7 Months

by Bethany Lopez

  “Oh, are those from Bee Sweet?” I asked, eyeing the red velvet cupcakes and wondering if my dress would rip if I tried to eat one.

  “Yeah, Gaby brought them,” Abby replied, giving Bronagh a small smile before looking away.

  Abby used to hook up with Brendan, and even though he and Bronagh were now married with a baby on the way, things were still a bit awkward between her and Bronagh. I think Abby liked Brendan more than he’d liked her. Which just made the whole situation now pretty weird.

  “The strawberries look amazing,” Bronagh said, trying, as always, to ease the tension between them.

  “Do you need any help?” I asked.

  Victoria shook her head. “No, it’s all covered. Can I get you a drink?”

  “No, please, I don’t want to take you away from what you’re doing. I’ll get it.”

  They had a bar set up with every alcohol you could think of, and I knew the fridge would be stocked with beer and the rack filled with wine.

  Victoria always threw a great party.

  Deciding I needed to keep my wits about me, I reached for the bottle of red wine and poured myself a glass.

  When I took a sip, Bronagh leaned in, her eyes wide and a little rabid.

  “How does it taste? I want descriptions.”

  I laughed and replied, “It’s rich. Robust. There’s a bit of an oak finish with a hit of spice.”

  “Mmmmm, that sounds like heaven,” she said, her eyes closed as if she were envisioning the flavors. “As soon as this baby’s out I’m having a glass. Promise you’ll sneak some into the delivery room?”

  I chuckled and replied, “I am not doing that...”

  “I thought you were my best friend,” Bronagh replied with a pretty pout.

  “I am, and I swear, once you’re cleared for alcohol, I’ll be the first to take you out.”

  “Okay, I guess that’ll work. I didn’t know how much I’d miss stuff, you know … like

  wine, and being able to see my feet.”

  “Just a couple more weeks.”

  “I know,” she said with a sigh, then turned when we heard Brendan calling her name.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  “Hey, where have you been, woman?”

  I turned to see Cass and her husband Geo coming into the kitchen, looking beautiful and distinguished.

  “You guys look great.” I moved to give them both hugs and kisses on their cheeks.

  “So do you, Ming, very lovely,” Geo said, smooth as always. I’d always liked Cass’s husband. He was one of the best men I’d ever met.

  “You blew me off again this week,” Cass scolded.

  “I know, I know, I’m so sorry. I just have a lot going on at work right now.”

  “Are you sure that’s all?” she asked, her eyes narrowing as if she’d be able to see inside my soul with a look.

  “Yes, of course. I know we need to get moving on the baby shower. We’ll meet Monday, I promise.”

  “All right, but if you blow me off again, I’m going to have to plan it without you. We want to have the shower before the baby gets here, you know.”

  “Scout’s honor,” I said, holding up my fingers, even though I’d obviously never been a Boy Scout.

  “Hey, Brady,” Victoria called out behind us.

  I knew I should continue my conversation and not turn, I didn’t need to torture myself, but I just couldn’t help it.

  He looked so good.

  There was dark stubble across his face, like he hadn’t shaved in a couple days, and his hair was a little long on top and styled a bit messy. He was wearing a black button up, which looked great against his tanned skin.

  I realized I was looking at him like I was dying of thirst and he was a tall drink of water, so I cleared my throat and turned my attention back to my friends. Cass’s eyes were narrowed again as she tried to see into my soul, and I worried that after all this time, and when the non-relationship was over, I’d given myself away.

  I smiled nervously at her, then bit my lip when Victoria said, “Oh, hey, Ming, if you still want to help out, you could help Brady pour the champagne.”

  “Uh, sure,” I replied, then told Cass and Geo I’d catch up with them later and turned to go help Brady. I kept my eyes to the ground as I moved, trying to give myself a moment to compose myself, so I was surprised when I looked up and around and realized we were now alone in the kitchen.

  “Hi,” Brady said with a small smile when my eyes met his.

  “Hey,” I replied, picking up a champagne bottle.

  I was filling glasses like I’d been born to work an assembly line, eager to get the task accomplished and get back out to the crowd, when Brady said, “You look beautiful.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, keeping my attention on the champagne rather than catching his eye again.

  We worked in silence for a few moments before I heard Brady sigh, then ask, “Is everything okay … with us?”

  “Us?” I asked, finally looking back up. “There is no us.”

  Brady lips thinned at my declaration.

  “So, you’re ending it?”

  Exasperated, I put the bottle down and threw my hands up in the air.

  “Ending what exactly, Brady? Our late-night booty calls? Yes … I’m ending those. It was enough for a while … a long while, but now it’s not. I want more, and you don’t, so, it’s over.”

  “What if I don’t want it to be over?”

  Trying to keep my calm so as not to alert everyone in the other room to our drama, I took a deep breath and said, “Brady, you’ve made it obvious that you aren’t looking for any sort of relationship. Over the last seven months we haven’t been anywhere together outside of my apartment. You don’t know anything about me, and the only reason I know anything about you, is because I’ve made an effort.”

  “I know stuff about you,” he argued.

  “Really? You know about my parents, my family? Do you know how I met Bronagh, or how long she, Cass, and I have been friends? Do you know what I do at work every day? What my last case was? What about my favorite place to go for dinner?” I put my hands on my lips and tried to keep my voice to a whisper as I seethed, “No, you don’t, because you haven’t cared to learn the first thing about me, outside of the bedroom. And don’t get me wrong, it’s been great. Fantastic. The best I’ve ever had by a long shot, but, Brady, now I want the rest of it, and I deserve to be with someone who wants the rest of it with me.”

  “Your parents have been together since their parents introduced them when your father was twenty and your mother eighteen. Your mother is Chinese, but was raised in Japan. They are strict, traditional parents. You’re an only child. You and Bronagh met in high school and became friends with Cass a few years later, I’m not exactly sure when. You’re a lawyer, working toward becoming partner. You love sushi and a good burger.”

  I knew my mouth was open, gaping like a fish as he rattled off all that stuff about me, but he’d just surprised the hell out of me.

  “How do you know all that?” I asked softly, my heart going mushy in my chest.

  “I pay attention, and Bronagh talks a lot.” He was looking at me intently, but his response had me trying to build a wall around my mushy heart.

  “But that’s stuff you should have learned by talking to me. By having conversations with me. That’s stuff you should learn gradually as we date and get to know each other, not what you learn by listening to my best friend talk.”

  Before he could argue, his phone started ringing.

  “O’Malley,” Brady answered, his eyes automatically going to the clock on the wall.

  I was watching him, so I saw his face go pale, and my stomach clenched when he asked, “When? How bad? Is she okay?” Brady listened for a few more seconds, his expression turning blank as he added, “I’m on my way.”

  “Is everything okay?” I asked when he disconnected.

  “Can you tell Brock I had to go to work?”

  “Of
course,” I said, then reached out to touch his forearm before he could leave. “Brady, what is it?”

  “Natalie,” he responded darkly, then strode from the room.

  Chapter Nine ~ Brady

  I drove frantically through the streets of the city as I made my way to Natalie’s rundown

  trailer park on the edge of town, Marsha’s words ringing in my head.

  “Some of the boys are out at a domestic call … Brady, it’s at Natalie’s,” Marsha had said, her voice gentle yet firm. “Looks like Zeke finally came back to town.”

  “Fuck!” I yelled, hitting my steering wheel with my palm as I wondered what I was walking into. Wondering what Natalie was doing home alone on New Year’s Eve, and terrified of what state she was going to be in when I got to her place.

  I’d told her I’d find her ex. Help her get the divorce. Keep her safe.

  I’d done none of those things, and he’d found her.

  I pulled up to find two squad cars and an ambulance, the flashing lights cutting through the night sky. Jumping out of my car, I jogged to the front of her trailer and walked through the already open front door just as a stretcher was being pushed out.

  A sharp breath released from my mouth when I looked down and saw Zeke glaring back up at me. Thankful that it wasn’t Nat, I pulled my gaze from the stretcher to survey the room.

  The sofa was overturned, lamps broken, and what looked like a dozen magazines were littering the floor. I saw a couple bullet holes in the wall, which caused my chest to seize, and a broken window to my right.

  On the side table was a four-dollar bottle of champagne and a single glass, which was half full with the still-bubbling liquid.

  “Irish.”

  I looked up to see Doobie standing at the mouth of the hallway. He lifted his hand and motioned for me to follow him.

  We walked down the narrow hall, past a small bathroom, and into the bedroom at the end of the hall. There were two cops in the room. One standing, leaning casually against the wall, and the other seated on the unmade bed next to Nat.

  At the sound of us entering the room, her head shot up and her already filled eyes spilled over. Her face was swollen and starting to bruise, and when she jumped up and rushed into my arms, I saw that she was cradling her arm.

  “Can you give us a minute?” I asked as my arms wrapped around her delicate body. Rage threatened to erupt as I thought of how huge Zeke was compared to Natalie, and how easy it would be for him to break her.

  She’d always swore that he’d never touched her, had never been violent, just verbally abusive. Things had obviously escalated that night.

  I held her tight as her body quaked against mine, my heart breaking with each soft sob she emitted.

  When her breathing became even I asked, “What happened?”

  Natalie took a deep breath and replied, “I was watching New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on TV, when he started pounding on my door. I told him he wasn’t coming in, that this isn’t his home anymore and that I needed him to sign the papers. He said, this was his house and I was his wife, and no piece of paper would ever change that. I told him I was calling the police and he needed to leave.”

  She paused, sat back on the bed and took a drink of water.

  Nat’s eyes sought mine and she continued, “He started screaming, unlike anything I’d heard before… He was in a total rage. He said if I didn’t let him in, he was going to kill me, but if I did, he wouldn’t hurt me too bad. I called 911, then I grabbed the bat I keep in my closet and shut myself in my bedroom. I heard glass breaking and knew he was coming in through the window, then I heard crashing … Everything happened so fast, it’s like a dream…”

  “I’ve got you,” I said, sitting next to her and grabbing her hand in mine. “Go on.”

  Her body kept trembling as she said, “He kicked down the bedroom door and knocked me down. Before I could get up, he was on me, kicking and punching my body. I swung the bat with as much might as I could and even hit him once I think, but he grabbed onto the end and ripped it out of my hands, then he slapped me hard with the back of his hand.” Nat pulled back and brought her hand to her cheek, her eyes glassed over as she recounted what happened.

  “I’ve never been hit before, not even a slap. It took me by surprise, I didn’t think he’d ever hurt me that way … Um, then he grabbed my wrist and dragged me back to the living room. He said I needed to come with him, that he’d found a place and we were leaving this shithole forever. I said no, that I was never going anywhere with him again, then he started twisting my arm. I was crying, screaming, begging him to stop, and then I heard a snap and felt a white-hot pain. I almost passed out … He was ranting, saying how it was my fault that he’d gotten this way, that he was only hurting me because I made him.”

  Nat took another drink of water, and she took in a shaky breath as her eyes filled with tears.

  “I served him with divorce papers, I sicked the cops on him, and I was the reason he’d had to hide all those months. While his back was turned I saw the gun tucked into his waist band, and I didn’t think, I just grabbed it with my good hand. My first two shots were wild, and I could see that I’d surprised him, but when his face turned ugly … just mean and ugly … and he started charging toward me, I knew if I didn’t stop him, he was going to kill me. So I shot him … Then I dropped the gun and ran to my room. I could hear the sirens getting closer, but I just huddled down between my bed and the wall and waited to see what would happen next.”

  “You’re okay now,” I assured her. “You did the right thing, Nat.”

  “Did I kill him?” she asked, her voice low and full of fear.

  “No, sweetheart, he was looking right at me when the paramedics took him away.”

  Natalie sagged against me with relief, and I gave her a few moments to before I explained what would happen next.

  “First, we need to get you to the hospital. Get you looked over, fixed up, and get everything on record. We have to call our liaison from the battered women’s program, who will come talk to you and give you guidance. Finally, we’ll have to get you a lawyer.”

  “A lawyer?”

  “Yes, a lawyer. You are going to press charges against Zeke, aren’t you? You know now what he’s capable of, so you need to take the necessary measure to make sure he doesn’t come after you again. We need to keep him off the streets.”

  Natalie was quiet for a minute, her eyes wide as the wheels turned in her head, and I worried that she wasn’t going to press charges, then I let out a swift breath when she slowly nodded.

  “Good,” I said with a small smile, then took her by her healthy arm and led her out to the living room, where the other cops and a new set of paramedics were waiting.

  “Everything good?” Doobie asked, his eyes shining with a rage that I knew was mirrored in my own.

  I nodded, then handed Nat over to the paramedics.

  “She’ll press charges,” I told Doobie and the first responders when Natalie was ushered out of the trailer. “I’ll call Marsha to get in touch with Rachel, the liaison for battered women, and stop by the hospital to check on her in a bit. Did you already get her statement? What about his?”

  Once we had everything worked out, I left the first responders to record the scene and walked out with Doobie.

  “You okay, Irish?” he asked, and I knew he was concerned that I was too close to this case. Too close to Nat.

  “I’m good,” I assured him, but added, “I’m just pissed that he got by us. We’ve been looking for this guy for months, and he just walks up to her door on New Year’s.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Doobie said, his face full of regret. “I know it’s no consolation, but it could have been a lot worse. I didn’t know she had it in her, but she defended herself.”

  I nodded, but didn’t reply, instead thinking, she shouldn’t have had to defend herself.

  “All right, well, if that’s all you need from me, I’m gonna head out. I’ll check in with you to
morrow.”

  “Yeah, okay, thanks, Doobie.”

  “Oh, and Irish, I hope you know a lawyer, because she’s gonna need a good one.”

  Chapter Ten ~ Ming

  “Sorry I’m late,” I said as I slid into the booth across from Cass and laid my Kate Spade bag gently in the seat next to me.

  Once I settled in, I looked up to see Cass watching me expectantly.

  “Oh, I like the new color,” I said, taking in the auburn and chestnut highlights running through her normally caramel-colored hair.

  Smiling wide, she flicked a long strand of hair over her shoulder and said, “Isn’t it fabulous? I told my stylist I wanted something different, but not drastic, and she came up with this. I love it!”

  “It’s gorgeous,” I assured her, envious. My hair was so dark that it wouldn’t hold color unless I bleached it, and there was no way in hell I was going to chance ruining my hair, so, black it was and black it would always be. “What does Geo think?”

  “He took one look at me, then bent me over the back of the couch and had his wicked way with me.”

  I barely blinked at Cass’s loud statement, even though the people next to us turned their heads our way in shock. My friend was a huge over-sharer. I was used to it.

  “Did he take his pants off, or just open the zipper?” I asked, my tone even, as if I were asking about the weather rather than her husband’s sexual antics.

  “Just the zipper, it was totally hot.”

  The waitress came over and before she could ask for our order I said, “Maker’s neat.”

  “Oh, yay! A drinking lunch,” Cass said, always game for a drinking lunch. “I’ll have a Cosmo.”

  “So, the shower…” I said as an opening as I picked up my menu.

  “Yeah, well, since you blew me off last week, and countless times before that, I talked to Shelly and Victoria a little bit about the shower.”

  Cass looked guilty at her admission, but she was right, I had been busy, so I didn’t blame her for going around me. I mean, the baby wasn’t going to wait just because I needed more time, but still … Nonie was my best friend.