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Absolutely not, I warn myself. He’s not for you.
I hear my voice but I feel so detached to it as if watching from outside my body. My lips are frozen into a smile. “So, have you asked anyone yet?” The look he shoots me makes my heart thump wildly.
“Not yet,” he murmurs, “But I have somebody in mind.”
I immediately avert my eyes, feeling the flush crawl up my neck. I don’t even know why I’m suddenly so self-conscious but when our eyes meet again, there is this appraising gleam in his and I’m flustered all over again.
My first day back goes by smoothly.
Well, as smoothly as it can get.
Some of the women gush over Sophie, and then there are those who give me cold looks and when they look at my baby there’s disdain in their eyes and I have the urge to claw their eyes out. However, they don’t say anything yet.
But I’m not holding my breath.
And then he comes in. When he sees the little carrier beside my desk, the shock in his eyes morphs to raw anger. He stalks forward, fury and disgust on his face.
But the CEO enters and he has to quickly change directions.
The agreement we had was that I wouldn’t bring the child around him. But technically, I haven’t done anything of the sort. Bringing Sophie to work is simply a temporary arrangement.
Caleb approaches me, and Kendall, two steps ahead, leans into coo at Sophie who waves her tiny fists in their air which Kendall grabs and gently kisses.
“How are you doing, Elise?” Caleb asks, politely.
As he glances at Sophie, I can see a sort of fascination in his eyes. I chuckle. “Would you like to hold her?” I ask Kendall.
He gives his fiancée an evil look when Kendall picks Sophie up with practiced ease and holds my drooling baby towards him, laughing. “She won’t bite you, Caleb. See she doesn’t even have teeth.”
Caleb eyes Sophie like she’s seconds away from bursting out in fangs and biting his head off. “I’m sure Elise doesn’t want me to—”
Amused beyond belief now, I urge him, “She likes being held. Go on.”
The panic in Caleb’s eyes is growing and finally Kendall just cuddles Sophie who babbles sounds, before regretfully putting her back in her the carrier. Looking at me, she says, “Now that you’re on your feet and up and about, we’re having a small party at our place. It’s a very small affair. I wanted you to be there so we held it off. It’s this Saturday.”
A party might just be what I need to start mingling again. “What’s the occasion?”
“Just something to celebrate our engagement.” She grins. “And bring Sophie.” And once again, she’s leaning down and playfully tugging on Sophie’s tiny feet, cooing, “This will be your first party, won’t it, Sophie?”
At this point, Caleb is looking anywhere but at his fiancée who seems to have abandoned all sen
se of decorum at the sight of the baby. When he’s unable to bear it any longer, he starts dragging her away, saying, “I thought I had a meeting today?”
It’s once they’ve gone what I realize what they’re sudden appearance had just spared me from. I’m not scared of the man who sired Sophie. I may be sweet and cheerful on the surface but I have teeth, too. Now, that I have something to protect, my teeth are sharper.
When I’d newly discovered my pregnancy, I had been a mass of nerves and fear. He had found it easy to threaten me, frighten me. I would protect Sophie from him. I was adamant about this.
The day passes fairly uneventfully. Quite a lot of people congratulate me and the ones who gave me accusing looks, I stared back at them, until they looked away.
It’s as I’m packing up that I hear a familiar voice, “You’re still here?”
I look up to see Lucas standing at my desk with a briefcase in his hand, wearing a frown.
I glance at the clock, stifling a yawn, “Well, yeah. Clearly.”
He looks slightly sheepish and then tilts his head. “How are you getting home?”
“There’s a bus that goes by here. It drops me a block away from my apartment. I have the schedule printed out in three different locations on my desk because I really don’t want to miss it.” I tie the baby carrier around myself and carefully tuck in Sophie.
