I told myself the distance he was keeping was because of Nonna, he was giving me space because he knew how busy I was, but I worried it was actually because he just didn’t care.
The more days that passed, the stranger it felt to ask to see him to explain in even greater detail that I wasn’t actually engaged, especially since he wasn’t asking.
I felt Bianca’s stare boring a hole into the side of my head, so I turned toward her. “What?”
She bit the inside of her lip, and I could see that she was waffling on whether or not to say what she had to say.
“What?” I asked again as a sick feeling settled in my belly.
Was Maddox dating one of the moms? Was that why he hadn’t been around or asked to see me? Just thinking of having to see him with the women that Bianca had nicknamed the Divorced Housewives of San Francisco made me want to puke.
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but at lunch today I overheard Hannah tell Willa that she had a big sister named Lina and that you’re her mom.”
Relief washed over me that the hole-boring stare hadn’t been because of gossip about Maddox being with one of the women here tonight.
Last week, one of the messages he’d sent me was letting me know he was going to tell Hannah that I was Lina’s mom. He’d wanted to run it by me since I was her teacher, and he knew it might get around the school. I’d been fine with him telling her, excited even.
For so long, I’d kept having a baby a secret from so many people and now that it wasn’t, I felt like I could finally live my life. My true, authentic life.
“Is that true?” she asked.
“Yes. I had a baby in Germany that I wasn’t allowed to keep. I never told anyone about her, not even Maddox, but it all came to light recently and we’ve been reunited with her.”
She stared at me for a moment with a totally blank face before saying, “Holy shit! Your life really is a Lifetime movie.”
I chuckled. She still didn’t know the half of it. She had no idea that Lina had been born on November eleventh. Or that Nonna’d had a baby girl and named her Angelina, of all things. Those coincidences were still a lot for me to take in.
My life really was like a made for TV movie.
I just hope it has a happy ending, I thought as my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw Trent’s name on the screen.
For the past two weeks I’d called and messaged at least twice a day, but he hadn’t called me back. We hadn’t spoken since he showed up at the bar and proposed. I’d been trying to reach him to break up with him since Nonna was released from the hospital, but he’d been avoiding my calls and not returning my voicemails. He just kept texting that he’d call as soon as he could.
Bianca must have noticed the look on my face because she bumped her hip against mine. “Go. Take that. I got this covered.”
“Thanks,” I said before heading out of the double doors that led to the back hallway for some privacy.
When I opened the text, I saw that it was a plane ticket for Saturday, tomorrow, from SFO to JFK with my name on it. I was still trying to make sense of why he’d sent that to me when my phone rang. It was Trent calling.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Did you get the ticket?”
“I did, but I told you I’m not coming to New York. I’m not going to the partner’s meeting. And why haven’t you called me back?”
“I’ve been busy. And, of course, you’re coming. I already told everyone my fiancée would be attending.”
As soon as he said that, I knew what the proposal was about. I’d never thought it was actually about me, but now I knew that he wanted a ring on my finger for the partner’s dinner because it made him look settled down. None of the partners in the firm were single.
I glanced down the hallway and saw that students were arriving.
“Trent, I can’t really talk right now, but wedoneed to talk. I never said yes. I am not your fiancée. And I’m not coming to New York.”
“Just get on the plane and we’ll talk when you get here. See you tomorrow.”
He hung up the phone and I stood there for a moment wondering what in the hell I was doing. Why was I dragging out a relationship with a man who didn’t give a shit about me? All he cared about was himself. He didn’t know anything about me or my life.
He didn’t know that Nonna had been in the hospital or that I’d found her unresponsive.
