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As I walked to the door, I knew if I got the job, I could turn it down. I had to because I couldn’t travel for another six months nonstop.

“Thank you for joining us today, Mr. Williams. I’m Rhonda.” I held out a hand to shake, but she ignored it and turned without a word to start directing me. “First, we’ll need you down to your underwear. You can get undressed behind there.” She pointed to a curtained off area. “And when you’re ready, walk toward us at the table where we’ll give you further instructions.”

Stepping behind the curtain, I blew out my frustrations. Even though I didn’t want the job, I still needed to come off professional. And even though I needed a break, I did want more jobs in the future.

After an hour of doing seemingly everything but turning my eyelids inside out, the casting call was over. Once I was back in my clothes, I stepped out from behind the curtain to find Rhonda waiting for me. She held a clipboard with a single piece of paper attached to it in her hands.

“Mr. Williams, after looking through your portfolio and what we saw today, we would like for you to be the face of Igolide. I was told you wouldn’t be able to start working until December, so I’ve written in the dates of where we’d need you and when.”

I wanted to explode. Angie knew I was taking the entire month of December off and for her to assume I’d take a job that would require me to travel for the next six months proved how much she didn’t listen to me.

After only staring down at the paper, Rhonda smiled at me tightly before she took the clipboard back and wrote something down. “This is what we’re willing to pay you, and of course, we’ll also pay for all of your travel expenses.”

I stared down at the number and wasn’t sure if the figure I saw was in US dollars or the rand here in Cape Town. I had no idea the conversion, but it didn’t matter, for the sake of my sanity, I had to turn down the job. There would be bigger and better jobs on the horizon. I knew it.

“This is an amazing offer, and I want to thank you for your time, but unfortunately, I won’t be able to accept your job offer.”

Her eyes widened as if she expected me to sign a contract on the spot, and just as quickly, Rhonda schooled her features. “I’m sorry to hear that. Are you sure there’s nothing we can do to persuade you to change your mind? I’ll have to ask my supervisor, but I’m sure there’s a little wiggle room in the budget to offer you more.”

“I can assure you it’s not the money.”

Rhonda nodded, but I knew she couldn’t understand why I was turning down this amazing chance of a lifetime. “If we could rearrange the schedule for it to be more suitable for your needs, would that change your mind?”

“Perhaps, but I don’t want to put you out.”

“When would you be available?” she asked, hopeful.

“Mid-January?” Or never, I wanted to say.

“Let me see what we can do because Igolide wants to work with you. We think you’re perfect for the direction we want to go for the next year.”

I gave her a tight smile. “You have my contact information, right?”

“Yes, and you’ll be hearing from us very soon.”

Parker was in the chair where I had left him, asleep in what looked like an uncomfortable position. As I passed, I kicked at his shoe. It wouldn’t look good if they came out to call his name, and he was passed out in the hall. While Igolide said they’d work with me, I still wasn’t sure if I wanted the job. The next best person to get it would be Parker.

Parker jumped out of his seat and looked around until he spotted me by the elevator. With a chin nod, he sat back down and pulled out his phone.

Stepping onto the elevator, I knew I had my work cut out for me. As soon as Angie heard about me not accepting Igolide’s proposal, she would be hitting up my phone, and I’d never hear the end of it. In the end, Angie wasn’t the worst of my problems. Somehow, I had to find a way to get into contact with Lexie and convince her to listen to me.

19

Lexie

I chewedon my bottom lip as I sat on the crinkle paper lining the table in the doctor’s office. I swung my legs as I tried to work off some of the nervous energy of being here. I’d already put hand sanitizer on three times and would probably do it another half a dozen times before I left. I was determined not to catch anything else while I was here.

A knock resounded on the door, and my heart rate picked up with it. There was nothing worse than sitting in a thin gown while you froze your ass off and talked to someone you saw maybe once a year.

“Lexie?” Dr. Bloom smiled softly at me. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting for so long. When I was in here earlier, you mentioned that you didn’t know when your last period was, and you’ve been under a lot of stress. Since your periods have never been regular, I wanted to do a pregnancy test as a precaution.”

Why was she dragging this out? I just wanted her to get to it.

“Our test confirmed you are pregnant. I know…”

Dr. Bloom’s words faded as I tried to comprehend them. How was I pregnant? I obviously knew how, but the thought never crossed my mind that the reason I’d been throwing up was that I might be pregnant. Now I had to try and get a hold of Ryder to tell him the news. I didn’t expect anything from him now that he was with Lana, but he deserved to know he was going to be a father.

Holy shit! I was going to be a mother.