The Baby Shower

by Tasha Blue et al.

  It had been ages since she was so close to him and he turned his head sideways and looked at her a little awkwardly. "Why should we save it?" he asked with a wary sigh. "It doesn't seem like it's worth saving."

  She leaned close to him and wrapped one arm around his shoulders, laying her head on his arm. "We had a good marriage, when we first got married. We could have that again, baby, we could work it out! I don't want a divorce. I don't want to leave this house, or leave you." She set her hand on his knee and began to rub it gently.

  He looked sidelong at her again and wondered what she was up to. It made him feel a little guilty that she was talking about fixing their marriage and all he could think of was what purpose she had behind it.

  He looked down at her hand massaging his knee and his thigh and almost wanted to pull her hand off him.

  "Remember when we were first married?" she asked, looking up and him and smiling. "It was so good. We were in love, we were constantly with each other. You couldn't get enough of me!" She grinned at him.

  He did remember. He remembered quite clearly, and he knew that things hadn't been that way in a very long time. He sighed. "I don't think we could ever get that back again."

  She reached her hand further up his thigh to his groin and was about to start massaging him there when he grasped her wrist and pushed her hand away from him.

  "Don't do that. You were with another man a few hours ago. The sight of you screwing him in my pool house is still fresh in my mind." He stood up and ran his hand through his hair, as his headache continued building steadily.

  She stood up and went to him, placing her hand on his back. "Roman, please, let's just try to give this another chance. Let's work on it. Our marriage is worth working on!" She pleaded with him.

  He turned and stared at her. "Our marriage wasn't worth anything a few hours ago when you were romping with your masseur. Why do you suddenly want to save it?"

  "Because I love you and I love being your wife and I don't want to lose what we have! I just made a mistake, that's all!" She clutched both her hands at his arm, trying to get his full attention, but he turned away, his head distracting him and his heart heavy.

  "A mistake? For a couple of years? With who knows how many men?" He turned his head and looked over his shoulder at her.

  "What is it that you want to save? We don't even share a room anymore. I don't even feel like we're friends anymore." He walked away from her. "It just seems like it's a lost cause. Like we're a lost cause. I don't feel like there's anything between us worth saving."

  Denise rushed to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding him from the back. "Please! Please, please give it some thought. Let us have another chance! I'm sorry, I just slipped up, but I don't want a divorce. Let's work it out, please!" She hugged him tight.

  It had been so long since she had hugged him or given him any affection that it just felt surreal to him, not warm or meaningful to him at all. He pulled away from her and shook his pounding head.

  "I don't know what we're going to do. I can't see a reason for us to be together and you apparently don't want to see us apart." He sighed deeply again. "I've got to get out of here. I've got a lot to think about."

  He pulled her arms from around him and walked out the door, picking his keys up along the way. She called out to him as he left, but he didn't turn to look at her. He got into his car and drove without thinking about where he was going or what he was doing.

  He was no saint, he knew that; having a child outside of marriage made him no better than her, but he couldn't imagine what reason she may have for wanting to stay with him. She didn't love him, and if she did, he certainly hadn't felt it from her at all in any recent memory.

  Cami and Emma crossed his mind as they frequently did. He didn't know how he was going to explain Emma to Denise, or how he was going to keep things platonic with Cami. They'd said they would work on it together, and he felt like maybe they could, but being with her the way he was when he kissed her, it was overwhelming for him.

  It was powerful and passionate, and it was nothing like his marriage at all. He didn't want to have an affair and a mistress. He didn't want to have a little secret family on the side. He wanted an honest and straightforward life that he could be proud of and grow into his old years with.

  He just didn't see that happening with Denise. What would he do, be the ignorant fool for the rest of his life? Play second fiddle to a long string of lovers and secret affairs? How would he ever be able to trust her again? Then again, how could he ever ask her to trust him as well? It was a two way street. Maybe they were both broken. Maybe they both needed to find a way, either completely apart, or find a way back to one another again.

  Her hand on his thigh had reminded him of how things used to be when they were first married. They were so hot for each other. They almost never kept their hands off each other. They were always together, they always had fun and loved being around one another, and then the years had tapered their love to a standstill, and now here they were.

  He was fairly certain that the passion they had once shared could not be regained or recovered. He didn't want her as he used to want her, once upon a time. He was sure that she didn't want him the way that she used to want him.

  What nagged at him the most was the curiosity of her wanting to stay married to him. Why? What good purpose could their continued marriage possibly serve? He wondered about it, turning the thoughts over and over in his mind as he parked the car. He looked up and realized he had driven to the marina without even thinking about where he was going. He climbed out of his car and looked at all of the boats floating serenely before him.

  He might not have meant to go to the marina, or perhaps he had meant to subconsciously, but however it had happened, he knew the best thing for him to do right then was to get out away from all of his worries and lose himself in the billowed sails of a boat.

  He locked his car and headed down the dock to one of his smaller boats. In a matter of minutes, he had the boat ready to go and was maneuvering it out into the bay. The rush of the wind in his hair and the salt on his lips seemed to steal away all of the confusion and pain of the day. Each passing moment gave him more peace and serenity. He sailed out over the deep blue waters, past the glistening city, and smiled in wonder that the city could seem so serene from a distance.

  Roman guided his boat further out from the city and beneath the beautiful towering red pillars of the Golden Gate Bridge. He made a wish for himself as he crossed beneath it from the bay into the ocean. He wished that everything in his life would find a way to the best possible outcome. The wind whipped around him and he pushed the little boat further out into the beginning of the Pacific where it washed up on California's golden shoreline.

  His boat was a sturdy little vessel and it slipped through the waves as he sailed along, and the land behind him grew smaller and smaller. He saw porpoises arcing out of the waves and playing at the front of the boat, racing each other and splashing sea spray over the hull. He laughed at them and breathed in relief. It was good to laugh. It was good to feel so free and released from the stress that had been binding him so tightly.

  Roman watched the porpoises and played with them, and then he watched incredulously as a pair of whales slapped their tails down in the water and breached lightly near him. He was so drawn in by them and enraptured with his encounter that he didn't see the wall of fog that closed in around him until it was too late to get out of it. He pulled on a life vest and with his navigation instruments, began to sail the boat back toward the coastline.

  He sailed slowly and carefully, but as he was going along, completely shrouded in fog, he felt anxiety building up. His navigation instruments seemed to falter, and he felt his stomach twist in a knot. Roman was trying to get them to work again when a loud bang sounded and the boat jolted sharply. He lost his balance and fell to the floor as the boat rocked and swayed in the growing waves. He'd hit something, but the fog was so thick that he couldn'
t see what it was.

  He was going to check the boat for damage when he heard a noise that made his stomach fall to his feet. It was the sound of rushing water. He opened the cabin door and was panicked immediately. A geyser of seawater was rushing into the cabin from a hole in the hull of the boat. There was no way to stop it from sinking. He closed the door and radioed immediately for help.

  There were two boats that responded and he prayed that one of them would get to him before it was too late. He zipped his keys, wallet, and phone into a waterproof pocket on his jacket and tried to keep the boat as much afloat as possible as it tossed and wrestled in the waves.

  The front of the boat began to dip into the water and fear raced through his every vein. His muscles tightened and his heart felt as though it would pound out of his chest. His stomach twisted at the sight of his little boat as it gave way to the mighty sea, but there was nothing at all that could be done about it. He radioed again and both boats responded that they were en route and trying to locate him.

  The fog was like a blanket, covering him so thickly that he could barely see the front of the boat anymore, and then suddenly there was no front of the boat, there were only cold waves of steely gray that washed up to the wheel he was holding tightly to, and suddenly he had to make a decision.

  He had to let go of the boat or go down with it. Roman clambered to the topmost part of the railing at the back of the boat and dove from it into the waves that crashed around him.

  The water was like a solid wall of ice knocking the wind out of him and cutting at his skin and muscles. It thrust him back and forth in the current and all he could see were shades of light and dark green as the ocean swallowed him. He saw a glimpse of his boat as it sank beneath him and vanished into the black void of the sea. He struggled to keep near the surface of the water, gasping for air when he could get it and trying to stay afloat without using too much energy. Waves washed over his face and salt water filled his eyes, nose and mouth, time and again.

  His body grew stiff and cold and he began to feel heavier and heavier, and it became too difficult to try to stay afloat. His life jacket kept him near the surface, but not always immediately above water. He thought he saw a light in the distance and he called out, yelling as loudly as he could and moving his arms, but his muscles were so cold and so tight that he wasn't able to move them much at all, and his voice seemed lost in the wind and waves.

  Light began to fade around him, and he felt as though the easiest thing to do would be to close his eyes and slip away from it all, and a few moments later, that's just what he did.

  Chapter Five

  Cami was laying on her bed, holding Emma in her arms, watching her daughter as she slept peacefully. She touched the soft dark curls at the top of her baby's head and ran her fingertip over her cheek, tracing the curve of her tiny face to the soft round bottom of her chin. She was such a beautiful baby.

  Her phone rang and she reached for it, a little surprised. She wasn't expecting a call at all. She looked at the number and saw that it was Janine. She furrowed her brow and answered the call.

  "Hello?" she asked.

  "Cami? It's Janine." She heard something strange in the woman's voice and sat up in bed.

  "What is it? Is something wrong?" Cami felt a little knot begin to form in her stomach.

  Janine was quiet a moment, muffling a sniff and a little cry. Then she spoke softly.

  "Roman was in a boat accident," she said through tears. "His boat sank, but there was another boat that was able to rescue him. They just brought him in and he's in the emergency room right now. There isn't any news. We don't know if he's going to make it. I can send a car for you right away if you want to come."

  Cami leaped from the bed, reached for her shoes, and then picked up her daughter. "Yes, I'll be waiting downstairs by the door. Please send it right away!"

  She hung up and put Emma in her car seat, packed her diaper bag, and rushed to the front door to wait for the car. It came in record time and she buckled her daughter in and looked at the city flying past her window, as the car zipped through the streets toward the hospital.

  Her heart was in her chest and her whole body was tensed with anxiety as she tried to keep visions of what must have happened, or what could have happened, out of her mind. She chewed silently on the end of her finger and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. Emma was still sound asleep when they reached the hospital.

  Janine was in the waiting room looking haggard and rough as if she had been through the ringer. Cami went right to her and embraced her tightly. She didn't know Janine that well, but tragedy has a way of tearing away inhibitors, and there was nothing between them but grief and worry, and in their hug, the comfort of a familiar person who cared.

  The nurse came out to them and told them that the doctor had taken Roman to a private room. She led them down the hall and into an elevator that glided slowly up to the third floor.

  She took them to a room at the end of the hall, just past a waiting room and refreshment corner. They entered Roman's room and saw him lying still, with his eyes closed, in the bed. He was pale and almost lifeless, and both women gasped and reached for each other when they saw him.

  The doctor turned toward them and lowered the chart in his hand. "Hello, I'm Doctor Andrews." He looked at Cami. "Are you his wife?" he asked.

  The question jolted her heart and she shook her head. "No, I'm a..."

  Janine answered quickly for her. "She's family. I'm his private secretary."

  The doctor looked at them both and nodded. "We're only allowing family in at this time," he said apologetically, but Janine stood her ground.

  "I'm the only other family you're going to find in this city." She frowned at him slightly.

  He looked at Cami. "Do you give her permission to be here?" he asked, sure of the answer.

  Cami nodded. "Yes, of course. What's going on with him? How is he doing?" She looked at the doctor with pleading eyes.

  The doctor looked back at Roman lying there and placed his hand on the foot of the bed. "He's in an induced coma. The water he was in was about fifty-seven degrees, and he was in it long enough that he went into hypothermia and sustained some serious damage from the cold. We were able to revive him when he came in, but we didn't think we were going to be able to bring him back.

  “He was also in shock and his blood pressure skyrocketed. We're running tests to determine the extent of the damage he suffered internally. He has three broken ribs and a sprained ankle, but otherwise his injuries are the result of suffering a trauma, and he will heal. It's just going to take some time. We want him kept in the coma to relax him and allow his body to heal, but I expect we will be able to revive him in a few days." He looked at each of the ladies.

  "I'm so sorry. I hope as you do, that he will be alright. Please let me know if you have any questions." He walked out of the room with the nurse and Cami and Janine both went to Roman's side and held his hands, looking down at him and weeping. They stood there beside him for a while, silently hoping and wishing for him to be alright, when Emma woke up and began to fuss.

  Janine turned and looked at Cami. "May I?" she asked.

  Cami nodded, and Janine picked Emma up, looked at her soft brown eyes and was somewhere between crying and smiling. "There, there, little Pip. You're Auntie Janine has got you now. You're going to be alright. Your daddy is going to be alright too. See him there? He's getting better even as we speak, and in no time at all you'll be playing with him again and things will be alright."

  A voice sounded from the corner of the room and both ladies looked up to see the tall, curvy red head walking toward them with a dangerous expression on her face.

  "Her daddy?" she asked, looking from Janine to Emma to Cami.

  Janine drew her breath in and Cami looked at the woman curiously. She was stunning, though scantily dressed, whoever she was, and she didn't look well at all. Suddenly it dawned on Cami who this woman might be and she felt panic rising up from
deep within her stomach.

  The woman looked hard at Cami and Janine moved to stand in the way of Denise getting around the bed.

  "Denise, this is no time for drama. Roman is in critical condition and he needs to be our main focus right now. We'll explain later, but this is Cami, and this," she said, holding the baby close to her, "is Emma, Cami and Roman's daughter."

  Denise's mouth fell full open and she gawked at them for a long minute, blinking in surprise and trying to get a grasp on it.

  "That can't be!" she finally whispered.

  "Well it is," Janine said quietly. "Now, the most important thing you need to worry about is Roman, Denise."

  Denise narrowed her eyes and glared daggers at Cami. "You? You screwed my husband and had a kid with him?" She moved to walk around the bed and Janine stopped her in her tracks. "Not in here, Denise!" she whispered sharply. "You either focus on Roman or get out!”