Page 6 of Pucking Fate

“Yes, you. You broke her heart and knocked her up. You abandoned her when she needed you the most, just like our parents did.”

“I…I didn’t know that, about your parents. They really abandoned her?”

“They kicked her out of the house the day they found out she was pregnant. They told her they didn’t want anything to do with her or her bast…baby if she kept ‘living in sin.’ That’s when she moved in with me.”

“Living in sin?” I repeat in confusion.

“They wanted you two to get married. My father declared that Maya couldn’t step foot in his house again unless there was a ring on her finger.”

“Oh,” I mutter in understanding. “I would have married her.”

Preston chuckles as he gets to his feet as if to leave, so I do the same. “Yeah, I find that claim very hard to believe, and I’m sure Maya would too.”

“Find what hard to believe? I would’ve made her my wife. I would’ve done anything for her.” The fucking diamond ring I bought when I signed with the Bobcats is still shoved somewhere in the back of my junk drawer.

“Anything except stick around when she needed you,” he says. “And have you conveniently forgotten your reputation? Since you signed with the Bobcats, you’ve been nothing but a manwhore.”

“Because the only woman I’ve ever loved broke my heart!”

Preston turns back to me with his brow creased. “You were in love with Maya? Wait. She’s the one who ended it?”

“Yes! How did you not know that? Didn’t you ask her what the hell happened between us?”

“No. I assumed you ended things with her after you got what you wanted.”

Shaking my head, I tell him, “No! God, no. That’s not…we only had a few dates before we …before Maya told me she didn’t want anything to do with me. When she wanted to meet up a few weeks later, I thought it was because she had changed her mind. I had no idea she was going to tell me she was pregnant! If she didn’t want me, if she thought being with me was a mistake, then I-I just assumed she wouldn’t want to have my baby either.”

“Huh.”

Since Preston doesn’t sound like he believes me, I tell him, “That’s the truth. Ask Maya. She dumped me, then refused to respond to my calls, texts, or letters.” I withhold the part about her dumping me the morning after the first and only time wesort of had sex. That one terrible time, her first time, where I came faster than a speeding bullet, which was all it took to get her pregnant.

“Damn. If I had known that she dumped you, then I wouldn’t have hurt you as badly as I did every time I saw your face. I thought you broke her heart.”

“Well, now you know she broke mine. That is the truth.”

“Well, what’s done is done. Are you going to man up and try to be a father or keep sitting around here sulking in your own filth because you lost a couple of games?”

I had planned to sit around my apartment alone and sulk for at least a few more days or maybe weeks, but now….

“I’m going to D.C. Today. Right now,” I tell Preston.

“Whoa,” he says, holding up a palm. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. You should call Maya before you just show up on the doorstep.”

“I don’t even have her fucking phone number!” I say, frustrated with his wishy-washy advice.

“Fine, I’ll give you her number,” Preston says as he pulls out his phone from his back pocket. Retrieving my own device from the charger, where I’ve been content to let it sit untouched for days, I enter in the digits he calls out.

“Thank you. I’ll call her right now.”

“Good luck,” Preston says as he starts for the door. Over his shoulder as he opens it to show himself out, he says, “Don’t fuck this up.”

He’s gone before I can ask him for advice on not fucking it up. I guess he’s given me enough suggestions to get started.

The rest is going to be up to me to figure out.

3

Maya

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