TRENT SUDDENLY APPEARS out of nowhere and slides his hands around my belly, rubbing his hands under my sweatshirt. His front to my back, I tilt my head back to his chest and just sigh. This man does me in. He knows when I need him and is always so attentive; it's like he has a sonar on when my body is running down.
“Keep this up, babe, and you're going to be putting me to bed early,” I say, turning in his arms and kissing his chin.
Lifting his sunglasses, he gives me a devilish grin and grabs my ponytail. Pulling back slightly so I can look at the glint in his eyes, I raise up on my toes to kiss his lips, but he turns and sucks on the sensitive spot of my neck just below my ear. This has an involuntary moan escaping as I close my eyes to the sensation.
“Ugh, you guys really make me sick sometimes, you know that,” Amy chides.
Waving her off, I pay no attention to anything around me but this man I love. I don’t see Marissa here, I’m not being stunned when seeing Carter. I see nothing but this man in front of me who needs my attention.
I'm suddenly shoved backward, as if someone ran into the back of Trent. What the hell?
“If it isn't the little slut trying to show everyone just how she got knocked up in the first place,” is slurred behind me. Marissa.
“Oops, did I let the cat out of the bag, angel? Oh, I'm so sorry,” she says, laughing loudly at her own joke. Everyone is now standing around staring at the spectacle that is a very intoxicated Marissa.
She has a friend standing close, laughing at the whole exchange while she just stares down at Trent. Someone else that wants him, huh? Great, I need another one like a hole in the head.
I look to Carter across the room, his nostrils suddenly flare and his clenched jaw shows me this isn't what he wanted to hear. I'm pregnant with another man’s child. A child that always should have been his. But that's not how our life worked out.
“Marissa, shut your mouth!” Trent yells to her while keeping his hold on me.
I push him away a little so I can turn around and face her.
“I need to shut my mouth, Trent? I told you this little tramp was nothing but trouble for you. Look at you, you're pathetic. You run back to her like a lost puppy, after what we just shared. Are you even drinking? I told you he couldn't be tamed, sweet face,” she says now practically spitting in my face.
What did she just say? After what they just shared?
“That's enough, Marissa!” Trent yells from behind me.
“It was so good,” her friend purrs next to her while grabbing Marissa’s arm and licking her lips at Trent.
Placing my hand on Trent’s chest, I silently tell him to let me handle this. I have had enough of this girl. I don't know what she is after with Trent, what she's talking about, or why she just can't take a hint and move on. Clearly she needs a little motivation. I'm done with her games and the surprises of the night.
I feel a small adrenaline surge course through me I've never felt before, this must be my inner protector coming to rise to the challenge. Well it's about damn time she showed up to help me out.
You threaten me okay, you humiliate me...not okay, but I can deal. You want to talk about my baby and my relationship with my love like I'm a scam? Nope, not happening.
I get right into Marissa’s face and she looks in my eyes with disdain.
Oh it's mutual.
“If you were so meaningful to Trent, then he wouldn't have found me. What we share isn't something I ever expect a tramp like you to understand,” I say, pulling back a little as her breathing really starts accelerating. I'm far from done here.
Trent tries to pull me away from this...again, but I hold my ground. “You make your way around the party and everyone sniffs the desperation on you. Come on, Marissa, who are you kidding? You are a one trick pony and good for some party tricks and maybe being the pretty blonde on someone's arm…but keep you? I don't think so, darling.”
She’s trying to come back with something to say but she keeps looking around at everyone gathered. Including her friend next to her who is she still looking at Trent. She thought she would get me down like she did last time. Not happening.
The Andrea that put up with everyone walking all over her is no more. Maybe it took seeing Carter tonight. Seeing him brought out the insecurities I had when he told me to leave his apartment the night I left. He really did a number on me and it's been less than a year.
Now I finally find someone to make me happy and he isn't going to leave me. He loves me and wants a life with me. It's an amazing feeling to have and this chick isn't going to go stepping all over it and plowing it up with her heels! The same chick I last saw with Carter.
Marissa leans in and whispers, “I'll let you have your little outburst here and now, but mark my words angel, I am not done. He won't stick with the boring little mouse when he can have the playful kitty that knows how to play. You see, little naive Andrea, my friend Tabetha and I just blew his mind downstairs, not thirty minutes ago.”
“Marissa, that's enough! I am not going to stand here and let you belittle Andrea. We are having a baby together and going to be together whether you agree or not. I have never been happier than I am right now,” Trent says angrily. He's shaking and I've never seen him this way. But I'm not sure why he's shaking. Is it out of rage for what she's said to me? Or is it her outing that he's been with her again. This is too much, I won't spend my life this way.
Trent pulls me to the hallway to get away from her. I turn and look up into his eyes, my eyes begging him to tell me she's lying. That he wasn't just downstairs with her and her friend doing...I don't even want to know.
“Trent,” I say on a plea, my voice cracking. “Please tell me she's lying.”
“She's not lying, Starfish.” I hear from behind me. Carter. What is he saying? How, how does he know?
“Stay out of this Avery,” Trent yells angrily at Carter over my shoulder.
“I can't do that. Andrea happens to mean a great deal to me, and I won't have her bamboozled by your kinks and lying fucking ass. You can't do right by her, then fucking let her go!” Carter yells back, now getting right in Trent’s face.
Trent gets a little sneer on his face, before he delivers the blow to Carter. “Didn't you hear? We're having a baby. Andrea is pregnant with my child, she's mine Avery. So again, you need to mind your own fucking business.”