Chapter 14
Cameron
Life had changed a lot in the last few months. My old boss at the dentist’s office was right when he said he would make sure that I was unable to find another job. I knew that he wasn’t joking, but I figured that his reach wasn’t as wide as he thought it was. Turned out that it was and I was unable to get anything else. Everyone seemed to know who I was and though I wasn’t sure what they knew, after about a week of looking, I was so frustrated that I finally gave up. It was no use.
I wanted to stay in the city, but I learned that it just wasn’t going to happen. I finally had to give up my new life in the city and go back to the small town I came from. I had sold my parent’s house, so now I was living in an apartment that was even smaller than the one I had rented with Anne. It wasn’t what I wanted, but there were more reasons than one to be there.
Not too long after I moved back home, I realized some things. One main thing that I realized was that I was pregnant. It was a disaster and I kicked myself many times over it. I can’t believe that I was so stupid and I couldn’t believe that I had let myself get pregnant in the first place. I knew that I should have used a condom, but with Grey, everything had moved so fast. Instead of trying to figure it out, for a couple of months I just ignored all of the signs and symptoms. I finally came to term with it though, no matter how hard it was to face.
Then there was the question of what I was going to do and if I was going to tell him about it. I knew that he most likely wouldn’t even want to know, nor would he actually remember me. A man like that, there was no way that he was going to remember a one-off moment with me in a dentist’s office.
It left me in this weird limbo that I wasn’t sure about. I got a job at the local dentist office in town, the only one actually and I started to prepare for the baby that was coming. No matter what happened or didn’t happen with Grey, I had to be ready. The work and the extra job to save up money is what kept me busy and the more I thought about it, the more I knew that I was going to have to say something. The shame of it all was that I didn’t really know how to get ahold of him. I had long since lost the card that he gave me so long ago, but I did still have the number for Leo for some reason.
When I finally got my nerve up, I called his driver and hoped that I would get some information on where to find him. It was an awkward conversation, but it was one that I had to have with him, no matter how painful it was going to be. I think I knew how he was going to react, but it would be wrong of me not to at least try, right?
“Hey Leo.”
“Hello… Who is this?”
For a moment I didn’t know what to say. He had a strange sound to his voice and imagined him trying to figure out who I was from the other end. It had been months since I had talked to him and now I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say. What was I supposed to say, hey, remember me from a few months ago? Now I am knocked up and I need to get ahold of your boss?
Even in my own mind that sounded silly and I hung up before I could say anything else. What the hell was I thinking? This was all just a mistake and it was one that I wasn’t or shouldn’t make. I was just going to have to do this myself and see what happened. Women did it all of the time, right?
When the phone rang in my hand, I was so startled that I almost dropped it where I stood. It was Leo when I saw the number come across the nameplate, but I didn’t want to talk to him. It was a mistake to call and I turned my phone off so I wouldn’t be tempted to answer. It was the last thing that I needed and I was just going to have to figure something out. I still had almost five months to do so and even though right now I didn’t have an answer, I was sure that I would have one soon enough.
***
The next day at work, there was a call that came in and when I went to answer it; there was no one on the other line.
“Are you sure that they asked for me?”
Dante nodded his head and told me that they ask for me specifically, first and last name.
“I don’t know who it was Cameron, but they sounded very official.”
“Is there any way that I could get the number?”
He told me that he could and after a minute he wrote down a number and handed it to me. It was the same area code for the city that I had just left and it made me nervous. Who was trying to get ahold of me?
My first thought was my old boss. He had come on pretty strong and there was something about him that I found bothersome. I didn’t want to talk to him, but he was the only one that I could think of that would try to get ahold of me. There was no telling what they wanted, but I wasn’t going to ask Dante to lie for me. I didn’t want to mess up this job as I had the last one. I seemed to be good at ruining this kind of thing for myself, so I knew that I was going to have to keep it together.
“Well if they call back, can you just tell them that I am busy and get their number?”
“Sure. You can always call them back now.”
I could, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t have anything to say to anyone that was in the city. I had left with my tail between my legs and I didn’t want to admit it, but I had left in defeat. That was the gist of it. I had nothing left there. Period.
The call did have me feeling a little strange though. If someone from the city was calling me, I don’t think it was a good thing to answer. It could have been anyone, but my mind kept going to my old boss. He had made it clear that he was ready to cause trouble for me, but it didn’t mean that he was done. Maybe he was angry that I hadn’t gone along with his plans. Men like him didn’t like to be told no. I was sure that I was the first by the way he had responded.
I also still remembered his threats that he was going to make sure that the video was put on the internet and I still waited for the time that I would be recognized or run across the video. I didn’t know where to look, but I knew that it was out there somewhere, floating around, just waiting to bite me in the ass. Now that I was pregnant, I was afraid that it would come out when my child was older and there would be nothing that I could do about it. That is what scared me the most.
At the end of my shift, I was tired and I headed out for home after locking up the office. It had been the longest day and I blamed my tiredness on the fact that I was pregnant. I was just going to get home and lay down, sure that I would feel better after the strange day I had had. I still didn’t know who called from the city, but it didn’t matter. I kept telling myself that, even though I had a nagging feeling that it did matter. I just didn’t know why.
By the time I got back to the apartment, I felt like I was being followed. There was a black car behind me that took every turn that I took and in a small town like Muskegon, there weren’t a lot of vehicles that I didn’t know. I had lived here a long time and even though I was gone for a little while, nothing changed here. It was always the same old thing and now I was sure that I was being paranoid. Did pregnancy and the mix of hormones make me a little crazy as well as tired all of the time?
The car stopped and parked a couple of houses down on the side of the street and I didn’t look towards it again. I kept telling myself that it was all in my head, but I wasn’t so sure. I knew that there was a reason that I was feeling this way. It was the blast from the past and the call that had me on edge. Ignoring the feelings that I couldn’t shake, I didn’t look towards the car again. I just pulled my keys out and moved to the apartment door quickly. Whatever or whoever had me on edge didn’t matter. I was home now and I could push all of this away.
Shutting the door behind me, I leaned on the wooden frame and tried to catch my breath, still telling myself that it was all in my head. My heart was beating a little too fast. I don’t know if it was all made up or not, but either way, I was letting it all get to me. It was a shame because the more I tried to push it away, the more the feelings of it made me sure that I was right. Was someone really following me?
Mr. Grumpy meowed next to me and pulled me from my thoughts. He was hungry and I picked him up as I puttered towards the kitchen. At least he was a good distraction, one that I apparently needed as I lost my mind. Pregnancy hormones were no joke.