by Anthology
He grabbed my hand. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but…I actually believe him.”
I snapped my head up in shock and looked at him.
“Can you repeat that? I think my stressed-out brain is making me hear things.” I shook my head to clear my thoughts and then looked back at him, gesturing with my hands for him to say it again.
He smiled and chuckled. “I love you. But I said I believe him.”
“Wait a minute. You were the main one saying I shouldn’t let him jeopardize my schooling. If I said yes, it would do just that.”
“I’m not saying you should let him help. It’s against the rules, and I think you should follow them. I just have a good feeling about him.”
Oh no. Him and his “feelings.”
Well, I didn’t care what he said; he wasn’t right about this one. Nor Penny, for that fact.
“Are you crazy? Why did you turn down his offer?”
“I don’t even know him. I’m not going to have some stranger watching over me and my child. He could have an ulterior motive.”
“The man wanted to help even after he found out he could lose his job.”
“We don’t know what goes on in a psychopath’s mind.”
“I guess pregnancy brain is real.”
“It's called being cautious. Something you wouldn’t know anything about.”
“Well, you don’t know anything about men.”
“I’ve had boyfriends before.”
“Ten years ago. You’re out of practice, like noticing when a man is into you.”
“You are delusional. He is not into me.”
“The man couldn’t stop looking at you, and he was supposed to be talking to the both of us.”
“He was wondering if he needed to call the psych ward.”
“He almost broke down your door because he thought you were in danger.”
“He was just being a good Samaritan.”
“He stayed the whole time you were in the hospital even after I assured him that you were okay.”
I sat there, dumbstruck. “He did?”
“Yes. He even messaged me constantly for days to check up on you.”
Maybe he does care. No. I mentally shook my head to clear my thoughts.
She groaned and threw up her hands in frustration. “Why can’t you see that he’s drawn to you and you to him? You’re both like moths to a flame.”
“We’re like cats and water. We don’t belong together.”
“Eve…”
“We have a quiz to study for,” I said, reaching for my textbook.
She sighed, giving up, and then grabbed her notebook.
Even if she and my dad were right about Mr. Knight, that didn’t excuse my feelings about this situation. Mr. Knight could not be in my life.
Chapter 6
For the next three months, things went…okay. I had been passing all of my classes with A’s and B’s. Another good thing was I hadn’t had another run in with Mr. Knight. Of course I still saw him walk through the halls, but thankfully not so much. He hadn’t said anything else about the pregnancy, and I tried to always avoid eye contact. Key word, “tried.” I hated to admit it, but Penny was right. It’s like an invisible string was pulling me toward him, and each time, it got harder and harder to resist, which was stupid since I barely knew him.
Well, at least I was attending a Lamaze class this afternoon. That would surely take my mind off of him.
“Do you think they’re going to have snacks?” Penny asked.
I laughed. “We are not here to fill our stomachs, and shouldn’t I be the one asking that question?”
“Well, we’re going to be here for two hours.”
“You didn’t have to come, you know.”
“I wanted to experience this firsthand.”
“You’re weird.”
“I’m serious. You…”
I zoned her out when my eyes landed on the doorway.
“Eve? Eve? What are you…”
She turned around and looked where I was looking. “Jesus.”
In the doorway stood Mr. Knight and a blonde-haired woman who, you guessed it, was pregnant. They walked to the empty seats in front of us. He said something to her, and she smiled nervously.
He didn’t succeed with me, so he found someone else. Obviously he had a weird fetish for pregnant women. Disgusting.
He finally looked up and saw me. His face was devoid of color. He started to shake his head, but I turned away from him and looked at the instructor, who was setting up.
I stayed that way through the whole lesson, not even making eye contact with Penny.
It was hard for me to concentrate, though. It was a good thing Penny was here. She repeated everything the instructor said for me, and she took notes.
After a grueling two hours, it was finally time to go. He tried to talk to me, but I ignored him and kept on walking. When I was finally in the car, I broke down.
Chapter 7
For the next couple of days, I tried my best to ignore him, but my attempts went out the window when he stepped on the elevator with Mr. Matthews one morning. Of course I had to be by myself, because Penny had a doctor’s appointment.
I wanted to get off, but if I had to wait for the next elevator, I would be late to class. And I sure wasn’t going to take four flights of stairs. So I was stuck.
Mr. Matthews and I said hey to each other, and then he continued talking to Mr. Knight.
I was counting down the numbers on the elevator until I could finally leave this prison, but it stopped on number three.
Mr. Matthews said goodbye and walked out.
Oh God, no.
I was going to take my chances with the stairs, but he gently grabbed my arm just as the doors were closing.
“Don’t touch me,” I said, snatching my arm away.
“Eve, please let me explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain. You got what you wanted.”
Right then, there was a loud noise and a shake.
Oh no.
The elevator had stopped.
I was stuck on an elevator, in an enclosed space with my professor, who was also the father of my baby. I started hyperventilating. He walked up to me and bent slightly to be at my eye level and cupped my face in his hands. “Take slow, deep breaths.” He then demonstrated the motion, and I did as instructed.
As I did the breathing, I stared into his eyes, and I felt my body instantly relax. I guessed he noticed, because he spoke. “I’m going to press the emergency button for help. I want to warn you that it may take them some time to fix the elevator, so I want you to remain calm, okay?”
I nodded my head.
“We will get out of here, okay?”
Once again, I nodded.
Once he saw that I was going to be okay, he released me and walked up to the button and pressed it. They were sending people right away, and they said that it would probably take them about thirty minutes to fix it.
It’s not as bad as I thought, but it’s still too long. He might have calmed me down, but that didn’t mean I wanted to spend any more time with him. I walked to the corner, sat down, and pulled my legs up as far as they could go, considering my belly, and leaned my head back against the wall with my eyes closed.
I heard shuffling coming from the other side, so I guessed he sat down as well. At least he had common sense to not sit by me.
We sat like that in silence for what felt like hours. After a while, he finally broke the silence. “She’s my sister,” he said quietly, looking down at his hands.
I scoffed. “Do you really expect me to believe that?” I knew I had been acting like a complete fool around him, but I wasn’t an idiot.
“The father of the baby was not able to be there, so I volunteered to fill in for him.
Now that I think about it, I did see the resemblance. I mentally groaned. Maybe I was an idiot. I sighed. “It still doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t even be talking about this anyway. It’s not yo
ur problem.”
“But I want it to be.” He finally looked over at me. “I didn’t think it would happen this way or at this time, but when I found out that you were pregnant with my child, after my initial shock, I was happy. When I offered my services at the clinic, I knew that one day, somebody would be carrying my child, but I didn’t give it much thought. I just knew that I wanted to help give somebody a chance to be a mother. But when I found out it was you, my feelings changed. Who knew that the woman carrying my child would be in my class? I saw it as fate. I knew that I couldn’t bear to see my child growing bigger within you every day and not be in their life. That’s one of the reasons why I came over to your house.”
“What’s the other reason?” I asked, nervously.
He sighed. “I’m not going to lie. I’m drawn to you. I have been since I first laid eyes on you, and it’s scary, because we don’t know each other, but I can’t stop thinking about you. I’ve tried to stay away and respect your boundaries, but it’s been difficult. I know it’s crazy, but I want to be around you.”
I turned away, blushing. Yeah, crazy, but you’re not the only one.
For a few minutes, we just sat there in silence.
“You could lose your job.”
“I don’t care.”
I sighed, finally giving in. Only for the baby, I told myself, but deep down, I knew that wasn’t the only reason.
“We can’t let anybody know about this. I don’t want this to affect our personal and professional lives.”
“Okay.”
“I am not in the mindset right now to be in a relationship, so we focus on the baby and the baby only.” As soon as I said that, I felt a pain in my chest. I shook it away and stared at him, waiting on his answer.
“Okay,” he said, taking a little longer to answer.
“Okay,” I said. I then sat there in silence, thinking about what transpired between us. An agreement? What was I thinking? I couldn’t be involved with my teacher. It’s too dangerous.
But you want him around. Not now, subconscious! I sighed. She was right, though. I did want him around, but no matter how much, it’s just a silly thought. He may be around, but he wouldn’t be mine, and that’s by my choice, so I shouldn’t be upset.
We once again sat in silence, neither of us finding the words to say, but we were soon saved when we saw the elevator doors start to open.
I hurriedly stood up with my stuff, just as a burly man with brown hair in a fireman’s uniform stepped in.
“Are you two all right?” He then noticed my growing belly and his brows furrowed in concern. “Do you need any medical assistance?”
“No, no, I’m fine. I just need some rest.” I was starting to feel lightheaded, and I knew it was due to stress. I needed to get away from here.
“Are you sure, ma’am?”
I pasted on a smile. “It’s nothing that sleep can’t fix. I’ll be all right. Thank you for getting us out safely.”
He smiled. “You’re welcome.”
I then started to walk past him, when I turned around to face Mr. Knight. “I have an ultrasound on Monday at four if you want to be there.” I then turned back around, not waiting for his reply, and walked away.
Chapter 8
For the next four days, I had been dreading my appointment. Not the part where I got to see my baby and find out the gender, but the part where Mr. Knight was in the same room as me, standing beside me, also experiencing the joy of seeing his baby.
There were plenty of times I wanted to go back on our agreement, but my dad and Penny weren’t letting that happen. In other words, they guilt tripped me.
“What if the roles were reversed? You wouldn’t like the fact that he was keeping you from seeing your child,” said Penny.
“But he doesn’t have any rights. He signed them away.”
“You already agreed, so it would be cruel to just take it back like that when he’s already excited about becoming a father.” That came from my dad.
So there I was, sitting in the waiting room, waiting on him. He offered to drive me, but I didn’t want to be stuck in a car with him.
I looked at the time on my phone and saw that it was three twenty-five. I then lowered my phone and started shaking my leg. I’d been there since three. I was usually punctual, but never this punctual. But I was at home feeling antsy, so I decided to go ahead and come.
I’d been anxiously counting down the minutes until Mr. Knight showed up. I expected him to be early, so he should be there soon. Not enough time.
Just as soon as that thought crossed my mind, he came walking through the doors. I felt movement in my stomach, and it wasn’t coming from the baby. He was wearing one of his many suits…my favorite, to be exact. It was a red-collared shirt with a black jacket over it. To me, it brought out his skin tone, and the combination of his eyes and shirt reminded me of Christmas, my favorite holiday.
His long strides were confident, and his body commanded the room to pay attention. His eyes seemed to sparkle.
He was beautiful.
He saw me, and a breathtaking smile spread across his face.
“Hi.”
“Hi,” I said, managing not to squeak.
“How are you feeling today?”
“Physically, I’m fine…” Strangely, my stomach felt fine today, no nauseous feeling. It’s strange because of the events of today. On the other hand…“Emotionally…it’s up for debate,” I said with a small smile.
He nodded his head sadly. “I understand.”
Now I felt bad. He came in, excited, from the sparkle in his eyes, and here I was ruining his mood. This is not about you, Eve. Pull yourself together.
“How are you feeling today?”
That beautiful smile broke out across his face. It made me happy to not see him sad. “Nervous, but excited. I could barely concentrate on my lesson today.”
I smiled. “Becoming parents will do that to you.”
He chuckled. “Yeah.”
“Mr. Knight…”
“Hunter.”
“What?”
“You can call me Hunter.”
That’s going to take some getting used to, but we were having a baby together. There was no need for formalities.
“Hunter.”
After that, there was a lull in conversation, neither of us knowing what to say, but it didn’t get a chance to become too awkward before they called my name.
“Ms. Masterson.”
I quickly got up, almost leaving him behind. The nurse showed us to a room, and I was instructed to lie down on the bed. She introduced herself and asked me some questions, and then it was time to do the ultrasound. I pulled up my shirt, making sure to not make any eye contact with him. I felt exposed.
“Okay, it’s going to be a little cold,” she told me. She then put the gel on my stomach, and I jumped a little bit.
“Sorry.” I blushed.
She gave me a reassuring smile. “It’s all right, it happens to all of us.”
She then placed the probe on my stomach, and an image popped up on the screen.
“And here’s your little one.”
A smile broke out across my face. I was sure I looked like the Cheshire cat, but I didn’t care.
“The baby seems to be healthy and growing at a normal rate.”
“Good,” I said, still smiling hard.
“Would you like to know the sex of your baby?”
I turned to Mr. Knight and saw that he had an identical smile on his face. “Only if you do,” he replied. I immediately nodded my head, and he laughed.
“We would like to know,” he told the nurse.
“Okay,” she said as she moved the probe around. “From the looks of it…you are going to have a girl. Congratulations.”
Right then, I couldn’t hold back my tears. My beautiful angel. I felt him grab my hand, and I turned to see that he was still staring at the screen lovingly, with tears in his eyes. As I looked at him, I knew that I was in t
rouble.
Chapter 9
Three weeks later
“You did what?”
“Now, don’t do anything rash. Think of little Mia.” This was Penny’s name choice.
“Don’t worry, the only one who is going to be hurt is you!”
“Okay, I’m sorry, but we need the help.”
“There are plenty of people in this school. You could have chosen someone else!”
“He’s available and one of the best teachers around.”
“He’s also the father of my baby,” I said as I lowered my voice. “We can’t be seen together!”
“I know and I’m sorry, but…”
“You’re not sorry. I know you’re trying to set us up.”
“But you’re both so cute, though,” she said, getting this goo-goo eyed look on her face. “I’ve seen the way you interact with each other, and it’s so beautiful.”
“You really are unbelievable, you know that?”
“I know, but I also did this because I don’t want you to fail your class. I know it’s important to you.”
I sighed. “Penny…”
“The dean won’t even know about it. I’ll make sure of it.”
I threw my head back and sighed again. I then looked at her. “Fine, but you’re still on my hit list.” Hunter too.
Our tutor session had just ended, and we were packing up our stuff.
“Eve, I was wondering if you wanted to meet my parents for dinner next Saturday?”
“What?” I asked, confused.
I just spent an hour and a half listening to his deep, sexy voice speak French to me, so now it was playing over and over in my mind. It was safe to say that I wasn’t paying much attention to anything else.
“My parents would like to meet you for dinner next Saturday. They would like to get to know you better.”
Well, I heard that.
“Of course she can come,” Penny butted in.
I glared at her and then turned back to him. He had a small smile on his face. “Hunter, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I told you, it should be just about our daughter.”
