by Simply BWWM
“Cold?” he asked with an attitude. He gave a half smile to let Sasha know he was only kidding, but still, the comment stung. He looked so cute sitting next to her. Part of her wanted to jump on his lap and start kissing him, but it was best for her to resist that urge for the time being. She could smell him again, the same way he smelled the first time she met him. His hair had gotten a bit longer and instead of cutting it, he had started to tuck it behind his ears. She wondered what he would look like if he had long hair to his shoulders.
“Yeah, it was cold the way I ended things,” she said, focusing on making amends for what happened instead of making excuses. “You have to know I was guarding my heart. My last relationship, paid or not, I got my heartbroken. I realize now I wasn’t in love with him, but I felt myself falling for you harder and faster and it terrified me. I couldn’t let myself get hurt again,” she explained.
“I never would have hurt you,” he said in his red flannel, neatly buttoned to the top. “You didn’t have to be so afraid. I still promise to never hurt you.”
Ian reached his hand over and put it on her knee. She looked up at him and right into his green eyes. She put her hand on his and slowly placed it back on the couch. “That’s not why I asked you to come here,” she said. He gave her a strange look, not understanding what exactly was going on.
“I’ve been going through a lot,” she told him, feeling sick to her stomach. “My grandmother died. She was like my mom, my dad, and my grandma in one. She was old and getting sicker every day, but it still crushed my soul when she was gone. I hadn’t experienced a loss like that in a while. It never gets easier either, no matter how many times you feel it. It only gets harder.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that Sasha. I had no idea,” he told her, looking genuinely sympathetic.
“There’s something else I need to tell you too,” she said, feeling the air get thick again and her chest start to tighten. She started breathing faster and faster, reaching down to hold his hand again.
“What is it? Sasha, are you okay? You’re scaring me,” he explained, squeezing her hand back.
“I’m pregnant,” she said, her breathing finally starting to slow down again. At last he knew, and she felt free—at least for now. His mouth dropped, and Sasha wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
“That’s great. How are you feeling?” he asked.
“I’m okay, just still trying to process,” she responded. He seemed oddly calm, making her feel bad that she had freaked out about it so bad.
“Well, I wish you and the father the best,” he told her, squeezing her hand.
“Ian, it’s yours,” she said bluntly, confused as to how he didn’t get that.
“Mine? No way. We haven’t been together in a couple of months,” he told her, so sure of himself.
“Ian, the last time we were together is when I got pregnant. It takes a little bit to be able to tell,” she explained, shocked that she would even have to explain this to him in the first place.
“Wait, I’m going to be a dad?” he asked, smiling.
“Yeah,” Sasha responded, smiling back.
“Sasha, I don’t believe it! I was told that there was a chance I might never have kids after a certain injury in my athletic career,” he told her, standing up excited. “This is so amazing Sasha. It’s honestly a miracle!”
“I definitely want to keep it, too,” she said laughing, touching her stomach. She had no idea that he was told he might not be able to have children, but he had revealed his fear of being taken advantage of by an ex. Either way, Sasha was excited that he was exited.
“I haven’t made a doctor’s appointment, but you should definitely come when it happens. I can’t wait to hear the heartbeat. I also don’t think I want to find out the sex of the baby because it really doesn’t matter to me either way,” she told him. “Giselle knows, but other than that, it’s just me and you.”
“That’s great,” he said, giving her a genuine smile. Then his smile started to fade, and she started to get a little worried. This was good news to him at first, but was the reality starting to set in? Sasha was starting to regret even telling him. Even though he seemed excited and could keep up that façade, her insecurities still made her doubt his genuineness, questioning if he was just being polite.
“What is it? You look upset now, Ian. If you don’t want to be there or have any part in a relationship with the baby, that is totally fine,” she revealed.
“No, I’m not upset. I one hundred percent want to be there for the baby. It’s just…” Ian trailed off.
“It’s just what?” she asked him, a little quieter than a yell and about the tone of a shout.
“It’s just, my father,” he said, and Sasha knew where this might be going. “He’s running for senator and the person he’s campaigning against is really conservative. A lot of people who are on the fence are voting for my dad because he kind of attracts some of those types of voters with his policies.”
“Okay, and what does that have to do with our baby?” Sasha asked, saying “our baby” for the first time in her life. It felt good.
“Well, if he loses those questioning or conservative voters to the other guy, that would be really bad because he’s an unstable lunatic that wants to make things like they were when this country was just getting started. He’s an offensive bigot who has driven a lot of traditionally conservative voters to my democratic dad,” he explained. “If something came out about the family that makes us look a little less than perfect, it could send those edgy voters right back to the lunatic.”
“So, what does that mean for me?” she asked.
“I want to help you out,” he said. “If you could, I don’t know, if we could, maybe just tell people that we’re a couple and that we’ve been together this whole time… That just might help make us look a little better, you know?”
“You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend?” she asked.
“Well, just for drama’s sake, why not make it a fiancé? Just to make things extra secure?” he said.
“So, you want me to be your fake fiancé to make your dad look good. And what do I get out of this?” she asked.
“I could pay you, you know, like last time,” he told her.
“Me and my baby are not for sale,” she said.
“I’m not trying to buy you. I just want to help you out. I’m sure you have student loans, or maybe credit card debt. I can clear all your debt to make sure that you never have to pay back any bills or stress about missing a payment. You should be able to take care of our child debt free, and if you just help me out, I can help you out back,” he told her.
It felt wrong, but Sasha didn’t know what else to do. She had deferred her student loans for long enough, and it was time to start making payments. She had also opened some credit cards in college that she was still making minimum payments for. “I don’t know. It just feels wrong. I mean, we’re not. I just don’t know.”
“You’ll be taken care of throughout the entire pregnancy, I can promise you that,” he said reassuringly. “You can live in my house and have my maids take care of you and my chef cook for you. We just have to tell my parents that we’re together, and they’ll take care of the rest. Just until the election is over. After that, we can go our separate ways if we want, making living arrangements for you and the child, of course.”
“I just don’t know. I don’t know if I’m ready for all that,” she told him.
“Look, I’m not asking for a real relationship. I think we both know from what happened that might not be the greatest idea for us. It’s just easier if we go along with this for now,” he told her, and he was right.
“Okay. You’re right. I don’t want to be in the middle of a messy controversy,” she told him.
“It’ll just be a couple of months. You can move in right away too, if you want,” he explained to her.
“Ok. I guess I’ll pack my stuff,” she said laughing. “But, this doesn’t mean…”
>
“I know,” he said, and relief washed over her that he understood what was going on between them.
*****
Sasha took a deep breath in the cab, using her final moments in the car to process what was going on. Giselle wasn’t home when she’d packed. She had thought about staying a final night, but Ian’s mom was visiting the next day, and Sasha needed some time to adjust. Her life was basically turning upside down, and she barely had a moment to catch her breath. It wasn’t a bad kind of upside down. It was just a different perspective of an ever-evolving globe.
Ian had also offered to give Sasha a car, but she didn’t have insurance yet and wouldn’t even know where to park it. She figured that she might not have to take a cab for a while either, so she soaked up that part of her life. What was she getting into? She knew that there were still feelings there for Ian, but getting with him would be so wrong. She didn’t want to enter a messy relationship with her baby’s father.
She opened the cab door and took a deep breath. This was going to be her home for the next several months. What would it be like to pretend to be his fiancé? It hurt her to know that she was going to be in this position. What might happen if she didn’t go along? Would people really care all that much that he knocked up a younger call girl? They didn’t have to know that part.
Still, someone would probably find out that he was her client at one point. Maybe this was the best way to do things, though it seemed incredibly old fashioned to have to cover up a pregnancy with a fake engagement. She supposed she was lucky to not have any family members to report back to in times like these. Of course, she still had to tell Tiana everything, but she figured she’d avoid it as long as possible and then just say something through text. Funny… on holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions, it usually made Sasha feel alone to not have anyone to talk to. On the other hand, when there was a subject she didn’t want to talk about and no one was around to tell anyways, it made her worry less that she was alone.
She wasn’t completely alone though; she was carrying his baby. She had forgotten a few times, but she still could always feel her baby, deep in her stomach, whenever she started thinking about it again. She hoped it was a girl, but not finding out was the better option as she really didn’t care either way. Her body was starting to feel less like hers every day and more like a machine built to hold a baby. Both were powerful feelings, but it was still something strange she had never expected.
Sasha walked up to the front door and knocked, realizing that once it opened, everything was real. An older woman wearing a white polo and jeans answered the door.
“Oh, hi, I’m Sasha,” she said to the woman.
“Yes yes, I know all about you, come in,” the woman said, waving her in. The woman was a bit rude and just walked away, leaving Sasha standing in the front entryway, facing a large staircase. She was surrounded by a light-filled room, the gorgeous sun beaming in from a large set of windows on the second floor overlooking the massive curved staircase. There was also a sky roof that was about three stories tall, a large point directed straight at the sky.
It let light fill the room, radiating down on the various plants that were scattered in the entryway. Sasha knew that his love of plants meant they had a little more in common than she thought. She had left hers at home with Giselle, figuring she’d likely be moving back at some point anyways.
“Sasha! You’re here!” Ian said excitedly as he emerged from the top of the stairs. He walked down them quickly, Sasha feeling like she was in the beginning of a movie. She had never been in a real mansion before and thought she might have agreed to more than she was ready for.
Ian reached the bottom of the stairs and walked toward Sasha. He leaned in and kissed her cheek, grabbing both of her suitcases. She didn’t pack very many outfits, figuring she could pop back into Giselle’s apartment if she needed to switch some clothes out. She had enough to get her through the weekend, knowing that Ian’s mother was coming to stay. Ian had given Giselle cash for a year’s rent at her apartment, not wanting to put her in the difficult situation of having to find a different roommate. Sasha wanted to make sure that she would have a place to run back to if she needed to do so. He made her month’s rent faster than she could sneeze, so it wasn’t too difficult for him to help both girls.
“Let me give you a quick tour,” he said with a smile. “On the left is the formal living room, where we’d have like appetizers or cocktails or whatever, and on the right is the formal dining room. If you go down this hallway,” he said, pointing to a large archway under the curved stairs, “it leads to the kitchen and the entertainment room, or like family room whatever you call the place where you can watch movies and such, you know?”
“Wow, this place is seriously amazing Ian. I can’t believe this is where I’m staying,” she said.
“Right, well, let me show you were your room is,” he said, nodding toward the stairs. “So, I’ll take one of the guest bedrooms, and you can have the king suite. It has a jet tub and the comfiest bed, so it’s only fair for the woman who’s going to be carrying my child.”
They reached the top of the stairs, and the first double doors on the right opened to a bedroom that was larger than Sasha and Giselle’s entire apartment. There was a massive four-post bed right in the middle with more pillows than Sasha had ever owned.
“While my mom’s staying, though, it’s probably best if we go to the same room at night, but no worries, I have a pullout couch,” he said, taking her bags to the closet.
“You can have the bed, and I’ll take the pullout couch,” he explained.
“You don’t have to do that,” she told him.
“No, it’s really fine. I don’t know why I bought a pullout couch for my bedroom. I just liked the way it looked, so now, I finally get to actually use the pullout part!” he said excitedly.
“Funny, I didn’t really think you liked pulling things out,” she joked, referring to him getting her pregnant.
“Funny,” he said as she walked out of the bedroom. She was curious to see the other rooms in the house. The hallway on the second floor was long, and on each end, it led to another set of stairs. She couldn’t even count how many doors there were, but she wanted to explore every one, so she pushed open the door right across the hall from the master bedroom.
It was an extremely well-lit room with a built-in bench under the massive window and bookshelves on either side. The wallpaper was yellow-striped and there wasn’t anything in the room other than a rocking chair in the corner. Sasha instantly thought about how it would be the most perfect nursery. She felt a little bump in her belly, likely just in her head as the baby wasn’t big enough to be kicking just yet.
The door creaked open again, Sasha not realizing that it had slowly closed behind her. Ian walked in and smiled. “I have no need for this massive house, just being one person and all. But when I saw how the sun just fills this place with gold beams, I couldn’t turn it down.”
“The lighting is the best part,” she said, admiring the way the sun was setting and creating a pink sky.
“Let me show you the view in the backyard. It’s incredible,” he said. “And of course, the pantry. You’ll need to know where to get all of your snack supplies.”
She smiled and said, “That sounds like the most important part of the tour. But first I have to use the restroom.”
“Oh, of course. There’s a bathroom directly on the right when you walk out. Or there’s a bathroom back in the master. There’s one in the kitchen too and off the entertainment area, or there’s a really big one at the end of the hall before the attic stairs or…” he rambled on as Sasha started to smile.
“I think I can manage it. Thanks though,” she said, laughing as she walked out of the bedroom and to the bathroom next to her fantasy nursery. She could use a different bathroom every day if she really wanted to. Never in her life had she even stayed for vacation at a place this nice. The decoration was classic and timeless, clearly
by a designer. It was stocked with fluffy towels and smelled like tea tree everywhere she went. Sasha thought she might be dreaming for a moment. She closed the bathroom door behind her.
As she finished up, she heard a woman’s voice through the door. There were two women’s voices, meaning that the maid had answered the door for someone else. Sasha got nervous, wondering who could already be there. She opened the door just a crack and peeked her head out, doing her best to listen in on what might be going on. She was surprised to find out that you could pretty much hear every word clearly of whoever was in the entryway of the house.
“Mom? What are you doing here?” Ian asked as he walked down the stairs.
“Honey! I thought I’d surprise you and come a day early! Your father had an event that got cancelled, and the Johnsons happened to be flying here from Columbus and offered to give me a ride!” Samantha, Ian’s mom, said.
“Wow, this is such a surprise,” Ian told her.
“And honestly, I’m dying to meet that new fiancé of yours! I can’t believe you sprung this on me, Ian! Had to spring something on you, dear!” Samantha laughed, Ian nervously giggling as well. “Where is that girl anyways?”
Sasha’s heart dropped. She looked down at what she was wearing. It was a tight velvet top tucked into high-waisted purple pants. Her hair was curly and big, freshly washed and ready to be loud. She looked nice, but she was still far from prepared to meet her fake future mother-in-law now.
She opened the bathroom door, took a deep breath, and walked toward the stairs. “Well hello there!” Samantha shouted up the stairs as Sasha walked down.
“Hi! So nice to meet you,” Sasha said, walking down the stairs and reaching her hand out for a shake once she made it to the bottom. Samantha had ghost-white skin that was covered in too much powder. Her eyebrows were extremely over plucked and filled in with a shade too light of eyebrow pencil. She had plain pink lips, but the shimmer let Sasha know that she was likely wearing lipstick. Sasha had seen pictures of her before. She always looked so poised and put together next to her politician husband, always smiling stiff-straight and looking a bit like a robot. Sasha realized far away she looked so put together because up close she was wearing pounds of makeup.
