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You tell me you want nothing to do with me in public, and you want nothing to do with your own baby in public, and now you have the audacity to come in here, into my place of business, and tell me that I have to prove that this baby is yours? Are you on drugs? What in the hell is the matter with you?” she raged at him in a heated whisper.
Scott held his hands up again. “I understand that you are emotional right now because of the baby—”
She gritted her teeth and took a step toward him. After a long slow breath, she nearly growled at him. “Emotional? You think I’m emotional because of the baby? Hell no! I’m furious with you because you’re a first class jackass! You’re probably the most irresponsible person that I know!”
He frowned at her. “We’re not getting anywhere with this. We need to go forward from here, not fight with each other and go nowhere.”
“I know right where you can go, Scott Thompson. You can go to hell.” She narrowed her eyes at him and he sighed and pushed his hands down deep into his pockets, looking at the floor.
“Listen, please.” He raised his sky blue eyes to meet hers again. “I do want to take care of you and the baby. I understand that I have a responsibility, and I want to live up to that. I have a duty to live up to that. I get it. The only thing is that Harold wants to make sure that the baby is mine.
It isn’t that he doesn’t trust you; he doesn’t trust any woman, and he doesn’t want to see me get used or taken by a scam, so he’s requesting that you get a paternity test. That’s it. He just wants to make sure that the baby you’re carrying really is mine. You get the test. It comes out positive that it’s my baby, and I step in and take care of everything for you. I know you’re struggling here.
I want to help you with all of the costs of the pregnancy, the delivery, and the baby. If that’s my kid you’re carrying, then I want to take care of it, and of you, and I want to be a part of the baby’s life. Now, I’m not saying it isn’t my kid, I’m just asking you to have a little test so that Harold will know without a doubt that it’s mine and that you’re not just some girl trying to hustle me.” He breathed out and relaxed a little, feeling better that he had it all explained to her.
Her tone was low and venomous when she replied. “You’re the one who has admitted that you were sleeping around; you’re the one who got another woman pregnant, and now you’re telling me that I’m the one who has to have the paternity test? You must be out of your mind!”
He shook his head and took a step toward her. “Please don’t say it like that. I wasn’t really sleeping around. There was one other woman, but she was before you. I guess she was just a couple of months before you, but she wasn’t anyone I was dating or seeing—”
Naomi glared at him. “Of course she wasn’t. She’s like me. I’m not anyone you’re dating or seeing either; I’m just someone you’re screwing in secret, hoping that no one would ever find out. Why would she be any different?”
Scott groaned and rubbed his fingers over his forehead. “It wasn’t like that! Not at all! Will you please listen to me!” he heaved a great sigh and looked at her seriously. “Just hear me out, okay?”
She planted her hands on her hips and raised one eyebrow, daring him to tell her something that wouldn’t make her throw him right out of her office on his ear.
“I was at a party a couple of months before I met you. I had a lot to drink… whew… I had a lot to drink that night… and this woman kept coming on to me. I told her no a few times, but by the end of the night she just wasn’t going to give up, and she asked me to give her a ride home. I had a limo that night, and on the way to her place… well… she kind of got what she had been after all night long.” He walked over to a chair at a small table and sat down, resting his hands between his knees.
“It was a one night stand, if even that. I’m not proud of it. I thought that it was over and done with, and I wasn’t going to even think of it again, but she called me a couple of months later… I’m not even sure how she got my number… and she told me that she was pregnant. I had just started things with you. I was so happy with you. You and I were… wow, we were hot. I was so into you, and I didn’t want to think about her, and I didn’t want to have to deal with her. I didn’t even know who she was.”
He shrugged. “She was just some woman at a party who had herself set on getting me, and I was so drunk that I didn’t stop her when I should have, and now I’m paying the price for it. She’s nothing like you. Don’t you get that? Don’t you see that? You mean so much to me. You are… god… you’re so important to me. The baby that we made, we made in love. That baby is just as important to me as you are. She doesn’t mean anything to me. I haven’t even seen her since then; we’ve just talked on the phone a few times.
That’s it. I haven’t gone running after her time after time, trying to get her to talk to me, trying to get her to stay with me, and trying to get her to let me be a part of the baby’s life. It doesn’t even feel real with her. It is real with you! Why can’t you see that?” he pleaded, searching her eyes with his.
He stood back up and walked toward her, and she felt the anger in her easing somewhat. “I made a huge mistake with her. It was stupid, and I shouldn’t have had sex with her, and I should have worn a condom… I would change everything about it if I could… but I wouldn’t change anything with you, except to do it all right if I could do it over again.
I feel like I’m screwing up with you every time I turn around, and it just about kills my heart. I wish I could get it right, but that’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m trying to talk with you, again, to try to straighten this all out, because I do want you. I want this baby… but Harold is going to make us get a paternity test because he knows that I screw up.
He knows that I slept around a little, and he knows that it’s possible that the women I have been with might also have been sleeping around. He doesn’t know you. He doesn’t know what an amazing woman you are. I don’t doubt that you’re carrying my baby, but he’s not going to go for it unless we can show him that I am in fact the father.”
Scott reached his hands out to Naomi’s, which were still on her hips. He closed his hands around hers and pulled her to him. “We just need the test done, and that’s all. You and I both know how it will come out, and I’ll pay for it. Don’t worry about that.
They can do an in vitro test and we’ll know almost right away, I think. All I’m asking you for is your time, really. Just go with me to the doctor and let him run the test. I’ll take care of all of it. Okay? Please? Then there won’t be any more trouble
or hassle with it. Please do this for me, and for our baby!” he implored her.
Naomi’s anger had dissipated as she listened to Scott talking, and she sighed with the last of her frustration, her hands still held in his, and looked away from him sullenly. “Fine. I’ll get the test.”
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. “Thank you! Thank you so much. This is absolutely the right thing to do. It’s going to fix so much for us. Thank you.” He moved to kiss her, but she pulled away from him and shook her head.
“I have to get back to work,” she said coolly. “You make the appointment for any morning in the next week, and we’ll go, but things between us are still not good. Don’t misunderstand me working with you on this. I’m doing this test so that your agent won’t fight you on taking care of this baby with me.”
He nodded sadly. “However it has to be. Thank you.”
She gave him a nod in return, and opened the door again, walking out into the office. She was surprised to see Reggie walking through the front door, and she stopped in her tracks for a moment, and Scott almost collided with the back of her.
“What is it?” he asked curiously, eyeing Reggie.
“Nothing. It’s business. Our business is finished. Let me know when the appointment is please.” She gave him a stern look, and he waved a little and smiled as best he could to both Keisha and Malaika, before walking past Reggie and going out of the front door.
