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I dial the number for his personal office. I don’t plan to waste time being put on hold by a hundred secretaries by calling the main phone. This is important. Plus, it’ll give him less time to prepare for what’s coming his way. If he knew what a shitstorm I plan to unleash on him, he wouldn’t bother picking up the phone ever again.
“Can I help you?” the woman on the end of the line asks. I know her voice well. It’s Margaret, our personal secretary. She used to help me out as well as Lawrence. I clear my throat. If she recognizes who I am, she might cut the call. I have no idea what Lawrence told the others at the company about why I left, after all.
“Good afternoon. I’d like to speak to Lawrence Goodman please.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No, but I promise you, he’s been waiting for this call for a long time,” I say, trying not to let my anger show on the phone. Margaret clears her throat a little uncomfortably.
“Okay...I’ll see what I can do for you. Please hold.”
I wait as patiently as I can, though I’ve never been so pissed off in my life. This has been over a year in the making, this fight we’re about to have. I hope I embarrass him as much as he tried to embarrass me and Zooey. I hope he listens as I call him out on every single thing he has done wrong in his life, starting with his abandonment of Zooey. Although he’s done that so many times now she can barely even count. He’s going to see a side to me he didn’t even realize I had. I’m not going to sit back and be quiet anymore. He’s going to get the telling off of his life.
The line crackles and I know this is it. It’s time. I hold the receiver close to my ear, breathing hard.
“Good afternoon, this is Lawrence speaking. How might I help you?” he says. He sounds completely normal which pisses me off even more. How dare he act so casually when his pregnant daughter is waiting downstairs pining for him? How dare he act like things are fine when he’s let everyone down, including himself. I can’t even find the words to say how much I hate him right now.
“Um...hello?” he says. “Who is this?”
“It’s me,” I growl. I know he’d recognize my voice anywhere. Silence falls on the other end of the line. I can’t tell whether it’s out of fear or out of anger. He clearly doesn’t want to be speaking to me either way.
“Wes…”
“You know it is.”
Lawrence clears his throat. “Wes...it’s good to hear from you.”
“Is it really?”
“Yes, it is,” he says firmly, which surprises me. He almost sounds completely genuine. “I haven’t been able to get in contact with you for a long time...I broke my old phone shortly after the argument. I lost all my contacts. In my anger, I also erased everything of yours off the work database, including your home number...you don’t know how many hours of paperwork it cost me to get back on track.”
I don’t know what to say. Is it really true? Have we been trying to get in contact with a dead number all this time?
“Wes? You still there?”
“Of course I am,” I snap. I’m angry at myself, now, for not trying this earlier. Why didn’t we ever think to do this? But still I’m not so sure about his story. “If you broke your old phone and got a new one you could have still kept the old number. Your story isn’t completely convincing.”
I hear a loud exhale on the other end. “That’s true, although I got a new number...but there’s more to it than that.”
“I’m waiting,” I say, gritting my teeth and tapping my foot.
“I was ashamed at how awful of a father I was...or more accurately wasn’t. I wasn’t there for her when I should have been, and not just once, but always.”
I pause, hoping he’s being genuine. I want that because I know how much deep down inside Zooey wants him in the baby’s life.
“Well, Wes...like I said. It’s good to hear from you. How is...how is Zooey?” He’s changing the subject, moving forward. I want to reach through the phone and choke him, but maybe moving forward is the better option.
I close my eyes. So he’s annoyed that we’re still together. At least he doesn’t sound angry anymore. “She’s...she’s okay.”
“Is there a reason you called today, Wes? Margaret seemed to sense that this call was pretty urgent.”
I close my eyes, leaning against the wall. I got everything about this situation wrong, and now I’ve landed in a position where I have to tell him that not only am I engaged to his daughter, but I’ve also gotten her pregnant. He doesn’t seem angry right now, but hell, he probably will be by the time I’ve finished explaining myself. I sigh.
