“See, you have nothing to be afraid of.”
“But the moment I put the reality on everything, it ...changes.”
“Does it really?It’s still Big Dick’s baby, and if you were going to have anyone’s baby, whose would you want it to be?That guy Andrew you were seeing?”
“No, absolutely not.”
“Anyone else in town?”Hailey asked.
Larissa shook her head.“No.”
“So, you’re having the baby of a man you wanted,” Hailey said.“I’m not saying it’s not ideal with the way everything is.It’s not perfect, that I grant you.But it’s better than nothing, right?”
Larissa opened her mouth and closed it.“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“I am right.”
Larissa smiled and put her hand on her stomach.“I’m going to have a baby.”
“Damn right you are, and you’re going to love it as well.”
They started to laugh, stopped putting makeup on, and ate some more pizza.It tasted so good.Better than good.
They started talking about their lives.Larissa asked her about her family, and she learned Hailey had to deal with a lot of rejection.Even when she had gotten shot, her family hadn’t come to visit her in the hospital.They considered it a huge disappointment that she would even open a beauty shop and offer to use her skills on others.
“What about you?You were not always working for Ava, were you?Weren’t you a cleaner?”
“Yeah, Smokey gave me a job working at the clubhouse, cleaning.I had to work every day, because they made a lot of messes.Before that, I worked at the local library.”
“You did?”
“Yep, but that changed.”
“Okay, there is a story there, right?”Hailey asked.
Larissa smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.“I did love my job there.Not as much as I love baking and working for Ava, but I do love books.What I didn’t want to do was sleep with the man running the place, to keep my job.”
“What?”
“Yep.Funds to the library had been reduced and Mr.Wilcox told me the job would be mine, all I had to do was have sex with him, until he got bored.”Larissa shook her head.“I said my work ethic should be enough.Guess what, I got fired the following day, and I’m guessing the one that did sleep with him got the job.”
“Wow,” Hailey said.“You really do have an eventful life, don’t you?”
“I didn’t think it was, but yeah, propositioned, used to win a bet, and pregnant with the guy’s baby that I also happen to love.Very eventful.”
“My family hated me, and actually wished for me to fail.I fell for a guy who thought I was in some way connected with an evil MC that was their enemy.I got shot.”
Larissa gasped.“Me too.I got shot.”
They raised their glasses of nonalcoholic wine, clinked them, and took a drink.
