Page 35 of My Hot Boss

Who was I kidding though? I didn't want things to end badly with us, so when he went in front of the judge and asked for five minutes to speak to his wife before the proceedings went on, the judge asked him a few questions and he gave the right answers, because he got the time that he requested. I'm not saying that it felt like the judge was taking his side, but maybe he was just taking the side of true love, because Derrick admitted to messing up, and he just wanted to try to save the marriage.

The judge made a comment about how he saw too many divorces in a day, and if he could stop one from happening, he wanted to give it a try. It didn't feel like I had much of a choice, though they did ask me as a secondary thought.

“Your honor, if you could just give us 10 minutes, that would be great.”

The judge turned to Derrick and asked him if he needed more time. “If I can get 10 minutes, then I will make it work.”

The judge checked the time and said that we would go for an early lunch. That was not what I wanted to hear at all. We were to reconvene in a couple of hours, and I knew subconsciously that I was never going to go back into that courtroom. At least not today. Derrick had that look in his eyes, the one that I couldn't stand to see, and as we started to walk out to the car, he asked me if I wanted to get some lunch.

I sighed. There was a lot to be said between us, but I think a lot of what communication was needed to come from us was not going to be verbal at all.

“Is that what you want to do? You want to go get something to eat?” I asked him, a little unsure.

I sighed and told him that he should follow me to my place. I didn't think he knew what to expect, but I did. I was already thinking about it, and as we got to the apartment that I was renting, Derrick asked me a question. “Did you finally start cooking?”

I insisted that it was not something that was probably ever going to happen. He looked at me strangely and then wondered aloud what we were doing here.

“There is something that I need to ask you.”

“Anything.”

“Tell me the truth, did you cheat on me?”

He parked and then met my gaze. “Never.” I believed him.

“Good,” I said simply. We went into my place together and I didn't know why, but all of my nervousness was gone. We weren't going back to the courthouse, ever. I knew that if he was given a chance to convince me, there was nothing I could do but be convinced.

Derrick was being nosy, looking around the place and trying to get a feel for it. When he turned back around, I was down to my skivvies just seconds away from taking off the rest. I just needed a sign that this was what he wanted. It was. Lust filled his eyes and made me shake all over. It wasn't really an answer, but it was a good enough answer for me.

“Are you going to make me wait this time?”

He disagreed, quickly moving toward me. “Never.”

45

Augustine

Six months later

It wasn’t at all how I had pictured my life going, but I guess I should have known that something was going to happen to change all of that. I just didn’t understand why it had to be this way. There was a part of me that hoped and wished that things were different. They weren’t.

Mom was there, family was all in tow, and it was a big day for all of us. I had finally found out that I was pregnant, something that I had said that I wasn’t looking to do, but that wasn’t true. I was looking to do just that. All I had to do was figure out how I was going to tell everyone. I didn’t want them to know what was going on, I wanted them to think that I had another announcement. Derrick didn’t even know what was going on, and I was thankful for that. I didn’t get what was going on with him lately, he was acting strange, so I hoped that a little bit of good news was going to put him in a better mood. I knew that it would make my mom happy. She had been asking for a grandchild for a while and now she was finally going to get it.

“Come on, Augustine, tell me what is going on.” Derrick wanted to know.

He didn’t want to know what was going on, he just didn’t want to be left out. It was funny because I thought that he would hate my family. They were big and loud, and I found myself having a hell of a time with them, but it wasn’t that way at all. He had lost his family when he was fairly young, so he was convinced that a large family was a good thing. I had always seen it as a curse and there was a part of me that still did. When I think of being pregnant, I think about what all that was going to do to my life. Derrick and I have a good life and a kid is going to change all of that.

Finally, everybody calmed down enough, and I was able to figure out how to say it. There wasn’t much that I had to say, just that I was pregnant, but it was funny to see what they wanted me to say. Guesses were being thrown out and it was so off. They wanted me to say that we were moving, going to pay for everyone to go on vacation, the answers that were thrown out were more than I could handle. I knew that there wasn’t anything else that I needed to say than that I was pregnant.

Derrick had this look of pure shock on his face, and he was looking toward the others, trying to see if they knew as well. They didn’t. He didn’t know, just like all the rest of them. I tried to make it so that everyone knew at once. I almost told Derrick several times, but I had tried my best to keep it together. I was worried about what he was going to say, and I was rather happy to see that he was happy.

“What do you think?’

He shrugged. “I think you are far better at keeping a secret than I am.”

I agreed. “You really are exceptionally bad at it.” He couldn’t hold one for longer than a month or two, considering that I knew he had tried. What I hadn’t figured out was why he was so bad at it. If he had good news, he would fall all over himself telling me about it.

It was the first time that he had smiled in about a month. Things at work were not going so well. I knew that he was trying to straighten things up with his business and that was not going as good as he wanted it to go. He was clearing house, getting rid of all the people that were part of the uprising. That’s what he saw it as. It was a mutiny on land, and he wasn’t going to ever be able to trust many of them again. That meant that he had to buy out many on his board and that was a problem. He had money and a lot of it, but the investors were going to be worth a lot. He knew that a lot of his income was going to go to that for the foreseeable future.

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