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“Oh, don’t worry about that, dear. Just keep it until next time. You can certainly use the left overs. I imagine you’re pretty much always busy with the baby and your job.”
“You’re not wrong there. Thank you, Mom, again. I really mean it.”
“Of course, it’s the least I could do.”
“Well, can I walk you to your car?”
“Oh no, darling, that’s okay. That’s far too long of a walk for you to go out of your way.”
“Are… are you sure? I don’t mind, really.”
“Yes, I’m sure. Let me just grab my purse and I’ll head out.”
We made it to the door and hugged again. We held it for quite a while before I went to open it for her.
“You know, everything has pretty much blown over back in town, if you ever want to visit.”
“Really?” I said with a laugh. “And why don’t I believe that?”
“I’m serious,” she objected, her eyebrows nearly going to her hairline. “Almost everyone’s forgotten about it and moved on.”
“Well I haven’t,” I said flatly. “Let’s not ruin this great night by talking about those backwards-backwater-backstabbing gossipers.”
“Right, of course. I’m sorry. But if this ever gets too much for you, know that you’re always welcome back into my home.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Please do.”
She stood on tiptoes to give me a little peck on the cheek then headed out, walking down my hall slowly, as if she didn’t want to leave either. But we were both adults with lives and responsibilities and a whole lot of emotions to sort out.
I waited until she was all the way in the elevator before slowly closing my door and slumping against it.
Wow, that had gone so much better than I thought it could. Maybe this was the turning point, where my life went from mostly hardship to mostly awesome. Was that a thing that could happen? Had I gotten all my hard knocks in when I was younger and now I was getting the free passes that my karma had built up?
I hoped so. It would certainly make having my baby a whole lot easier.
Crossing my fingers for good luck, I locked the door and headed for the shower. I had one more day to the weekend before it was back to the old grindstone, so I figured I might as well relax as much as I could.
Goodness know, as my belly grew bigger, that comfortableness would be hard to come by.
Chapter Twenty-Three
~James~
“I’ll see the rest of you next week where I was your next-quarter proposal in.”
There was a chorus of agreement all around, and my workers started filing out, ready for a new day. We were about a month away from the new quarter and I really wanted to kick it out of the park and have another stellar year.
Plus, being busy with work got my mind off of Nicole, and I needed that as much as possible right now.
It had been a bit over a week since I had left, and she was on my mind far more than she should have been. I didn’t like that my mind was so fixated on her and kept chasing itself in circles, never thinking of anything new and always asking the same questions over and over and over again.
So, I threw myself into work, staying late at the office every day and going in early. It was working pretty well, but all that came crashing down when I checked my phone to see that Nicole had messaged me.
I went straight to my office and closed the door before quickly dialing her back. A quick look to her clock showed that it was almost her lunch time, from what I remembered her telling me, so hopefully she would be able to pick up.
The phone rang twice before she finally picked up. “Oh, hi James. I didn’t expect you to get back to me so soon.”
“I just wrapped up a meeting.” Already, I was trying to decipher her tone. She didn’t seem too alarmed, so it couldn’t be an emergency… right? “Is something wrong?”
“Oh no! Not at all. I was going to text you, but we had a bunch of calls come in.” She hesitated for a slight moment and I could pick up on the uncertainty in her voice. “Um, would you like to…I, uh…” She paused, as if collecting herself, but I found it amusing how flustered she was. “I have a prenatal appointment with that doctor you set me up with and I was wondering if you would like to come, and maybe work on our divorce stuff as well?”
“Wow, you managed to get an appointment already? It’s only been a week.”
“Yeah, when they heard that I hadn’t been to any sort of doctor since my first check up they insisted I come in ASAP. If you’re busy, that’s fine, but I figured since this is kind of a milestone thing that it might be something you’d want to be there for. Plus, we can test for paternity.”
