Rumor Has It: A Bad Boy Romantic Comedy

by Lila Moore

  The door flew open.

  “I knew you’d never…” Michael shouted from the doorway. His jaw fell slack. He stared at our naked bodies twisted together on the couch and looked shocked.

  I knew exactly what he meant when said, ‘I knew you’d never…’ He fully expected to bust into this room to find that I’d chickened out.

  I smiled smugly.

  Michael and I were together for six months and never once had sex. It just never felt right. I’d known Luke for little more than twenty-four hours and we were already fucking. I wanted to rub it in Michael’s face, but didn’t. The euphoria I felt after sleeping with Luke left me carefree and relaxed. That is, until a flash went off.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. I was blinded by a white light. I blinked and rubbed my face. Luke jumped up and started to run for Michael. It was then I realized what the source of the light was: a camera. Michael had taken a picture of us with his cell phone.

  Luke ran as far as the door then stopped.

  “Slimy, rat-faced piece of shit…” he muttered as Michael slipped into the crowd and disappeared.

  He closed the door and we both started to dress.

  “Why would he take a picture?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure he got a full shot of me completely naked. What if he puts it up on one of those revenge porn sites? You know, one of those websites where angry, pathetic assholes post nude photos of their ex-girlfriends for the world to see? I’ve heard they include personal information; your real name, your phone number, home address. What if a bunch of creeps on the internet find my photo and start harassing me? What if people I went to school with see me naked?”

  Hysteria was creeping into my voice.

  “That’s not going to happen. I won’t let it.”

  “It could be too late. He could have already uploaded it. It only takes a second.”

  “If he did, I’ll kill him.”

  I fumbled with the buttons on my sweater. I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking. If a naked picture of me ended up on the internet, it could haunt me for the rest of my life. My future employers, future friends, anyone who searched for my name would find it.

  Luke put his hands over mine to stop them from shaking. I took a deep breath.

  “I’m going to fix this,” he said. “I promise.”

  He squeezed my hands and brought them to his lips. He kissed them sweetly, then buttoned up my sweater for me.

  “Put on your shoes. I’m taking you home.”

  I was so shaken by Michael’s presence that it didn’t occur to me until too late that home was not a good place to be right now.

  Luke pulled his sports car to a stop in front of the condominium I shared with my mother.

  “I’ll go up with you,” he said.

  “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. If my mother sees us together, she’ll know what happened.”

  Luke looked out the window as if he was considering something unseen.

  “I’m going to find Michael and beat the shit out of him,” he said out of nowhere.

  I smiled. A man had never fought for me, or over me. If he wanted to kick Michael’s ass, I wasn’t going to stop him. Before tonight I wanted him back more than anything. Now I knew I’d been horribly wrong about him. The Michael I knew would never try to get revenge by taking nude photos of me. That Michael never existed.

  I swallowed hard and looked down at my hands. I’d been a fool. I hoped I wasn’t being a fool again by trusting Luke.

  Luke leaned over and kissed me. This was goodnight. I was going to have to go upstairs and face my mother. There was no way in hell I was going to tell her the truth. I’d have to come with a good lie for why I’d taken her ring.

  “Goodnight,” I whispered.

  Luke kissed me again, then leaned across and opened the door for me. I never wanted to leave Luke’s side. Life felt safe and manageable with him nearby, but I had to confront my problems eventually.

  I stepped out of the car and walked away with my head hanging down. I had the sinking feeling I’d never see Luke again. I glanced back before walking inside. He was staring at me intently, a grave expression on his face. As I entered the condo, I hoped that wasn’t the memory of Luke that I was left with.

  When the elevator doors opened, I was greeted by silence. The quiet condo threw me off. I’d expected fury and hysterics from my mother.

  I tiptoed inside and silently prayed that she’d gone out tonight. I entered the living room. She was sitting on the couch in silence.

  “Where is it?” she said calmly.

  She didn’t turn to consider me. I wasn’t sure how to respond. Should I play dumb? Act like I didn’t know what she was talking about? No. It was obvious she wanted to know where her ring was. I was the only person who could have taken it, so I might as well just admit it. Besides, it was still stuck to my finger. There was no hiding that.

  “It’s here,” I said.

  I walked around to face her. Her makeup was smudged around her eyes. She looked like she’d just woken up. I held up my hand showing her the diamond was safe and sound on my finger.

  “I just wanted to see what it felt like,” I lied. “I’ve never seen or worn a ring like that. I thought it would make Michael jealous.”

  Silently, I patted myself on the back for mentioning him. It made the lie more believable. My mother’s eye twitched at the mention of his name. Why was that? Had she already forgotten who he was?

  “Anyways,” I said after taking a breath, “I can’t get it off now.” I tried to pull the ring off and failed. “I’ll figure something out. Hopefully, we won’t have to get it cut off.”

  “I’ll cut your finger off before I touch that ring,” she replied.

  Her voice was icy. My mother is usually the type to scream and yell like a crazy person. Cool anger is not what she’s known for. I’d never seen this side of her before. Her icy temper was frightening. I took a step back.

  “Where were you tonight?” she asked.

  “Out with Michael. I wanted to make him jealous, I told you.”

  “Where did you go with Michael?”

  “I met him at the café on the corner,” I lied.

  She gave me a long, hard look.

  “Did it work?”

  “What?”

  “Did you make him jealous?”

  The memory of Michael’s face when he walked in on me with Luke flashed through my mind. I blushed.

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  A sharp clicking noise echoed through the room. My mother was drumming her fingernails on her cell phone screen.

  “I never thought you’d sink this low,” she murmured.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  “I know you’re lying. When I woke up and found my ring gone, I knew you’d taken it. I tried calling you, but of course you didn’t answer. You don’t have any friends so that was a nonstarter. Then I remembered that ugly boy you were fooling around with. The one you’ve been moping around this house over like he was the last man on Earth. I checked your social media accounts and I found his name. Then I messaged him on Facebook and told him to call me if he saw you. This is what he sent me.”

  She held up her phone. It was a photo of me completely naked in the strip club. My face was twisted with anger. I held up my hand. The engagement ring was clearly visible, as was Luke’s face and naked form behind me.

  “Is this how you get revenge? By fucking my fiancé?”

  The room started to spin. I thought I might pass out.

  “Well? Miss Know-It-All has got nothing to say for once in her life? How could you? You have no idea what you’ve done.”

  She rose suddenly. I took a step back and lifted my arm in defense. My mother has never hit me, but I was prepared for her to strike me.

  “I’m pregnant with his child and here you are fucking him in a strip club!”

  She threw the phone d
own at my feet and stormed out of the room. Stars danced in front of my eyes. I couldn’t breathe. My mother was carrying Luke’s baby. The room spun around me violently then faded to black as I passed out.

  Part Two

  Genevieve

  “No, no, no, no…”

  I turned the pregnancy test over and examined it more closely in the light. A blue plus sign was a positive result. I reread the instructions for the tenth time. A red minus was a negative: no baby.

  I squinted at the pregnancy test. It kind of looked like a minus symbol in the right light. There was no denying the blue color though.

  “Shit.”

  Who was I kidding? It was definitely a blue plus sign. I was pregnant. I tossed it into the sink with the other pregnancy tests. I’d taken five in total. Four had given me positive results; one was inclusive.

  Maybe the inclusive result was correct? I hoped. If the four positives were accurate then I was pregnant with Luke’s baby.

  The room started to spin. I needed to sit down. My mother was pregnant with Luke’s baby too. That meant my baby would be my mother’s baby’s sibling as well as its niece or nephew. Luke would be my baby’s father and its stepgrandfather.

  I slid down the wall of the bathroom and pulled my knees up to my chest and took a deep breath. It had been three weeks since I’d last seen Luke. As soon as I found out my mother was pregnant I decided I could never see him again. I wanted to, more than anything. He was the first thing I thought of when I woke up in the morning and the last thing on my mind when I fell asleep at night.

  But I just couldn’t see him again. Not if my mother was carrying his child. A secret, he was unaware of. I’m not sure when she was planning on telling him. Knowing my mother, she’d make sure he found out at the most inconvenient time possible.

  I looked at my phone. Luke sent me messages every day. I never responded. He’d only texted me once today. Soon he’d give up altogether.

  My thumb hovered over the screen. I wanted to respond, but I knew what happen. He’d want to meet. I wouldn’t be able to resist and we’d end up in bed together. At least, that’s how it went down in my fantasy.

  Of course, Luke and I had only slept together once. I hadn’t seen him since our encounter at the Blu Lounge. I wouldn’t be surprised if he regretted sleeping with me. He didn’t need more drama in his life. If he only knew the mess we were in now.

  There was a knock at the bathroom door. I dropped my phone and jumped to my feet.

  “What are you doing in there?” my mother called.

  “Nothing.”

  I grabbed the pregnancy tests out of the sink and frantically looked around for a place to hide them. She twisted the doorknob.

  “Why is the door locked?” she asked.

  “Just a second.”

  I shoved the pregnancy tests down the front of my hoodie and zipped it up.

  “You sound funny. Are you doing drugs in there?”

  I unlocked the door and opened it. My mother looked past me. The bathroom was clear of any evidence. I’d stashed the pregnancy test boxes in my bedroom earlier. I’d dispose of them all once she was gone.

  She narrowed her eyes.

  “No, I’m not doing drugs. Are you disappointed?”

  “Disappointed you’re not doing drugs?”

  “You’re always going on and on about boring and uptight I am. I figured you’d thinking doing drugs was a good idea-that it might loosen me up.”

  “Good point. Maybe you should do drugs.”

  My mother pushed past me and walked into the bathroom. She examined the contents of the trashcan and looked inside the cabinets. I don’t know what she thought I was hiding, but I’d made sure not to leave a trace.

  “Satisfied?” I asked.

  She stood up straight and turned to the side. She ran her hands over her stomach and considered herself in the mirror.

  “I’m so fat already!” she declared.

  “Your stomach is flat as a board,” I replied.

  My mother took every chance she could to rub her pregnancy in my face. She looked the same as she always did, but she walked around making declarations about her ‘huge’ baby bump.

  When my mother dropped the baby bomb on me I passed out. When I woke, I was alone on the living room floor. It was early morning and my mother was nowhere in sight. I hid out in my bedroom for the next couple days and did everything I could to avoid her. It was impossible, though.

  Then one morning I woke up to the smell of breakfast being cooked. Cautiously, I’d walked into the kitchen. My mother was cooking homemade chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash and more. She took out a parfait glass and filled it full of vanilla yogurt, granola and sliced strawberries and blueberries. She’d set the parfait glass down in front of me and smiled.

  “Sit and eat,” she’d said.

  She placed a plate piled high with food in front of me. She placed a second down in front of her and started to eat. She never ate like this. She spent most of the time starving herself.

  I watched her eat and wondered why the sudden change in mood. The last time she cooked me breakfast was when I was a little kid and deathly ill. I’d come down with one of the worst cases of chicken pox the doctor had ever seen. I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. My mother spent all night by my bedside and when I came home she waited on me hand and foot. It was the last time I remember feeling really loved by her. I clung to it as proof that deep down she cared about me.

  After breakfast, she acted as if nothing had ever happened, like my hook-up with Luke had never taken place. A part of me was suspicious, but a stronger part of me wasn’t surprised. My mother was the kind of person who liked to bury her head in the sand when bad things happened. She never confronted her problems; she just acted like they didn’t exist. Case in point: her engagement ring. She was proudly wearing it again.

  The morning after the strip club visit, I smeared liquid soap all over my finger and pried it off. I left the ring sitting on her bathroom counter beside her makeup. My mother found it without comment. She was wearing it all the time now as if the blowup at the restaurant had never happened. She was back to pretending she was engaged again.

  “You’re just flattering me,” she said. “I’m big as whale.”

  “When have I ever gone out of my way to flatter you?”

  She laughed. “You’re right. Oh! That reminds me.”

  She took off her ring and handed it to me. I turned the diamond over in my hand.

  “What am I supposed to do with it?”

  “I want you to wear it.”

  “Why?”

  “Just for tonight. I’m meeting my Italian Daddy tonight. Can’t have him asking me questions about that ring. I figured the safest place for it was on your finger. You did a good job of keeping it safe before.”

  There was edge of annoyance to her voice. I did my best to ignore it.

  “Wait, what? You’re going out with one of your other Daddies even though you’re pregnant?”

  I thought my mother had given up her Sugar Daddies now that she was pregnant and plotting to force Luke to marry her. Apparently, I was wrong.

  “The bills aren’t going to pay themselves. I’m tapped out. Armando has promised me a big surprise if I meet him tonight.”

  “What’s Luke going to say when he finds out you’ve been fucking other men while pregnant with his child?”

  She tilted her head to the side, considering me like I was an alien species.

  “Why would he find out? Are you planning on telling him? Because if you do-”

  “No! I’m not telling him anything. I haven’t spoken him to him since…”

  I let what happened go unsaid. The picture of Luke and I naked in each other’s arms was scorched into my memory. My mother could pretend like nothing happened, but I seriously doubt she’d ever forget the image of me naked wearing her engagement ring, lying beside one of her Sugar Daddies.

  By leaving it unspoken maybe we
could broker peace until I moved away for college. Assuming I wasn’t heavily pregnant by then and forced to put college on hold.

  My stomach twisted into knots. When I tried to imagine myself as a mother my mind went blank. I couldn’t picture it. Maybe the reason why was that I’d never really had a mother of my own.

  I watched her as she checked herself out in the mirror. She wore a tight black dress and heels. She’d had blonde extensions added to her hair. Platinum white, straight and long; her hair framed her face severely. It didn’t flatter her. Yesterday, she’d come home eager to show it off. The first words out of her mouth were: “Luke is going to love it! He adores blondes, can’t stand anything else.”

  The message was clear: Luke thinks I’m hotter than you. I brushed my dark hair out of my eyes and slid the ring onto my finger. I didn’t have the energy to fight my mother today. I vowed never to mention Luke’s name around her unless it was absolutely necessary. It was best this way. I didn’t want to rip the scab off the wound and end up in another screaming match with her.

  “See that you don’t speak to him again,” she said. “It’s not right. He’s going to be your stepfather.”

  And my baby’s stepgrandfather, I thought, doing my best to suppress the urge to vomit. The morning sickness had been my first big clue something was off. Every morning like clockwork I was nauseous. I’ve spent the last week and a half vomiting nonstop. When my period came late, I instantly knew the cause.

  Luke and I didn’t use a condom. At the time, it felt natural and amazing. I wasn’t worried about the consequences. Now look at the mess I was in. I slid down the door and sat on the floor outside the bathroom.

  “You look terrible,” my mother said. “Are you sick?”

  “No, I’m fine,” I lied.

  I didn’t want my mother asking too many questions about my sudden sickness. She might piece the truth together. I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do about the baby. Whatever decision I made, I was going to handle it quietly and privately. I didn’t want anyone to know about it.