Page 77 of Only for Tonight
“How long do you think it’s going to take?” I ask her, secretly hoping she says one day.
“I don’t know, a couple days…a week, max.”
“A week?” I hiss out. “Absolutely fucking not.” I shake my head. “You have three days or else I’m coming back to get you.”
“You don’t have time to come all the way back to New York to get me.”
“I’ll send my father with your father,” I warn her and she laughs. “It’s not going to be the same without you,” I admit to her. “Who’s going to hold your breast to make sure it doesn’t run away?” I joke with her as she laughs.
“I will keep an eye on them if they try to escape,” she assures me and gets on her tippy-toes. “Now, you have to go.”
I bend my head and kiss her for as long as I can before I let her go. “Hurry home to me,” I tell her as I walk toward the plane. “Get out of here.” I motion with my chin as she walks to the driver’s side of the car. “Text me when you get to your dad’s house.” I don’t say home because her home is now with me.
“I will,” she says, getting into the car and I watch her drive away before stepping into the plane. I sit down, looking out of the window as we take off.
Walking into the house is daunting and I feel like my left limb is missing. I see little things of hers all over the house and I smile when I think about her being here.
The next day the alarm wakes me up and I turn it off, seeing that she texted me two hours ago.
Aphrodite: Made it to New York. Text me when you get up. Good news, none of my breasts ran away.
I laugh as I text her back.
Me: Morning, baby, when are you coming home?
I toss the blankets off of me, getting up and going to the bathroom and then getting dressed to head out to practice. I see she hasn’t texted me back when I walk into the locker room. “Hey,” I say to Kirby who is beside me, sitting down drinking a pre-workout drink.
“Everything okay?” he asks me and I look around the locker room, seeing it’s just the two of us.
“Yeah, went to Dallas and had to tell my parents my girl is having my baby,” I admit to him and smile as his eyes go wide.
“Shut the fuck up, seriously?” he quizzes, his face beaming.
“She’s three months,” I say, hoping he hears the pride in my voice. “She’s packing up her stuff and moving to LA.”
“You look happy,” he notes and I get up.
“More than you know,” I tell him and he holds up his hand so I slap it and then snap it back. “More than you fucking know.”
“I’m going to hit up the bikes,” he tells me, walking away from me and heading to the gym.
For two hours we work out side by side before I head back to the locker room. Finding it empty since it’s a skating optional day, I grab my wallet and my keys and head out to my SUV when my phone rings.
I pick it up and see it’s an unknown caller. “Hello,” I answer, thinking it might be Candace calling me. I open the door and get inside.
“Is it true?” Tiffany wails into the phone, and I want to kick myself for even answering. I blocked her a couple of weeks ago and now she’s calling me from someone else’s phone.
“Is what true?” I look around, ready to strangle Kirby for telling Angela.
“Is she having your baby?” she asks me and I huff out. “This is bullshit, that was supposed to be me,” she whines and the blood drains from my body at her words.
“What the fuck are you saying?” I ask her, my hand holding the phone so tight I think it’ll shatter in my hand.
“What the fuck do you think I’m saying?” she snarls, her voice dripping with venom. “You were dragging your feet committing to me, so I took matters into my own hands.” I feel like I’m cut off at the knees. “The box of condoms you had in your side table.” My head spins the longer she talks, and then her words all start to make sense. “That was supposed to be my baby.”
The phone falls from my hand and the only thing I can think is how the fuck is this happening to me? I sit down, the bile creeping up my throat, the guilt hitting me. With one decision I changed not only my life but Ariella’s, and she had no control over it. “It’s because of me she’s pregnant.”
twenty-seven
