tests?”
“Okay, Maya, I get it. I just-”
I turned my head and saw the young man looking at me again.
I stood up out of the booth. “You heard that part too? Want to come over here and feel my boobs? There might be milk, I’m not sure.”
“Holy shit,” Cole said. He jumped up and blocked me again. “You need to go outside and get some air. I’ll be there in a second. Let me pay the bill.”
“Yeah, you do that,” I said. I reached back for the table and grabbed another slice of pizza. “I’m taking this with me.”
I walked to the door and went outside.
I stood alone with a neon red sign buzzing with the word pizza flashing.
I looked at the slice of pizza.
And I started to cry.
“Fuck, Maya, what’s…”
I looked at Cole. He knew better than to finish that question.
What’s wrong? What the fuck do you think is wrong?
“You know you need to go to the doctor no matter what, right?” Cole asked. “You don’t want to be one of those women that refuses to say they’re pregnant and then ends up having a baby in some bathroom in a restaurant, right?”
“I’m not an idiot,” I said. “I would never do that. I can go to the doctor on my own. Make my own appointments.”
“But I’m going to do that for you,” he said. “I can’t feel what you’re feeling. I don’t know what you’re thinking. So let me do this for you.”
“You just want to sneak me around.”
“Can you just be real for a second, Maya?” Cole asked. “Think about the position I’m in right now.”
“Oh, sure,” I said. “How dare I think about myself? I’m just the one with a living human inside me.”
“Maya…”
“No, go ahead. I can’t wait to hear this.”
“Do you want me to be honest with you or just bullshit you into feeling good?” Cole asked. “That’s the choice you have to make right now, Maya. I’m letting you in. I’m bringing you in. I trust you more than I trust anyone else in my life right now.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“That means…” Cole swallowed hard. “I need to do this with you. I need to make a secret appointment and get you seen. I need to know for sure you’re pregnant. Not that I don’t believe you. I just need to see. I want to make sure you and the… the baby… are okay. That everything is, you know, on time…”
I laughed. “You son of a bitch. You want the doctor to tell you the exact date it happened. You think there’s a chance this baby isn’t yours.”
“Is that wrong?” Cole asked.
I had two choices.
My left hand balled up into a fist to punch him.
My right hand had the slice of pizza.
There were a lot of women like me in the world who would love to punch their asshole boss right in the nose.
But I figured there were even more that would enjoy slamming a slice of pizza against their asshole boss’s face.
Cole stepped back and the pizza slice was perfectly stuck to his face.
From his forehead, covering his left eye, his nose, and a part of his mouth.
His right eye looked at me as I stepped back and waited to see what he was going to do next.
Slowly, Cole reached up and peeled the pizza off his face and threw it to the ground.
He had globs of sauce on his face as it glistened from the grease.
“Oops,” I said.
Cole turned and charged back into the pizza place.
I hurried to get my phone and get a ride back home.
I was done with Cole. I was done with the night.
I was done with a lot of things.
But I couldn’t be done with everything.
I had to come up with a plan for myself and my life.
I was pregnant.
I was going to have a baby.
I was going to be a mother.
Cole came back out of the pizza place, his face clean once again.
“You know what, Maya? I have the right to ask anything I want. I don’t know you. You don’t know me. I’m a good-looking guy with money. You’re my secretary, struggling to get by.”
“Fuck you,” I yelled.
“Fuck me?” Cole asked. “All I’m trying to do is be honest with you.”
My phone buzzed with a notification my car would arrive in less than a minute.
That was one good thing about the city. A ride was always just a minute away.
A black car pulled up and I waved to Cole.
“See you at work tomorrow,” I