Saving Her Billionaire

Chapter 11

It had been two weeks to the day that Phoebe and Nate had almost had s*x, and she was still not quite sure how she was going to deal with this. She decided that it would be best if she talked to Stephanie about it, because her best friend always had a way of making her feel like everything was going to be okay. She wasn’t as effective at this as Nate was but it was a lot better than nothing, so Phoebe decided that it would be best to get it all out.

“Stephanie,” she said, “can I talk to you?”

“Sure babe,” said Stephanie, looking up from the crossword puzzle she was doing. “What’s up? Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” said Phoebe, putting a self conscious hand on her stomach. “Everything’s okay, I just kind of needed to talk to you about something.”

“What did you need to talk to me about?” asked Stephanie, putting the newspaper away.

“I… well… Nate and I kind of almost had s*x,” said Phoebe.

“What?!” said Stephanie throwing her arms into the air. “When did this happen?”

“A couple of weeks ago,” said Phoebe. “That night you came home from work and he was in my room.”

“Oh my God,” said Stephanie, her hand going up to her mouth. “You two were doing something you shouldn’t have been! I thought it was suspicious that he was in your room with you but you guys didn’t look guilty or anything, and he looked liked he had been fully clothed the whole time. I was a little suspicious of your mismatched clothes but I figured that you two would look a lot more guilty if I had just walked in and you two had just been about to have s*x. You hid it so well!”

“Yeah,” said Phoebe. “But that’s not the point. Don’t you think that it was kind of wrong that we got intimate?”

“I definitely think it’s wrong,” said Stephanie. “Very, very wrong. I feel like you two put yourselves in a lot of emotional danger because your feelings about each other are not clear at all. It was a little irresponsible to be very honest, but I don’t know. I don’t think I can blame you. He’s the father of your child, you’re the mother of his. You two are connected in a way that, well… You can’t help but feel attracted to each other.”

“Is that all it was, though?” asked Phoebe. “Is that really all it was? Were we just attracted to each other in that moment because of the fact that we are having a child together? I don’t think I like the sound of that at all. I don’t think I would want someone to be attracted to me simply because I am bearing their child.”

“Phoebe,” said Stephanie, putting her hands on Phoebe’s shoulders. “Calm down. I don’t think you heard me. I didn’t say that was all there was. I didn’t say that at all. I just think that is a part of what the two of you are feeling. You two are very, very attracted to each other, exclusive of the fact that you are bearing his child, it’s just the animal attraction that comes with having a baby together kind of pushes the two of you over the edge. You probably start to feel like you can’t handle all of this attraction, and in the end you end up acting on it. No matter how hard you try, you end up acting on it. That’s what’s going on here. That’s why I think that it’s okay that the two of you almost ended up doing something. Well, maybe not okay per se, but it is definitely understandable, very, very understandable.”

“But what effect will this have?” asked Phoebe. “What would the impact of this be on our… relationship?”

“The impact will be serious, I can tell you that much,” said Stephanie. “I mean, he’s probably just as confused as you are right now, he has a lot to deal with too you know. You just need to realize that the two of you getting so intimate is going to change the way you look at each other. Do you feel like raising your baby with him?”

“I do,” said Phoebe. “I do, and it’s so weird because I had been so sure that I wanted to raise this baby on my own. I had been so sure that I wanted to do everything on my own that I had not even considered the possibility of having him in my life and my baby’s life. I just… I’m so tired of having my heart broken, Steph. I’m so tired of feeling like I need someone else in my life to feel a certain way. I’m done with putting myself out there like that, I don’t think I’ll be able to stand it anymore. I want to be able to do things on my own.”

“You need to be careful, then,” said Stephanie. “I agree with you completely. You’ve put yourself out there a lot of times, and pretty much every single time you have ended up getting your heart broken, getting your feelings hurt in some way or the other. Given your past experiences I don’t think it’s weird at all that you are feeling this way. I think it’s natural, it is your gut instinct and you should definitely go with it. Follow your instincts, Phoebe, that is my advice to you, and keep in mind that what this guy is feeling might not be real. I know that you are extremely attached to him. I know that he is attracted to you. I just don’t know how much of that is because of the fact that you are carrying his child and how much of that can be attributed to the fact that he is actually attracted to who you are as a person.”

Phoebe did not know what to say. If she was very honest with herself, she did not know how she felt. She did not know if what she was doing was right or wrong anymore. She had not felt that confidence ever since she had decided to keep the child that was in her belly right now. She did not feel it with anything anymore.

The thing was, Stephanie was right. Phoebe did, in fact, have very good instincts. However, for the first time in her life her instincts were failing her. For the first time in her life, her instincts were not telling her what to do, and this frightened her. She feared, more than anything else, the unknown. She feared the fact that anything might happen if she allowed herself to seriously consider the possibility that Nate might be a good partner for her, because that would mean that she would be liable to get her heart broken again.