Bear My Babies

Chapter 12

“I think we should use this picture because it shows off my good side, don’t you?” Hilary was talking to him, but he was only half listening. He looked up and nodded, the picture looked the exact same as one she’d already shown him. They’d met up for dinner after work and he’d been distracted the whole time. He told Janet to tell her he was busy, but Hilary ended up showing up at his office, making her impossible to get rid of. He had noticed that Hilary had been showing up more and more and it was starting to grate on his nerves.

He was thinking about Melissa and wondering what she was doing. They talked every day just like they had been, but he noticed that conversations were becoming more intimate as they talked about their future plans and past failures. She was the first person he wanted to ask when he needed advice, and the first person he wanted to tell good news to. She seemed to be on the same wavelength because she would randomly call him up just to tell him about something that happened with one of her patients throughout the day.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to focus on his relationship with Hilary, Melissa made it clear when he dropped her off after meeting his parents that a friendship was still all she was willing to give him. But even so, he couldn’t give his full focus to Hilary when he realized how much Melissa fit into his world. He couldn’t even bring himself to have s*x with Hilary. This was not like him at all and he had a feeling that it was all Melissa’s fault.

“You’ve barely touched your meal, Thomas,” Hilary said, knowing this was his favorite restaurant. “Is everything okay?”

He’d not told her about the baby. He felt that conversation would be better to have when the baby was confirmed. They weren’t exclusive, at least they’d not talked about being exclusive.

“No, everything is fine. I’m going to eat. I was just listening to you.” He smiled and started to cut into his chicken. Something caught his attention outside the window. A guy in a suit and sunglasses peering in at them. It was one of the guys who’d attacked him in the parking garage. He jumped up from the table and ran toward the front door. The guy didn’t run, but he started walking briskly down the sidewalk into a crowd of people. He took out his phone and snapped a picture of him.

“Stop, hey you, stop.” Thomas was yelling and running. The guy was getting further away somehow and then he lost him completely. It was like he just disappeared. Surely, he wasn’t losing his mind. He sent the picture to Blair and asked him if he was able to get anything from it. Blair texted right back saying he was on it. He went back into the restaurant and walked over to a pissed-off looking Hilary. She waited for an explanation.

“I’m sorry. A friend of mine had her office vandalized and I thought I recognized one of the people who did it outside. I lost him,” he said resuming cutting up his chicken.

“Oh that’s awful. I’m sorry you didn’t catch him.”

He was a little surprised by her understanding, but wasn’t going to question it. This was the first time Hilary allowed him to talk about himself. They finished up their meal and Hilary leaned back in her chair, sticking out her chest. He felt one of her feet traveling up his leg.

“So I think it’s been long enough and we should go to my place for a little dessert.” She made her voice low and husky.

There was no denying how sexy she was, but he was still holding back. He chalked it up to not being honest with her about making a baby. It had to be the reason he wasn’t all over her all the time as attracted to her as he was. His inner voice laughed at him. He flipped it off.

“I don’t know, Hilary,” he started to say, but she stood from her chair and leaned over so he could see down her shirt.

“Your loss, Thomas. There are many men who would be lucky to be in your position. I’m not about waiting.”

With that, she walked out of the restaurant and didn’t look back. He was shocked but not surprised that she was fed up with him. Relief flooded his veins. It was a cowardly way to get rid of a female, but at the moment he felt like he was granted a reprieve. He paid for their meal and went to take a walk. He’d go the long way back to his apartment so he could do some serious thinking.

As he walked, he wasn’t really paying attention to anything around him. His thoughts were once again on Melissa and the possibility that she was already pregnant. A thrill burst through him. The sidewalk wasn’t as crowded as it usually was and he wondered where all the New Yorkers were hiding. He turned down a side street and heard his phone beep. He hoped Blair had something for him. Stopping for just a moment to check it, he turned just in time to see a car speeding toward him. His phone clattered to the ground as he jumped out of the way just barely missing getting hit. He couldn’t shake the feeling someone was going to end up killing him before the day was over.

***

“What a day,” Melissa exhaled into her car as she finally parked in front of her apartment. A hot bath and her bed were calling to her. She leaned her head back on the headrest trying to get enough strength to walk the couple of yards to her apartment. She wondered if she was experiencing the first signs of pregnancy or if it was the shots she was injecting into herself.

The extra money in her bank account had just lifted a huge weight off her shoulders as she’d been able to pay some of her mother’s bills and pay her nurses for the coming months so she didn’t have to worry about somehow scraping it together.

Bruce came over the day before and injected her. He had acted distant when she told him they had started to try. At first she wasn’t sure why he couldn’t be happy for her until she realized that Bruce had feelings for her other than being her colleague. Her stomach felt icky as she explained to him that he was never going to be anything to her except a friend. He left dejectedly after she told him she would find someone else to assist her in the last portion of her research.

Melissa brushed away a lone tear that was tracking down her cheek. Bruce would have been the perfect guy for her, but her heart just wouldn’t let her have feelings for him. She knew she was making a mistake in letting him go, but buried deep within the corner of her heart she hoped that someday Thomas would realize what a good couple they would be.