Max stared ahead, his extra second of pause telling me there was more to the story than I was going to get.
“Wasn’t what I thought it would be.”
My chest pinched, and I rested my hand on my stomach. “I know how that feels.”
I heard the sharp pull of his breath, and I bit my cheek, annoyed at myself for saying too much. We were doing so well, not talking about Todd. About my runaway fiancé.About my disaster.
“Daze—”
“Did you just put it on the market?” I interrupted, wanting desperately to continue this conversation over the alternative.
“A few months back.”
Months?So right around the time he’d disappeared from my and Todd’s lives.Right after that birthday party.I tried not to think about the coincidence, but it was impossible.
I tried not to think how, even after all the time we’d spent together, even over the last two weeks, our conversations spanningalmostevery topic under the sun, it was things like this that made me feel like I didn’t know much about Max’s life at all.
Meanwhile, he knew everything from my favorite childhood books to my pregnancy cravings.
“I’m surprised there’s no interest in this market,” I said, a glutton for punishment as I tried to keep the conversation afloat.
Max grunted. “Aria thinks the price is too high, but I know what the property is worth, so I’ll wait it out.”
That sounded…exactly like Max.
Now, it was my turn to be distracted by my phone. Every time it buzzed, I expected it to be Todd, and at the same time, hoped it wasn’t. It was a strange and terrifying place to be. A limbo I’d lived in for two weeks. Two weeks of no contact. Not a call. Not a message. Not an Instagram post. Not even a carrier pigeon. And nothing to Max or his parents either.
Todd was just…gone.
Of course, part of me worried if he was actually okay, but even that started to wane. If something terrible had happened, we would’ve heard by now. Even the authorities weren’t inclined to spend resources looking for him, no matter what kind of political weight Mr. McCormick threw around. The last Max heard, the McCormicks had finally settled on hiring a private investigator to look for their son.
Whether they found him or he came back, I knew exactly what to expect when I saw Todd next. His usual childlikerepentant self, replete with apologies and gifts and begging forgiveness. To give me a thousand reasons—many of which blamed his parents—for how he acted. And I didn’t want to hear it.
No, I didn’t want to have to face the decision it came with: walk away because I deserved better, or stay because my daughter deserved to have her father? There was a middle path, but I imagined it was narrow to the point of invisible when squeezed by the expectations of Todd’s parents.
“Daze?”
I blinked, the number on the screen swimming into focus. It wasn’t Todd. It also wasn’t a call I wanted to answer right now.
“Who is it?”
“Not Todd.” I clicked to silence the call. They would leave a voicemail.
Max’s eyes narrowed. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Fine,” I said, irritation firing in an undeserved direction.It wasn’t Max’s fault I was dodging calls from my OB’s office.“Let’s finish up here. I don’t want to be late.”
While the womantook Max around her house, asking his opinion on how many and which bouquets she should order for her daughter’s baby shower, I stepped back outside. Fishing my phone from my pocket, I tapped to listen to the voicemail from earlier.
“Hello, this is Jackie from Portland Birthing Center. I’m just calling to confirm your appointment for tomorrow morningwith Dr. Barrett. Please note we do have a $150 late cancelation or no-show fee.”
Great.Not only could I not afford to go to my twenty-four-week check-up, but I couldn’t even afford the late fee they would charge me to cancel right now.
The urge to cry hit me like a freight train, and I quickly bit into my bottom lip to stifle it.Damn you, Todd.It was he—his parents—who’d insisted that I go to this fancy private birthing center. Private rooms. Water baths. A husband suite. A chef on staff.Translation: expensive.
It didn’t matter if I wanted the luxuries. I couldn’t afford them now.
I tapped on the number to call them back. Swallowing my pride was almost enough to make me want to gag, but I wasn’t just not going to show up.
