How to Have Your Boss's Secret Baby - London Casey Page 0,44
done if you were me?”
“Did you really just ask that?” she asked. “Because you know what? I can’t walk away from it. And I have to stop saying it. This is not an it. This is a baby. Our baby, Cole. We made a baby.”
“How is that possible?”
“Again… did you really just ask that? Do you not remember the night you put your dick in me?”
I took another deep breath. “Look at this attitude. I’ve only seen this a few times, Maya.”
“This is not a joke to me.”
“Do you think it is to me? Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t on birth control or something?”
“It’s my job to do that?” Maya asked. “What am I supposed to do? Wear a fucking sign? Why didn’t you put on a condom?”
“Why didn’t you tell me to?”
“What…” Maya pointed to the door. “Just go. Leave. I don’t want to talk to you anymore, Cole.”
“You don’t get to do that.”
“Yes, I do,” Maya said. “I told you I was pregnant with your baby and you took off for hours. I had no idea what you were thinking or doing. Or what I was supposed to do. You know what I needed right then? A hug. You walked out. So now I’m kicking you out. I get the win here, Cole. So get the hell out of here.”
I wasn’t leaving.
I moved toward Maya and touched her arms.
She was holding herself together really well.
She was tougher than I ever gave her credit for.
But her eyes told the whole truth.
I hugged her.
She grabbed the back of my shirt.
“Maya… are you hungry?”
She looked up at me. “Actually, I’m starving.”
I opened the squeaky door to the pizza place and Maya laughed.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said.
I had ordered ahead.
Little Maria’s wasn’t the flashiest place in the city. It actually looked like a dump. The tables, the floors, the walls, the lighting… none of it had been updated in thirty years. It had that old pizzeria smell. Warm dough mixed with a hint of garlic and sweet sauce.
The sodas came in plastic cups that were meant to look like glass cups.
Again, they had to have been decades old.
Maya sat across from me in a booth that was once a bright, neon orange color, but was now a dull orange. There were drawings and writing on the booth and the table. Young couples carving their love for each other into the table. And plenty of those names scratched out and replaced with new lovers.
Not that I saw myself writing Maya loves Cole anytime soon here.
The pizza was served right away too, complete with paper plates.
Maya and I stared at each other as the pizza steam danced between us.
“Say it,” I said.
“You’re loaded,” she said. “And you offer to take me out for something to eat. And it’s a pizza place.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Did you expect a fancy dinner?”
“Maybe. You got me pregnant, Cole. The least you could do is spring for a lobster tail.”
I reached for the pizza and moved a slice to a plate for her. “This is soul food here, love. This will cure any bad thoughts and vibes. And I really don’t feel like dealing with pretentious douchebags at some fancy place.”
“Correction,” Maya said. “You don’t want anyone you know to see you with your secretary. Because then everyone will start to whisper, wondering if you’re fucking me.”
“Well, the evidence speaks for itself, right?” I asked.
Maya laughed. “Wow. So now it’s just a joke?”
“You’re laughing,” I said.
“Out of sadness,” she said.
“Maya… I’m sorry for what I did. What that reaction did to you. I just had a lot going through my head at once. I knew some of the stuff that I could have said would have only made things hurtful between us.”
“Like what? Blaming me? Yelling at me?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Trust me, I get it. What we did. And we did it… together…”
“Right,” she said. “I don’t even know what happened that night. I just…”
“We can’t go back to that night, can we?” I asked. “We can only move forward.”
I moved my right hand across the table and touched Maya’s hand.
We looked at each other.
She seemed calm. Finally.
We were out together, eating pizza, just two people… who made a baby.
That was maybe the easy part.
The hard part was that I was her boss.
She was my secretary.
I waited until Maya finished eating her pizza before I cleared my throat and folded my hands.
I had more to lose than Maya could ever understand.