The Game Changer The Final Score - By L.M. Trio Page 0,89
me, though. “I love you,” I whisper, kissing her lips.
I touch the answer button on my phone. “Hello,” I say unemotionally.
“Hi, where are you? I thought you were coming around six?”
“I know. I got held up.”
“Doing what?”
“Deanna stopped by. We were catchin’ up.”
“Oh.” She sounds disappointed. “When will you be here?”
“Look, Lora Rae. We need to talk, I’m—”
“You’re right, we do need to talk,” she interrupts. “I’m pregnant.”
Deanna observes the conversation. My body goes cold as if I found out someone has died. I don’t say good-bye. I just click off the phone. I’m frozen. Deanna senses something is wrong.
“What’s the matter, are you okay?” she asks, reaching out to touch my face. I pull away as if her touch will burn my skin.
“She’s pregnant.”
Chapter 23
(Jesse)
“Hey, babe, can you come in here for a sec?” Luke calls from the master bedroom as I paint the walls of my studio.
“What’s up?” I answer joyfully, entering the room.
“God, you look good,” he says, smiling, admiring the baggy sweatpants I’m wearing with one of his old t-shirts and baseball hats.
“Seriously? Are you out of your mind?” I laugh, glancing down at myself covered in paint. “Wow, I like it!” I say, checking out the partially-painted wall.
“Cool. I wanted to see what you thought before I went any further. This is the Cloudless Day Blue. I did a patch of the Ocean Air Blue over there” He points to a small patch near the walk-in closet.
“Definitely the Cloudless Day,” I answer.
“Good, that’s what I thought. The other is a little too light.”
“Yep, I agree,” I say as my phone starts ringing from the other room. “It looks good!” I holler back as I race to answer it.
“Hello?” I answer breathlessly, catching it on the last ring.
“JJ, I need you,” Deanna utters, barely audible.
“De, what happened? Are you okay?” I ask panicked, thinking the worst.
“Where’s Luke?”
“In the other room, do you need him?”
“No. Please don’t let him hear you.”
I make my way to the farthest part of the house, whispering, “What happened? Are you okay? You’re scaring me.”
“Mikey.” She begins to sob.
“Oh my God, what is it? Is he okay?”
“JJ, you don’t understand. Tonight, we finally said it. We finally admitted to each other how we feel…” Deanna relays the details of the evening. She has always been there for me throughout the years and she needs me now. I try to think of a way to see her without alarming Luke. Deanna isn’t ready to tell Luke, and honestly, I’m not up for the task, either. Luke’s always been clueless when it comes to Mikey and Deanna. Besides, I’m sure Mikey will fill him in soon enough.
***
“Hey, who was that?” Luke asks as he rolls the paint up and down the wall closest to the window as I enter the master bedroom.
“It was De. Would you mind if I head over to see her? She asked if I want to get something to eat with her. She seems as if she wants to talk about something,” I say, blowing it off as if it’s nothing important.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. She just wants to get together.” I shrug, not wanting to alarm him.
“How about I drive you, we can stay at the condo tonight. The smell of paint might be too much to handle here.”
“Nah, I want to stay here tonight. We can sleep in the spare room. I closed the door and opened the window. Are you hungry? I’ll bring you back something.” Deanna is at the condo. I need to keep Luke here.
“No, I’m fine. There’s stuff in the fridge. I’ll make a couple of sandwiches later.” He knows me well enough to know when something isn’t right. “You sure everything’s okay?”
“Yep,” I answer, unable to look him in the eye. I walk over, kiss him goodbye and tell him I’ll be back soon.
***
(Mikey)
I jump on my bike, needing to feel the cold air beating against my body as I race down the highway towards the Hilton. Pregnant? How could this be? Was it some type of desperate move on her part to keep me tied to her? Why would she lie about something like this? She has everything. She’s the new ‘it’ girl. She’s on the cover of every magazine, has a hit TV show and is starring in her first feature film. She has her whole career ahead of her. Unless you are a die-hard baseball fan or live in Tampa, people barely know who I am. I’m a