by Iona Rose
“Leah!” Anne called out.
I was already spewing my guts into the toilet. After I was done, I settled on the floor, unwilling to even peel myself off the tiles.
Both girls filed into the bathroom.
Anne stood by the door watching me, while Tracy came over to tie my hair on top of my head. “You need to see a doctor, Leah,” she fussed. “Thank God, you took the day off tomorrow.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said and lifted my gaze to Anne’s, but for some reason I couldn’t meet her eyes.
And then she asked, “Are you pregnant, Leah?
At that moment, it felt like my entire world stopped. And then anger suddenly surged inside of me. “Why the fuck would you say that?” I gave her a harsh look as Tracy helped me to rise.
Anne shrugged. “Well, you’ve thrown up twice in the last hour.”
“She told you there’s a bug going around in her office,” Tracy countered.
“That doesn’t mean that it has affected you,” she said. “When was your last period?”
I didn’t respond.
Tracy led me to the sink to rinse out my mouth, and afterwards we returned to the living room.
“Leah, when did you last have your period?” Anne asked again.
I gave her a hard look. “My boobs are swollen,” I said. “It’ll be here any day now. It’s usually irregular.”
“Your boobs also become swollen when you’re pregnant.”
“Anne, would you drop it?” Tracy snapped as she arranged a blanket over me on the couch.
“Why?” She refused to back down. “The earlier she finds out, then the faster she’ll be able to deal with it.”
“You’re making her anxious.”
“She should be anxious! Fine.” She said and left the matter alone.
I however, had been rattled to my very core.
Chapter 19
Carter
I strolled into the revolving doors of the building that housed Pivot Marketing, certain that on the outside, I looked calm and in total control.
But on the inside, my nerves were tied in knots and my chest had become severely constricted. All of this had absolutely nothing to do with this company that I had just acquired. The last time I had been this nervous, had been more than five years ago when I had gotten fired from my last job.
Today, I was going to find out if I had made a significant and potentially rewarding jump, or if I had made the biggest fool of myself.
What if she wants absolutely nothing to do with you? The question haunted me over and over again, along with the reminder that just calling her, rather than purchasing the company she worked for would have been just as significant a gesture.
But I didn’t want to give her a chance to run away, so I was putting everything on the line to show her that if she did reject me, then there would be no do overs or second chances with us like there was back in Turkey.
I was immediately met in the reception by half a dozen men in suits.
I immediately recognized Bradley Miller, the current CMO of the company, and the orchestrator thus far of the entire purchase on behalf of the company’s former owner.
Right from the beginning, he had seemed confused, and unable to understand why I was choosing to invest so much into the company, but when he saw how serious I was, he’d had no qualms handing it over to me to steer.
The team of executives introduced themselves to me then we were riding up to the three floors of the commercial high rise that the agency occupied. From the fourteenth to the eighteenth floors.
I was shown to the CEO’s office, which had been prepared for me on the top floor, and our handover meeting began.
The meeting was attended by all the major executives and directors in the agency with the needed introductions and announcements made.
I was already very familiar with the workings of the company, its business history and operational culture on paper, but had never bothered to take the trip down to inspect it on ground before my purchase. This was what my CFO back in Minnesota could not understand.
So when we returned back to my office, the CMO immediately offered to bring all seventy-two employees together, so I could officially be introduced to them.
I had a different request. “I’ll send out an official letter to the staff, and visit each of the departments and their heads today. Please tell them to ready the HR files of every employee in their department. Over the course of the coming days, I'll pick an appropriate time to invite them over for a light chat.”
He seemed even more surprised by the request, but approved of it. “I’ll get on that right now, sir,” he said and exited the office.
* * *
Leah
The next morning after both girls left, I took Cheryl to the vet.
A little while later, her doctor, Deepika came to me with the news. “Congratulations,” she said.
I stared at my poor dog, completely lacking her usual energy, and laying quietly by the corner. Why had it taken me so long to notice it?
My mind went to the previous night and Anne’s comment, and I began to shake.
We walked out of the clinic and on our way home, I stopped by the grocery store for some milk and berries. On my way to the counter, I passed by the pharmacy, and took a deep breath.
Cheryl looked up at me, and I sent her a shaky smile. “We’ve both been busy haven’t we?” I said. “Should I check myself too?”
She looked away from me, so I took that as her response and started to walk away, but I could only take a few steps. I turned back around, picked up the test kit and drove away from the store with a hundred pound gorilla in my bag.
When I returned home, I ignored the bag and spent my time making Cheryl’s little bed by the couch more comfortable. I changed the sheets of the cushions and even gave up one of my most comfortable blankets for her.
“Unlike you, I used protection,” I said as I settled the blanket around her. “I was careful. Right?” I looked her in the eyes and she stared right back. My breath came in a heady strained rush. I rose to my feet, and returned to the couch with a tub of caramelized ice cream in hand for my day at home.
I continued re-watching Sex and the City, completely aware of where the episodes were heading towards. By the time I was halfway through the tub, the eighth episode of the second season came into play… where Carrie suspected she was pregnant.
Right then, the storm that had been slowly gathering inside of me began to brew. By the end of the episode, I rose to my feet, retrieved the bag and headed off to the bathroom.
“You were safe,” I assured myself as I sat on the toilet bowl. “You used condoms and took your birth control pills- religiously.”
The words of assurance however didn’t carry as much weight as I hoped for.
“Just get this over with,” I told myself, and slipped the white stick underneath my urine stream.
I kept my eyes shut as I pulled it away.
The minutes ticked by… and I did all I could to gather the courage to look.
Eventually, I did.
I looked at the stick to see the line that it revealed… and my whole world stopped.
Half an hour later, I hadn’t moved a single inch from the bathroom and my legs had long fallen asleep. I rose on the numb limbs, and almost crumbled to the floor in a different kind of pain. I was immobile for too long as I waited for the blood to rush back into my legs, and it filled my eyes with tears.
However, I didn’t let them fall. I returned to the living room and called Tracy.
She went quiet too, just as I had and then asked a simple question, “Are you sure?”
“There were two blue lines,” was my response.
“How about you go for another test, perhaps it was an error. These things break all the time. Plus, you were safe weren’t you? You took your pills.”
“I did and we used condoms,” I said, but again, there was that twinge in my heart that suggested that maybe… just maybe I ha
d gotten carried away and missed one or two or maybe the condom split. We had so much sex, that I honestly couldn’t be sure.
Either way, I accepted her skepticism and held onto the sliver of hope that maybe, I had indeed purchased a broken stick.
I ended the call, grabbed my keys and was out of the house in no time.
* * *
Carter
By late afternoon, I had more than half of the departments’ files and reports in my hand, and it was my intention to go through all of them but first I headed straight to those of the marketing teams.
From what I had found out so far, Leah was in the second marketing team.
A quick perusal later, and I had found her.
Leah Francine Peters.
At the top of the page was her photograph, and in it she was clearly a couple of years younger. The fullness present in her cheeks now were absent then, the challenges of getting her degree in marketing from Bloomington, and then subsequently joining the thorny path to find a job, no doubt taking their toll.
Regardless, she seemed happy. Her gaze looked a bit tired, but nothing about her could accommodate the phrase-dull.
I leaned back into my chair, my gaze lost on the woman I had made such a huge jump for. My head could still not find any logic in what I had embarked on, and so my nerves were taut with the fear that she would reject me. That what we had experienced with each other in the previous month was an inconsequential history that needed to be left where we had both promised ourselves we would leave it- in the past.
I couldn't wait anymore.
I needed to find out, if I could bring her onto the same page with me, otherwise I was going to lose it. Nothing else in the moment seemed more important, and until we were resolved… I wouldn’t be able to do much else.
I got up from my desk, my armor of information in hand, and headed down the elevator two floors below.
She belonged to Henry Simmon’s team, but he wasn’t the one whom I'd be visiting first. The elevator dinged my arrival to the creative floor, and I took in the sprawling floor area of cubicles and secluded meeting rooms by the sides. Some of the senior staff I had met with earlier stopped to greet me while the others looked on curiously.
Some recognized me from the introductory message I had sent via the company’s email server earlier that morning, on which my photograph had been attached. They rose to their feet in greeting.
Thankfully, I got through the area fast enough, aware of the layout of every part of the company. I quickly found my way to Devon Hane’s office of Marketing Team 2. He was the youngest manager in the company at thirty-five, but I could tell as I walked in that the skepticism about me, who owned the company at just thirty-three, was a tune that I’d have sung behind my back until they decided that my skills were deserving of my achievements.
They were currently in the midst of developing a campaign to rebrand a home restoration company, whose account the company had been in charge of for about four years. I listened as he spoke to me about the current state of the account and the direction of their campaign, before eventually taking my leave.
Leah’s boss, Henry Simmons was next in line, but as I headed down the corridor to his office, I glanced at her desk just by the copy room… empty.
It brought a frown to my face. Was she not at work today? Was there something wrong or was she just temporarily away from her desk?
Her boss received me into his office, a heavy set man that reminded me immensely of my CFO back in Minnesota- Mark.
His smiling eyes immediately set me at ease in his presence. My first question was simple, “Are all the members of your team present today?”
He paused at the question, no doubt expecting the more generic inquisition about the current account he was handling with the new Vice President. “No, sir,” he replied, his eyes lifting to the ceiling to ponder. “Uh… two members are absent today. Our Project Manager Lisa Palm, and our Junior Copywriter, Leah Peters. They’re usually very prompt and hardworking employees but there’s been a stomach flu going around the office and these two were part of those affected by it. Miss Peters will return, I think tomorrow, and Miss Palm will be back to work on Monday.”
“Alright,” I said, a bit forlorn. How much longer did I truly have to wait to see her?
By the time I left his office, my resolve was to drop by her house after work that day. I wasn’t sure if I'd allow myself to pay her a visit, to at least inform her beforehand of my presence at her workplace, but I wanted to at least see where she lived.
At a quarter past eight that evening, however, I was still in the midst of a two hour long strategy meeting with both the CMO and the new VP. My gaze lingered on the clock as I wondered what the best course of action would be.
I decided then to take it slow. Tomorrow would be good enough and by then, I would be ready to meet her.
My hands wrung with anticipation and nervous excitement. I was cooped up in my office but my mind would make the occasional visit to the woman that had sucked me off like no other ever had, and raked her nails down my back.
I could barely wait for tomorrow to arrive.
Chapter 20
Leah
The sun rose the next morning, and I laid in bed, feeling cheated.
For the first time in my life, I had strayed away from my usual norms. I followed my heart and life had dealt me a severe blow.
No matter how things turned out, except I somehow lost the man through no fault of my own‒ the consequence of creating a child that I didn’t necessarily want or was ready to accept at this point in my life‒ was inescapable.
I had given myself to someone else so completely for the first time, and I was possibly going to come away from it all with pain and regret. I couldn’t believe it.
I didn’t want to move, but my alarm clock had long gone off and I knew that any more time wasted would send me to work late. A job that I most definitely now needed since overnight, my life and world now consisted of two instead of one.
I was scared enough to rise to my feet and head off to the bathroom. The moment I stood before the vanity, my toothbrush in my mouth, I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I looked dejected and distraught.
My eyes were swollen and bloodshot from the lack of sleep, and my face soaked from the tears I’d shed throughout the night.
I’d never imagined I would be a single mother. How my life would take such a sudden and drastic turn, and all on account of a man I would most likely never set my eyes on again.
My fingers found their way to my hair and gripped the curly mass in trepidation.
What am I going to do? I cried in my heart.
I knew despite being saddled with a responsibility that I most definitely wasn’t ready for… I would have this baby.
Tears filled my eyes again, as I moved my toothbrush slowly across my teeth.
How I hated myself right now for being so unlucky… and how I hated him for being absent.
I wiped the tears from my face, finished brushing my teeth, and got into the shower.
As I drove to work, I promised myself there would be no further thought on this, not until the day ended and I returned home. This might be the only way I would be able to keep my sanity because with each passing moment, it felt like I was on the verge of losing it. I had an upcoming campaign and a team to perform in conjunction with. I couldn’t afford to fall apart, especially not now.
The moment I arrived, I headed over to the breakroom in search of a cure for my sleeplessness. I loaded my mug with an unhealthy dose of caffeine and stood in the silence of the room, leaning against a corner with my phone in hand to discourage anyone from speaking to me. I needed this few minutes before the work day began to pull myself together.
It didn’t work.
“Leah!”
I pretended not to hear Jeremy’s overexcited call, but it was impossible to ignore.
“Leah!”
I turned to face him, a smile on my face as he walked tow
ards me, and was a bit stunned by how unusually dressed up he looked. He wore a burgundy suit, complete with a tie and his usually wild, curly hair, cut short and slicked away from his face.
I was confused. “What’s going on?”
He beamed at my observation. “I look good right?”
“Umm, why are you dressed so formally?”
“We have a new boss. In short, this is an entirely new company except we’re keeping our name because we’ll be part of the parent company’s portfolio. Whose name I can’t remember.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The rumors were true.” He tapped my arm. “We’ve been bought up. Didn’t you check your work inbox? Not much has changed though but we do have a new boss. I already mentioned that right? God, I'm so nervous.”
I drained my mug and headed over to the sink to rinse it. “Why are you nervous?”
“Oh, you weren’t here yesterday. Remember what I said about wanting to jump the grandfather? I've changed my mind. My eyes are now on the godfather.”
My headache doubled.
I didn’t want to ask but I knew he would explain nonetheless, so I turned around and folded my hand across my chest with a deep sigh. Ready to listen. Perhaps his excitement would take away some of the current gloom from my life.
“The godfather is the new boss and Leah, I am telling you, I have never ever seen a man that handsome and forgive my Burmese, fuck-able, in my entire life.
My stomach turned. This was the exact same talk that had landed me in the trouble that I was currently in. Too bad Jeremy was forever free of any consequences, should he choose to indulge the way that I had. I watched his excitement with envy.
“And guess what?”
I couldn’t even find the energy to chime along.
He went on regardless, “He is going to be calling one or some of us to an interview in his office.”
I was immediately alarmed. “An interview?”
“Well, not exactly, like a little chit chat you know. To get to know the company a little better through our eyes.”
