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I served him his drink without making eye contact. I genuinely wanted to talk to him, but I needed him to make the first move. But I didn’t plan to tell him about the pregnancy just yet, even though I knew he was the owner — no other man had slept with me.
“Hi, Claire. It’s been a funny couple of weeks, don’t you think?”
I looked at him, and smiled. If only he knew how wrong he was. But I could not blame him. He was talking from his own perspective.
“Maybe. Hi.”
I wondered if I said too little. Realistically, I wanted to say much more. He had a lot to know asides the pregnancy. I was neck deep in love with him. The pregnancy on the other hand was a different matter entirely. I didn’t want it, and I was sure he did not either. But somehow, he had to know.
“Do we have to stop talking? I just figured we don’t have to. If you don’t mind, I’d like us to chat a little while you attend to the customers.”
“Well, as you can see, we are three now. We added one more staff to the girl you saw the last time, and now, I am in charge of them both. I report directly to the owner of the bar now, while I control the bar while the others work.’
“So, a promotion?”
“I wouldn’t say that, but yes, it’s close and something like that.”
Jonah stared straight into my eyes without a blink and I knew the drink was already having its effects on him. I knew that he had talked to me because he was spurred on by the drink. This man had been avoiding me for weeks, after all. But damn it, I missed him. I missed talking to him and staring at his too handsome face. I missed his voice, his touch, and most of all, I missed having him in me.
I took Jonah to a quiet place at the back of the bar and he duly followed me like I was his mother. There was a table and two chairs there. They had always been there even before I started working at that bar. I had noticed them the first day I came, and I even asked my boss about it. I never got an answer.
“Why have you been avoiding me?” I asked him. It was a question I’d been meaning to ask for a while. Every day I had watched him anytime I could. From my room's window, through the bar's window when he passed by every day when he was on his way out, and other times he didn’t know I was watching. Sometimes, I felt the urge to confront him and spill all I had in my mind. He didn’t seem approachable each time though. Jonah never did.
“I haven’t been avoiding you. I’ve been busy, and we haven’t been in situations where we can talk to each other. I do not think I have a reason to avoid you.”
I made a face at him to let him know I didn’t believe him. He had been avoiding me clearly, and even a blind man would probably see that. I knew why anyway, and had avoided him too in kind.
“What? You don’t believe me?”
“Jonah, cut that out. We both know you have been avoiding me, and you have your reasons you aren’t spilling why.”
Jonah remained quiet for a bit before he made himself comfortable on the chair. He didn’t seem like he was in the mood for any unnecessary arguments, and that was an example of one. I soon sat beside him.
“So we are not drinking anything to celebrate this?” he asked. I wondered how he could remain calm when my heart was racing so badly. I had feelings for him, and these ones were quite strong.
“Celebrate what? “
“Our reunion!”
“What reunion? It’s been barely over 2 weeks!”
“That is a long while to stay away from speaking to you.”
I looked into his eyes and realized that we didn’t share the same relationship we shared before. We had sex, and it was no quickie. This one had been hot, passionate and steamy, and ended up in a pregnancy I was not willing to keep.
“Alright, alright. I’ll go get something for us to drink.”
I got up to get a drink for us. I felt a nauseating feeling in my belly and knew what was coming. Halfway to the door, I ran off to the bathroom to retch. I could not help it, and I hoped Jonah didn’t notice me, even though a small part of me hoped he did.
When I got out of the bathroom, I came out through another door to the front of the bar. I noticed that there were more customers that night, and wondered why.
“How’s the sales going?” I asked the girl in charge of records. She showed me the incomings and outgoings, and after I was done checking through, I picked a few bottles and took them back to Jonah.
“You took a while to come back. I hope you’re fine?” Jonah touched my shoulder, and looked lovingly into my eyes. I didn’t understand him. Why did he do that? How did he manage to keep me so interested with little or not effort? Why did he seem to have easy access to my heart, and yet I felt powerless to do anything about that.
“Yes.”
“You ran to the bathroom.”
