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Yeah, he’d said all the right words and for a while she’d believed that hope was in sight. But that hope slowly turned to bitterness when she realized that he was just hanging out with her until he found someone better. She should’ve left him then, but as her luck would have it, she got pregnant.
Surprisingly, Tazeem was the one who begged her to keep the baby. She agreed, and her brain somehow assumed that this was his way of saying that he was now ready to commit to her.
Yeah, she was wrong about that too.
Tazeem wasn’t ready for anything more than what they had. In his head, they’d just keep being friends with benefits while raising their kid on the side. Never mind that they’d both just graduated college, hadn’t found jobs yet, and neither had family support since they were orphans.
By the time she accepted that she was royally screwed, she was too far along to consider anything other than just having the baby. Her discontent about being another statistic on the baby mama list haunted every minute she spent with Tazeem. Every time he gave her those flippant smiles and assured her that things would work out, it angered her. Every time he made promises then reneged on them, she hated him more.
Slowly, she became certain that she’d end up a single mother, working a minimum-wage job, who did everything for her child while the baby’s father flitted in and out of their lives like an irresponsible butterfly, confusing them and annoying her.
She didn’t want that for herself, and she didn’t want that for her baby.
When Tazeem didn’t turn up at the hospital for the two days she was there, it was the last straw. She felt abandoned. She felt unloved. She felt alone. She felt sad for herself and their baby. They didn’t deserve this. They deserved better.
She decided it was time to kick him out of their life.
When Tazeem finally decided to call her, she was still so furious and disappointed that she told him their baby was dead.
He tried contacting her again, but she ignored then blocked him. She’d given him a chance to be there, and he’d thrown it in her face. Now he was out. She didn’t need him anymore. She was going to do it alone. She even moved cities just so he wouldn’t find her.
For eight years, she and her son had stayed hidden.
Then a few months ago, Tazeem reappeared.
He was a guest at one of the business events she was attending. Seeing him was shocking! But when her shock dissipated, rage crashed in. What was he doing there? Why was he still so handsome? Why was he smiling like a man who hadn’t almost destroyed her?
Along with her anger, came fear. What if he found out about Jay? How would he react? Judging by how he was dressed and that he’d attended the same event as her, he seemed to be doing well in life. Did that mean that he would try to take Jay from her?
She wasn’t interested in finding out.
So, when their eyes met, she looked away and pretended not to recognize him. And as soon as she could, she’d ducked out of the event. She hadn’t seen or heard of him since then.
Yes, Chess was relieved and glad that Tazeem was gone again. But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t be sad for her son. It was a pity that her baby didn’t know about his father. Still, it was better to have no father than to have a bad father.
She watched Jay and his friends walk towards their class for a few minutes, then started the car. With a sad sigh, she drove out of the school and headed to work.
3
I
N THE END, CHESS WAS late.
There was so much traffic between Jay’s school and her workplace that she got to the office ten minutes later than she should have. If it were any other company, ten minutes wouldn’t have been a big deal. But this was Synovent; ten minuteswasa big deal.
Come on. Come on.She mentally pleaded with the crowded elevator to move up faster. But her pleas were all for naught. Unfortunately, Synovent was located right at the top of one of the tallest buildings in the city. The elevator kept stopping to pick up or let off more people. What should’ve been a minute ride at most took what felt like forever.
By the time the doors opened, Chess’s stomach was knotted up in anxiety.
As luck would have it, the first face she met was the last face she wanted to see.
Mark Reinard, her coworker, was standing right in front of the elevator. He looked like he’d been tapping his feet at the elevator doors for quite a while, waiting for her. Given the vein throbbing at his temple and how his face was about to pop out from the red bow-tie he was strangling his chicken neck with, it was quite obvious that he was furious.
“Are you kidding me?” Mark spat out the moment he saw Chess. “I knew you’d this, Winters. You’re a cold witch.”
Exiting the elevator, Chess calmly asked, “What did I do this time Mark?”
“You know what you did,” he tossed back dramatically.
