Chapter Nine: Thomas

I hadn’t planned on having sex with her when I came to the bar, but Sophia is like my Achilles heel with her sexy body and sweet moans. I need to talk to her about the deal. It isn’t going to be easy to tell her something so crazy and now after we’ve had sex in her car I don’t know how to start it. I situate myself in the passenger seat and I can tell she’s waiting for me just to bail. It’s what I’ve done after every other encounter so why would she expect something more of me?

“Sophia?” I look over and see her fixing her hair in the rearview mirror her concentration making her bite her lip. She’s humming a song I don’t recognize except it might be a cheesy rap song with a cool beat and all I want to do is get inside of her all over again.

“Yeah Thomas?”

“I need to talk to you. Can we go to your place to talk?” My own nerves have me rubbing my hands on the back of my neck.

She stops messing with her hair and turns to me with wide eyes. “You want to go to my house?”

“Yes, I live with some other people. It won’t be private.” I tell her. I should probably tell her I live with my parents. If she agrees to have my baby then I’m going to need to be honest with her and maybe move into my own place. I’m pretty sure that any adult male living with his parents probably loses his cool card no matter what the reason is.

“Thomas, I know you live in a mansion. You won’t find my apartment even a little charming.” She says and I realize she’s serious. Does she have a reason for not wanting me to see her place?

“Sophia, it doesn’t matter to me if you live in a cardboard box. Let’s just go.” I’m tired and want this over with.

“Okay, I didn’t want to tell you about my cardboard house, but you’re about to go deep into my world buddy.”

She laughs and I’m not sure if she’s kidding or not. I feel like I should know if she lives in a cardboard box. I’m relieved when we turn into an apartment complex but she pauses and I look up to see why.

“Shit,” she says, “there’s paparazzi here waiting for me. You need to go around the back.”

“It’s okay if they see me. It has to do with what I want to talk to you about.” I tell her. My heart is beating really fast and I feel twitchy sitting in her car. I didn’t realize when I started to think about this plan I’d be so nervous to ask her. It’s not every day I ask a woman to have my baby.

“Okay, but this is going to be strange for me, you realize that?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry. Just walk normal and ignore them. The goal is to pretend they aren’t there.”

She grumbles, “Easy for you to say.” It’s cute and I clutch her hand in mine squeezing it gently in a way that I hope reassures her as she parks.

As we park I see the moment one of the cameramen spots her car. They are in for a treat this time because I open the door and emerge first going around to open her door. We walk to the front of the apartment and two more cameramen join the first. They push each other walking backward to take pictures of us.

To her credit, Sophia does a great job of ignoring them. That is until one yells, “who destroyed your apartment bar girl?” My face gets hot when they don’t know her name. It isn’t right I know this is my fault for dragging her into this.

“Her name is Sophia asshole, learn it,” I say to the guy. I do a quick check to make sure none of their cameras are videoing.

Sophia has stopped and turned to ask the camera guy what he meant, but I gently grab her arm and she takes mine so we can continue walking towards her place. They snap pictures as we walk in and continue to yell. I’ll deal with the fall out later, right now I just want to protect her.

“Thomas, are you spending the night here? Thomas is she better than Rosa. Thomas, what do you think about Kanye’s new album?” I don’t answer them and hope that wasn’t the song Sophia was humming earlier. That’s just crazy, no one was there.

I shut the door in their faces and clicking cameras.

“I still think you should have snuck in around back,” she says as she walks in her front door. “I know I don’t quite know how this goes, but I can imagine those pictures will be splashed everywhere tomorrow.”

I watch her skirt around her apartment and while it’s not a cardboard box it’s definitely nothing spectacular, but I don’t say anything.

“Yes, and I know that sounds strange. I need to talk to you about something and it’s going to sound weird at first.”

I realize she’s stopped and is standing in the middle of her apartment. From what I can see the pictures on the wall have been broken and knocked down. There are some broken dishes right in front of her on the floor.

“Jesus,” I mutter taking in the destruction.

“Damn it.” She clutches her purse to her chest heaving a deep breath.

“What’s going on Sophia?” I ask.

“That asshole trashed my whole place. I should have known the paps weren’t just saying that.” She says. I can tell she’s not listening to me as she moves into the apartment further. Her apartment is the size of my room and I am shocked she’s living in such a small space.

All the things were thrown about and the way they’re piled up on the floor make it look a lot smaller.

She starts picking things up and moving them but doesn’t appear to be making much progress turning items over and then tossing them back into the pile looking defeated. Finally, she gives up and goes to get a beer out of the fridge. I pick a few things to pick up out of the floor and then walk into the living room area which seems to be the whole front part and clear off her couch.

“I’ll help you clean it up,” I say.

She doesn’t respond but continues to drink the beer guzzling the entire thing down before slamming it on the counter and wiping her mouth with her arm. She reaches into the fridge and grabs a second one opening that for a sip this time. I decide to give her a moment before I ask her who did this. Once she’s halfway done with her beer, I figure enough time has passed.

“Who did this to you?”

“It’s embarrassing and you won’t understand.” She runs a hand through her hair and starts to pace.

“Try me,” I say, I really want to know what’s going on in her life. I’m still feeling protective of her.

“About five months ago I was going to get evicted. I was three months behind on the rent due to an unfortunate problem that had to be fixed in my car.” She leans against her wall and looks down. “I borrowed the money from someone I shouldn’t have and now he hounds me for payments and interest. It’s like no matter how much I give him, it’s not enough.”

The guy sounds like a loan shark and I don’t like that she’s been dealing with this all this time and I never knew until now.

“I’m sorry. What a jackass. I think what I have to talk to you about could help you with that problem and some other things.”

“Do I need another beer?” She says already finishing her first.

“Yes. Bring me one too please”

Once she brings the beers over I take a deep breath. I figure the best way to tell her what’s going on is just to get it all out. The deep breath doesn’t help me but I force the words out.

“I’m going to lose my inheritance if I don’t have a baby. I want to pay you to have that baby for me.”

My heart has sped up even more and I wait to try to determine what she’s thinking by the look on her face. The response I get is not what I expected. She laughs loudly and holds her stomach as she bends over. She’s beautiful but then I remember that it’s my predicament she’s laughing about and I feel grumpy.

I wait for her to get it out of her system. When she stands back up wiping tears from her eyes I look at her as seriously as I can.

“Sophia, I’m serious,” I say and take a drink from my beer letting her absorb the information. Part of me feels insulted she’s not jumping at the idea of having my baby.

She is still laughing for a minute but then she stops and sits down on the couch. I watch as she chugs her beer and I don’t know what to think about how she’s taking this.

“You want to pay me to have a baby. I don’t even understand why this is happening?” Her hands wring together and I cup my palm over them.

“Believe me, I don’t understand it either, but my dad–well, he’s got this idea to give everything away if I don’t do this.”

“He’s that rich?” She says it with a level of distaste I currently feel. Yeah, my dad has buckets of money and he’s manipulating all of us to get what he wants.

“I wouldn’t do this for just me, but he’s going to take the money away from my little sister. My mother and father can do without wealth, but she doesn’t really deserve to get it taken away from her.”

“You have a sister?” She asks and I’m surprised that’s her first question.

“Yes. Her name is Dinah and if I don’t figure this out my dad is cutting us all off. My mother too, even though I think she could get a job.”

She hums for a moment but says nothing until I nudge her with my shoulder.

“Well?” I prompt.

“This is crazy. What kind of money do you even pay for something like that.” Her mouth drops open and I think about her kissing her way down my chest and sucking me off earlier. Grunting I adjust myself on the couch and give her a number that seems fair.

“I’ll give you five hundred thousand dollars.”

She spits her beer out and some of it splashes on my shoes.

She looks embarrassed and apologizes, “I’m so sorry Thomas. That’s just so much money I freaked out for a minute. None of this seems real and since the paps have been hounding me it all seems like a strange dream I can’t wake up from.”

“It’s okay. I just want to make it worth it to you and I’ll take care of this whole mess.” I gesture around me at the mess the people left in her house. “I’ll pay him off with interest and get a cleaning crew in here Sophia. You won’t have to worry.” I don’t want her to have to think about anything except hosting my baby inside her sexy body.

She starts to say something and bursts into tears. I watch as she runs to the bathroom leaving me completely confused as to what I said to upset her. Her apartment is so small so I can hear her talking to herself in the bathroom. She’s still crying but seems to be reasoning something out. I just sit quietly hoping she’ll come out when she’s ready to tell me if I’m insane or if this is something that can actually happen. I need her more than she needs me but I need to convince her I’m worth the risk.

Women crying does something to me. I want to do whatever I can to make them feel better. Especially if I care about them. My mind starts spinning trying to come up with ways I can make everything better. This is completely uncharted territory. I know it’s not something minor I’m asking her to do. This is a huge deal and I won’t take her decision lightly.