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“He loves you, Elle. It’s all over his face anytime he looks at you,” Sara said. “You just don’t see it because you’re too close to the situation. I think you guys need to just have an honest conversation about your feelings.”
“I don’t know. I see shades of the whole wanting to take care of me thing, though. I don’t think he’d martyr himself in order to do so, but I worry that our relationship will end up being about the baby,” Elle said. “He asked me to move in the other night. He made it sound like a business transaction though.”
Wincing, Sara said, “Maybe he didn’t want to freak you out by moving too fast.”
Elle laughed and said, “Our entire relationship has moved faster than the speed of light. Why take our time now?”
Smirking, Sara said, “I need some wine. I got you some cranberry juice so you could pretend drink with me.”
“You’re the best,” Elle said.
Twenty minutes later, they were talking on the couch when there was another buzz from downstairs. Elle winced and said, “Crap. That’s probably Jim. I told him where I was. I didn’t think he’d show up.”
Sara took the last swig of her wine and said, “I would have been disappointed if he didn’t show up.”
Walking over to the panel she hit the intercom and said, “Who is it?”
“It’s Jim. Can you let me in please? I need to talk to Elle.”
“Come on up,” Sara said, buzzing him in.
Looking at her, Sara said, “I’m going to go hide in the bedroom with Deacon.”
“Shit. I didn’t realize he was in there. I’ll try to take this someplace else so you’re not trapped,” Elle said.
“Deacon and I will be able to find something to do in the bedroom,” Sara said, winking. “If you hear any strange noises, just don’t ask questions.”
“Too much information,” Elle said, cringing slightly.
“I’ll remind you of that when you start talking about all your weird body changes,” Sara said, laughing. Waving, she opened the door to her bedroom and disappeared inside.
A minute later, there was a knock at the front door. Elle took a deep breath and opened the door. Jim stood there, a look of concern on his face.
She stepped back and let him inside. Clearing her throat, she said, “Sorry I just left like that.”
Looking at her steadily, he said, “I get it. My mother isn’t a very nice person. She didn’t really give much detail. Can you tell me what happened?”
Elle told the story again, not sparing any detail. By the end of it, Jim was running his hand over his face. He said, “She’s a fucking piece of work.”
“Sara said ‘poisonous bitch.’ I’m kind of fond of that term,” Elle said.
“Given the circumstances, I can agree with that,” Jim said.
Elle nodded, not sure what else there was to add to that.
“You didn’t believe any of that shit, did you?” Jim asked, fear in his eyes.
“At first, yeah. It kind of played into all of my fears about you staying with me strictly for the baby. By the time I made it to the freeway, I realized what she’d done though. I let her do it, too,” Elle said, shaking her head, embarrassed.
She continued on, “What really cemented it for me was the kitten story. I could see you taking care of a stray, but her suggesting that I was one of those weak things contradicted a conversation we had recently. The rest of it fell apart once I thought about it rationally.”
“The funny thing is, the cat story? That wasn’t even me. That was my brother,” Jim said quietly. “I didn’t think she was going to do that. She’d been really nice so far, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I expected her to be outwardly nasty, but she was just sneakier about it.”
“Yeah,” Elle agreed, “That was pretty low, picking on the pregnant lady with the crazy hormones. It’s fine now, though. I see it for what it is.”
“For whatever it’s worth, my father sends his apologies. He genuinely likes you,” Jim said. “He was pretty pissed at her. He wouldn’t even look at her when I dropped them at the hotel.”
“Wow, hotel?”
