The Marriage Pact: A Baby Romance

by Tia Siren

  “God,” I said, laying my head on her shoulder. “My life has taken a serious turn.”

  “You wouldn’t be my best friend if you didn’t have something exciting going on in your life,” she said and chuckled, rubbing my back. “Come on in. There are donuts, coffee, and if you really prefer, we can break out the ice cream.”

  “At seven in the morning?” I sniffled, lifting my head and walking inside.

  “Hey, there are no time restrictions on a broken heart,” she replied.

  I sat down at the table and just stared at my plate, my mind moving in slow motion. I had cried so much the night before that my head was pounding and my eyes were swollen. Whitney poured me a glass of orange juice and cup of coffee and sat down across the table from me. I reached over and grabbed a chocolate donut and pulled at it, putting small pieces in my mouth.

  “So, tell me what happened,” she said. “You got to his place. You were going to tell him, and then what? You were crying so hard I couldn’t understand you last night.”

  “I got there and he turned into a monster,” I said, “a complete and total asshole. He told me it was my fault for ruining his life and he never cared about me. He just wanted to fuck the boss’s daughter. From there we just argued until I finally left without telling him about the baby.”

  “What a dick,” Whitney said, shaking her head. “He really did seem like such a nice guy when I met him.”

  “To me too,” I said. “That’s what I don’t understand. He isn’t even like that with the other guys. In fact, he always got picked on at work for being the guy who didn’t jump into their vulgar conversations. He and Carl, the creepy guy from work, the one who told my father, they wanted to kill each other because Scott hated the kind of man he was. I don’t understand where yesterday came from.”

  “Maybe he is hurt,” Whitney said. “Maybe he didn’t mean those things but was lashing out. I mean, the guy did get fired from a job he had been at for over a decade.”

  “That doesn’t mean he had to say such horrible things to me,” I said, starting to cry again. “I was there to tell him he was going to be a father for God’s sake.”

  “You’re right. He shouldn’t have said those things, even if he didn’t know about the baby,” Whitney replied. “Guys are weird like that, you know? They finally find themselves in a place where they are happy and in love, and then if it doesn’t work out, they turn into these vile beasts that will take your weaknesses and exploit them just to hurt you.”

  “I wasn’t the nicest person back to him,” I said. “I couldn’t help myself. The things he was saying were terrible. That crossed with the hormones flowing through my body. I’m surprised I didn’t breathe fire and set him ablaze.”

  Whitney chuckled. “I’m picturing that right now. I can totally see that happening with you.”

  “But now he won’t ever talk to me again,” I said, starting to cry all over again.

  “Hey, hey,” Whitney said, coming over to my side and sitting down next to me. “Everything is going to be okay. We are going to figure all of this out, okay? You are not alone in this, and you don’t need some dickhead who is treating you like shit to be there for you. It is his loss in this situation, completely and totally his loss.”

  “But he is the father,” I sobbed. “I can’t keep the baby from him. What will I say when my child asks about his father?”

  “I don’t know,” Whitney said, hugging me tightly. “But we can deal with that when the time comes.”

  “I don’t know what the next steps are,” I said, wiping my eyes on my sleeve. “This is something I never expected to happen. Where do I even go from here?”

  “We will figure that out together,” Whitney said, handing me a tissue. “This isn’t the end of the world, Cassie. Women, single women, have babies every day. They raise babies every day without the help of a man in their life. You have one thing that so many don’t, and that is support. Regardless of how your family feels about what happened, they will help you support that child. That is one stress you don’t have to think about. The rest of it we can take step by step.”

  “God,” I said, leaning my head back. “Why is it always me?”

  Whitney laughed. “What are you talking about? You never have drama like this. You are the responsible girl who does what you are told.”

  “And this is what happens when I stray out into the real world.” I groaned. “Maybe my father is right. Maybe I should herd along with the other sheep, letting him make my decisions. It looks like when I get the chance, the first thing I do is go completely nuts and end up single and pregnant.”

  “I won’t lie,” Whitney said, chuckling. “When you do something, you go for the gold. That’s for damn sure. You leave no stone unturned and you bring back the entire prize.”

  “Prize.” I scoffed. “My prize is a living, breathing human being I am supposed to keep alive and well. I can’t even make choices for myself without royally screwing it up somehow. This poor child is going to be doomed.”

  “No.” Whitney hugged me again. “You are the sweetest and kindest woman I have ever met. You have a heart of gold, and you always want to help others. You are going to be an amazing mother to this baby. There is no doubt in my mind that once this all settles in and you learn to accept it, you will blossom into a woman who was made to be a mom. Trust me, you don’t give yourself enough credit, so I will tell you every single chance I get how awesome you are.”

  “When I started the summer, do you know what I did?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “I sat in my dorm on that last day before the driver came to pick me up to take me to the airport, and I made a list of all my future goals,” I said. “And on that list was a family. A couple of kids, a husband, a dog named Spot, the whole nine yards. Never in there did I write that I wanted to be a single mom, that I wanted a man who didn’t want me. I had my plan, Whitney. It was written in stone, and I’m sure it was written the day my mother told my father she was pregnant with me.”

  “Yeah, well, we all have plans like that. That’s part of being young and a dreamer,” she said. “But life is funny that way. It doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your plans. It does what it wants.”

  “Why in the world did it want me to think I was so in love and then have the guy turn out to be a complete and total asshole?”

  “I don’t know,” Whitney said, “but there are a million other girls out there asking the same question because, let’s face it, guys are all fucking assholes. I mean look at our dads. They’re assholes. Where in our childhood did we decide to completely ignore that fact and think there were actually good guys out there? I blame our mothers, and those damn Disney movies. Happily ever after my ass.”

  I giggled. “I’m sure there is someone out there who would think your ass was a happily ever after.”

  “Not that I appreciate the reference, but at this point I am just happy to see a smile out of you,” she said. “And plenty of men out there think this ass is all they need, but they can’t have it.”

  “I need to be that way,” I said, sitting up straight. “Fuck men.”

  “That’s right,” Whitney said.

  “And screw them for thinking they run the world,” I said.

  “Amen,” she said.

  “I don’t need a man in my life to be a good mother. I can do this all on my own,” I said.

  “Mmhm.”

  “But I forgot one little thing,” I said, sinking back into my chair. “Actually, two things now that I think about it.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The fact that I love Scott, and then there’s the whole thing where eventually I will have to tell my father.” I grimaced.

  “Eek,” Whitney said. “I do not envy you on the father part. Your dad is crazy protective of you.”

  “What if I just don’t tell him?” I said. “I go to school, don’t come back for Christmas, and when I do come back, I have the baby in my arms. He won’t be abl
e to turn us away, right?”

  “Your father has a team of security just to make sure you are okay at school. I think that might come up when they give their reports,” Whitney said. “I can see it now. They are briefing your father on how you are doing and include the fact that the baby is growing well. He might die right then and there.”

  “Oh, my God.” I laughed. “He might. There is a good likelihood of that happening. Do they make cards for this?” I asked, groaning. “Surprise, Dad! I got knocked up in a club closet. See you at Thanksgiving!”

  “No, but I am seeing a serious future in the greeting card business for you,” she said. “I bet you would sell out so fast. Your motto could be something like, ‘Ruining families since 2018.’”

  “Will you tell him?”

  “Hell no,” she said. “I like my head on my shoulders.”

  “Ugh,” I said, rubbing my face.

  “Listen, sweetie,” she said, taking my hand. “This is not the end of the world, I promise you. Your father loves you, and though he may freak out at first and say some rough things, he will never kick you out of his life. In the end, he will learn to accept it because he has to. He is not going to have any choice in the matter.”

  “I know,” I said. “And Scott?”

  “Well, Scott is going to be his own person, and I think if you can tell him, that is great. Put the ball in his court,” she said. “But if you can’t, then you have that right too. It’s tough. I know it. But you are a strong girl, and you are going to make it through this. In the end, you are going to realize it was never as bad as you thought.”

  “Thank you, Whitney,” I said, leaning on her shoulder. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  Chapter 23

  Scott

  It was early Thursday evening and there was a bit of time before I went out Ubering for the night. I sat down and pulled up the old business plan I had started to create. I went through each line, scaling the company down by a massive amount. I couldn’t believe I had actually thought I would be able to accomplish something as big as I had originally set out to do. I’d had some serious goals before everything came tumbling down around me, but back then they really didn’t feel that big. Maybe it was because every plan I had was now scrubbed and I felt like things would never turn around for me.

  When I was done altering the numbers, I sat down with the calculator and punched them in. I went through each line meticulously, making sure not to miss a thing. When I was done, I sat back and stared at the calculator screen. Not only was I short, but I was short by a whole lot, and that was only doing the minimum with the place. I threw my pen down on the table and leaned my head back, rubbing my eyes and groaning loudly. I was pissed. Even more than that, I was livid. My dreams were unreachable at this point. There was no way I could safely make it happen. It was straight back to the drawing board, and after I had spent years of my life trying to make my dreams happen.

  I sighed and shook my head. I was going to have to postpone the store and go out and find another job. There wasn’t anything I could do about it, and being so bitter and angry wasn’t making anything better. My mother always did one thing very, very well. She let the bad stuff roll off her shoulders because it never did any good to harp on it when you could be spending that same energy changing it. I was going to have to wait. That was the reality of it, so I needed to put my head down and move on.

  I got up from the table and went outside, where I grabbed the paper from the driveway. I waved at my neighbor, an older woman who liked to sit on her front porch every morning and enjoy a cup of coffee. Those were the things I missed, enjoying the little things without all the stress and nagging. When I got inside, I spread the help wanted section out across the table and grabbed a sharpie. I scanned the retail sections, but nothing caught my eye, and nothing paid enough to be able to continue saving. I moved over to the manual labor section where there was an ad for a construction worker. It was a smaller company than the one I worked for before, but I knew their name. It was worth a shot. There didn’t seem to be anything else in the paper that morning. I circled the ad and wrote the information down, realizing I was going to have to create a resume. It had been fourteen years since I had looked for a job, and I felt slightly lost.

  All of this was my fault. Every last terrible, torturous second of it was my own doing. I could have stayed away from Cassie like I’d told everyone else to do. But no, I gave in to my primal instincts, and this was where it had gotten me. The truth was, though, after all of that, I still really missed her. I could smell her lavender shampoo on my pillow when I lay down at night, and it did nothing but make me even crazier about everything. For a brief moment, I had actually thought I was happy. I had actually thought there was someone out there who got me, who understood the way my mind worked. I had let that cloud my judgment and I’d let her into my life. It was something I had told myself I would never do. I would never let a woman take away everything I had worked so hard for. That flew right out the window the first time I looked into those beautiful green eyes, and it had been a disaster ever since.

  I had called her a million times, and she never once picked up the phone, called me back, or even sent me a text. She let me go through everything on my own, and I didn’t understand it. If she didn’t want anything to do with me, if she really thought I wasn’t good enough for her, then why couldn’t she have just left me alone? Instead she came to my house and tried to apologize, but why? So I would know she was okay? She could have done that over the phone, and it would have saved us both a lot of heartbreak. It was baffling to me that she would drive all the way over and not tell me anything that I needed to hear. I guessed I would never know the true reason for her popping by unexpectedly, but what did it matter? She was gone, and I had made damn sure with my pride to not let her in at all.

  I didn’t know what had come over me when she’d apologized, but I had torn into her. I’d lied to her face about why I had been with her. I wasn’t the kind of guy who would sleep with someone for such a stupid reason. Nor was I the guy who would risk everything for no reason whatsoever. I felt like a prick for telling her all of those lies. She had taken it really hard. I had seen it in her dewy eyes. It was better that way though. She needed a clean break from me, because after what happened with her father, there was no way the two of us could be together. She wasn’t going to leave that lifestyle or her family, and I would never fit in with them or be welcomed. It would have been a back-and-forth disaster until, finally, it ended in even more tears and heartbreak than it already had.

  She needed to move on, and so did I. I had my life to clean up, and her father had been right. She had a bright future ahead of her and I would have slowed her down. I put the marker down on the table and let out a deep breath, feeling the anger subside and sadness take its place. I looked down at my phone and realized I was wasting valuable time sitting there. I needed to get on the road and grab some riders. I grabbed my bag of snacks and my keys, and I headed out for the evening.

  The night shift was good, with more than the normal amount of people out and about looking for a ride. It was a really good night financially, and it helped me keep my mind off everything that had been going on in my life. When I was done, I decided to stop at the store and pick up a few things for the house. I was going to have to start eating at home more to save money, so I needed to peruse the shelves and figure out what food to buy. I parked in the nearly empty parking lot since it was so late and walked into the store, smiling at the greeter as I entered. I hated shopping with a passion, but there I was in the giant box store moving through the frozen food section, trying to decide which pizza I wanted.

  As I moved around the aisle to the next, I looked up, hearing a group of guys talking loudly and laughing. I took a step back so they wouldn’t see me, as that asshole Carl was at the head of the gang as usual. He looked wasted, like he had just come from the bar, and there was no way I had the energy in me tonight to deal with his ass,
especially if he was drunk. I skipped the beer aisle, not needing anything from there anyway, and moved on, finishing up my shopping as quickly as I could. I wanted to get out and go home, not fuck around with some assholes in the store.

  The woman at the checkout line smiled sweetly at me as she packed up my bags and put them into the cart. I paid for them and left, pushing the cart out to my car. I opened the back and piled everything in, trying to make sure not to squish the bread. I was so focused on what I was doing, I didn’t hear anyone walking up behind me.

  “Well, look who it is,” Carl said. “It’s Silent Scott, especially now that he doesn’t have a job.”

  “Go home, Carl,” I said, closing the door to the car. “You’re fucking drunk.”

  “You’re the Uber driver. Take me home,” he said with a smirk.

  “I’m off,” I said, pushing the cart into the cart retriever and pulling my keys out of my pocket. “And I don’t give assholes rides in my car.”

  “You sure do have a mouth on you now that you’re outside the site.” He chuckled. “What’s wrong? You miss your little whore?”

  “Shut your mouth, Carl,” I said. “You’ve done enough damage to her and me.”

  “All I know is that now that you are out of the way and aren’t there to be the big protector, I’m next in line for that sweet little pussy,” he said. “She needs to be with a real man.”

  “Shut—the fuck—up,” I said, closing my hands into fists.

  I was so frustrated with the whole situation. He wouldn’t shut his fucking mouth. He was the entire reason Cassie’s father had found out. He was the whole reason I got fired and that Cassie was so upset. He was the asshole who had taken information that was none of his business and made it public knowledge. Anger boiled up inside me faster and faster, and I wasn’t sure I could hold back this time. Between my dreams collapsing and my love life disappearing into the abyss, I was ready to blow.