by Nina Evans
“Oh my God!” I covered my mouth in laughter. “That’s so gross!”
James moved my hand away and chuckled before kissing me.
“Would you rather I call it a diaper?”
“No!” I protested.
At least I could always count on James to make me laugh.
“I can’t talk right now,” I whispered into the phone. “Give me five minutes and I’ll call you back.”
I pressed the red button on my phone and tossed it on the bed. James would have to wait until I could get more details. I knew something was off with the way my parents were acting, but I couldn’t prove just yet whether my suspicions were on target or way off base.
I pressed my ear against the door again, trying to hear what my parents were saying, but it was futile. It was obvious my mother was upset. She barely acknowledged me when I got home this evening. Then Dad said they were going out for dinner and that they’d bring something back. When they got home a little while ago, I heard Dad snap at my mom.
“Let me handle this!” He’d said. “If you hadn’t let her spend time with that Janine girl last year, she probably wouldn’t even be in this situation.”
Janine? Wow, I hadn’t heard that name in a while. She was a good friend from school and she sure loved to party. Needless to say, my parents did not approve of me spending time with her. We had hung out a lot on the weekends, but she ended up moving back to Washington this past February. Rumor had it she had gotten pregnant, but I knew her family had moved because her grandma was sick.
Wait a minute. If I was being compared to Janine, whom everyone thought was pregnant, did that mean that my parents knew I was pregnant too? There’s no way they could know. I hadn’t told anyone except James. Well, James and that new client of his this afternoon. Had I talked about it over the phone at all? I didn’t think I had.
“Audrey?”
There was a loud knock at my door.
“Uh, yeah, Daddy?” I ran to my bed and grabbed my phone. I didn’t want Daddy to get any ideas about taking it away.
“May I come in?”
I opened the door slowly and he walked in, shutting the door behind him. He put his hands in his pockets and I sat on the edge of the bed.
“Your mother and I are quite upset with you, as you know. Particularly about this relationship you’ve decided to pursue against our will.”
“Daddy… ” I sighed.
“Let me finish, Audrey,” he interrupted.
“It has come to our attention—and believe me, we’d love it if we were wrong—but it’s come to our attention that you are… with child.”
Oh my fucking God…
I stared at him. I knew he was waiting for an answer. Specifically, he was waiting for me to tell him he was wrong. I hung my head solemnly. This is not how I wanted this whole conversation to go. Not one bit.
“Is it true?” he asked.
I nodded slowly, and my dad’s head fell back. And then he turned around and walked out of the room, just like that.
Well that was easy, I thought.
But no, that was probably the calm before the storm.
I searched the room frantically, trying to mentally piece together what might happen. It could go one of two ways.
Option number one was that Mom and Dad would be supportive and help me out, making sure I get plenty of rest, allowing me to keep my job of course. And they would give me the emotional support the baby and I would both need in this hateful, racist world. But that seemed like a stretch.
Option number two was that I get lectured and receive the icy-cold treatment all through my pregnancy. But in the end, they pull through and spend time with the baby after he’s born. Everyone somehow manages to adjust, and they end up accepting James as my partner, and ultimately my husband, hopefully.
I guess there is that dreaded option number three, which is where they never accept my pregnancy and refuse to support me, and never have anything to do with the baby. But I had to believe that my parents loved me far too much to do something that extreme.
I believed wrong.
I pounded on the door until my knuckles were bleeding.
Where in the hell was he?
I would have stopped at a payphone to call first, but I didn’t think he would answer. Most people don’t answer their phones if they don’t recognize the number. Too many telemarketers, and for us poor people, bill collectors. If only my stupid phone battery hadn’t died.
I balled up my fist and pounded the outside of my hand against the door one more time before giving up. This was getting ridiculous. And I was getting exhausted.
James finally opened the door just as I was about to head back to my car.
“Audrey? What are you doing here?”
I thought I would burst into tears. I had held it together in the car on the way over, feeling the burn against my eyes. I wouldn’t let myself cry, though. I don’t know why. I think I was so disgusted by my parents’ behavior that I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of showing any kind of pain. Even silently.
“Can I come in?” I asked.
“Of course. What’s going on?” James grabbed my luggage and set it in the foyer.
I stepped inside his home and wrapped my arms around his neck. He returned the embrace, pulling me close and holding me tight as he lightly stroked his fingers up and down my back.
“They officially did it,” I finally said.
“Officially did what?”
“Disowned me,” I replied.
James drew back quickly and looked at me, confused. “They didn’t,” he said.
I nodded.
“Well, technically they didn’t disown me, but they did kick me out,” I explained.
“Come over here and tell me what happened,” James said, pulling me into the kitchen. He went straight to the wine rack.
“Sorry,” he said, holding up a bottle. “I’ll pour you some cider if you like?”
“I’ll get it,” I said, standing up to grab the already opened bottle from the fridge. We both poured our beverages and sat down at the small table. James told me to tell him everything.
I relayed the conversation Dad and I had, as well as the one that followed, explaining how my parents essentially wanted nothing to do with me. I had disgraced the family so much that they didn’t want to even be seen with me. But I wasn’t convinced that Mom wanted me out.
“So your mom wanted you to stay, but her vote got vetoed?” James asked.
I nodded. “Yep. She was crying when I left, basically begging me to stay at least another couple of days until I figured out where I was going to stay permanently. I guess it didn’t occur to her that I’d come here. I’m sure it occurred to my dad, though.”
I realized as soon as I said it that I was kind of putting myself out there, you know, inviting myself to stay with James. How did I even know he would let me stay? Well come on, I was carrying his child.
James looked at me, shocked. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it. Just yesterday, he told me that I was forbidden from ever seeing you again. And now that they know I’m prego, they don’t want anything to do with me. It’s like they’re practically shoving me straight into your arms. No, my dad knew coming here was exactly what I’d do. It’s not like I have anywhere else to go. My sister can’t even put me up in her one-bedroom apartment. She has to sleep on the couch so the baby can have his own room.” I shook my head, still amazed that my parents, my own flesh and blood, could be so cold and calloused.
“Yeah, what’s up with your sister, by the way? How come your parents haven’t disowned her? Isn’t she a single mom?”
My sister was a single mom, but I had never really told James the whole story.
“She is, but her husband left her for someone else. And yes, my parents laid into her big time when he left, like it was her fault or something. ‘If you had kept your man happy…’ my father had said to her. What an insensitive thing to say to someone in
that situation. It wasn’t Angela’s fault that Tobias left her. You can’t stop someone from cheating, as you well know.”
James took a sip of wine and reached across the table to take my hand. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” He then pushed his wine to the side and took my other hand in his. “You’ll stay here until we get this figured out, okay?”
A worried look spread across his face, making him look like a hollow shell. Something about what he said didn’t sit right with me, either.
… until we get this figured out?
What exactly was there to figure out? I was pregnant with his child, and I had just been kicked out of my home. Nothing about that was going to change anytime soon. At least not for another eight months. I should have been invited to stay.
I slowly pulled my hands out of his grip.
“Yeah, sure,” I said.
“Aud? You alright?” James asked.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just really tired all of a sudden. Can I just go lie down?”
“Sure, sweetheart. Let me go and see if the guest room is presentable.”
Guest room? Was he for real?
James stood up and pushed his seat from under the table. “I’m sorry, I haven’t been in there in a while. Not exactly sure what state it’s in,” he added, his voice carrying down the long hall as he walked away.
I sat at the table, confused. What would possess James to put me in the guest room? Unless he thought that’s what I would have wanted. Of course! That must be it. He probably figured I had a guilty conscience and would simply be more comfortable in there.
“James?” I hollered up the stairs. When he didn’t answer, I walked up there and caught him getting a few extra pillows out of the hallway closet.
“Hey,” I said. “You don’t have to put me in the guest room.” I grabbed the pillows from James and shoved them back on the shelf. “I’ll stay with you, silly.”
James wrinkled his face at me.
“You can’t, Audrey.”
“What? Why not?” I asked.
“Because.”
When I stared blankly at him, he placed his hands on my shoulders.
“Sweetheart, it’s Kristin. She doesn’t know about you yet.”
Well that bitch was getting ready to find out. Really fucking fast.
“Let me handle Kristin, and you just focus on keeping my clients happy.”
I brushed past James in the kitchen and mumbled an acknowledgment that I had at least heard what he said.
But I wasn’t happy.
I hardly slept the night before, still angry about the fact that James never bothered to mention to his estranged ex-wife—who incidentally was cheating on him for months—that we were together and that I was pregnant.
He had tried explaining that he didn’t want to upset her into doing something stupid so soon after agreeing to their arrangement. She was a recovering alcoholic, but I wasn’t convinced that he still felt some obligation to protect her too.
“You know, this isn’t easy for me either, Audrey,” James snapped.
I jerked my head in his direction, feeling momentarily bad that I had been so insensitive. I’m sure that he had his own ways of dealing with all of this, but I should have been his priority, especially after everything that Kristin had put him through.
“I know it’s not easy for you, James. But she needs to know about us.” I tossed down the rag I had been using to wipe the counter after my breakfast. James was just getting started with his day.
“And like I said, I will tell her. Today as a matter of fact.” He sat down at the breakfast table and popped his paper open. “There’s no need for you to be upset. These things need to be handled delicately, so let me do that.”
I sighed, realizing that he was right. I was being pushy and assumptive. It hadn’t been but a little over a week since we found out I was pregnant. Most people don’t tell anyone that soon. This was turning into a bombshell for everyone involved.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I guess I’m just anxious about everything, especially after getting kicked out of my house last night.”
James gave me a sympathetic look then reached out for my hand.
“I know,” he replied sympathetically. “And I’m trying to be sensitive to that. I really am. We need to be strong together, okay? This is a test for us.”
I hadn’t really thought of it like that, but James was right. He pulled me in his lap, and I sat there for several minutes, enjoying the simplicity of the moment.
The next few days I coasted by on autopilot. James talked with Kristin, and supposedly she took it okay. I was surprised at first, thinking that she would completely lose her shit over the whole thing. But then I thought she must have realized that it would have been hypocritical for her to cause trouble over this.
About ten days ago, James found some mail she had left sitting on one of the tables outside. When he went to retrieve it, he found a beer cap under the chaise lounge. He delivered the mail to her door, bottle cap in hand, but she didn’t answer. He knew something was wrong. Fortunately, she had left the door unlocked, so he went inside and found her passed out on the bed. Her pulse was weak and he couldn’t get her to wake up all the way.
Long story short, he called her mother and told her that she needed to go into a treatment facility. So they called and made the arrangements, and she’s supposed to leave this Sunday.
We’ll have two whole weeks to ourselves. Not that we don’t already have that for the most part, but I haven’t gone out to swim one single time since I moved in here. James said that I could, but I’ve been too worried about Kristin coming out and starting shit with me.
So, I was putting some clothes away in the guest room after doing laundry, even though I wasn’t still sleeping in there. But we had it set up to look like I was for the simple purpose of appeasing Kristin and preventing her from getting any weird ideas.
“Pack your bags, baby!” James announced.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Why? Where am I going?”
“We,” James said, “are going to the Sea Mist Estates.”
The Sea Mist Estates was a high-end coastal vacation spot for the elite and the very wealthy.
And by elite and very wealthy, I also mean very white.
I couldn’t believe James was taking me. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Every girl has dreams of vacationing there, of even getting married there. I seriously wanted to go. But I was surprised that James was on board with being seen with me there.
“Are you serious? The Sea Mist?”
“Of course I am,” he replied. “So get your little tail ready to go. We leave first thing in the morning and we’ll be there through Sunday.”
So we won’t be around when Kristin leaves for treatment. Nice touch. I was ecstatic.
“You do realize that I’ll probably be the only non-white person there who doesn’t actually work there, right?”
James walked up to me and cupped my face.
“Sweetheart, you might be the only black woman there. But regardless, you will be the most beautiful woman, and I can’t wait to show you off to any of my colleagues.”
I was elated that James felt that way about me, but it still conflicted with his public persona. If he was hesitant about telling me about his divorce, surely his colleges didn’t know. So how would he handle all the questions? It seemed to me that his business was more important than that.
“What about your public image?” I asked, needing answers and a little reassurance that this wasn’t a situation where he would make me hide out in the hotel room all weekend.
James belted out a laugh and I just raised my eyebrow at him.
“Well, I appreciate that you care about my public image, but really, it’s not like I’m Donald Trump or anything.”
I pulled away from James and crossed my arms over my chest. It always hurt my feelings a little when he laughed at my comments. I’m sure with my hormones raging I was a little more sensitive th
an usual.
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.” James swept the curls out of my face. “The truth is, most of my colleagues could care less about how I conduct my personal life. The only thing they care about is how well I scratch their backs and how much business I bring them.”
He leaned in and gave me a gentle kiss, and all my anger melted away.
“And furthermore,” he continued. “Most of them are having affairs anyway. You think they care about what I’m doing?”
I looked at him astonished. “Really? You know about their affairs?”
James bobbed his head back and forth. “Some of them, yes. In fact, Sea Mist Estates is a popular place for single women. The rumor is that a lot of the men are arranging their reservations so that they have a secret romping place.”
Well, that certainly was a secret world she knew nothing about.
I shook my head in disbelief, thinking back to all the times, as a little girl, me and my friends would lie in bed, starry-eyed, hoping that someday our Prince Charming would come along, sweep us off our feet, and take us to the Sea Mist Estates for eternal bliss. Little did I know how many of those Prince Charmings were screwing someone else, and all behind their poor wives’ backs. Suddenly, the allure of that special vacation spot started to dwindle.
James looked at me with skepticism. “You still want to go, right?” I must have had that look on my face. He was getting to where he could read me pretty well.
“Yes,” I answered, nodding quickly then turning around so he couldn’t see the lie in my eyes. I walked to the closet and got out my suitcase.
“See? I’m going to start packing right now,” I added with a smile.
“Good,” James said. “Oh, don’t forget to call that new client. He had wanted to set up an appointment for a consultation so you can go ahead and set something up for next Monday.”
“I’m on it,” I said. After what James had said about the Estates, I would have preferred staying home with him instead of going to some luxury resort-like place where people would probably look at me as though I was the “help” that Mr. Stone had decided to fuck.
