The Baby They Bonded Over

“Yo, I wasn’t even talking to you my man,” Paul pointed his finger in Jeremy’s face. “You not gonna keep trying to check me like you the big dog here. And I thought you said those lawyers were friends of yours?”

Nadia shrugged her shoulders, “It doesn’t even matter now. It’s not like you would’ve accepted their help if I told you who they worked for. We’re not together and all you need to see is that me and Jeremy are really together and there’s nothing you can do to change that.”

“I can’t believe you got me out here looking crazy, Paul. I’m sorry guys. It was nice meeting you, but I have to go,” Madilyn gathered her things and walked out of the restaurant. Paul glanced from Jeremy and Nadia, to Madilyn leaving. He finally decided to get up and chase after her.

“Fu*k this sh*t, man. Y’all have a good night. I’ll talk to you later Nadia. I think we got some unfinished business to discuss,” Paul pushed his way out of the restaurant leaving Jeremy and Nadia to stare at the two empty seats across from them.

“That went well,” Jeremy stated sarcastically. “I can’t believe you were in love with that guy.”

“In my defense, I believe I was in the love with the possibility of that man, not that jerk,” Nadia replied.

“Whatever, let’s go. I think we can stop with this charade now,” Jeremy sighed helping Nadia out of her seat.

“You heard what he said! Unfinished business to discuss? Really? You think we’re done?”

Jeremy shrugged wanting to believe that he could leave the situation alone but he promised Nadia he would see it through to the end. Especially after Paul’s behavior at dinner, he may just have to stay on board.

*****

Jeremy woke up the next morning with his phone ringing off the hook. He stared at the missed calls and voicemails wondering if he should even bother returning them. He called his receptionist to get the scoop on why he’s the most sought after man this morning.

“You know it’s Saturday right? I’m guessing you haven’t seen any of the papers or returned any of your calls?” the woman asked as she checked the time.

“Isn’t that obvious, Claudine? And I’m sorry about bothering you on your day off. Just give me the short end. What have I gotten myself into?” Jeremy grumbled as he rolled out of bed to get himself ready for the day. Claudine proceeded to tell him that the tabloids and two legitimate newspapers have snapshots of him at dinner from the previous night. The picture taken, showed his brief but very loud, argument with Paul. That was enough for Jeremy. He didn’t need her to go into the specifics from any of the articles. None of those reporters were at the dinner so any assumptions made on their behalf would be wrong. He didn’t see the sense in getting upset over lies. But, what he did see was the eight missed calls, and two voicemails from Sylvia.

Jeremy opted to call Sylvia on his way to the gym to avoid her yelling at him while he got himself showered and dressed. No sooner than she picked up the phone, she started firing off questions trying to figure out what happened. She had so many questions but Jeremy wasn’t ready to answer them. She managed to convince him to have dinner at her house, but he only agreed to get her off the phone.

Jeremy spent the rest of the day fielding questions, jokes, and rumors from his colleagues about the tabloid articles. Relief washed over him when he was finally able to shut his phone off, but anxiety crept up again once he pulled up to Sylvia’s house.

Jeremy was welcomed with open arms and the back of Sylvia’s hand upside his head.

“Ouch!” Jeremy screamed rubbing the tender spot she struck. “What the hell was that for?”

“That’s for going out with my sister and not telling me about it! Why were you two out with Paul anyway? Why were you arguing with him in that brand new restaurant? Why would you allow yourself to get sucked into whatever nonsense they got going on? You got so much going on. You need to be focusing on work!” Sylvia spewed as she made him a plate of food.

“Well thanks Mom! I had no idea I wasn’t allowed to eat with Nadia and Paul without your permission. This looks really good, Vee,” Jeremy smiled trying to deflect the conversation. “And how are you and Amy doing? When’s the wedding date?”

“Uggh, don’t get me started on that wedding sh*t! She’s been driving me crazy as it is,” Sylvia started ranting. Jeremy ate his meal in peace as he watched his friend rant and rave about the stresses of planning a wedding and a family with her lover. He thought his plan had succeeded.

“And don’t think for one moment that I don’t see what you’re doing here,” Sylvia managed to vent all of her frustrations out and return to the subject at hand. “You still haven’t told me why you were at dinner with Paul and Nadia!”

“Nadia’s been having some troubles with Paul following her and showing up everywhere she is. She needs me to pretend to be her boyfriend so he’ll back off,” Jeremy explained.

“So what was the argument about?”

“Well I’m sure you’ve had a conversation or two with the man during the time of their courtship…”

“Ha!” Sylvia scoffed. “Courtship my ass! That was a one night stand that lasted four years too long. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see that she trusts you enough to help her pull this scam off but from the sh*t I saw in the press today, you’re in too deep. She needs to get somebody else to be her lackey. You’re too important for her ridiculous games, Jeremy.”

“Listen to you!” Jeremy’s expression twisted in confusion. “Your sister came to me for help. She’s legitimately worried about this asshole and I’m the only guy who knows her well enough to pull this off. Now, I admit I thought the sh*t was crazy at first, but after that dinner with him, I can see we’re gonna need to take this thing deeper. Just support us to keep this lie going until Paul is out of the picture, for good! Do you think you can do that? If not for me then do it for your sister and her sanity. You know how much she hates asking for help, especially from me. She actually paid me for Paul using my lawyers. What kind of a friend pays a billionaire back? That’s how I know she needs me to do this for her. If she trusts me then you should too. I won’t let her get hurt. I won’t let Paul keep disrupting her life.”

“Fine,” Sylvia sighed. “I’m on board. You guys can count on me, but at the very least try to keep this stuff out of the papers. You don’t need any bad press.”

“Well listen to you sounding like you care about me,” Jeremy smirked.

Sylvia raised her hand like she was going to hit him again, but laughed instead. They finished eating and just before Jeremy decided to leave he chose to let Sylvia in on the rest of Nadia’s plan.

“So don’t get mad but there’s one other thing I wanna tell you about Nadia’s scheme. I rather you find out from me than in some newspaper or blog article,” he began.

“Sh*t,” Sylvia cursed. “I don’t think there’s anything other than you guys getting married that I would need to know.”

Jeremy shrunk away out of her hand’s volatile reach. “She wants me to get her pregnant.”

“WHAT?!”