A Love That's So Demanding

Momma's Baby, Papa's Maybe

Momma's Baby, Papa's Maybe

I rolled over in bed and was relieved when the room didn't spin as I stared up at the ceiling. I couldn’t believe how terrible I'd felt earlier and now I felt fine like nothing had ever been wrong in the first place. This has been going on for about two weeks now, usually Frank is still asleep so he doesn’t see me sick and Travis is almost never home to see me period. I looked around my room.

It was too late in the day for me to make it to work, but the last thing I needed after feeling this neglected by Travis is to be left alone in the house with Frank. I know he's been avoiding me and I know it's for the best. I've probably lost him as a friend forever because of what we did. I can’t seem to be near him without thinking about his hands on me or my hands on him. If he's not in here he's probably off somewhere trying to take care of me, though I didn’t even want to think about how good made me feel, which meant I should get out of here as soon as possible.

I got out of bed careful not to move too fast and grabbed a pair of jeans then headed to the bus stop. Denae was probably headed to her favorite lunch spot, we sometimes met there during the week for lunch and I needed girl talk.

I was surprised to see Denae standing at the bus stop with two carry-on bags sitting next to her on the ground. She was looking down so I couldn’t see her face and while this was a convenient surprise my stomach jumped because I knew something was wrong. She shouldn’t be at the bus stop this late in the day and she certainly shouldn’t be carrying luggage with her. I walked straight up to her.

“Hi,” I saw her tense up, but she didn’t look at me. So I still couldn’t see her face.

“I’m sorry for what I said that day. I don’t have any excuse. I was out of line. I should have kept my mouth shut.”

“Okay,” She said again not making eye contact with me. I tried not to be hurt that she had yet to look up. I knew I’d screwed up and had even admitted it. I’d hoped that and two months would smooth things over.

“Come on, I said I was sorry, Denae please look at me I really need to talk to someone.” I said desperately. When she still hesitated at raising her eyes I things were worse than I suspected and tried to brace myself for whatever it was. I failed and I gasped at what I saw. She wore a giant pair of sunglasses but I could still tell that her eye was swollen and purple. Her lip was busted and she had a large dark bruise on her cheek. Aside from her clothes she looked a wreck; it takes her to be all beat up but still look like she should be on a fashion show's runway somewhere.

“Apology accepted but…”

“What the hell? Are you okay?” This was the worse I’d ever seen her beaten. “Who did this?” she sighed loudly.

“Look, It’s not a good idea for us to stay here out in the open. Lets go get some coffee.” At the mention of coffee my stomach took a turn for the worse. “Are you okay, you just turned green.” she asked with concern heavy in her voice. Then it dawned on me what could be wrong. I started counting days and felt the blood drain from my face.

“I…I think I’m pregnant.” I saw her eyebrows shoot up in question.

"Look you go over to Gina’s and get us a table in the back away from the windows. I’ll be right there. You think you’ll be alright walking over there? You don’t look too hot.”

“I could ask you the same,” I said smartly.

“I don’t think we can snark our way out of this one Nonnie.” she said with a straight face. “Can you make it?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll take one of your bags.” She hesitated for a second then handed over one of her bags. I noticed it was the smaller of the two. I left her there and walked over to Gina’s. Gina’s Coffee Bean wasn’t a big chain, it was a mom and pop place that I got my coffee from some times. They had awesome pastries too. The motif was all warm browns and jewel tones.