Our Broken Love

by Terri Anne Browning

  Eve took a seat. The waiting room was pretty full, and she ended up beside an older woman in a wheelchair and what had to be her daughter and granddaughter. The granddaughter, well into her pregnancy, sat between the two older females and was reading the articles from a celebrity magazine to the elderly woman.

  The older woman’s daughter shook her head at her mother and daughter. “I can’t see why the two of you like those trashy things. Most of it is made up anyway.”

  The grandmother grinned, and Eve could tell she was a feisty old lady. “Don’t begrudge an old woman her few pleasures, young woman. Besides, these things are better than my stories in the afternoons.”

  “Oh, Mother!”

  “We know that most of it isn’t true, Mom,” the pregnant girl said with a sigh. “Besides, I like to look at the hot guys and imagine that I’m the gorgeous girl in their arms. I don’t really care about what they are doing.”

  A few minutes later, the pregnant girl was called back, and her mother went with her, leaving the grandmother alone. She was flipping through the magazine that the girl had left for her, squinting as she attempted to read the articles. Eve offered to read them for her.

  The old woman’s eyes lit up. “Oh, would you, dear? My granddaughter just bought this thing downstairs, and she usually takes them home with her. So I’m stuck wondering what happened next.”

  Eve laughed. “I understand. May I?” The old woman handed over the magazine. Eve read a few articles on celebrities and what they had planned for Valentine’s Day later in the week. It was a weekly edition, and some of the articles talked about what some of Hollywood’s hottest new stars had done over the weekend.

  Eve was actually enjoying herself, what with the old lady’s commentary on each article Eve read to her. The woman, who told Eve her name was Helen, was witty and had a dry sense of humor that made Eve forget about her anxiety for a moment.

  Still laughing with Helen, she flipped to the next page and sucked in a deep breath at the picture that took up the whole of one page. Her heart stuttered, and she nearly dropped the magazine because her hands began to shake. Helen gave her a concerned look. “Are you okay, dear?”

  Eve gave her a shaky smile. “Yes. I’m just suddenly not feeling well.”

  “Poor dear. Pregnancy is such a bitch sometimes, isn’t it? I had five children, and every one of my pregnancies was full of up-and-down moments. One minute, I would be right as rain, and the next, I couldn’t hold my head up.”

  “Yes…it is definitely full of surprises,” she murmured, closing the magazine. “I’m sorry. I…I don’t think I can continue.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure that whatever is in that thing will be on tonight’s entertainment news.”

  A few minutes later, Eve was seated in a paper gown in an exam room. The nurse told her that the doctor wouldn’t be able to do a full exam that day because, when asked by the nurse, Eve had told her that she had had sex the night before, which could affect the test results of a Pap. So she would have to make sure that she abstained before the next appointment. But the doctor could do the majority of the exam and give her a due date. Eve clenched her fingers together, her palms sweating. She was nervous, scared, and excited about seeing the doctor. But the emotional cocktail was making her stomach queasy.

  Her mind was still racing after seeing that last picture in the magazine. Question after question slammed through her head, making it ache. Her heart, however, felt like it had stopped, and she wondered how the nurse had even felt a pulse when she had checked her vitals moments before.

  There was a small tap on the door just before it opened and in walked Dr. Madison with an iPad in her hands. The doctor was in her forties with short, gray-streaked dark hair and big hazel eyes. She was slim and tall and perhaps the loveliest woman Eve had ever seen in her life. Dr. Madison gave her a smile. “Hello, Eve. How are you feeling today?”

  Eve grimaced at the question. “I think I need a shrink,” she muttered. “I can’t get hold of my emotions lately.”

  “Get used to it, my dear,” the doctor said with a grin. “That’s part of being pregnant. And just think, you have a good thirty-plus weeks of this, so it will only get worse.”

  She swallowed hard. “You aren’t helping,” she muttered.

  “How is the morning sickness?”

  “I haven’t had any,” Eve informed her. “Not even a little. Which worries me. All my friends have told me that it is horrible. They lost weight and could barely function for the majority of their first trimester.”

  “Every pregnancy is not like another. And it affects the mother differently. You might not experience any sickness throughout this pregnancy, while your next one will make you beg for it all to be over.” Dr. Madison’s smile was kind. “But we can run a few tests to make sure that everything is moving along as it should. Blood tests.” She wrote on her iPad. “And I would like to do a transvaginal ultrasound to see exactly how far along you are. I’m estimating you at nine weeks, so we should be able to see a heartbeat.”

  Eve’s heart clenched. “You mean I can see my baby?” she whispered.

  “Yes, and I’ll give you a few copies to keep for your baby book.” There was a knock on the door followed by a nurse entering with a little cart filled with needles and tubes. “Margo is going to get your blood work out of the way while I get the ultrasound ready.”

  Nothing would ever compare to seeing her child, a little blob on a screen. Tears leaked from her eyes as she watched in amazement while Dr. Madison pointed out a few things to her. “Heart rate is perfect. Measuring in at nine weeks, two days. Due date is going to be August seventeenth. You, my dear, are going to hate summer before that baby gets here,” she teased.

  fourteen

  Once she was finished with the doctor, Eve left the office with an appointment for her next checkup in four weeks, along with a prescription for prenatal vitamins and three pictures of her little blob. She had the pictures tucked safely inside of her purse with her appointment card, but she stopped by the pharmacy on the second floor to fill her prescription.

  As she waited for the pharmacist to fill it, she went straight to the magazine rack in the back and pulled the one she wanted off the shelf. Fingers trembling, she flipped to the page she needed and read the caption in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture. “Aria Bentley, 30, with ex-boyfriend Sebastian Savage, 32. Club Z over the weekend.” The article on the opposite page went on to tell about Aria’s new movie coming out the following month and what was next for one of Hollywood’s biggest “It Girls.”

  Eve bit her trembling bottom lip. She remembered Aria. Sebastian had dated her for a few weeks, but Aria was more selfish than anything else, and Eve had been glad to see the end of the relationship. Even then, she had loved Sebastian… She still did, even if her heart felt shattered into a billion little pieces.

  There had to be a good explanation, her heart whispered while her brain went into survival mode and demanded that she run. Gritting her teeth, she returned to the front of the pharmacy and purchased the magazine along with her vitamins.

  She was supposed to meet Sebastian for dinner at six, but it was barely three in the afternoon. She needed to talk to him about the picture and his weekend. Feeling sick, she left the medical plaza and let Benoit take her home. The royal guard kept shooting her concerned glances in the rearview mirror and she knew that she must look frightening, but she ignored him.

  When she was finally home, she rushed up to her room and put her vitamins away along with her pictures of her precious blob. She had wanted to wait and talk to Sebastian about the baby after she had seen the doctor, but now she was undecided on if it was the best time to bring it up. Things felt like they were being turned upside down, and she had no control over anything. Bringing up the baby right then would only complicate things that much more.

  Eve showered then took extra care with her hair and makeup as she got ready for her date with Sebastian. Her fingers trembl
ed as she snapped the bracelet he had given her for Christmas around her wrist. What if he still wanted Aria Bentley? What if…?

  No, she couldn’t think about the what-ifs at the moment. First, she needed answers from him, and then she could focus on what to do next.

  Downstairs, she met Garth as he was coming in the front door from work. He stopped to kiss her cheek. “Meeting Sebastian?” He gave her a sly grin when she nodded. “Have fun,” he said with a wink before he went on upstairs, whistling.

  She frowned after him for a moment, wondering at his overly happy mood. But then with a shrug, she continued out the door. One of the other royal guards was waiting on her, as the evening was usually the time when the three changed shifts. They weren’t really needed any longer because the robbery case had been closed for a few weeks now. Zach, the teller, had taken a deal which would put him away for more years than the man had left. But it seemed that Jean Pierre Michon, newly crowned king of Thibaud, still felt that she needed protection.

  Eve thanked the guard and sat in the back of the town car as he drove her through the city to meet Sebastian. She clenched her clutch in her hands, and inside, the magazine was rolled up to fit. She hoped she could get through this evening without the man she loved stomping her heart into even more pieces than it already was.

  When the guard pulled up in front of the restaurant, one of the city’s most notoriously romantic places to dine, she paused to speak to the man. “Don’t go far,” she told him. “I…I don’t know if I will be leaving with Sebastian.”

  “Of course, Mademoiselle Patel.”

  There was a long line of people waiting to be seated, but Sebastian was already waiting for her. She made her way through the crowded dining room, ignoring the admiring looks she got as she passed table after table to get to the man she loved. He stood as she neared, his eyes eating up the sight of her in her knee-length grey silk dress and red heels.

  He pulled her close and kissed her tenderly. “Eve,” he breathed her name, and she thought she felt him tremble as he stepped back.

  Sebastian pulled out her chair, and she took a seat, feeling like an automaton as she placed her napkin in her lap. A bottle of wine sat on the table, and she frowned at it, wanting a drink but knowing she was unable to have any because of the baby. Sebastian took her hand, linking their fingers together as he asked questions about her day.

  Eve pulled her hand away and reached for her water glass. “My day was busy,” she told him, her tone cool. “How was yours? Did you get what you needed taken care of in LA?”

  He frowned at her tone. “It was productive.” He reached for her hand again, but she kept it out of his reach. “What’s wrong? Are you mad at me?”

  She took a long swallow of her water, hoping to steady herself. “I want to know about your weekend. Tell me about it. You said Friday that you were going to dinner with your CFO.”

  Something darkened his blue eyes. “Yes. It was a business dinner.” Was that guilt in his eyes, or was she imagining things?

  When he didn’t continue, her heart began to pound, anger boiling in her veins. “What happened after dinner?” she asked, her tone no longer cool.

  “He talked me in to going for a drink.” Sebastian shrugged. “Then I went back to the hotel and went to sleep. Do you want a minute-by-minute report of what happened over the entire weekend? Or is there a reason behind this inquisition?”

  She opened her clutch and dropped the magazine onto the table between them. “I only want to know what happened Friday,” she said between clenched teeth.

  “Eve, what…?” He reached for the magazine, frowning at the first page. “Since when do you read this crap?”

  “This is actually the first one I have ever read,” she informed him in a voice tight with all the emotions she was trying to suppress. “And only because I was reading it to someone who couldn’t do it for herself.” She took the magazine from him and flipped to the appropriate page before dropping it down between them once more.

  She watched as he looked down at the glossy picture glaring up at them. His face turned white, and his eyes snapped back up to hers. “It isn’t what you think. Nothing happened.”

  Tears burned her eyes and made her nose sting. “That doesn’t look like nothing, Sebastian.” She swallowed around the boulder-size lump of emotion clogging her throat which threatened to choke her. “It looks like you just about gobbled her up in some seedy club. It looks like the two of you were practically having sex on the dance floor. And it looks to me like you weren’t going to tell me anything about it.”

  “No! That’s not how it was.” He reached for her hand, holding on tight when she tried to pull it away once more. “I ran into her at the club where we went for drinks. We talked, and then she went on her way with her friends. But as I was leaving, she stopped me and kissed me. She kissed me, Eve. Not the other way around.”

  A tear rolled down her cheek, and she angrily dashed it away. “But then you kissed her back.”

  Guilt crossed his face for a fraction of a moment before he shook his head. “Maybe for a second. But only for a second, damn it! And then I pushed her away and left. End of story. Nothing else happened.” His tone was almost pleading for her to believe him.

  Eve grimaced. “You weren’t going to tell me at all, were you?” she whispered.

  “No. Because you didn’t need to know.” He ran a hand through his hair, and Eve noticed that his fingers were trembling. “Nothing happened.”

  They sat there in tense silence for a long moment. A waiter arrived and gave them a cautious greeting. It was obvious that the two of them had been arguing, and the waiter was reluctant to approach them. “Still need time to order?”

  “No.” Eve reached for her clutch. “I don’t think I will be staying, actually.”

  “Wait!” Sebastian caught her arm as she stood. “Please don’t go, Eve. Stay and let’s talk about this.”

  “There isn’t much to talk about. You just told me nothing happened.” She shrugged. “But you were going to keep it from me. Even when I asked you about what went on over the weekend, you weren’t going to say anything.” She pulled her arm away. “Things are changing for us, Sebastian. In a big way. But I’m not sure if I can trust you.”

  “You can. I swear you can.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not sure I’m ready to believe you yet.”

  fifteen

  Sebastian stood there and watched Eve walk away, unable to do anything to stop her. To convince her that she could believe in him. When she was gone, he felt empty. He dropped down into his chair and pulled out the box that had been weighing so heavily in his pocket all day.

  Inside was the ring he had spent the day selecting for Eve. He had shown it to his father right before they had left the office, and Garth had been nearly as excited as Sebastian had been nervous.

  But nothing had gone as it should have this evening.

  Why hadn’t he told Eve about that stupid kiss as soon as it had happened? He should have pulled out his phone and called her then and there, told her about running into Aria and her drunken stunt. But he hadn’t. Instead, he had put it away, thinking nothing more of it … Except for the guilt that had been eating at him all day.

  He had kissed Aria back for a second. In that second, he was a free man in his mind. He was free to do what he wanted, with whomever he wanted, when and where he wanted. But in the next second, he knew that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to be home with Eve, with her cuddled into his side while she told him about her day.

  He wanted Eve forever.

  Sebastian realized in that moment that he loved Eve. He had been denying it for a long time, perhaps even before Christmas. She meant everything to him…

  And now she had just walked away from him because of his one second of stupidity.

  ***

  Garth was waiting on him when he got home. “What happened?” his father demanded. “Eve came in sobbing and wouldn’t tell me anything.”
r />   Sebastian ran a hand through his hair. “It’s a long story, Dad. Is she in her room?” He was already heading for the stairs.

  “She left. She had an overnight bag with her. She said she would call me, and then she left.”

  Sebastian felt as if a rug had been pulled out from under him. He had been hoping to talk to Eve tonight. She needed to understand that he loved her, that he would never keep anything from her for the rest of their lives. But he knew she needed some time to calm down. Exhausted, Sebastian dropped down onto the bottom step.

  “What happened?” Garth asked again.

  “I made a mistake. And now I’m paying for it.”

  ***

  “The sun on your skin suits you.”

  Eve grinned at the man across from her. They were seated out on the veranda overlooking the ocean having breakfast. “Stop flirting.”

  Jean Pierre laughed. “It is hard to resist when I am in the company of such a beautiful lady.” He took a sip of his coffee. “But seriously, you are actually glowing. I like it.”

  “Thank you. I read that pregnancy will do that.” She nibbled on a slice of dry toast. It seemed that as soon as she started her second trimester, morning sickness had reared its ugly head. Over the last week, she had discovered weak tea, loaded with lemon, and dry toast helped.

  “Well, then pregnancy suits you,” he amended. “I was thinking of going over to London. Would you like to come with me?”

  Eve raised a brow at that, knowing exactly why he was going to London.

  After her upsetting scene with Sebastian four weeks ago, all she had wanted was to get away. She needed some distance between them so she could decide what to do next. But she had no idea where to go that he wouldn’t find her. Benoit had suggested Thibaud. She had been reluctant to go, knowing that her grandfather had ambitions of making her a queen and thus furthering his career.