Lily
I have to move my cell from my ear at Kerry’s squeal.
“I can’t believe it,” she sings, her happiness for me oozing through the phone.
When it’s safe, I tuck the phone back between my ear and shoulder. “I’m right there with you.” I wet my hands, smoothing back the stray strands rebelling from my hair tie. Re-tying my ponytail, I open my makeup bag and touch up my lipstick. Luke’s kisses smeared them off.
Lunch had been a pleasant way to spend an hour.
My thighs clench together at the memory of Luke’s head between my legs, his fingers spreading my outer lips and his tongue thrusting in and out my opening. I’m not too bothered by ruining my panties.
Kerry’s calling me back. “Did I lose you there?”
“Yes. I was thinking about the move and planning it out in my head.” It’s a half-truth, but it’s most of what I’ve been turning over after Luke proposed I move in tonight. His words were, “Pack up whatever fits a small bag. We’ll worry about the rest and seeing your lease through later.”
I tell Kerry this.
She squeals again. “I’m sorry,” she apologizes, my ear still ringing. “It’s just this is actually happening, isn’t it? You’re moving in with Luke Hanley—you’re having his baby,” she whispers the last part because she’s at work.
I’ve pulled her out from a school testing period, so I know I only have a short time to talk to Kerry. I couldn’t hold in the news, though. I snuck off from the work I haven’t been doing since Luke left the office after our lunch break and took Kerry’s call and my news to the bathroom.
A part of me sought her out because all of this is happening so fast. What if I jump into moving in with Luke, but it doesn’t work?
“It will,” Kerry insists. “Think positively.”
“I am trying to. I just don’t want Luke to regret this.” Then I smile, remembering how he reacted when he found out about the baby. I stroke my belly, my eyes on my reflection.
“I can’t believe I’m moving in with Luke,” I gush, a little giddy now that Kerry’s helped me wash most of the doubt away. “I’m still getting used to dating him. It’s strange though how everyone at work is cool with us.”
Kerry laughs. “Well, you are a stunner. They probably had bets going as to which of the single guys would land you.”
“Stop.” I laugh with her though.
She promises she’ll stop over after work to help me pack. “You’re pregnant. I don’t want you carrying too much.”
Luke had said the same thing, but he looked pretty busy on his way out to see Floyd to tell his father about me...and the baby. I wouldn’t be surprised if the two men decide to enjoy dinner, father and son, and Luke meets up with me later.
Kerry and I hang up and I’m gearing up for the last couple hours of work.
“Focus,” I chant under my breath, using the mantra to clear my mind as I exit the bathroom. Though it’s unisex, I’m not prepared to run into anyone. But there’s our newest sales rep, Ian, standing at the bathroom door.
He started three weeks ago, a little after Luke and I got back together, and I got on board with the alibi. Boy, did we take our fake relationship seriously.
But, I sternly remind myself, it’s not fake anymore. Luke does want me to have this baby, and he does want me to move in—permanently.
“Sorry,” Ian blurts. He backs up, his hands in the air. Then he drops them quickly, his face and ears burning red awfully fast. “I wasn’t eavesdropping. I heard you talking in there, and I was wondering if you were all right.”
Not expecting that response, I suffer through the blabbering humiliation of being caught sneaking from work to talk to Kerry.
Ian nods, his face still glowing. He rubs the back of his neck, mumbling, “You have the key?”
Holding out the bathroom key to him, I smile and thank him again for the concern. He’s young and I’m sure he won’t care that I used the bathroom for such a reason. But I realize, looking around at my co-workers, my position here has changed. In one way I’m still the office administrator, but I’m also Luke’s girlfriend.
If I want to continue working at Hanley Auto, I have to prove I’m not using Luke for his money.
So for the next two hours I work, and I work hard. It takes more energy to wrestle my seemingly already pregnancy-addled mind, but I manage. And when it hits four o’clock, I grab my coat and purse, power down the computer, and push in my chair.
I do get a few stares then. Usually I’m not the first one out. I leave with everyone else once they finish chatting off-hours and we all file out to our cars as one big group. With a quick wave, I smile my way through the showroom and out the side door, rounding about to the parking lot.
Every time I make this trip, I recall how it led me to Luke. Once, I wished I hadn’t worked late and I hadn’t witnessed Russ and his friend murdering Derrick Smyth.
Now I’m almost glad it threw me in Luke’s path. Me and Luke Hanley—the thought makes me laugh even now. We’re so different.
We were so different. And now we’ve made our differences work for us, and we’re having a baby.
Like Kerry, I do a little squeal myself.
I’m driving home extra carefully, aware my mind is on an overload of happiness and being pulled this way. I manage to get home safe and sound, riding up to my apartment and getting inside to have a real good look of the place since I moved in. I’m trying to soak it all in.
I wouldn’t miss the late nights alone. And I wouldn’t trade Luke and this baby for another night here. This is my old life and I’m moving on.
“Okay.” I clap my hands, saying to myself, “Let’s do this, Erickson.”
I tackle my clothes first, rummaging out a mid-sized suitcase from the back of my closet. I pack the necessities: pajamas, work clothes, and all the sexy lingerie I recently procured. Then the toiletries, cleaning out most of my bathroom’s cabinet and sink glass mantle. I find a photo album that I stored away, the only thing I have of my parents.
Sure, I talk to them every other month, but phone calls and Skype can’t replace the real thing. Now that I’m pregnant, I’d see to it they at least acknowledge they’ll be grandparents.
Fifteen minutes into exploding most of my closet, dresser, and bathroom around my bedroom, I lift my head from folding blouses when I hear something at the door.
Someone is definitely knocking, hard. When they push the buzzer, I speed up, no longer believing it’s Kerry on the other side or even Luke.
I glance through the peephole, dropping back down as the ringer buzzes loud to my left. The door seems to shift with the excessive banging. I’m not clear on how much of it is my imagination and how much is very real, but I’m not dreaming up the man on the other side.
I’d recognize him anywhere, but I haven’t seen him since he pointed a gun at me. With the intent to kill.