My hand glided over the pristine marble countertop in the cottage my parents were about to purchase for me. I looked around the open layout kitchen and placed my other hand over my stomach. I wasn’t showing, having only found out I was pregnant two months ago, but I knew there was something growing in there and so did my parents.
Hence, them buying me a house.
When I came home from my twenty-first birthday weekend with a broken heart, I hadn’t expected to be in the bathroom throwing up weeks later. Fast forward to now and my mom wouldn’t let me out of her sight unless she knew I had vitamins on me and a trash bag, just in case I got sick. My father, on the other hand, was the epitome of disappointment when he looked at me. The buying me a house was his idea, definitely not my mother’s.
“Where is he?” My mother tapped her dainty foot on the hardwood floor as she checked her Rolex. My mother, being the senator’s wife, always looked photo ready. She was clad in a white skintight dress and matching white leather pumps. Her hair was curled perfectly that framed her face so no photo could be a bad photo.
I looked down at myself, seeing the complete opposite of her. I was dressed in a pair of black leggings and an oversized shirt that hung off my shoulder with my hair in a messy bun on top of my head.
“The realtor said he was sending someone else this afternoon, since he had a last-minute showing across town.” My father didn’t even look up from his phone as he answered my mother. His phone chimed and he stepped outside to the back patio, taking the call, leaving my mother and me in complete silence.
I moved from the kitchen to the front living room, admiring just how quaint the small cottage was. It was located on the coast of Savannah, at least a mile away from my soon-to be-nearest neighbor. I didn’t mind the seclusion, but I knew it was purposeful on my father’s part. He had an image to uphold and needed to hide me out until he could think up why his daughter was pregnant out of wedlock.
When he started questioning me a month ago about who the father was, I lied and said I didn’t know. That I had gotten drunk in South Carolina, wound up in someone’s bed, and snuck out before I got a look at them. I knew my father well enough to know if he found out who the father of my child was, he would find him and make him come to Georgia, and that’s not how I wanted Drew to end up back in my life.
Considering it was only me, Celeste, and Monica, who knew about Drew that weekend, I didn’t expect the lie to catch up with me. And it still hadn’t. But that story seemed to push my father over the edge. The fact that to him I got drunk and slept with some random guy, was the most irresponsible thing I could have ever done and. Add on the fact that I was also pregnant and I swear I thought my father was going to have a heart attack in the living room that night.
“I know it’s far away from the house, but are you sure you’re going to be okay out here by yourself?” My mother came up behind me now with her focus on her phone, even though she had asked me a question. She might have become a helicopter mom these last few months, but it didn’t mean she didn’t revert back into her ways of ignoring me.
Sometimes I felt with my parents, it was easier to just pretend I wasn’t there, than to acknowledge me. I was years younger than my brother and was what my parents called a wild child. I went traveling with my best friends instead of going to college and put more time into my artwork than learning the politics my father wanted my brother and me to follow in.
“I’ll be fine. The girls will probably come out often, since this place has three rooms.” My mother nodded aimlessly as she clicked away on her phone and I walked back to the kitchen to see my father still on the back patio.
I leaned back on the counter and looked around again, picturing how my life would look like in the walls of this house. How would I decorate it? Maybe put my own paintings on the walls and have my child's hung next to them. I placed my hand on my stomach again and sighed as I thought about how in just six months my whole life was going to change. It wasn’t the thought of having a child that scared me, but the unknown of what I needed and how I was going to be able to provide for them.
I didn’t have a steady job, and mostly showed my artwork around Georgia and sold some pieces here and there. But I knew I was going to need to do something in order to be able to give my child the life they deserved.
“Thank goodness you’re here.” My mother’s voice carried across the house as I heard the front door open and close.
“I’m sorry I’m late. There was more traffic than I expected.” I listened to the voice that came with the apology and thought maybe I was hearing things. That it couldn’t be his voice. Drew couldn’t be here in Georgia.
I shook my head and placed my hand back on my stomach, knowing it was just my head playing tricks on me. Because even though I had left Drew months ago, standing on the steps of the bed-and-breakfast in Myrtle Beach, I still thought about him every day. I’d tried to convince myself that he meant nothing, but in the end, my heart won because it had done something treacherous in the two days I had known Drew.
It had fallen in love with him.
“My husband and I have someplace to be on short notice. Do you have the paperwork?”
My mother walked into the kitchen first and then my father came in from the back patio, both of their phones forgotten, and I was the center of what they were focused on again.
“Again, ma’am, I’m sorry for the tardiness.”
When those words hit my ears, I thought again how familiar they were and I knew why the instant the man walked into the kitchen.
Because where I thought my head was playing tricks on me, it wasn’t. Because Drew was actually here, standing before me, holding a packet of papers. His eyes didn’t move to me immediately as I stared at him, mouth gaped slightly in the disbelief in what my eyes were seeing.
“What all do we need to sign, young man?”
Drew handed my father the packet of papers and that’s when his gaze met mine. He threw me a quick wink and went back to focusing on my parents. I shook my head and stood up straight because I knew what that wink meant. It meant that Drew knew I was going to be here and that he was here for a purpose.
My parents went through the contract for the sell of the house and signed where needed. Drew stood between me and them, with his back facing toward me, paying me no attention now. It wasn’t until it was my turn to sign that Drew took the papers in hand and walked them over to me. He held them out to me, looking me straight in the eyes.
“Hurry up, Tabitha, we’ve got a function to go to.” My father’s voice broke the silence that had been covering the house. I grabbed for the papers Drew was holding and flipped through, signing my name under the owner of the house. My parents might have been buying it, but they didn’t want it in their name, in case someone found out about the purchase and started to ask questions. It made more sense for me to have a house to myself, since I had just turned twenty-one and was now blossoming into my grown-up life. At least, that’s how my father’s thoughts worked when he came up with the idea.
Once the last line was signed, I handed Drew the paperwork back. He reviewed it and smiled after flipping to the last page.
“The house is all yours.” He pulled a set of keys out of his back pocket and handed them to me as my parents made their way to the front door. They weren’t even going to wait another moment before they left for wherever they needed to be.
“I’m coming behind you!”
