10. Lucas

Ihad just gotten back home and was settled into my office, prepared to do some extra work for the evening, when I received a call from Bernadette.

I answered it immediately, as I had no idea what it was about, and I was very worried that it could be something serious.

"Bella, what's going on?" I asked, because as soon as I picked up the phone, I heard sobbing from the other line. "Do you need me to come and get you? What's going on?"

"Oh Lucas," she blabbered, then burst into more tears. She was crying so hard that I had a feeling she couldn't speak.

"Okay, Bella, I need you to listen to me. I want you to text me where you're right now and I'm going to come get you. I'll stay on the phone the whole time so that you know I'm there. It's going to be okay."

I certainly hoped it would be. I still had no idea what was happening with her, and therefore no clue how I was going to deal with the situation at hand.

My phone buzzed as a text came in and I had a feeling now that I knew kind of what was going on. She was right outside of her house, which could only mean one thing.

Her mother had probably kicked her out.

Which meant she must have found out somehow about either our affair, the pregnancy, or both. I hoped that it was just the affair because that could be fixed rather easily, though I also had no idea how she would have found out about either of them.

Still on the phone with Bernadette, speaking words of encouragement to her, I went outside and got into my car. Then I drove to her place.

Though our houses were separated by a ten-minute drive at least, she did not stop crying the whole time I drove to get her. I was worried that she was going to pass out from crying so hard so I drove a little faster to make sure I got to her before something like that could happen.

Finally, I pulled up in front of her house. Bernadette was a few feet away from the front walkway, still sobbing her eyes out. All that she held was her purse, which worried me greatly. It looked like she had been kicked out and her mother hadn't even given her time to gather her things, which meant it was definitely spur of the moment.

That could either be good or bad. Good in the sense that if it was spur of the moment, then perhaps she might take it back just as quickly. Bad in the sense that Bernadette had nothing but her purse, and her mother was unlikely to let her back in to grab her things, especially with me around.

As soon as she saw my car, she ran to me, and I opened the door and got out so that I could wrap my arms around her and let her bury her face in my chest.

"There there," I said, stroking her hair. "It's going to be okay. I'm here now. Why don't we go back to my house? I have another good movie waiting there for you and you can take as much time as you need to tell me what happened."

"Okay," she said with a sniffle, but she didn't let go of me just yet. Instead, she stayed there for several more moments before finally letting go and sliding into the passenger seat.

"You did the right thing by calling me," I said, getting into the driver's seat beside her and reaching across to squeeze her hand. "I'll make sure you're okay, I promise."

"Thank you," she said with another sniffle, and then burst back into tears. I squeezed her hand tighter and pulled out into the road, heading back home.

I had doubts in my mind over what I was going to do, but I knew that I had to find a way to fix this. In this kind of situation, I had to be there for her. Otherwise, what kind of a boyfriend would I be?

Maybe I couldn't make it all better, but I could at least stand by her through it all. That was the kind of man that I wanted to be for her. That was the kind of friend, the kind of boyfriend, she seemed to need at the moment, and I was more than happy to fulfil that role.

We got back to my house and I helped Bernadette out of the car, not wanting to ask what had happened until the two of us were safely inside and I could get her seated on the sofa to talk to me.

I shut the door behind us then guided Bernadette to sit down, sitting down next to her and squeezing her hand tight in mine.

"Do you want me to get you anything?" I asked. "I could warm up some food, or make you some tea, or popcorn, whatever will make you feel better."

She shook her head, wiping away a stray tear. "No, I think I need to get things out."

It took her a second to speak again, and I could tell that she was trying not to sob.

"It's all right; take your time," I said. "There's no rush at all, so take as much time as you need."

"Thank you." She nodded, and this seemed to calm her down quite a bit. Then she took a deep breath and began to tell me what happened.

"I know I'm stupid for doing this—so very stupid—but I was tired of lying to her, you know?"

"It's okay Bella, no one said you were stupid."

"But I am," she choked out. "I mean, I could have avoided this for a while longer. But then I told her that I was pregnant and what…what happened. She made it sound like it was all my fault."

"Woah, slow down there," I said as she burst into a fresh wave of tears. "Listen, Bella. While you may have made some stupid decisions, that does not make any of that your fault. A lot of people coerced you, pushed and pulled you to get to that point. You were drunk, you didn't know what was happening. That was not your fault."

I rubbed her back as I spoke, hoping that the familiar and repetitive touch would help to continue to calm her down even more.

"But it feels like my fault, and she…she said…"

"Bella, she was angry, and it wasn't right of her to say those things. That does not make it your fault, nor does it make it your responsibility to deal with your mother when she's like this. Listen, you can just stay with me for a while. I promise that everything is going to be okay."

She looked up at me with wide eyes. "Do you mean it?"

I pressed her to my chest, inhaling her scent and hoping that mine was a comfort. "Of course, I mean it. You're my best friend. And now my girlfriend, too. I'll be with you through thick and thin, no matter what. You can always count on me."

She pulled back for a second to look at me. "Thank you. I really mean it. You're such a big help when it feels like everything is crashing down around me."

"I know, but it's not always going to feel like that. The fact is that your mother would have had to find out about this sooner or later. Maybe it's better that it happened this way, so she has more time to come around. She loves you a lot, Bella, and I have no doubt in my mind that she's going to realize that she's made a mistake and apologize for it. In the meantime, the two of us can spend some quality time together. I'll take care of you."

She looked down at her hands, as if ashamed of what she was about to say.

"I don't know what I'm going to do about that. I think she wants me to come running back to her because I didn't even have time to grab anything. All I have is my phone, my wallet, and my keys."

"Okay, then we have a few options," I said. "Option one, you march back in there and grab your stuff. Option two, we sneak in to grab your stuff. Option three, you just let me have an assistant pick up the things you might need, and we call it a day."

"But you'd have to buy me all new things."

"So? I told you that money is no object to me, Bella." I kissed her forehead. "Especially if it means your emotional wellbeing. I don't want you to worry about confronting your mother if you don't have to."

"You really mean it?"

"Of course, I mean it."

She took a deep breath. "You know I hate asking for things, but I also don't know if I can go back there right now."

"Then it's settled. I'll call an assistant right now and have them grab the things that you might need. We'll make a basic list together, and I'll make sure they grab you some clothes too. We could also go out shopping later if that's something that you might enjoy, but you also don't have to feel any pressure with that either. Just think of this all as a gift."

"Okay." She sighed. "You're going to have to let me pay you back at some point."

I kissed her forehead again and pulled her into my lap. "You keep me such good company that I don't think I could ever ask for anything else. But if you really want to pay me back in some way, then you can just get me a nice gift. Then we can be even."

"Okay, that at least sounds better than before."

"There's my girl. Now come on, let's make a list."

The two of us spent about an hour making a list of all the things that she might need, including clothing and basic living items. I added a few little extras of my own of things that I wanted for her, and then we sent the list off to one of my assistants to pick up for her, along with all of Bernadette's sizing information.

The woman who was purchasing everything was roughly the same size and had a similar kind of taste, so I trusted her to figure out what would work best for everything.

Then I knew that I needed to keep Bernadette distracted so that she wouldn't fall back into sadness again.

Kissing both of her cheeks, I looked her up and down and said, "Well, it looks like we're alone and without anything to do again. Would you care to watch another movie?"

"We did just watch one," she said with a smile. "But I think I could handle another."

The closer I looked, the more I could see that her smile was a weak one. It looked more as if she was trying her absolute best not to break down into tears.

"All right, up up, come on, let's go to the kitchen," I said. She got off my lap as I asked, looking at me with a curious expression.

"For what? Why are we going to the kitchen?"

"Well, isn't it obvious? For hot cocoa, of course." I let out a laugh. "Hot cocoa cures sadness, and it looks like you're in need of it."

She looked down at her feet and sniffled. "I suppose so."

"Come on, I don't mean it like that. Look—" I grabbed her chin and made her look up at me. "—I'm not going to tell you to cheer up or something stupid like that. But I am going to let you know that I am going to do everything in my power to make you feel better, and you are going to accept that. I'm not letting you go to bed tonight with a frown upon your face."

I kissed her then, and she giggled against me. "I don't know what I did to deserve you."

"You? Deserve me? I'm still trying to figure out how I got so lucky."

She followed me into the kitchen without any more protest and the two of us heated up some milk and mixed in melted dark chocolate for hot cocoa. I topped it off with marshmallows and fresh whipped cream, and then we went back to the living room to watch a movie.

By the time we went to bed that night, with her curled up next to me like the cutest kitten I had ever seen, she was no longer frowning and didn't look as if she was about to cry at the drop of a hat.

As I settled my arm across her and pulled her close to my body, I hoped that I would manage to keep things that way.