Page 54 of The Baby Twist

“Doing what?”

“I just have plans. Do I question you when you say you have plans?”

“Are you coming back after your appointment?”

“Yes.”

“Come straight to my office.”

She didn’t respond. What plans would she have, and with whom? I was pissed off as it was that my father decided to come back to New York, and now I was even more pissed that she had turned me down for dinner tonight.

About thirty minutes later, Jenna walked into my office.

“You wanted to see me?”

I narrowed my eyes at her because I could tell she was in a mood.

“My father called earlier to let me know he’s coming back to New York and that he’s staying for a while.”

“Shit. Why is he doing that? And for how long?”

“I have no idea. Has he been in contact with you since he left?”

“No. I haven’t heard a word from him.”

“I guess we’ll have to see how things go when he gets here. That’s all. I’m sure you have work to catch up on since you were gone.”

“Yeah, I do.” She turned and headed towards the door. “By the way, my doctor’s appointment went fine, in case you’re wondering,” she spoke with a serious attitude.

“Jenna—”

She walked out and shut the door. Leaning back in my chair, I let out a sigh.

Jenna

“He wanted to go to ‘dinner,’ which also meant sex afterward. As much as I wanted sex, I wanted to record my podcast more. Plus, he pissed me off by not having time to go to my doctor’s appointment when I knew he didn’t have any meetings scheduled. His promise to be there for me had faltered. But when he said, ‘he’d always be there for me,’ what exactly did he mean? Perhaps it was my fault for not asking him to break that statement down detail by detail. Maybe doctor’s appointments weren’t included in the ‘I’ll always be there for you’ statement. But dammit, is it too much to ask to go to a damn appointment? He’d already missed the ultrasound appointment when he was finding himself in the world. These rollercoaster rides of emotions and hormones are exhausting. I’m a very strong and independent woman, but sometimes even the strongest have moments when they feel depleted, and that’s okay. It doesn’t make you weak or change who you are as a person. It only makes you human. We may think we’re alone in our pregnancy, but we’re really not. We have this beautiful baby growing inside that is with us 24/7. Talk to your baby. Tell him or her good morning when you wake up, and tell him or her goodnight before you go to sleep. But most importantly, have little chats throughout the day. So, you see, we’re not alone, and when we try to putour happiness into the hands of others either out of insecurity or fear, we are the only ones who suffer and fall victim to the pain when things don’t turn out exactly how we want them to or expect they would. It’s funny if you really think about it. The moment a woman decides to go through with an unplanned pregnancy, it gives the father a free pass to bolt. Remember, they aren’t men. They’re scared little boys who have to grow up first, regardless of age. One child to raise is enough. And as scary and tough as it sounds, remember, we women were made to do this, and we should feel honored and proud to have been given such a task.”

I stopped the recording and uploaded the file. I hadn’t checked my first podcast stats since the early afternoon before my doctor’s appointment, so I decided to check again before I shut my laptop down for the night. I had a total of two thousand fifty downloads and over a thousand comments.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Closing the door to the second bedroom where I had my podcast equipment set up, I looked out the peephole and saw it was Lucas.

“Hey.” I opened the door.

“Hey. Can we talk?”

“Sure. Come on in. Drink?” I asked him as I headed to the kitchen.

“Thanks, but no. I’m good.”

“Okay. What’s up?” I asked as I grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

“You seemed pissed off that I didn’t go to your doctor’s appointment with you.”

“To be honest, I was.”

“Why? Why would you be mad over something so insignificant as that? What would I being there with you accomplish when I could have been at the office doing more important things like work and making the company money.”

Oh, hell no. OH, HELL NO.I took a moment to calm down before I threw my water bottle at him.