Bad Baby

Bonus Chapter #1

"Please, Richard, don't ruin this evening for me," I sent a frown towards my husband, as we sat in the backseat of a black car on our way to an award ceremony.

He huffed, clearly frustrated since he'd rather be 'with his friends watching football' - which I was positive involved intimacy with other women - instead of being here to support me when I would receive the Oliva Espin Award for Social Justice Concerns in Feminist Psychology.

"I just don't understand why I had to come here, Isis. I'm not a fan of all this psychology bullshit," he shrugged, shooting me a small look. I took a deep breath to calm myself down, not wanting to let him ruin this important day for me.

"This is very important for me, you do understand that, right?" My voice was calm as I gave him a gentle smile, "I've worked hard for this-"

"I love you, Isis," I don't believe he did, "but this isn't important for me, I'm not into all of this".

I sighed, looking out onto the dim street from my window, "I wish you could support me, I've worked so hard for this. I'm sure you'd have more fun fucking one of the blondes you and your friends drool over, but I'm asking you to at least pretend for this one evening that you're happy with me".

I was sure he was gaping at me, shocked that I would bring up his unfaithfulness after all these years. We'd been together for four years, and half of them I was sure he'd been cheating on me. I had so much going on with work and the deteriorating health of my father, I didn't have time to even think about breaking up. Once he asked me to marry him, on my part it was more for economic stability and so on, not necessarily love.

"Excuse me? You're accusing me of cheating?" He let out an angry laugh, lowering his voice since our driver quickly and awkwardly glanced at us through his mirror, "I'm not a cheater-"

"Please don't lie to me, it's disrespectful," I shook my head, but before I could continue our driver pulled up in front of the venue and cleared his throat.

"We're here, Mrs Darling," he told me, giving me a kind look through the mirror.

"Thank you, James," I gave him a small smile. We got out of the car and, my arm hooked casually with my husband's, made our way inside where we were immediately greeted by the organisers and a few of my friends from work.

We were guided to our table at a grand hall with an elevated podium in the front. I thanked the universe as there were a few of my close colleagues sitting with us, so I wouldn't have to bear with Richard's belittling comments throughout tonight.

Chatting lightly with our friends, it was in no time that the lights began dimming and, after drinks were brought around, the organiser of this event walked up onto the podium.

She introduced herself and spoke a little bit about what this all was about. She then moved on to talk about the research I had done in the specific field of religion.

"In honour of her outstanding research within the Buddhist religion, we present Doctor Isis Darling with this years Oliva Espin Award for Social Justice Concerns in Feminist Psychology!"

I happened to glance down as I stood up, only to find Richard on his phone, texting. I ignored him, though, and smiled as I began making my way towards the podium in the midst of the applause resonating from all around the hall.

I hadn't dedicated my life to helping people in hopes of winning any types of accolodates, but still felt extremely honoured to have been recognised for the work I'd done starting from my doctoral program.

I gave a little speech, watching over the eyes focused on me from each table. Everyone's eyes were on me, yet my husband didn't seem to care the least bit about this. I then proceeded to present my work a little, explaining it briefly. After that, I thanked everyone who'd come to see me tonight, and returned to my table where Richard was still on his phone. People were still applauding, as other people at my table congratulated me.

After a few hours of small dinner, drinks and chatting, I decided it was time for us to start heading home. We weren't the only ones leaving at that time, and I had people to say bye to which seemed to make Richard even more frustrated.

"Thank you so much, Drew, I'll see you on Monday," I shook hands with one of my colleagues who'd just come to compliment my research. Richard was tapping his foot and huffing, like a little impatient child.

"Darling".

I had just been sending a smile to a good friend of mine who was heading towards me with her husband, before a familiar voice made me freeze. Hesitantly I turned around, my eyes landing on none other than Jacob within the crowd. He had grown, obviously, but it still took me aback a little.

A pitch black suit hugged his well-built body, and his hair was still styled back with the ends left curly. He even had a slight stubble.

"Jacob!" My smile widened, taking a few steps up to be able to hug him. His arms wrapped around my waist, holding me against his front and hugging me back.

"How are you?" I smiled as we pulled back, letting my eyes scan his facial features which had definitely changed since I last saw him years ago.

"I'm good," his voice had also grown deeper, "I've been following your work. Very impressive". A small grin tugged at the sides of his lips.

"Thank you," I glanced down at my feet quickly, knowing I couldn't spend much time talking to him because Richard was very adamant on leaving, "I didn't know you'd be here. It's been so long since we last saw..."

He shrugged, eyes still dark and intense, and watching me in a way that ignited feelings inside me that I hadn't felt in way too long. "I had to come, Isis. This is a huge thing for you, I needed to congratulate you," his smile was warm, causing me to forget all the other people in this hall.

"That's very kind of you, Jacob. Thank you," I gave him a small smile in return, as well as a small nod, "it would be nice to catch up more, I need to be going now-"

"Let's go for drinks," he spoke, cutting me off. There was that small glimmer in his eyes that I had fallen in love with when we'd been younger.

"My husband's waiting, I really do need to-" even if there was relatively nothing between Richard and me anymore, didn't mean that I would just jump into something with Jacob, whom I had broken up with during our last year of college for several reasons.

"I'm pretty sure he already left," he nodded discreetly for me to look back. I glanced over my shoulder, and indeed realised that he must've left since he was nowhere in the crowd. I frowned a little, really missing the supportive person he used to be.

"So, drinks?" Jacob gave me another one of his warm smiles, hand running through his hair. I sighed and let out a small laugh, "alright, sure. Let's go".

A/N: Please no hate, I know doctoral programs are normally completed way later than 30, but I want Isis to be 28 and Jacob to be 30 cos Idk lol my story my rules hihi!!<3 still I hope you enjoyed x

WILL BE CONTINUED