Her Bundles Of Joy

Brandi widened her eyes at his words. “Evan, watch your words, man!”

“Oh, so you believe it, Brandi?” Evan said in a mocking tone. “Can’t you see she’s doing this because of my money? She wants to put her hands on my fortune, but I’ll have you know, Nicole, that that will never happen.”

Nicole, who couldn’t hold back the tears that were falling even if she tried, shook her head. She couldn’t believe Evan would accuse her of something like that.

“Why would I lie? I don’t need your money.”

“Of course you do. Living in that sh*t-hole, you barely have any money. It’s very convenient for you to get pregnant with my child, right?”

“Evan…”

“No, Brandi, I mean it.” The blond man looked at Nicole with a disgusted frown. The dancer doubted she’d ever forget that look. “If she was so eager to spread her legs for me, what stopped her from doing the same with God knows how many men?”

The next sound they heard was the echo of Nicole’s hand coming in contact with Evan’s face. She’d never slapped anyone, she’d never wanted to slap anyone, but now, God, now she wanted to kill this man with her bare hands. How dare he accuse her of being a sl*t?

“Fu*k you and your money, Evan. This child is yours and I will raise it without your help. He or she will never know their father, and I’ll make sure you never get to see my child in this lifetime. Even if you regret saying the things you’ve just said, I won’t forgive you for this. I hate you, Evan Campbell, and I hope I never have to see your face again.”

Nicole fled his apartment before any of them could stop her. Brandi was so shocked at what had happened right in front of her eyes that she couldn’t do anything. This was not the Evan she knew.

“What the fu*k?”

“Come on, Brandi, she’s probably not even pregnant. I’m sure she’s already try to pull this trick on other guys, but with me it won’t work.”

“Evan, she’s pregnant! How could you say that to her?”

“Are you seriously taking her side on this?”

“This isn’t about taking sides, dude! This is about the life of a human being that is growing inside that woman’s belly, a human being that you took part in the making of. You should’ve at least asked for a DNA test instead of flat out accusing Nicole, who’s been a dear friend of ours for months, of being a gold digger. You basically called her a sl*t, man. I’m so disappointed in you, Evan.”

Evan turned away from Brandi. Good, she wanted him to feel at least embarrassed by his own actions.

“She told me she wanted to get rid of it, you know? And I told her that maybe you’d want to keep the baby, so she’d better think things through. But then we come here and…you’re so dumb, Ev. You’re seriously going to regret what you did tonight. I can only hope that Nicole will find it in her heart to forgive you when that time comes.”

“No, Brandi, you’re going to regret believing in her.”

The singer shook her head. “I better go. Nicole needs a friend now more than ever. I seriously hope you’ll reconsider this.”

Evan watched in silence as Brandi left his apartment. He knew he’d been harsh on Nicole and had reacted badly to her news, but this wasn’t the first time a woman had showed up in his doorstep claiming to be expecting his child. He’d once fallen for this trick, but never again. And to think that he did at some point believe wholeheartedly that Nicole was someone he could trust. Fu*k, he’d opened up to her about something that he never told anyone, not even his cousin Isaac, who was his closest friend. Evan plopped down on the couch with a loud sigh as he recalled that evening he spent at the rooftop with Nicole, sharing a blanket and stories from their childhoods.

“It feels like I’m an orphan, really.”

They were sitting at the rooftop of his apartment building and Nicole had just finished telling Evan about her parents, and the rest of her family, disowning her for wanting to be independent, for wanting to be who she really was.

“I am an orphan, did you know?” Evan told her.

The dancer choked on the wine she’d just sipped. “Oh my God.” She coughed. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

Evan chuckled. “It’s okay. It’s been a while, so it’s not like it is still a touchy subject for me.”

“May I ask you what happened? I mean, with your parents.”

The blond man closed his eyes as the memories from that time came into mind, along with the pain he felt when his father and his mother died. A pain he’d been carrying inside his heart all these years.

“I happened when I was in my senior year. We were visiting my grandparents in Atlanta and on the way back home we were involved in an accident. Some drunk guy ran his truck into our car. My mom didn’t survive the crash, she died on the spot. My dad, he did survive. The car started to catch on fire, and I, well, I was hurt in the head, but I still managed to pull my parents out of the car before I passed out. I was in a coma for a few days. They took my dad to the hospital, he went into surgery, and he did make it. He even visited me after he’d recovered from the initial 24 hours. The doctors thought he was okay, but truth was that he was far from it. He had internal bleeding in his brain and he died before I woke up.”

“Evan…I’m so sorry.” Nicole felt like crying. Yes, her parents had abandoned her, but she could fly to Ohio and try to visit whenever she wanted. She wouldn’t be welcome, that’s for sure, but at least they were still alive. She couldn’t imagine how painful it must have been for Evan to lose both his parents at the same time.