Patrick

“It’s excellent,” he told her with a brief smile, noting how elegant and untouchable she looked in her dark green dress, the color of her eyes. She almost appeared as cold as the ice cream her family was famous for. He had kissed her only chastely on her pink lips, now turned red by the lipstick she had on, and he had not felt even the slightest stirrings of desire. His mind flashed back to the waitress at the club and he felt himself hardening as he remembered her legs wrapped around his waist and his hands gripping her hips with bruising force as he emptied himself inside her. Christ! He had the sudden urge to taste her again! He forced the image from his mind and concentrated on the elegant woman in front of him. The restaurant was exclusive, and he nodded to several business acquaintances across the room.

“Daddy wants me to go to Europe to oversee the store there for a month,” she said as she sipped her wine and looked at him pointedly.

“When?” he asked her, knowing that he was being backed into a corner and resenting it.

“Next month.” She shrugged elegant shoulders. “Paris is very nice in the summer. I hope we can go together.” The message was subtle but clear.

“We will see.”

“Oh.” She had a look of acute disappointment on her beautiful face.

“Look, Sophia, we both know what this is.” He pushed away his plate and leaned forward to look at her. “We are going to end up together sooner or later. I just want a little more time to enjoy my bachelor days.”

“Okay, darling, I can live with that,” she said with a wide smile.

Patrick looked at her broodingly, thinking that she was way too easy to please!

*****

“Honey, are you sure you are okay?” Claudia Maitland passed the chicken salad to her daughter as they sat outside beneath the huge apple tree in the yard. The summer sun had cooled down somewhat as it was a little after seven. She had gone on the morning shift at the club and had left there a little after three looking to see if Patrick was there, but she had not seen him. She had smiled humorlessly as she thought about putting a call through and saying, “Hi, this is the waitress you had s*x with one night when you took her home. I am now pregnant with your child.’

“Just a little tired, Mom,” she said, forcing a smile as she ate the salad. She had not been eating too well because everything came back up eventually. She had been to the clinic and it was confirmed. She was six weeks pregnant. She drank the water and prayed that it would settle her stomach.

“You are off tomorrow?”

“Yes. I intend to do some laundry and get some rest.”

“I have to go to the library to see about some books that were supposed to have come in since yesterday.” Her mother was head librarian at the local library and had been working there for the past thirty years. It was her first and only job, and Carrie envied her the stability. Her father had died while serving in the Army when Carrie was three years old, and she had lost their son, Carrie’s brother, after getting the news.

“Mom, you work too hard.”

“I love what I do, honey, so it is not work,” she chided gently, looking at her daughter closely. She knew something was not quite right about her, but she supposed Carrie would tell her when the time was right. She had hoped that her daughter would have stayed at the house with her, but she supposed that when children become adults they want to spread their wings. “I have started seeing someone,” she said casually as she sipped her lemonade.

“Mom, that’s great!” Carrie said with genuine happiness. Her mother had put aside her life to bring her up after her father had died and had told her that she was not ready for a relationship. “Who is the lucky fellow?”

“Donald from next door,” she said with a laugh.

“Imagine that,” Carrie said in wonder. Donald Baker had lost his wife ten years ago and had no children. She knew her mother often invited him over for dinner but never thought that a relationship had bloomed.

“We are taking it one step at a time. At our age, we are in no hurry.”

Carrie was as sick as a dog the minute she got home, and she sat on the cold bathroom tile after she had finished puking her guts out and cried, putting her head on her knees. She felt weak and tired and frustrated that she was going through this by herself and wondered where she had gone wrong! She sobbed as if her heart would break, and then with determined movements, she got to her feet and went into her tiny kitchen to make some tea.

*****

Sophia McBride stripped naked and stepped into the sudsy water and let it swirl around her soft white body until she was submerged. She was privileged and had always been. The only child of extremely wealthy parents, she was in the habit of getting whatever she wanted. She was spoiled and her parents, especially her father, granted even her most tiny wish. She had been after Patrick for the past three years, and it looked as if she was about to become Mrs. Copeland.

She sighed as she dipped into the water and came back up passing her hands over her wet hair. A knock sounded at the door of her large and elegant bathroom and she smiled in anticipation as the man came inside. His name was Duke Wells, and he was an employee at one of her parents’ stores. She had seen him one day when he had come to drop something off at her apartment and she had liked the way he looked.