Page 49 of Dangers of Love

With that in mind, I headed out. I’d barely gone a block before I realized how absolutely stupid it was for me to go somewhere today. It was Christmas Eve, which meant all the last-minute shoppers were out and about. As I inched forward, I was glad that I’d done all my shopping online and had even paid extra for gift wrapping.

Yeah, that meant I hadn’t actually seen any of the presents I’d be giving out, so if someone fucked things up, it’d be as much of a surprise to me as it would be to the person opening it, but it definitely was worth the risk, especially since I’d had to arrange for Rome to take my gifts to San Ramon.

I had some ideas about what we could do today and tomorrow, but Aline and I hadn’t discussed it yet, so I’d decided to send my presents just in case she and I made other plans. Mom and Da might be disappointed if I missed my first Christmas back home, but once they heard about the engagement and the baby, I was pretty confident they’d understand.

The drive time to the office basically doubled, and by the time I parked, I was seriously regretting having left my place at all. Maybe if our offices hadn’t been so close to a couple shopping centers, it wouldn’t have been as bad, but I vowed that, next year, if Aline and I were in L.A. for Christmas, we’d have her family come to us so we weren’t dealing with this traffic with a baby in the car.

To my surprise, I wasn’t the only one here from the agency. Cain’s car was in its usual spot. The accountants in the building on the other side of the parking lot must’ve been here too because I saw the Firebird and the Ford Focus that two of them drove. I didn’t see them, so I assumed they were holed up in their offices.

Cain was stretched out on the couch in our small lobby, and he sat up when the door sensor dinged, alerting him to my arrival. When he saw it was me, he frowned. “What are you doing here? Is something wrong?”

I shook my head. “I just left my insurance paperwork here.”

He stood, following me to my office. “You came in on Christmas Eve to get insurance papers?”

I had to tell him anyway, and his question meant I didn’t need to try to find some awkward way to introduce my news into a conversation, so I went with it. “Yeah, I need to get Aline covered on my health insurance and listed as the beneficiary for my life insurance.” I picked up the papers and turned to face Cain. “She and I are engaged, and we’re having a baby.”

Cain stared at me without saying a word, like he was waiting for me to say I was joking.

I wasn’t, and I let the seriousness of the situation show in my voice. “She’ll be moving in with me, but I’m not sure exactly what day because we have to decide the best day for us to drive to Stanford and get her things, but we’ll plan it around when I’m scheduled to work.”

“Wow.” Cain shook his head. “Congratulations, man. That’s great.”

Even though he seemed to be sincere, I got the impression that he didn’t really think I’d made the best choices, but since he was at least trying, I wouldn’t call him on it. Sometimes, the best thing to do was just prove people wrong.

“Thanks.” I stuck the papers in a manila envelope. “Everything okay with you?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?” Cain sounded confused.

“Because it’s Christmas Eve, and you told all of us not to come in until the weekend, but you’re here.”

He shrugged and gave me a half-smile. “Not all of us have pretty fiancées waiting for us at home.”

It wasn’t until then that I realized I didn’t really know that much about Cain’s personal life, and I was suddenly tempted to ask him if he’d thought about getting back together with Freedom now that they’d reconnected. But that would’ve been a bad idea on a lot of fronts, the first of which was pissing off my boss, and the second was similar.

No way in hell did I want to piss off my future sister-in-law. Things between Aline and Freedom were tense, but I knew that shit happened all the time with siblings, and I wasn’t going to do anything that could keep the two of them from making up.

“Since youdohave a pretty…and pregnant…fiancée waiting,” he continued, “why don’t you get out of here and spend some time with her.”

“I’ll do that.” I walked toward the door, but something occurred to me before I reached it. “Hey, if you happen to talk to Freedom, don’t mention any of what I told you. Things are still…tense between the two of them, and Aline should decide when to tell her family.”

“Right.” He nodded. “I won’t say a word to anyone.”

“Thanks, man.” Since neither of us enjoyed unnecessary conversation without a purpose, I left, my mind already jumping ahead to what I could pick up for us to have for lunch.

That’s what I planned to do from here on out. Focus on the future.

Twenty-Eight

Aline

When I woke,it took me a few minutes to remember where I was, but the disorientation itself wasn’t a surprise. In fact, in the last couple months, the times Ihadknown where I was as soon as I woke up had been few and far between.

Whatwasnew, however, was the strange weight on my left hand. A weight that drew my attention to it only moments before I remembered what it was.

A ring.

An engagement ring.

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