Book 3 [ The Untitled Series ]

Chapter Thirty-Five

Ashley

1 month later

I looked up from my phone just in time to see Alexus bouncing into the office, all smiles. " and to what do I owe this pleasure?" I asked. I was supposed to had been looking over budgeting but had spent most of the morning just searching the internet on my phone. Carmen was out with the flu so it had just been me running both clubs for the past week.

Needless to say, Alexus was a welcomed distraction from 'work'.

" sorry to barge in on you like this but Leon said that you wouldn't mind."

" I definitely don't. I'm sick of looking at numbers. Normally I would just have Carmen read them to me but she's sick, so..." I sighed. " anyway, what's up?"

" okay, so, I want to throw Tyrone a birthday party." She announced, coming further into the office. I motioned for her to grab Carmen's chair from behind her desk, and once she did, she dragged it over to me to sit. "This'll be his first birthday that we'll be an official couple. And I keep asking this nigga what he wants but he keeps ignoring the question so I'm going to do whatever I wanna do. So, I was wondering if there was some way I could rent the club out or something. I'm not sure how that works. It'll just be fifty or so people. Nothing big.

" we don't do full club rentals, just because I like to be open to the public every night . However, we do V.I.P. Rooms. Let me check the book." Grabbing the book of all past and upcoming VIP room rentals for the year, I flipped to the current month. " when's his birthday?

" Sunday."

I glanced up from the book. " it's Thursday."

She laughed, shaking her head. " don't judge me. There's just been a lot going on and I just haven't really had time to think about his party, let alone plan it. I have the indoor rock climbing scheduled for Saturday morning- so we can do that as a small group- and then I want the party to be Saturday night. This is a really, really special party." When she finished talking, I noticed she subconsciously cradled her flat stomach in her arms.

I could feel my heartbeat pick up. " no."

" no?"

" no." I repeated.

It took her a moment to catch my meaning, as she followed my line of sight down to her stomach. Her arms fell away hastily. " no!" She exclaimed loudly.

" no?" I asked.

" well, yes." She finally admitted. " but it's a secret and I want to announce it at the party, so please-"

I held my hand up to stop her. " your secret is safe with me."

I hadn't told her about my pregnancy or miscarriage- hell, I hadn't told anyone outside of Leon and Carmen- and I was obviously right to assume that Leon hadn't either. It was a sore topic already, and to see Alexus sitting in front of me, so happy to be carrying her own child was devastating. It wasn't devastating enough to send me into breakdown mode, but it definitely put a damper on my mood. I wanted to be happy for her, and i was deep down inside, but my mood must've been evident by the shifting look on my face.

" did I say something?"

" no, I'm just- I'm really happy for you. I know how exciting it is to be a new mother."

" thank you. I've been trying to get pregnant for what feels like forever but because of the birth control and - well- anyway." She shifted in her seat, probably finally recognizing that this topic wasn't one that I wanted to talk about at all. " the party."

" yeah, um, we are booked for the weekend but I'll just make a call and rearrange some things."

" are you sure? I don't want you to have to-"