Shattered - Sequel to Broken

Chapter 23

"I can't believe you guys already found a house!" Jen said, the next day over the phone. "That was super fast."
"He has been looking since he found out I was pregnant," I told her. "I just hope they accept the offer."
"I'm sure they will," she said. "When do you find out?"
"They have until Thursday to let us know," I replied.
"Ugh," she groaned.
"Right?" I laughed. "I hate waiting!"
"You just gotta keep yourself busy. Have you heard anything about a job yet?"
"No," I sighed. "That's driving me insane too. If it takes any longer to find something I'm probably going to have to wait until after the baby is born."
"Damn," she commiserated.
"You need to get your ass here," I whined. "Then at least I would have someone to hang out with besides Taylor."
"Uh oh," she remarked. "Trouble in paradise?"
"No," I rolled my eyes. "We're getting along fine I guess. He's just on this overprotective kick. He's read probably every pregnancy book under the sun so he thinks he's an expert. It's become super annoying so I've been trying to avoid him. Thank god they're at the studio today."
"Ugh, have you talked to him about it?"
"No," I said. "Everytime I try to something interrupts me and it doesn't happen which is almost more annoying than Taylor's hyper protectiveness."
She laughed, "Well what about Nikki?"
"She's in Florida, one of her uncles or something is in the hospital."
"Oh," she replied. "Well I'll be there in two weeks."
"Ughhhh," I groaned. "That's too long! Why must you people make me wait all my life?!"
She laughed, "Because it's fun watching you squirm."
"Bitch," I teased.
"Slut," she retorted, playing along to one of our favorite games.
"Listen here, hooker, don't make me fly back to New York just to kick your ass. I've got mad ninja skills."
She laughed, "Do they make maternity ninja suits?"
"Ha ha," I replied sarcastically. "It's all your fault I'm pregnant anyway."
"Excuse me?" She laughed.
"It was your big, beautiful wedding that got me into this mess."
"If we're gonna get technical," she pointed out. "If you had never introduced me to Zac, there never would've been a wedding."
"Damn," I sighed jokingly. "Now who am I supposed to blame?"
"Taylor," she replied. "And his ridiculously good hair."
"He does have nice hair," I agreed. "Fucking Taylor."
She laughed.
"What'd I do now?" I heard Taylor's voice from behind me.
"Uh oh," I said into the phone. "Busted."
Jen laughed, "Uh oh. I better let you go before your dad gets pissed and grounds you."
I was laughing so hard I could barely get out a goodbye to her. When I tapped the end call button on the screen I looked up at Taylor. He was standing there his arms crossed, looking unamused, which only made me laugh harder.
"What is so funny?" he asked.
I finally caught my breath enough to answer him, "Just an inside joke between Jen and I."
"You can't tell me?" he pretended to be hurt.
"No, sorry," I said wiping the tears from my eyes. "You wouldn't understand."
"So you're not pissed at me?" He looked so confused.
I stifled a laugh, knowing it would send me into another fit if I released it, then shook my head. "No, not yet anyway."
"Well I guess that's a relief," he relaxed. "For now anyway."
"I wasn't expecting you home for another couple of hours?" I changed the subject walking towards the kitchen to look for something to eat.
"Nikki's uncle passed," he said solemnly. "So Ike cut it short so he could fly out to Florida to be with her."
"Oh that's terrible," I said softly, looking up from the refrigerator that I had been scouring for food. "We should send flowers or something."
He nodded, "I'll get the information from Ike when I talk to him later, then you can go pick out something to send from us tomorrow."
There was a bit of an awkward silence after that, neither of us knowing what to say, both of us seemingly feeling like it would be disrespectful to change the subject.
"We have no food," I finally said, chewing nervously on my lip.
"Do you want to go out to dinner?" he asked.
"Are you asking me on a date, Mr. Hanson?" I teased trying to lighten the mood a little.
He smiled, "I believe I am, Ms. Lincoln."
"Well then, good sir, I'd be very much obliged to have dinner with you," I responded, faking a southern belle accent.
He chuckled and rolled his eyes playfully, "Dork."
I grinned and went to get ready.

"So you're probably going to think this is corny," he said as we got in the car. "But I called the restaurant where we had our first real date and reserved the same table."
"They're still open?" I asked.
"Yeah," he chuckled. "Apparently, our little tabloid experience put them on the map."
"Oh brother," I groaned. "Well at least someone benefited from that ordeal."
"So you don't think it's corny?"
I smiled, "Only a little bit, but mostly it's kind of sweet."
He reached over and squeezed my hand, but didn't say anything.
The owners of the restaurant were happy to accommodate us with anything we needed. They even sent over a bottle of champagne to the table, which Taylor promptly returned and asked for some juice instead, explaining that I was pregnant. He felt it better to leave out the fact that he was recovering from a drinking problem.
When they tried to give us our meal for free Taylor politely refused, but they insisted. They showed us where they had framed the picture from the tabloid all those years ago, next to a copy of their first review, and then asked if they could get another picture of us for their wall. Taylor laughed off the whole thing, but I was just embarrassed by it. I knew that I must've looked dreadful in the picture since I was sure my cheeks were bright red.

"I hate attention like that," I said as we got back in the car. "I don't know how you deal with it."
He shrugged, "I'm used to it by now. It used to make me a little uncomfortable but it's part of what I do. And you dealt with it pretty well."
"That was so embarrassing," I said. "Nothing like exploiting a really vulnerable time in my life."
"I didn't even think about that," he replied, his cheeks reddening. "I'm sorry, Melia. I shouldn't have went along with it. I probably shouldn't have brought you here. I just really wanted us to have a good time and I thought with it being where we had our first real date it would be. I didn't think."
"It's not your fault, Tay," I said softly. "I did have a good time tonight. And it was really sweet that you wanted to bring us back to where we had our first date."
He nodded but didn't say anything.