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Who is this mean man standing in front of me? As if prompted by his rudeness, tears pooled on my eyelids.
“You said—” I resumed weakly.
“I was perfectly clear. Yes, it was fun. But settling down? A happy family? Being a father? That’s not in the cards for me.” Was I imagining a note of pain behind his cruel words, or was that my pathetic heart making excuses again?
Thankfully, I regained my voice, anger moved by pain urging me on. “You called me. Several times. You said you were in pain and you missed me.” Each accusation was accompanied by the pointing of my finger. “I’m not making things up because I need a father for my baby. I’m here because we’re adults capable of dealing with this. Adults who created a life together and developed feelings for each other.”
His snort wounded me more than I let it show. “Feelings?”
“Don’t you dare deny what we have, and what you told me last night.”
“I was drunk,” he scoffed. “I said and did a lot of things I didn’t mean last night.”
At his remark, I turned to Mia, who had her hands planted on her hips and nostrils flaring in anger. She was breathing hard and staring at him with disappointment, her lips pursed. Noticing where my eyes had wandered, he threw another punch.
“Why do you think she’s here?”
I felt the first of many tears fall as she narrowed her eyes at him, then peered at me and shook her head slightly, with sorrow in her features.
“You wouldn’t do this,” I defended weakly, unable to absorb what he was implying.
“Wouldn’t I? How can you be so sure?” His voice shook at the end. “You don’t know me,” he whispered, then hung his head low. “I could hurt you even more.”
Powerless to the agony and betrayal, I suppressed a sob and stormed out of that house, ignoring Mia’s calls for me to come back.
I came here to make things right with the man I was falling for, and I left with a dilacerated heart caused by his betrayal.
I walked into the atrium of Bryants & Walker in a rush. I didn’t wanna deal with the storm I knew was coming. I passed by Haley with barely a nod, and when the shy, sweet woman looked at me, confused, I felt even more like a dick.
I was on a roll, and I needed to get to my office before Mia reached me. Which was stupid. I wasn’t safer in there than I was anywhere else. If anything, I was more vulnerable and cornered, because when Mia caught up to me, I wouldn’t be able to escape her rightful fury.
If I was brave enough to acknowledge it, I’d realize I wanted to be defied. I needed to be challenged. Deep inside, I knew I was doing something wrong, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get to the root of my many mistakes. Or maybe I was too much of a coward to do so.
In a twisted way, I wanted someone to show me the way.
As I was walking hurriedly along the hallway, I heard her approach. Her purposeful steps were loud for someone so small. Which meant she was mad at me. If I concentrated hard enough, I could even feel the disappointment and anger coming out of her. The worst part was, I couldn’t blame her. I was disappointed and angry at myself as well.
Somehow, I was gifted enough to have disappointed two women who were important to me.
As I was passing the threshold into my office, I heard Mia say conversationally to a following Haley, as if everything was okay, “Haley, hun, can you please hold Benjamin’s and my calls, please? I need to yell at him for a bit.”
Benjamin. She called me Benjamin. Not Benny, like only she could get away with. Not even Ben, like when she wanted to scold me for mundane things like letting my house be a mess. She called me Benjamin like we didn’t share the bond we did. I’d pushed her over the edge, and all hell would break loose.
I was anticipating the shitshow that was coming whilst struggling to find a way out of it when I heard Zach opening his office door and getting out with Danny and a new prospect we could end up hiring (whose name I didn’t care to learn). That was, if the guy didn’t run away after what was about to take place.
I knew Zach didn’t want a potential new employee watching us in such a vulnerable and messy state, but he also didn’t want me and Mia to take things so far that we couldn’t go back. That was Zach. Sensible, caring, level-headed, and always ready to clean up our messes.
Well, my messes.
As she came closer, from his office across the hall, Zach stated warily, sensing things were about to go south, “Hey guys, you remember Gary? He’s interviewing to be a part of ourfunctional and normal company,” he emphasized before snapping, “why are you wearing Ben’s clothes?”
“Hi, Gary. Such a pleasure to meet you!” Mia said sweetly to the guy, ignoring her brother’s question. “We can’t wait to let you know if you’re gonna be a part of this family. Either way, I hope you feel at home. Just a heads up, this is how we deal with things.”
She dismissed the group and fumed into my office. Hypnotized by the event, Haley, Zach, Danny, and the Gary person followed her just inside the door.
And so it began.
“What the hell was that?” She barely contained her anger, raising her arms at her side in a “what-the-fuck” stance.
