Carrying His Baby

Apparently not, she thought, as she checked her emails. There was no way she could miss the whole day.

But she did have a two-hour window around lunch time. Maybe she could make that count.

Hallie considered her wardrobe. She felt bloated, but she was going to try and see Aldous Banks, so she should probably dress well, she thought. She stood sideways and checked if she was showing, then told herself to stop being so utterly ridiculous.

Of course she wouldn’t be showing yet.

But she still decided to go with a wrap dress instead of one of her usual skirt and jacket combos. She didn’t feel confident enough to wear the usual.

So she pulled out a lovely wrap dress in fall colors that she knew looked lovely on her. At least, it did when she wasn’t swollen with child, she thought bitterly, despite the evidence of a perfectly flat tummy and barely noticeable bloating.

She was being irrational.

She didn’t give a bleeding fu*k if she was being irrational.

She wished she were bleeding like she was supposed to be.

“Hell with this,” muttered Hallie and got dressed. She pulled her hair back ruthlessly and tied it back. She got her makeup kit out and used some bronzer and blush because she thought she looked a bit hollowed out.

She probably didn’t look hollowed out.

Did pregnancy screw with your face, too? Why did nobody tell you about all this stuff? It was always about the glow and the happiness and all that, never about what the hell to do when you’ve no idea what you want to do.

That, she had to admit, was the real problem. She had no idea what she wanted to do. She felt a reluctance to get an abortion, but thought that might be her most practical option. She wasn’t even sure if the reluctance was because there was a part of her that wanted to have the baby, or because she felt like she shouldn’t feel like she didn’t want it.

She was thoroughly confused.

Surely it was only reasonable to expect the father of the child to give some input? It would still be her decision, of course. She would make that perfectly clear. But she did, also, think that Aldous deserved to know of this. If their positions were reversed, she would want to know. And Aldous Banks was nothing like her. He was a man who was used to being in control, and demanded perfection from everybody.

She didn’t think he would take kindly to anybody keeping anything like this from him, no matter how she felt about her right to do so. She had a feeling he would see it differently.

She had baited and challenged him. She knew that. She wouldn’t do differently. But she had known that there was a ruthless, compelling streak to him, even when she was naked under him. She didn’t want to cross him. Especially when she felt that doing so would be unfair and unkind.

That meant that she would have to shelve her pride and call the admin.

Fine, she thought, irritated. If that’s what she had to do, then that’s what she would do.

Nobody was ever going to say that she hadn’t made every effort to give him a chance to give his two cents’ worth.

Determined, she called his admin’s number.

“How may I help you?”

That wasn’t Layla, thought Hallie, a bit confused.

“Layla?”

“I’m sorry, Layla has taken a leave of absence. This is Mandy.”

“Well, hello, Mandy. I need to speak with Aldous Banks.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Well, no…”

“I’m afraid you need an appointment to speak with Mr. Banks.”

“Fine, then I would like an appointment for one today.”

She heard what sounded like a snort of derisive laughter.

“I’m sorry, but Mr. Banks’s schedule is full for today. Who is calling, please?”

“This is Hallie Holt. I catered an event for him.”

“We have no events scheduled to be catered.”

This Mandy sounded so haughty that Hallie wished she were standing right there so that she could punch Mandy’s lights out. She was probably one of those silly, underfed, willowy blonde models that Aldous seemed to favor so much. She could, thought Hallie, tie the silly girl up into a bloody knot and leave her tangled for the rest of her life.

Did pregnancy mood swings start so early, or was she just feeling particularly vicious that day? Hallie wasn’t so sure.

“May I help you with anything else?”

She sounded as if she was asking if she may escort her out to the trash or would she like to take herself out.

“No, thank you, you skinny bitch,” snapped Hallie and cut the call.

Well, she would just have to go there herself and demand to see him. It wasn’t like they could just throw her out.

Could they?

Well, she supposed she would find out. It wasn’t like Aldous lived in his offices. And she knew where his home was, but the security there was like Fort Knox. She didn’t want to get arrested. She thought that might actually be a distinct possibility if she went that way.

She would take her two hours in the middle of the day and go to his office. That was her plan. It was the best she had.

Hallie was uncharacteristically scatterbrained throughout the day. She kept wondering what would happen.

She needed to see Aldous. The more she thought about it, the more imperative it seemed. Finally, she took her two hours and left.

All the way to the office, she thought about the last time she’d gone there. She had been dressed perfectly, full of confidence and determination to make her point and defend her colleagues.

At the moment, she wasn’t dressed so sharply. She was wearing plain black trousers and a white shirt. She looked professional, she supposed, but her makeup wasn’t done meticulously. Her hair was feeling just a bit rebellious, too.

Just typical, thought Hallie. Just when she would’ve liked to be perfectly poised, she looked like a hot mess.

Ah well. She had to deal with it.

Trying to put confidence into her stride, she walked into the building. She walked to the elevator that led exclusively to Aldous Banks’s office.

She hadn’t noticed last time just how meticulously planned security was. She had just glided right through.

This time, she was stopped at the elevator.

“I’m sorry, miss, but you haven’t been cleared to go up to that floor.”

She was nonplussed.

“Well, I need to meet Aldous Banks,” she told the young man in a suit who had seemed so unobtrusive a few moments ago.

“Do you have an appointment that we might have missed?”

He was perfectly courteous, but he was also obviously all business.

“Ah, no, but he knows me. I’m sure if you could tell him that I’m here, he’d ask you to let me right up.”

“Hold on a second, miss. What’s your name? We’ll check.”

“Hallie Holt. We catered an event for him a few weeks ago.”

“Just a moment, Miss Holt,” said the young man who seemed to have gotten bulkier in the course of their conversation, and moved away, speaking into his earpiece.

Maybe she should’ve taken the elevator to another floor and sneaked her way onto Aldous’s floor. He should have stairs, too, right? That was building code, you had to have a fire escape, at the very least. So she should’ve done that, instead of trying to make her way directly.

She had thought that she would only have trouble once she got to his floor. She hadn’t thought getting there would be a problem.

She cursed her lack of observational skills. If she had been a jewel thief or a spy, she would’ve known all of this.

Well, she was a caterer, and she hadn’t.