During the drive home, Adriana Taylor hadn’t said much and River was rather pleased with this. He knew that she was upset, and he didn’t want to mess things up any more than he already had by saying something stupid. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he knew that he would eventually.
Deep down he still had feelings for Cami. She was unlike any other girl he had ever dated. He normally dated the girls who other girls loved to hate—the popular girls. Long blonde hair whether it belonged to them or was $500 hair extensions, tanned skin, and legs for days were just some of the attributes of his usual picks. Cami, on the other hand, was at another end of the spectrum. She was a kind and courteous, shy girl who wasn’t popular and didn’t crave for materialistic things. In addition to that Cami didn’t come with drama, and he liked that about her.
He knew that she still cared about him, but now was not the right time for them to be together. He missed her and still cared about her, but Adriana was carrying his baby and he couldn’t leave her to raise their child alone. He had to do what was best for her and the baby. Being with Adriana at the moment is what’s best.
He was still having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that he was going to be a father. He had used a condom; but when he took it off, there was a huge hole in it. She wasn’t taking any type of birth control so they were almost guaranteed to become parents. Shortly afterwards they found out that she was pregnant.
Eighteen-year-old Adriana glanced at the young man who was driving her car out the corner of her eye. One of her friends had mentioned that he had an ex-girlfriend named Cami, but she had never met her until tonight. He had never once mentioned Cami to her.
What bothered Adriana the most is the way that River looked at Cami. His eyes were caring and loving yet sorrowful as if he missed her or longed to be with her. Did he? He had never looked at her in that way, and she was carrying his child. Did he really love her, or was he still in love with Cami?
She sighed as her eyes locked onto her growing stomach. The pregnancy was not planned. In fact, when Adriana found out that she was pregnant she nearly fainted. She had just begun her first semester at a local university and was majoring in finance. Her dream was to become a real estate agent just like her late father. With a baby on the way, she knew that she would have to work extra hard to obtain her dream. After the birth, her plan was to return to college and her part-time job as a desk assistant at a real estate firm. Thankfully, she didn’t have to worry about money. Her father died when she was three years old and left her and her grandmother (who took care of her afterwards) financially well off. She never knew her birth mother, and her father didn’t introduce her mother to his mother so her grandmother had no idea who she was. Ever since she had found out that she was pregnant, she found herself wanting to find out who her mother was more and more each day.
River could see that something was on Adriana’s mind. However, he declined to ask for fear that it might be about what happened earlier at the grocery store.
Feeling his eyes on her, she turned to meet his gaze. Her mind went back to the moment that he was looking at Cami, and she compared it to the way that he was looking at her now. Maybe he really didn’t love her but then again maybe she didn’t really love him.
He yawned. He was beyond exhausted. He hadn’t slept much last night because he had to study for three exams (that his professors were all nice enough to schedule on the same day). In addition to that he had been in classes all day. All he wanted was to go to sleep, but he knew that would be nearly impossible if Adriana’s grandmother was still awake.
Her grandmother resented River and she was not ashamed to voice it. She blamed him for getting her granddaughter pregnant. Whenever he would come over, she would lecture him on safe sex and how he ruined Adriana’s life. If they were not engaged, she wouldn’t have allowed him to spend the night in her home. He didn’t care for her much either. She was constantly yelling at him about something. It seemed like no matter what he did it wasn’t good enough. Adriana’s grandmother even went as far as to tell him that his major (which was business administration) would not allow him to make enough money and that the engagement ring on Adriana’s finger wasn’t big enough.
Adriana refused to defend him. Whether her grandmother was right or wrong, she would always side with her. He had considered breaking things off with her but decided against it. Besides, he didn’t want his unborn child to grow up without a father the way that he had. However, he didn’t know how much more he could take from the old woman. She was really starting to get under his skin.
After he pulled into the circular driveway, he put the car in park and pulled the key out of the ignition. Then, he heard a sound. Adriana and he saw her grandmother walking out of the front door in her cozy, white bath robe. She stood by the door as if she was waiting for Adriana. As if on cue, she exited the car without saying a word to River and greeted her grandmother with a hug. With that they both entered the house and her grandmother closed the door behind them without throwing a look his way.
He sighed loudly. She was another Kaci. She would hate him and make his life miserable as long as he was dating her granddaughter. Maybe he should just go ahead and break the whole thing off.
Adriana sat in her bed and stared at the ceiling. She had told her grandmother that she saw Cami at the grocery store and that River had never once mentioned this girl to her. Her grandmother could tell that this had upset her and tried to convince her granddaughter once again to end her relationship with him. She told her grandmother that she would consider it but only so that she would leave her room.
Adriana was tired of people keeping things from her. She was angry at her father for not leaving some clues behind as to who her mother was. In the past, she had tried searching the house for anything that could tell her who her mother was, but whenever she did her grandmother would tell her that it was no use. She almost acted as if she didn’t want Adriana to find her mother. She was angry at River for not telling her about Cami. He had told her about all of his other exes. So why leave this one out?
She brought herself to a seating position and called the only person who she knew would listen.
River wanted to go back to his apartment so that he wouldn’t have to deal with Adriana’s grandmother’s eye rolls and attitude. However, the three cans of energy drinks that he had earlier had other plans for him. He needed to release his bladder. He would have hid behind a tree to do his business, but there were only flowers in the front yard. God only knows what her grandmother would do to him if he messed up her beautiful flowers! She loved those flowers only slightly less than her granddaughter.
His bladder was nearing its breaking point. He hated to do this but he was going to have to go inside the house. Adriana’s bathroom was better because he wouldn’t have to pass her grandmother’s bedroom.
As he neared Adriana’s room, he could hear her voice coming from inside. As he pressed his ear to the door, he heard his name and wanted to hear more.
“…I’m just having a hard time dealing with all of this,” he heard her say.
Dealing with what? he thought to himself.
“Afterwards we could get our own place to raise the baby…”
Wait a minute! What is she talking about?! She’s not raising my kid with someone else!
“I know that I need to tell him that he’s not the father, but I have a heart and I don’t want to hurt him.”
It’s too late for that because you already have.
He couldn’t believe that he had just heard all of this with his own two ears. If she had been lying to him about the baby, what else had she lied about? He rolled his eyes.
Overhearing this important information almost made him forget that he needed to use the bathroom. He would just use one of the other bathrooms instead.
Chapter 6
Cami's Decision Page 6
