The Baby They Bonded Over

Chapter 7

Nadia woke from her sleep elated and ready to face the day. She was anxious to get back to work. Her nausea was gone; at least it was for now. She rubbed her belly and smiled realizing that there was a little life growing inside of her. The buzzing that came from her phone’s notifications drew her out of her maternal moment. She reached for the device on her nightstand. There were a few missed calls, some voicemails and a bunch of unanswered text messages. She dreaded opening any of them, but against her better judgment, she checked them all.

The first message was from her sister. Sylvia didn’t apologize but she was excited about the press conference and was asking if she saw it and how she was feeling. Nadia knew that apologizing wasn’t one of Sylvia’s strong suits, but the fact that she called her said that she was over their argument.

The next message wasn’t as sweet as she played it over and over again trying to figure out what the person was saying. It sounded like Paul but it was so broken up that she just deleted it and played the next one. Again, the message had an angry tone but this time it played nice and clear, “I can’t believe you let him get you pregnant! You know you fu*ked up! That’s supposed to be our baby! You told me you couldn’t even get pregnant! Fu*king bi*ch!”

Nadia erased the message and played the next one. It was Paul again cursing her out. She erased it before the entire message finished playing. The following three messages were from Paul. She deleted them all and then placed his number on her block list. She didn’t think to do it before. He sounded different. It wasn’t his typical arrogant, asshole, demeanor. Paul sounded angry, enraged. He sounded dangerous.

Nadia decided to lie low over the next few days until the attention from the press conference died down. Paul was continuing to call her but got frustrated when she refused to answer or return his messages. He started showing up at her house banging down the door. Nadia kept the volume of the television up so she wouldn’t hear him. She even got her neighbors to agree to call the police if he was out there for more than ten minutes. He was doing his best to get under her skin and it was starting to work.

Babes and Bosses was bustling early Wednesday morning when Paul showed up. He didn’t have Madilyn with him this time. He arrived with a purpose in mind. Paul stormed into the salon disregarding the business taking place there that morning. He stared at the women with a gleam of anger in his eyes. He waltzed into the backrooms disrupting the facials and beauty services taking place. It wasn’t until he walked into Megan’s office that he realized Nadia wasn’t there.

“Where is she?” Paul demanded.

Megan glared at him like he was crazy, ignored his question and returned to her phone call, “Excuse me one minute; there’s something in my office I need to take care of. Can I call you back?”

She turned back to Paul, “Are you out of your goddamn mind?! Why are you here now?”

“You heard me! Where is she?” Paul repeated his question.

“Where is whom?” Megan coyly replied.

“You know who the fu*k I’m talking about! I know you saw that sh*t! I need to know if it’s true! I need to see Nadia and I need to see her now!”

“Well why don’t you call her and arrange a meeting? I already told you and her that I don’t want y’all business up in my business,” she reminded him.

“I don’t care what you said,” Paul yelled.

“Clearly,” she snapped. “You need to keep your voice down. You’re lucky that I haven’t called the police on you yet. You’re about two pop up visits away from a restraining order!”

“Listen, I just need to see her! I don’t want to cause any problems here for you. I just know that this asshole is lying! How he gonna go on TV and tell the world he love her and they’re expecting a child when she told me she can’t even get pregnant?!”

“Paul you need to listen to yourself sometimes. You sound absolutely crazy. Who cares what she told you? The fact is that she is pregnant. She had been in here sick all last week, and been out the last couple of days. It don’t matter what you say to her. She ain’t feeling you no more. You need to go on with your snow bunny and live happily ever after, because that sh*t ain’t happening with Nadia! Now get the fu*k out of my salon!”

Megan stood up pointing him toward the door. Paul’s rage grew. He punched the door making a small dent, but it wasn’t hard enough to break the panel.

“Now I know you crazy!” Megan shouted. “That sh*t ain’t gonna get you what you want! And it damn sure ain’t gonna get you a meeting with Nadia!”

“Well you get me a meeting with her and I promise that I’ll never show up here again. Even if a woman I’m seeing needs me to be here, I’ll never step foot inside your salon. My drama will always be outside those doors. Just do me this one favor. Get her to meet with me and you’ll never see me again,” Paul proposed playing off Megan’s desire to have him get out of her space.

Megan nodded her head. When she called Nadia the phone rang and she sounded happy.

“I’m sorry to tell you this girl,” Megan began.

“Oh my God, you’re firing me aren’t you?” Nadia exclaimed.

“No, no, no! Of course not! You’re one of my best stylists, but Paul is here, like in my office punching walls here,” she told her.

Nadia rolled her eyes, “Well that doesn’t surprise me and it doesn’t make me want to come back to work any sooner.”

Megan sighed, “Well that brings me to my call. Paul is a bit upset about the press conference and I’m sure you’ve been ignoring his calls and texts. He keeps saying that he needs to meet up with you in person to make sure this pregnancy is real. But the catch is if you do meet with him, he’s given me his word that he’ll never set foot in this shop again. He won’t come in even if he has somebody in here getting work done.”