Accept My Baby

“That is why twenty per cent of my royalties goes to the widows and orphans of the New York fund,” she said in a soft voice. “I guess we all have to pitch in to help the society in one way or the other.”

Sienna rolled her eyes.

“How did you manage to turn my self-righteous speech into one that made me feel like a complete tool?”

“What? You guys don’t have a corporate social responsibility thing to give back to the community or something?” Amanda asked and Sienna shrugged.

“We do but most people do it because it is a company requirement. You are actually doing it because you want to…for you it is a personal conviction which is more than I can say for most people.”

“Oh, thanks,” Amanda said before she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “So, anyway back to the website. I have a twenty picture maximum and honestly I think I went overboard in Hong Kong.”

Sienna smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, no kidding,” she said as she looked at all two hundred photos on Amanda’s desktop.

“Problem is everything was so much fun in Hong Kong and…I really don’t know how to choose what is what right now.”

“Hhhmm,” Sienna started as she put her wine down on the counter. “Your whole idea is to take your subscribers on the ultimate journey with you, right? To make them feel the whole experience with you, right? Maybe that’s why you chose to be Gulliver brought to life.”

Amanda smiled.

“Yeah. That’s the whole idea.”

“So, why not pick your top twenty…like this one here,” Sienna said as she pointed to one of the photos where Amanda was posing next to the Big Buddha. “This one definitely looks promising and then pick out the not so obvious ones, the stuff that would not be easily noticed in a Google search. And then have a separate link for the additional photos. That would be more hits for your site so I guess that would be good news.”

“Yeah,” Amanda said nodding. “Wow, that is amazing insight…I can’t believe I have never thought of that before.”

Sienna shrugged and took a sip of her wine.

“Well, I have my moments.”

Amanda smiled and picked out her best photos before she uploaded the post that had been eating at her for most of the day. She set an upload for the rest of the photos before she turned to look at Sienna.

“That will take a while. So this is the perfect time to listen to what you have been up to lately,” she said as she began rummaging through the dish rack for a rice mold. “I mean, work can’t be the only thing that has you all hidden.”

Sienna smiled and she was just about to answer when Amanda heard the front door open and close.

“Saved by the bell,” she said in a soft voice.

“Technically, the doorbell didn’t really ring,” Amanda pointed out and Sienna shrugged.

“Still, you get what I mean.”

“Okay, now I am only more intrigued,” Amanda said.

Sienna smiled and Amanda began serving the food onto the three plates on the counter.

“Hey babe, would you mind if I just took a nap before dinner and…” Amanda heard Brett’s voice as he walked into the kitchen. His voice trailed off when he saw Sienna. “I’m sorry I didn’t know we had company.”

“Sienna swung by to drop off my casserole dish and I insisted on her joining us for dinner.” Amanda walked up to where Brett was and kissed him lightly. “Hard day at work?”

“Back breaking,” he said. He looked at Sienna for a second and smiled reluctantly. “Sienna…hi.”

Amanda thought he was acting a little strange.

“Hi, Brett,” Sienna said, smiling.

“Are you okay?” Amanda asked and he nodded.

“Yeah, I just need to freshen up,” he said and she gently patted his shoulder.

“You do that. I’ll have a glass of wine and some food waiting.” Amanda held his chin and turned his face to look into his eyes. “Hey, are you sure you are okay?” she asked and he nodded.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m just fine,” he said before he walked out of the kitchen.

“Did he look a little off to you?” Amanda asked when she walked back to the kitchen and Sienna shrugged.

“He did say he was tired,” she said as she pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“I guess.” Amanda walked back to the kitchen.

“This looks…incredible,” Sienna said smiling. “I cannot tell you the last time I had something that didn’t come out of a box.”

Amanda smiled.

“Well, I am happy to host you, Mrs. Sienna Phillips.”

*****

The next day was busier for Amanda than she had hoped. The Hong Kong piece had brought more hits to her site than ever before. It was even bigger than the African safari piece she had done and that took her two whole months, her busiest most engaging piece yet. She’d been contacted by two travel blogs and one of the world’s leading travel agencies, Travelocity, looking to partner with her on her site. She loved the sound of that.

Endorsements.

With all the meetings she had scheduled for that day, Amanda knew that she would not make her lunch date with Brett, something they had been talking about doing for the last week.

“I hate canceling babe, but this is a big deal,” she had said as the two went to bed that evening.

“You know you will have to make this up to me, right?” he asked and she nodded.

“Anything,” she said in a whisper. “Maybe we could go to that French place you like so much and then later come back here and…” she never got to finish her sentence before he was kissing her and his hands were all over her. Caressing and fondling.

“Let’s just stick to dinner tomorrow but I want my dessert right now,” he said in a whisper as he pushed the pajama shirt she was wearing upwards to expose her bre*sts.

Thanks to the active evening Brett had given her, she was a little groggy that morning but she somehow managed to power through her meetings and somehow, she was done with her meetings way earlier than she expected.

It was almost midday when she drove back to the house. She frowned when she saw Brett’s sedan in the driveway. She could not think of any reason why he would have been home at that time. And it was not like he had mentioned anything either. She opened the door and walked into the living room. She frowned when she saw a near empty bottle of wine and two glasses.

“Brett,” she said in a voice lower than she had expected it to be. She gasped silently when she saw a high heeled shoe at the bottom of the stairs. She looked up the stairs and for a moment, she wanted to scream. There were pieces of clothing, a sure proof that two people could not have waited long enough to undress each other.

Against her better judgment, she walked up the stairs and the closer she got to her bedroom, the clearer it all was. She could hear two people in what was unmistakably the tangles of passion. Her heart was racing as she walked up to the door that was not even closed. When she pushed it open, she regretted it almost immediately. She was looking at Brett and Sienna so caught up in their own passion that they didn’t even realize she was standing there. She wanted to look away but she couldn’t. She wanted to move, get away from there but she was somehow rooted to the spot.

“Fu*k you Brett,” she suddenly said before she ran down the stairs and back into her car. She knew that she should not have been driving but she could not stop. She didn’t want to stop. All she wanted to do was get away from everything. Get away from Brett. Get away from the lie that had been her reality for a long time.