It was definitely weird, thinking about all of this, and I didn’t think I’d ever be talking about baby stuff this close to graduating undergrad, but I was coming to enjoy it. I wanted to do some things still before the baby came—like getting married, the honeymoon, maybe even going to a party and dancing again, something simple so I could say that I hadn’t missed out on any college experience even though I had.
Melissa started talking about getting a job at a nonprofit as my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, trying to listen to the conversation, but when I saw the name and number on the screen, I froze.
Dad: Congrats, Mia.
I stared at my phone with wide eyes and furrowed brows.Why the hell is he texting me? He hasn’t wanted anything to do with me a few months ago when Mom was almost dying in the hospital. Why is he suddenly texting me now?
After glancing across the table at Mom, I slid the phone in her direction. “Why is he messaging me?” I asked, hoping she had a reason even though I knew that she hadn’t been in contact with Dad for years.
Mom read the message and rolled her eyes, pushing the phone back to me. “Because you’re successful. He knows that you did this all by yourself, and he wants a piece of the pie.” She frowned at me. “He’s your father, but he’s also a moocher. Don’t let him think he’s going to get anything out of you—not money or happiness.”
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek and looked over at Michael, who frowned down at the message. The phone lit up again, and another message from him appeared.
Dad: You should come over sometime.
Mom arched a brow at the phone. “Is that him again?” she asked. After I nodded, she rolled her eyes. “Let me take care of him for you. You don’t need the added stress of your father looking for more money to gamble away while you’re pregnant.”
But deep down, I knew that this wouldn’t be the last time I heard from him. Mom was right. He was a moocher, and he’d try to get anything that I had, just to gamble it all away.
CHAPTER3
MIA
The next week, in the grad lounge room—which seemed like everyone’s own personal hell—I sat at my desk with a highlighter in one hand and a bunch of papers scattered in front of me. The day was almost over, and there were only a few grad students left here.
I helped around Dr. Xiao’s cognitive lab sometimes, but most of my work so far had been research for my dissertation, which really meant sitting at a desk for hours, sorting through a bunch of research articles and daydreaming about Michael’s hand around my neck as he pounded into me from behind.
His fingers digging into my hips. His cock pumping in and out of me. His—
“Mia?” Cam whistled from across the nearly empty room and cracked a smirk when I looked up at him. “Daydreaming again?”
My cheeks flushed, and I shook my head, trying to get back into these documents before I had to leave because once I left for the night, I wouldn’t want to read any more about memory and cognition.
“No,” I said, hoping that my mouth hadn’t been hanging open as I thought about all the dirty things I’d make Michael do to me later. Because if Cam had seen that, I’d want to lock myself inside the house and refuse to ever come back here.
“Looks like you were,” he said, chuckling.
“Trying to get through these articles,” I said, hoping to steer this conversation elsewhere.
I glanced back down at the articles and blew out a deep breath. As much as I loved this stuff and wanted to learn more about it, some of these authors were so dry and boring.
Cam closed his laptop and walked over to me, placing one hand on the corner of my desk, the other on the back of my chair, leaning over to see the articles I had scattered all over my desk with sticky notes and highlighted pages. He snatched one from me. “First, don’t murder the page with all this highlighting. It hurtsmyeyes, just looking at it.”
I grabbed it from him. “But it’s important.”
He pointed to the bottom of the page, where I had highlighted a single word, and grinned. “Isseems very important,” he joked. “You wanna tell me what deep meaning hides behind that word?”
After playfully rolling my eyes, I pushed the paper into my backpack. “Okay, maybe I need a break. I can’t stand to stare at these articles anymore today.”
Dr. Xiao walked into the room with a stack of papers. “You two are still here?” she asked, brow raised. She looked down at her watch. “I expected you to be gone fifteen minutes ago. It’s already six forty-five.”
Shit. Michael was waiting for me.
I pushed my notebooks and folders into my backpack and pulled it onto my shoulders, walking to the door, where Cam was waiting for me.
“What’re you studying?” he asked as we walked down the halls to the exit.
I checked my phone, seeing Michael’s name, and sent him a text, saying that I’d be out in a second. After putting my phone back into my pocket, I stared at the dirty floor in front of me. “Memory and amnesia. I was originally going to study aneurysms, but that’s more neuroscience. Too much biology for my liking.”
