14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Brax was set to pick me up for our date a few days later. It felt as though the butterflies whooshing around in my stomach had nervous butterflies of their own as soon as I heard his knock on the door.

"Just a second," I called out as my eyes darted around the living room once more in search of the purse I planned to bring with me. Normally, it wasn’t essential for me to have one, but considering we were going out to dinner, and I didn’t know how the little one would react to whatever tempted me, I had tums, some mint gum, and a few other ‘just in case’ essentials packed away in there. My problem was that I’d set it down to take a call from work and now, I wasn’t sure where I put it. Did that mom brain thing that women always talked about happen during pregnancy? Pregnancy brain was a thing, wasn’t it? My sigh left my lips just as I noticed the shoulder strap of my purse sticking out from under the couch cushion.

"No wonder I couldn’t find it," I murmured to myself. Once I had it in my hands, and was about to open my door, I heard male voices outside. As the door pulled inward, I gasped at seeing Brax, who was expected, in a heated conversation with Rich, who wasn’t supposed to be here.

"What’s going on?" I asked.

"What in the hell is he doing here?" Rich snapped as his eyes left Brax and narrowed on me.

"That’s none of your damn business. The better question is what in the hell are you doing at my place when I remember telling you to never show up here again?"

"We’re having a baby together," he stated.

"She’s not here yet! You have no right to bother me."

"I’m her father and have every right to check on her."

"No, actually, you do not. You need to get out of here." I stepped into the hallway, closing the distance between Brax and myself to maneuver away from where Rich stood, blocking my way. "You need to leave." I turned to lock my door and Brax’s hand came around my waist to offer his support. That did nothing but rile Rich up.

"So, you and my wife are both whores for this asshole now?"

"Well, since you’re the one who turned me into a home wrecking whore in everyone’s eyes, I figured I better play my part to the fullest and go down the list of every man your wife ever slept with. You know – just to be sure everyone got the point that I’m the sort of woman who does those things." Sarcasm dripped from my words as Brax threw his head back and laughed.

“You’re better than this!” Rich threw those words at me like they were weapons.

“You’re right. I am better than this. I’m better than having an argument with the married man I had an affair with because he was a lying prick and never mentioned a wife and kids. I am better than arguing with you on my doorstep about literally anything. What you’re not getting is that I value my time and who I give it to. These days, you don’t even make that list.”

“You are carrying my child!” The tone he used made it sound like that information was a demand on my time, not a statement of fact.

“When is my due date, Rich?” I asked as I unconsciously leaned further into Brax for support.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Do you know the answer?” I questioned again while ignoring his bullshit. When he didn’t answer, I chuckled lightly before shaking my head at him in disappointment. “You know why you don’t know the answer?”

“Yes, because every time I try-”

“Wrong!” I cut him off. “I tried calling to talk to you. I tried sending emails, texts, and even a letter with an ultrasound photo that had my due date written right on it. You ignored everything.” He huffed and took in another breath like he was about to counter my point, but I didn’t have time for that shit. “A man who gave a single shit about the child I was carrying – or me for that matter – would know when my due date is. He would know because he would have asked for that information, especially if he was the father of this baby and planned to be involved.”

“Her due date is September 12th,” Brax informed Rich, who stood there with his jaw slack and eyes cast downward.

“As Brax just informed you, my due date is September 12th,” I repeated. “Since you never bothered to ask about that, how my pregnancy is going, whether I need help financially with the hospital bills, or what I might need for the baby, you don’t get to use this baby as a bargaining chip for my time. You’ve had plenty of opportunity to prove you cared and were interested in the baby. You failed. If you come to my home one more time, I will be forced to file for a restraining order because the stress you are causing me is not good for my health right now. I told you that you would be informed when the baby gets here. Then, we will deal with the legalities involved in potentially shared custody or visitation agreements. Until then, I don’t want to see or hear from you.” I reached down and grabbed hold of Braxton’s hand and tugged until we were moving around where Rich stood. Before we got more than a couple feet away, I turned back. “And if you so much as bring up anything at all of a personal nature at work, I will file an HR complaint against you, too.”

Rich didn’t say another word, but I felt is eyes on me as I walked away while holding tightly to Braxton’s hand. Neither of us said another word until we were safely ensconced in his solid black Dodge Durango. Once I was buckled in and Braxton made it to his side and turned the engine over, he finally took a breath and then turned toward me. I moved so that my body faced him as much as possible while held confined by the seat belt. Brax started to say something, stopped and shook his head, and then grabbed hold of my hand. I tracked the movement and allowed him to hold onto me with both of his hands.

“The way you just laid it out for Rich…” He shook his head again as if he couldn’t believe what I had said or done. “I don’t think anything that anyone has ever said ever got past that asshole’s ego. Not until today. That man we left behind, I think he finally got it. That was the first time I’ve ever seen Rich ripped to shreds and I was there for years in the background with him and Mel.”

“I didn’t say what I did to hurt him, just to make him wake up and realize that he wasn’t concerned about anyone else. It was all him.”

“I know it, sweetheart. What’s more is that he knows it, too. I don’t think you’ll have any further problems with him, but I want you to know that if he shows up out of the blue like that again, you need to call me. No matter the time, I will be there. If I’m too far out for some reason, you will hit the panic button on your alarm system.”

There was no point in arguing with Brax. I had no qualms about doing exactly that. Rich might just now be realizing how far removed from him I was, but there was no doubt his estimations were still off. When I finally found a lawyer to consult with, one of my main issues was making sure that I received sole custody, at least for the first year of my daughter’s life – longer if I could manage. It wasn’t about making Rich hurt, either. It was about not trusting him to put my child before himself.

“It might not seem like it right now, but it’s all going to work out, Avi.”

“Most days, I convince myself of that. Some days, it seems harder to do.”

“I can’t even imagine. Mel’s in my ear about everything he’s done on one side and I’m seeing it with my own eyes from your side, too.”

“Not to mention what you experienced when you overheard him talking about you. That was a betrayal as well, Brax. I hope you know that none of that was on you. Whatever he said that day, it was his insecurities talking, not your deficiencies.”

Brax squeezed my hand and tossed a smile my way before he turned to face forward. “Go ahead and put the bullshit with him out of your head for the next couple hours.”

“Where are we headed?”

“To forget,” he stated simply as he checked the lane and pulled out onto the road.

“In case you forgot, I’m pregnant and can’t do drugs,” I deadpanned.

“Ha, ha, funny girl. Just for that, it’s going to be a surprise.”

“It was already a surprise, so nothing has changed.”

“God, you are refreshing.” His words were like a balm to my soul.

“Let me guess, not a lot of dates go well when you try to surprise someone?”

“Can’t say that they do,” he agreed.

“Yeah, that’s happened to me before as well.” The last time had been when Rich left me on his birthday after bitching about going out in public with me to celebrate. That surprise had been on me instead and not in a good way. “For the record, you’ll never hear a complaint from me if you want to surprise me, so long as you return the favor.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I nodded in agreement to emphasize my point.

“Deal.” Brax reached over and squeezed my hand again and then left his resting right on top before lacing our fingers together. “Hopefully, the rest of the night makes up for the crappy start.”

“It already is.”

“Are you serious, right now?” I asked. The brick building Brax brought me to was not what I had been expecting at all. There was nothing spectacular about the outside, no advertisements indicating what might be inside. Instead, he walked me straight to the door and opened it for me, allowing me to go into the unknown first. There were various stations all around the cavernous space. Some were pottery wheels; others were tables where people were sculpting or painting their creations. It looked far too messy for the silk blouse and slacks I’d worn on our date, but I would gladly sacrifice my clothes for the fun we were about to have.

“What do you think?” Brax looked nervous as his brown eyes flitted from the various stations and back to meet mine. “Shit,” he huffed as he scanned my body. “I should have told you to dress down, huh?”

My head swiveled back and forth. “Nope. That would have ruined the amazingness of this surprise. I love it. Let’s go make a mess!” I demanded after pulling his hand into my own and leading us both back to one of the pottery wheels. “I’ve always wanted to try this.”

“We could reenact that movie,” Brax suggested.

I cocked an eyebrow up at him. “You do know the guy dies in that movie, right?”

“So… Making a mess…” He chuckled as he spoke which only endeared me to him more as the fine lines fanning out from the corner of his eyes deepened.

“I’m not sure where to start.”

“Aprons.” A slender woman with an all-natural, afro-style hair that made her head seem cartoonishly three times its normal size and somehow out-of-this-world beautiful all at once made her way over to us and handed two utilitarian brown aprons to Brax. “Honey, did you not warn your woman she would be getting messy?”

“This was a surprise. It would have been ruined if he had.”

“Well, I hate to break it to you, but that shirt and this clay,” she pointed to what looked like a lump of semi-dried mud that was meant to be ours for the night, “are not going to mix well.”

“That’s okay. It’ll be worth the loss of the shirt,” I reiterated after Brax looked nervous all over again.

“If you say so, honey.” The woman, who introduced herself as Latoya, gave us a rundown of how to use the equipment, and even showed us on the wheel next to ours how everything worked and the way to use our hands to shape the lump into… Something. “Give a holler if you need me, honey. I’ll be wandering all night.”

“Thank you,” I called to her before she could drift too far.

When Brax pulled a stool up next to mine, I tipped my head to the side. “You’re not doing one?” He shook his head. “I wanted to see what you could come up with. I came here a couple weeks ago when I needed some stress relief and threw a teapot. We won’t be able to finish yours tonight because it has to go into the kiln, but we can paint mine if you’re not too tired when we’re done here. We could also wait until next time and paint them together.”

“Oh my God!” I squealed. “This is the best date ever!”

“We’re only just starting.”

I grinned so wide it almost hurt. “I see only good things in our future.”

Two hours later, I changed my mind about that. “Okay, well when I said, ‘I see only good things,’ clearly that was about our relationship, not the…” I cocked my head to the side and then flipped it the other way, thinking maybe perspective would change the outcome. It didn’t. I was absolute shit at pottery. “Well, I had fun getting dirty, anyway.”

“That’s all that matters,” Latoya called out from four stations away as she threw me a wink.

“See, that’s all that matters,” I said as I slapped a hand playfully at Brax’s abdomen. His deep chuckle turned into full-blown laughter as he eyed my creation.

“I think those pregnancy hormones got to you, sweetheart.”

“What? Why?” I glanced at my creation again. It was meant to be a pipe – like for smoking tobacco. It was my take on our joke about not being able to do drugs because I was pregnant. Braxton gently grabbed hold of my upper arms and forced me to move three steps to the side to shift my perspective.

“Oh my… Shit! Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Sweetheart, everyone in this place has been giggling at your ‘pipe’ for the past fifteen minutes.” He couldn’t stop laughing.

“It’s not funny,” I moaned.

“Sexual repression never is,” he teased.

My stupid pipe looked like a slender dick with a bulbous head attached. Dammit. I would never live this down.

“I can’t wait to display that. I wonder what your mom would think of it?”

“Oh, no! You can’t show, Mom.”

“I think she’d love it.”

“You’re an ass!” I giggled as those words left my mouth and Latoya came to collect my creation. She eyed the pipe and then drifted her gaze over to Brax.

“Hopefully, this is not proportionate,” she muttered.

Braxton doubled over in laughter as my face turned red with heated embarrassment. “I’ve never seen it. This is our first date.”

“Well honey, you can’t do worse than whoever this is supposed to be.”

She wandered off with my penis pipe before I could correct her. “It’s a pipe!” I groaned.

“Well, they don’t call it ‘laying the pipe’ for nothing.” Brax came back far too quickly with his retort. I rolled my eyes but couldn’t hold back my laughter.

“Paint night should be fun,” I muttered.

By the time we got everything cleaned up at our station, and finally headed out, my stomach started to rumble. Then it decided that there was no stopping the amount of noise it could make. By the time Brax pulled up to the cute little diner not far from the pottery studio, it sounded as though there was a wild animal trapped inside me trying desperately to get free.

“I guess we should have gone to an early dinner first,” Brax stated sheepishly.

“No, stop it. I had so much fun. I think we both lost track of time. I wouldn’t trade a minute of that time.”

“Not even for the biggest, juiciest burger and freshest fries you’ve ever put in your mouth?”

My stomach growled again on cue. “That wasn’t fair.” I fake pouted as he held the door for me. “This place is so adorable.”

“Yeah, I found it by accident when I came to make my first pot.”

“Incredible. It’s like walking back in time to another era. All that’s missing is the billowing cloud of cigarette smoke,” I joked.

“Thank fuck for that.” I turned to grin up at how adamant Brax was about that.

“Not a fan of smokers?”

He shook his head. “My father was a smoker my whole life. I can’t stand that smell. When I was a kid, going to school smelling like a stale ashtray was never fun.”

“Aww, did you get bullied?”

“I did.”

“What did you do?”

“I took it for the first year or two. Then I started to bag up my clothes in trash bags immediately after washing them and stashed them in the very back of my closet. It cut the smell back, so long as I could leave the house immediately after taking my shower, so the scent didn’t linger in my hair.” We were seated in a corner in a red faux-leather booth and given some red and white menus to look over. “And I had a growth spurt on my side, too. Once I shot up head and shoulders above the rest of the kids in my class, they stopped to think if I was a worthy target anymore.”

“Kids are such assholes.”

“Some of them are. Some grow out of it.”

“And some grow into it.”

“That’s true too,” he agreed. “Anyway, after I started to outgrow everyone and sports were thrown into the mix, being tormented for my dad’s shitty habit pretty much ceased. Still, I can’t stand the smell.”

“I’ve never been a smoker, and neither were my parents, so no worries there.” We managed to get some food ordered before I managed to speak again. “Your story is a good reminder, though.”

“Yeah? Of what?”

“That pretty much every decision I make from here on out will have an impact on my daughter. You were bullied because of your dad’s habit. I never want my children to face that, if I can help it.”

Brax smiled sweetly at me. “Sweetheart, kids will bully you just because they’re not happy. It happens. The best you can do is to teach her it’s not okay to do that and how to handle it if it happens to her.”

“It’s a scary place to be,” I admitted. “I always thought when I had a baby it would be with a partner at my side who not only loved me, but would take the responsibility of raising a child with me seriously.”

“You can still have that.”

“Maybe,” I all but whispered. There was no way I’d get my hopes up about Braxton being there for us. He was Mel’s person, even if not romantically. I’d be lying if a small part of me wasn’t concerned that this was all some wild ruse to get back at the homewrecking whore. It wasn’t that Mel was a bad person, or Brax for that matter, but after Rich’s betrayal and the way I was treated at work, trusting someone felt a bit harder than before.

“What’s with the frown lines?”

“Is this real?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

“The diner? Yeah, and the food is amazing, too. Just wait until…” His words trailed off when I started to shake my head. “Okay, you’re going to have to elaborate.”

“Please, don’t take this the wrong way.”

“Well, that’s never good to hear from the woman you’re crushing on.”

The blush that warmed my cheeks couldn’t be helped even if I was in the middle of having doubts. “Rich lied.”

“Yeah, he’s a dick.”

I nodded. “He lied and then the people at work…” I paused for a moment as something sank in that I hadn’t really thought about before. “Cliff lied for him, too. Mel said she spoke to Cliff that night that Rich took off, that he was Rich’s alibi for who he’d been with. The thing is, I thought he was my friend. If not a friend, at least someone who respected me.”

“Not sure where you’re going with this.”

“It just feels like the betrayals keep stacking up. They are like being stabbed with a serrated blade instead of a smooth one. What Rich did might have left a cut, but it would have been a clean one. When I add in Cliff’s betrayal and possibly one of my few friends, Bridgette, as well…” I paused as a shiver ran down my spine. “Then the way people at work treated me. I was assaulted by a woman who had come on to Rich numerous times, even after she knew we were seeing one another. She assaulted me for doing something in ignorance that she would have done knowingly.”

Our food was delivered and halted the conversation until our server walked away. “I guess, I’m-”

“I see,” Brax put in before my rambling thoughts could go any further. “You’re worried that me being interested in you isn’t real and there’s some scheme to make you pay for hurting Mel.”

I nodded my head, but refused to apologize.

“Avi, if you had known about Rich and you were really that woman – the one who would knowingly carry on a relationship with a taken man – I wouldn’t have a second to spare for you. Revenge is stupid. How do you get revenge for lives that are ruined that way? Besides, in the big scheme of things, that woman wouldn’t even be the problem. Mel’s husband was the issue. He’s the one who stepped out of his marriage. He’s the one I wish horrible karma on, and even then, he’s not worth my time. Plus, there’s the fact that, no matter what, he’s still the father of Mel’s children. So, even though I’d like to kick him in the balls until the fucker can’t breed anymore, I can’t really do that because the kids would lose someone else in their life over his mistakes.”

“Okay-”

“I’m not done,” Brax cut in before I could question things. “The fact is, you are not that woman. The person I met, besides being physically stunning in every way…” He noticed as I slid my hand over my burgeoning baby bump and grinned down at my gesture. “Yes, even with your teeny bump, you’re hands down the most beautiful woman I’ve laid eyes on. It isn’t just the physical. You have this quiet calmness to you that I admire. Your strength in dealing with everything and not becoming a completely batshit crazy basket case, is also admirable. The kindness you offered Mel and her kids, your patience, and the way you handled Rich’s bullshit…” He shook his head and then aimed a brilliant smile my way. “This is real, Avi. We’re real. I’m not an idiot. I can almost understand why Rich was tempted with you. Almost. Mel’s a wonderful woman and he’s a lucky as fuck man to have the family he does. Undeserving, lucky fuck. While I can’t imagine having all he does and following temptation, it’s easy to see why.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I stuffed a French fry in my mouth and waited.

“I’m not stupid. I know what I have sitting in front of me and I’m willing to wait until you can catch up and let go of those insecurities that asshole left you with.”

“What do you have in front of you?” I asked hesitantly.

“My future.” He said it with such conviction that I believed him fully. Then, Brax winked and picked up his burger. As he stuffed his face, I started nibbling on my food and couldn’t help the way my own smile took over and wouldn’t let go.