“Baby, it is so good to hear your voice.”
I knew the voice instantly, but I didn’t understand the low timbre. It sounded sexy, but I wasn’t thinking about sex. I was wondering why he was calling me after so long.
“Greg?”
“Of course this is Greg.”
“What do you want?”
I could hear the harshness in my voice. It didn’t sound pleasant, but there was really no way I could keep it out. I wanted to pretend like it didn’t matter, like I hadn’t pined for the man who was talking to me so nonchalantly now. But I couldn’t act like that. I had waited for far too long for a call from Greg. After a month, maybe two, I had tried my best to accept that I was never going to hear from him again. Now that I had, after all of that time, I didn’t have much good to say.
There was a pause while the thoughts and emotions rolled through me. I didn’t know what he as thinking, but I supposed he would most likely hang up. My heart was pounding so hard that the sound in my ears drowned out everything else.
“Hello? Are you still there?” I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to be or not. But I repeated it one more time and then he answered me.
“Yes. I need to talk to you.”
“I don’t think we have much to say to each other, Greg, do you?”
“We have a lot to say to each other. I haven’t seen you since our picnic.”
The mention of the picnic made me mad. It had been the night that I had fallen for him. I had waited for him to call or come over, but he never had. I didn’t even know where he lived, and it was impossible to get a phone number for a man like Greg Jefferson. No one was going to give it away, and since he had cut ties with the company, there was nothing I could do to find him. Greg popping up again now was very unsettling, and I was instantly on guard.
“I think you should have called a little sooner, Greg. In most circles, three days is pretty customary, not ninety.”
“Has it been that long?”
I sighed out loud into the receiver and then just put the phone down. There was nothing that he could say to make it better, and I didn’t have anything to say beyond a few curse words.
The phone rang again. After a few minutes of it going through the four-ring cycle and then repeating, I turned it off. Fran came in and asked me if I was okay.
“Yeah.”
“You don’t look okay. Who was that?”
“A ghost.”
She looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was. I certainly hadn’t been feeling myself for a while. Now that I had just about convinced myself to move on, it was disconcerting to have him surface again. Just the sound of his voice made me realize how much I had missed him, and I damned my body for falling for it.
“So are you ready to go?”
Fran eyed me warily and said that she was. I knew that my eyes were most likely red-rimmed, but I was going to pretend that I didn’t care and that his voice on the phone hadn’t been like a punch in the stomach.
***
The news seemed to be about my luck. I hadn’t been feeling well, and Fran had pushed and prodded until I finally agreed to go the doctor to see what was going on. She took me there herself one night, and I quickly found out what it was that was making me feel so sick to my stomach in the mornings and then so tired throughout the day. I had thought it was the flu or some other virus that was just taking its course. I had never suspected that it would be what it was. The answer was so obvious in retrospect, yet I refused to say anything about it to anyone, not even Fran.
There were choices to be made, but the last thing I wanted to do was make a decision too quickly. I had the urge to call Greg and tell him everything, but then I remembered all of the days and nights I had waited for his call. I didn’t want to be that way again, but I knew that eventually I was going to have to talk to him. I told myself that I would be ready for him when he called again.
I wasn’t planning to see him, though. I waited the rest of the day for him to call back. I had a lot on my mind, and I decided that I was going to tell him the truth.
I just didn’t expect him to pop up at my house. It never even crossed my mind, so when I heard the doorbell, I let Fran get it. If I had thought for a moment that it was Greg, I would have rushed to the door.
Instead I got Fran coming into my room and announcing that Greg was there. “Is he in the house?”
Fran shook her head. “I am not letting him in.”
I gave her a look and she looked back with sympathy. “Just let him in, Fran, and send him back here. We need to talk.”
Fran was skeptical about that, but she was a good friend and sent Greg to me. I took a look in the mirror and then put a hand to my stomach. Would he know? Would he believe me when I told him it was his?
The second question made me nervous. Greg and I had only been together once and we hadn’t even thought of using protection. But he was rich, and he might think that I had tried to trap him on purpose. The more I thought about it, the less I actually wanted to tell him. I wouldn’t be able to handle him looking at me like I had tried to put one over on him.
When I heard him at the door, I opened it slowly. I had no doubt that it wasn’t as nice as his place, but I didn’t want him around Fran in the common area. Fran had a lot to say about him just taking off, and I didn’t want her to say it to him. Fran was not known for keeping her mouth shut.
“Hi, Greg. What are you doing here?”
His eyes took me in, and the look he gave me made me a little nervous. I took a step back and offered him the chair. I sat on the edge of my bed and tried not to think about the last time we were together.
“I’ve missed you, Desiree.”
His words were sweet, and I wanted to believe him. I had missed him so much, but in the end, there was nothing I could do. He had vanished and now, like a ghost, he was back. Why did I want nothing more than for him to touch me, kiss me like he did before? Couldn’t he see that I was dying for it?
I looked away so that he couldn’t see my need and my confusion. I didn’t know what to say. When I looked back he was staring at me from his chair. God, he looked predatory.
“I was sorry to hear about the business,” I offered.
He waved me off like getting forced from his own company wasn’t a big deal. “I’ve taken care of Donald, and now I’m here to offer you a job. The pay is better, and the hours are too. All you have to do is say yes. I need you there with me, Desiree.”
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it was a start. “I will think about it. I have a few offers I’m looking at right now.”
He didn’t like my answer. I saw the flare in his eyes.
“What other offers?”
“Schwartz and that place down on 3rd.”
He frowned at me. For some reason I liked that it bothered him. I wanted to bother him, because Lord knows that he had bothered me for the last few months.
“You need to come back to me.”
His words were soft, and I couldn’t help but smile at him. I wanted to go back to him more than anything. I wanted more than to work for him, though. My dreams were filled with us together forever, even though I knew something like that would never happen.
“I don’t know if I can, Greg.”