by Scarlet West
I still wasn’t sure it was a good idea to be hanging out with Jenna after work, but she wanted to help, and I did ask. Not only that, but when we’d finished, I already knew I would go get the things for a sexy, romantic dinner. I made simple things enough, I wanted to really show him what I could do in the kitchen.
“I’m in,” I said. “This is going to be great.”
“You’re going to have to let me know how it goes,” she said. “I hope it works for you.”
“Thanks, I will,” I said. I took my place behind the counter, but stole another glance her way. That was one of the nicest things she’d ever said to me, and there was a part of me that wanted to believe she really meant it. Perhaps she wasn’t a total bitch, and we could work out a friendship eventually.
I didn’t hate her entirely, and I was desperate to save my marriage. It might be fake now, but I didn’t want it to be fake forever, and this person just gave me the advice I needed to make it work.
Then the phone rang.
“You going to get that?” she asked, her smirk etched on her face.
17
Blake
I paced back and forth in my office, my hands pinned behind my back. Half a bottle of whiskey was on the desk, and I could feel the warmth of it swirling around in my stomach. But, my mind was on other things. I was glad it helped to numb some of what I was feeling, but I needed more.
I had talked to several people on the phone the day before about investing, and I felt we had some really good leads. But, we weren’t close enough yet. We still had to figure out times and meetings, and what we were going to actually pitch them.
I felt good when I’d gone home, thinking that things were going to get better, but when I walked through the door, Ashley was already in bed. There was some food on the stove for me, and a note on the table.
Blake, sorry that I wasn’t up to see you tonight, but I had a trying day at work and I’m just too tired to make for good conversation. There’s food on the stove for you, I hope you had a good day at work and a good rest of your night.
I’ll see you in the morning,
Ashley.
Though there was nothing in the note that had said anything bad, it hit my like a punch in the stomach. I couldn’t help but read between the lines, and with what had happened in the car with the phone, I now was convinced more than ever she had her suspicions.
It wouldn’t have been so bad, except I knew that she was on to something, and she wasn’t entirely wrong. It made me sick to think of what would happen if she were to run in to Candace now. Knowing what a liar the woman was, and that my father would be right there to back those lies, I knew there was little chance I’d be able to come out on top.
I’d try. I’d try as hard as I could, but it would come down to their word against mine, and I didn’t want to her put in that position. Hell, if she already felt like I was lying to her, then what was going to happen if she was confronted by two people who said that I was.
I made up my mind. I was going to do something about this. I wasn’t sure what, but something. And that something had to happen soon. I knew Peter would tell me to talk to her as soon as possible, but that morning, she had also been different than usual.
She had come out of her room already ready to go, and she simply smiled and told me she was leaving early. “You don’t have to give me a ride in today. I’m going to pick up coffee for one of my coworkers, and I don’t want to drag you out of here before you had your coffee.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind putting it in a mug to go,” I told her.
She waived it off with another smile. “No, no. I don’t want to do that to you. Then you’ll have to make it to the office early, and I’m sure you don’t want to deal with your father for any longer than you have to.”
“You’ve got that right,” I said. I tried to brush off that as another incident of her just being tired or pregnant, but it still made no sense. I didn’t know of any coworker she liked enough to take coffee, or why she didn’t want me to be the one to drop her off.
Was I now going crazy?
Stop thinking that way. You can’t be the one who accuses her of cheating, when you are the one who has a woman on your back and you’re not telling your wife. It doesn’t matter if this marriage is supposed to end at your convenience, you should talk to her about it.
Besides that, what better way to make her think that you are cheating than if you start accusing her? Is it the guilty man’s conscience talking? No! I’m not cheating on her! I just don’t want her to find out about that other woman from my past.
It has nothing to do with the present.
You lied to her. Don’t start lying to yourself now. You didn’t tell her anything about Candace when you married her, you just made it sound like you’re doing what you can to help her and the baby, and that’s what she believed. It’s a lie of omission, which is why you’re freaking out about it now.
This wasn’t supposed to happen, was it? Candace was just supposed to go away, and she didn’t do it. So what now?
I felt torn. I knew I couldn’t start accusing Ashley of seeing someone else. But, I felt guilty that I hadn’t told her the truth to begin with. Now, it was going to seem even worse than it had to be. Perhaps if I had come clean about it, she would have still agreed to marry me.
Now, I had a woman I knew I loved – the only woman in my life I ever loved – and I knew that I could lose her, all because I had pulled her into the game that I thought was going to make my own problems go away.
“Fuck!” I’d shouted in my apartment.
I was convinced on the way to work the day couldn’t have gotten any worse. But then, I got to work and found out even then, I could be wrong. My father was always in his office when I got to work. He made a point of that, even when I tried to get there early.
He always liked to rub it in my face. So, when he wasn’t there, I knew that he was doing something he deemed to be even more important. Normally, it was traveling, but today, I had a feeling I knew what it really was.
As soon as I walked through the door and saw that he wasn’t in his apartment, I turned on my heel and ran right back to the front desk. Shelly, the woman working, looked up at me with shock on her face. She was easily startled and not too bright, perfect for the kind of firm my father ran.
“Where’s my dad?” I asked.
“He told me he had an errand and wouldn’t be in for the day,” she said.
“What errand? I demanded. She hesitated and I slammed my fists on the table. “Answer me!”
She jumped. “He told me he didn’t want anyone to know.”
“You realize that I’ve got the power to fire you,” I warned. “I need to hear where he went right now. I’m not going to tell him that you told me!”
“He went to the airport to pick up someone. He didn’t say who it was, just that she needed a ride,” Shelly blurted.
“She?” I snapped. “What else did he say about this girl?”
“Nothing, just that he was going to be out of the office for the day, and he needed to pick up this girl, and he didn’t want me to tell anyone. And if you tell him that I told you, then I’m going to lose my job,” she said.
“I’m not going to tell him,” I replied. “Thank you.”
I turned and headed back to my office, but I knew there wasn’t any way I was going to get any kind of work done. I pulled the bottle of whiskey out of my drawer. I was shaking I was so pissed off, but I also felt helpless. I felt like my father had just beaten me at my own game, and I wanted to lay him out for it.
He was going to get Candace. I didn’t need to hear that from Shelly to know it was true. He had gone behind my back, and he had brought that woman here to New York City. I didn’t know what that would mean for me and Ashley, but I knew it wasn’t going to be good.
I could only imagine the things he was scheming. Was he going to take her to my apartment and make Ashley deal with it there? Was he going to set up some c
hanced meeting? Was he going to tell Candace about Ashley at all? I had thought that she would try to contact me and I could tell her that I was now married, or she would hear it through the grapevine. Either way, I was sure that I wasn’t going to have to deal with it like this.
“What’s going on? Why were you yelling at Shelly?” Peter asked when he walked into my office.
“You know I prefer when you knock first,” I said.
“Sorry,” he replied as he condescendingly knocked on my desk. “But we all prefer when you don’t make the receptionist cry at the desk. It’s bad for business.”
“There’s a lot of things that are bad for this business that we do,” I replied.
“Are you going to be cryptic all day, or are you going to tell me why you were down there yelling at Shelly?” Peter asked. I knew he had a crush on the girl, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. I could see a million ways he could do better than that woman, but I wasn’t going to get involved.
He wouldn’t listen to me about it even if I threw it in his face how much better he could do.
“I wanted to know where my father was, and she wasn’t telling me,” I said. “So I had to raise my voice to get her to understand just how important this was.”
“Who cares?” Peter asked. “Your dad is always going out and doing shit.”
“Not this early in the morning he’s not,” I shot back. “I knew something was up from the moment I saw he wasn’t in his office, and I was right. So I’m sorry I yelled at Shelly, but I had to get to the bottom of things, and she wasn’t cooperating.”
“So where is this terrible place your father has gone off to that made you turn into a complete dick today?” Peter asked. “You know I’m not going to put up with you treating me like this. I don’t care if you are technically my boss.”
I stood for a second, my hands in the loops of my belt. I felt bad for taking out my frustration on Pete, but I was still pissed off. He was the one who walked into my office, and that was asking for it in my opinion.
“He’s bringing Candace,” I said.
“Oh, shit,” Peter replied. He knew more about the situation now since our last talk, and he knew how I was worried about it. “Did you talk to Ashley about it?”
I shook my head. “I wanted to, but she’s been so weird lately, I haven’t had the chance. She clearly thinks that there is something up, and this is just going to make all that worse.”
“You’ve got to talk to her, Man,” Peter said. “Sooner rather than later. If you tell her the truth, she’s going to be ready for whatever your dad pulls. Right now, we have no idea what that is.”
I nodded. I knew he was right. I had to talk to Ashley. It wasn’t going to be easy, and I had a feeling she was going to be pissed. But, I also had a feeling she was going to be less pissed if she heard it from me rather than what Peter said.
“If you love her, there’s got to be a reason for it,” Peter added. I nodded. There was a huge reason I loved that girl.
“I’ll talk to her,” I said. “ASAP.”
18
Ashley
I’d never felt such a strange mix of awkward and sexy in my entire life. Jenny and I had gone shopping after work, and I was now dressed in nothing but risqué undergarments. I was wearing stockings with garters, and felt as though I should be in some adult film.
I’d donned my apron on top of the garb, hoping that it didn’t make the whole thing look too ridiculous. Jenny insisted that this is what men wanted, and I was willing to do what it took to get him to want me more than any other girl. So, here I was, making an Italian dish and trying my best not to get any of the sauce on my apron.
It did strike me as strange, however, that I was to wear an apron while cooking, but the goal was to not get anything on it. Jenny told me that it would take away from the sexiness of the look, but with my large stomach pushing the apron ever nearer to the pan, I had a feeling I was just going to have to make do.
Blake would be there at any moment, so I poured him a glass of red wine, and poured myself red grape juice. Of course, I couldn’t have any alcohol because of the baby, but I wanted us to match. With the juice and the wine in their glasses and the food on the plates, I stood back and waited.
I could hear Blake in the hall, then punching his number in the key code. I didn’t know if I should have my back turned to him so he could see that I wasn’t wearing hardly anything, or if it was alright to be facing him with the apron.
At the last second, I decided that taking off the apron would be best. Hell, I had the food on the plates already, there wasn’t any more need for the thing, and that would take away from the chance that I would get any food on it now, anyway.
I was just in the middle of taking it off when the door opened, and Blake stared at me with wide eyes.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I thought I’d surp”- I stopped suddenly. I hadn’t noticed them before, but in his hand he held a large bouquet of roses. “Surprise you. I know you’ve been having a lot of tough times at the office and I wanted to make it better. What are those?”
“I thought I’d surprise you, too,” he said. He set his briefcase down and walked into the kitchen, unable to take his eyes off my body. I tried to read the look, see if there was anything in it that would tell me whether I was the only one. I knew the look. I knew when a man just wanted to have sex with me, and when he was looking at me with the sort of connection in his eyes that made my heart melt.
“You sure did, but what did I do?” I asked. I buried my face in the flowers as he handed them to me, inhaling deeply. “Roses are my favorite.”
“Then I got lucky,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if I should go for an assortment, or if roses would do the trick. Also I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Roses will do the trick,” I said as I turned to put them in a vase. “What do you want to talk about? And you never told me what I did.”
“Do you have to do anything for me to bring you flowers? You’re my wife, after all,” he said. I froze briefly. I couldn’t reach the vase, so he got it down for me, but I was trying to process the words he’d said. Perhaps I really was being crazy about thinking there was someone else in the picture.
I handed him the glass of red wine, and he looked at mine in concern. I smiled as I held it up for him to sniff. “Grape juice. I didn’t want to feel left out. I mean, it’s basically wine that just hasn’t matured to your stage yet.”
“Right you are,” he said as he clicked his glass to mine. “What did you make? That looks amazing.”
“It’s called Risotto alla Milanese,” I said with a grin. “I spent some time in Italy growing up, and my grandfather wanted me to learn how to cook some of the dishes the right way, so he paid for some high end cooking classes. My father always liked this the best, so I make it when I’m feeling fancy.”
“It looks damn fancy,” he replied. “And pairing it with the wine, look at you. You’re just a regular chef. And you look damn better than most that I’ve seen.”
“I think it’s the outfit,” I said. “It can’t be the belly.”
“I think the belly is great. It reminds me that there is someone else who is going to join this family one day, and I can’t wait to meet him or her,” Blake sat at the table and I set the food in front of him, then I took a seat beside him.
“Have you thought about any baby names?” he asked.
I nodded. “I’ve got a few, but I was wondering if that was something that you wanted to talk about with me. I mean, this is your baby too, you know. You should get to have a say in the name.”
He looked at me in surprise, as though he hadn’t even thought that he could. But, he took another sip of his wine and laughed. “Well, I think I’d be better off telling you names that I don’t like than names that I do!”
I joined in. “I can agree to that. Victor for starters.”
“And Monty,” he chimed in.
“Y
ou know, there was a Liam I knew once I really couldn’t stand, too,” I said.
“And I have a Kathrine in my past that was terrible,” Blake replied.
We were laughing, and the evening passed rather quickly. I quickly realized he was right. There were names that I liked, but there were so many people who had those names who I didn’t get along with, I couldn’t name my child the same name.
And combining that with the fact he had his own past, it was hard for us to come up with any that really seemed to fit.
“I think the other important thing we need to discuss is last name,” I said. He fell silent for a moment, and I immediately realized what I’d done. I had been planning on giving the baby my mother’s maiden name, both in honor of my mother, and to avoid my own family’s last name.
But I was married, and even if I wasn’t, this was the father. Of course the baby should be another Bogart.
“Let’s see, what goes well with Bogart?” I asked. “I like William if it’s a boy.”
“William Bogart? That has a very elegant ring to it,” Blake agreed. “Better than mine, if you ask me.”
I laughed again, and that seemed to lighten the mood. But, it wasn’t long before I chimed in again. “But it might be a girl, and if it’s a girl, we’re going to have to find an equally elegant girl’s name to go with it.”
“It’s a boy,” Blake said.
“You don’t know that for sure!” I chided.
“I can sense it. I’m sure it’s going to be a boy,” Blake replied. “I’ve got some strong swimmers, and it’s going to be a boy.”
“You can say that, but when you’re in the delivery room and you find out it’s a girl, you’re going to feel pretty silly,” I laughed. “Then what we are going to have to scramble for a name, and nothing is going to sound right, and it’s just not going to work!”
“Alright, then what do you suggest?” Blake asked.
