but sometimes, late at night, I would go into his room and stare at him longingly, my heart full and sad at the same time.

Would Mal love him as much as I did? Would his heart melt at the sound of his impish laughter?

I had never told him about Jake, the timing never seemed right. The divorce between Ella and Grayson dragged on for two years, mostly because they kept getting back together and then splitting apart again.

There was a mounting animus between our families, both sides just wanting the papers filed and in place already but I knew that even if that happened, Ella and Grayson just wouldn’t let the other go.

At least Mal and I had learned from their mistakes…no matter how hard it was to accept.

“Woah,” Meredith said suddenly, stopping in the middle of her lecture. Smoke slipped from her nostrils like she was a dragon on the prowl and I looked up to where she was looking.

“Fresh meat?”

I barely heard her words because my ears were ringing again and they had nothing to do with the fire alarm.

“Oh shit!” I cursed, turning my head around quickly before Malcolm could see me. “Shit!”

Mer’s eyes widened with interest.

“I think that’s the first time in six years I’ve ever heard you swear,” she declared. “Do you know that hottie? I want to take a bite out of his ass, five thousand-dollar pants et al.”

“Did he see us?” I muttered, wishing she would keep her voice down. “Oh God, please tell me he didn’t—”

“Ah! Dr. Carver, Ms. Mavis!” the head of HR declared as he approached with Malcolm. “Allow me to introduce the newest member of the Hendel team. This is—”

“Blake?” Mal choked. I slowly turned and forced a smile on my face.

“Hey stranger,” I muttered, adjusting my glasses over the bridge of my nose. I immediately wished I hadn’t done that. He knew my tells too well and he definitely recognized that as a sign of nervousness.

“Oh! You know Ms. Mavis,” Cory Rodgers declared. “How do you two know each other?”

“We’re old friends,” Mal started to say.

“We graduated the same class at Berkeley,” I offered. I saw a flash of hurt on Mal’s face but he didn’t correct me.

“Well, Mr. Laurier, Dr. Carver and Ms. Mavis are two of our star researchers. Right now, they are overseeing a drug which will be a huge breakthrough in the advancement of treating lung cancer.”

“I read about that,” Mal murmured, his eyes still trained on my face.

“I’m Meredith,” she cooed, extending her hand toward him. “Welcome to Hendel. What do you do, Mr. Laurier?”

“Oh,” Cory chuckled. “Silly me. I should have mentioned. Mr. Laurier will be overseeing the development department.”

I blinked and gaped at Cory.

“What?” I gasped. Cory looked confused.

“Well, yes. Greg Ebert is retiring in two months and Mr. Laurier comes highly recommended from—”

“I’m sure his background is stellar,” Meredith interjected, shooting me a weird look but I was too busy staring down at the ground.

“Welcome to Hendel, Ma—Mr. Laurier,” I stuttered. “I hope you’ll be happy here.”

“I’m already happier than I was,” he replied, trying to catch my eye but I turned my head away slightly.

“Shall we continue with the tour?” Cory asked, possibly picking up on the tension he didn’t understand.

“Sure.” I heard the reluctance in his voice but I still couldn’t bring myself to look at him as they walked away.

“See you later,” Mal called as a last-ditch attempt to get our eyes to lock but I didn’t bite.

“What was that all about? Old flame?”

“No,” I lied. “Just someone I knew in college.”

“Bully?” she guessed, inhaling the last of her cigarette.

“No.”

Meredith’s eyes narrowed and she butted out the smoke.

“Well whatever your deal is with Hottie McHotterson, you better get over it.”

“I know. I am over it,” I replied quickly, moving to grab for the door. I wanted to put as much distance between me and Mal as possible and I needed some time to clear my thoughts.

This was the universe sending Mal to me, yet again. He was the boy across the street. He ended up halfway across the country in the same college as me. He had fathered my child and now, he was back in my life again.

I couldn’t escape him. Why was I trying?

But I knew if I let him near me again, he would learn about Jake and he would be furious. I should have told him a long time ago but Grayson and Ella…

When are you going to stop using those two as an excuse?

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Meredith asked and I could hear the concern in her voice. I punched the up button for the elevator and turned to face her, exhaling slowly.

“If I tell you something, you have to swear not to breathe a word of it to anyone. Not even your husband.”

Meredith scoffed.

“You think I tell that dumb ass anything? And even if I did by drunken accident, he doesn’t listen to a word I say. If he did, he would have moved out ten years ago.”

“Promise me, Mer.”

She saw the look on my face and nodded slowly.

“All right, I swear,” she vowed. “What is it?”

The elevator doors opened and we got on alone.

“Mal is Jake’s father.”

Confusion colored her cheeks.

“Wait what? Are you sure?”

I nodded.

“And that bastard hasn’t paid you a cent in child support?” Her voice reverberated through the lift and I shushed her.

“No he hasn’t…because he doesn’t know about Jake.”

Meredith looked as if she’d swallowed something very bitter and she gaped at me.

“Why?” she breathed. “Why would you do that?”

“I have my reasons but you can’t say a word to anyone. If this gets out—”

“Yeah, I can see the problem,” Meredith sighed, falling back against the rail of the elevator. “It won’t look good to know you have a love child with your immediate superior, will it?”