Michael scowls. “Thanks. Am I letting you into my house at the crack of dawn just to insult me?”
“No. I have a problem I need handled.”
“What kind of problem?”
“A big one.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Aricia
I’ve sat at my desk five days this week trying to draft up a legal agreement between me and Peter. I’m struggling to write something a first-year law associate could do with her eyes closed, that I can’t get done at all. My head aches from staring at the blank page and I might have to admit that Ican’tdo this.
I can’t write a cold contract for Peter to sign – and I don’t know why.
Rana enters my office at exactly the wrong time.
“Uh oh,” she says as she stumbles in with my coffee and sees my face. "Something's wrong.” Rana sets the coffee down on my desk and immediately pulls out her chair. I can see she already drank half of her own cold brew.
Not a good sign when someone sees your face and immediately assumes that something’s wrong. I roll my chair away from my computer screen and sigh.
“I’m fine.” My tone is entirely unconvincing.
“Uh… no you’re not. I’m late with the coffee by twenty-five minutes.”
I glance over at the clock. Rana and I have a coffee ritual that brings me a sense of comfort and stability like none other. It’s more than just the caffeine addiction, which normally would have kicked in by now with a reminder that my coffee islate.Instead, I have to look at the clock to see that Rana is fully correct.
“Rana. What is it y’all kids say? I’m cooked?”
Rana snickers, but then quickly stifles her laugh. “I’m notthatyoung.”
Maybe I just need coffee. I start drinking the warm hazelnut latte Rana brought for me today. She got this drink from a local coffee shop and thank goodness, it’s still hot. I can’t bear to look at my screen.
“I can’t write this agreement for Peter.”
“Uh… what do you mean can’t? You’re a lawyer.”
“Iknow that.I mean… I can’t. My body won’t let me write it.”
Rana smirks with delight. “Maybe because you don’t want to write it.”
“Of course I want to write this. Peter and I can’t have a baby together.”
“Why not?”
“Because that’s not how it happens. That’s not how this works.”
“But Aricia, going the traditional path didn’t work either! Honestly, I’m invested in how this plays out.” Rana takes a big sip of her drink. I know she’s trying to be helpful here, but… I don’t know. She has that youthful optimism that I honestly only ever feel now when I’m with Peter. She might have a point.
“What do I do then?”
“I don’t know. Have you and Peter talked about this stuff?”
Talked? Yes. But then that talking quickly devolves into something else, like it usually does. Peter also said that he loved me, which I haven’t thought about because I don’t know what I’ve done for him to love me. And just the way I’m thinking makes me wonder if I’m not even healed enough to be in this situation.
Healed or not, I’m still pregnant, but I can handle that without Peter. And I can fix myself rather than putting that all on him.
“Peter says he loves me now, which I don’t even understand. How can he love me, Rana? And what about the baby? A legal agreement will make everythingcertainbetween the two of us.”
