Shit.
Brian had left his cell phone behind and he was already halfway to work—no way he could go back and get it and get to work on time.
Besides, what was he thinking? He didn’t really need it—he barely got to make use of it during his workday.
He had a watch to check the time if he needed, and he could always call Karen from some other phone...
Shucks, he didn’t quite know her number by heart. He cursed himself for being so careless. He’d taken things for granted so much that he hadn’t bothered to retain the cell phone number of the woman so massively involved with him?
He’d heard about new mothers getting ‘mommy brain,’ but that was just during the pregnancy, wasn’t it? Did dads get sympathy loopy moments in addition to sympathy pains? Or was it his irregular sleep schedule fogging up his brain?
He really should’ve put in for his vacation time—especially since, all of a sudden, the baby seemed colicky nowadays. Isabelle probably missed Karen, but he figured it was just adjustment pains, and Deidre was a hell of a lot to get adjusted to.
Sometimes, it seemed she was being contrary just to be contrary, but he recognized she was just trying to assert herself as a parent; she wanted to feel like she was actually doing something.
But Isabelle probably sensed the conflicts, the tension. He hadn’t had this problem with Karen, not even in the very beginning. Then again, he was so lost then, he would’ve gone along with practically anything Karen said.
He felt bad he’d disrupted his baby’s life, but he still thought he was doing the right thing.
Brian’s mind had been on Karen all day, and he looked forward to having her over tonight. He had it all planned out—he’d leave work a little early to pick up groceries to make dinner for them after Deidre left. He and Karen would hang out, as usual, and get reacquainted in other ways. His cock hardened at the thought.
“Calm down, boy,” he said quietly to himself. “Don’t get excited just yet.”
But by the time he arrived home, he was still in an awkward position, his hard-on relentless. He waited in his car for a bit, hoping his dick would deflate, but Deidre poked her head out, looking at him quizzically.
“You can go—I’ll be right in,” he said, but she didn’t take his suggestion.
Finally, he found himself in a place where he could hide without looking too obvious, and he left his vehicle and headed for the door.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about Karen, which raised his flag again. He decided to just power through it, strategically positioning his messenger bag, and trying not to think about how obvious he looked now.
Deidre flashed him a bright smile as she headed toward the door—so he’d thought—but she turned quickly to face him, just inches from him, and her hand was suddenly on his dick.
“Is that for me, bad boy?”
He extricated himself quickly. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I can stay a little longer tonight if you need me to,” she said with a look he recognized.
“That won’t be necessary,” he said quickly, moving away.
What the hell kind of person grabbed another by the crotch? He hadn’t indicated in the least that he was interested in her that way!
“Please leave now, and don’t ever do that again,” he said, his anger growing by the minute, and his dick deflating.
Now he knew an easy way to get his cock to go down in the future—just imagine a chick like Deidre grabbing it.
She pulled back a bit and folded her arms. “It’s that black woman, isn’t it?” she said, practically snarling. “Are you still seeing her?”
“That black woman? Seriously?”
“Well, I can’t remember her name...”
“Sure, you can’t.”
“Anyway, are you sure she’s even sane? She’s been kind of stalkerish—looking over here, peeking through her windows, texting you all the time…”
“And how do you know she’s been texting me?”
“I looked at your phone, obviously. Seems like it’s always buzzing.”
Anger surged through him again. “I’ll say it one more time—get the fuck out.”
She pouted, and he couldn’t tell if it was real or not, and he certainly didn’t care. He pointed at the door, emphasizing his words, and she finally left. He felt the need to watch the surveillance footage immediately, while Isabelle was still asleep.
Something strange caught his eye pretty quickly.
He rewound and watched the scene play out again: Deidre had moved his phone from where he’d placed it early this morning! The phone not being where he expected must’ve tricked his mind into thinking he already had it.
He sat back, his thoughts racing. Had it been deliberate? In any case, he needed to track his cell down. He considered checking the footage to see where Deidre had it last but decided he’d probably have better luck just looking around, saving tons of time.
For a moment, he panicked, thinking she might have taken it with her when he couldn’t find it in any obvious spots, but then he found it wedged into the couch, slightly covered by a throw pillow.
He let out a huge sigh of relief. He looked through and saw no texts from Karen, despite what Deidre had said. Wait a minute…did she erase them? She knew his phone code? Some security guy you are. He supposed she could’ve watched him sometime or even guessed—although he hadn’t used anything obvious such as a birthday or anything.
He called Karen immediately, but she didn’t answer. After trying three times, he sent her a text: Please call me ASAP. Once that was done, everything became clear: he couldn’t let Deidre in his home again.
He decided he’d tell her when she showed up the next day—he didn’t want to give her a chance to do anything crazy overnight, and boy was he glad it would be a Saturday when he got rid of her.
“Wait, where is this coming from?”
Now Deidre had crazy eyes.
Brian made sure to block potential entry—she’d have a hard time getting past him to get inside.
“Well, after you assaulted me yesterday, and I realized you tampered with my phone, I knew for sure there was no way I could trust you around my most precious things.”
“Listen, that was a mistake—forgive me.” She lowered her voice and moved a tiny bit closer. “Look, what happened between us way back then was obviously fate. What were the chances I’d actually get pregnant from one night?”
“Fairly high, actually, once the natural process has a chance. And with a broken condom...”
“But it didn’t...” She stopped abruptly—as if she’d been about to say something she wasn’t supposed to.
“Didn’t what?”
“Look, I’m just saying we should give this thing a real shot. Try being a couple. We have a kid together, for Christ’s sake.”
“And it’s actually probably better for us to remain on neutral, cordial terms for this whole co-parenting thing to work. If we go there, and things don’t work out, one or both of us could end up on the hostile side, which is far worse than us not being together.”
Deidre closed her eyes tightly. and when she re-opened them, the fire in them had grown. “So you’re telling me you let me drive all the way here...”
“I was sleeping on it. I wasn’t sure about this until I woke up today; I wanted to give myself time for the anger to subside. Besides, I told you that you didn’t need to be here on the weekends.”
“And I told you I had no intention of being a part-time mom, and that I would see the baby every day. And by the way, what kind of man gets mad at a woman for offering him sex?” Her voice had risen in tone and volume.
Brian nodded his head toward a car across the street, and Deidre swiftly turned to see who he was nodding at, just in time to see a hefty guy exit a car.
“Oh, that’s my friend, Sam,” he said. “He’s on the police force, and I asked him to pop by today and make sure there’s no trouble. There won’t be any trouble, right?”
Brian was surprised lasers didn’t come out of Deidre’s eyes the way she looked at him. She glanced back at the cop posturing threateningly, then back at Brian. She turned on her heel and stormed off, shooting the cop a dirty look before hopping in her familiar black car.
Brian knew he was nowhere near being done with her—that there was no way she’d just take off and never look back now—but he had to handle one thing at a time.
Brian thought he’d lucked out with today being Saturday—and he had—but it meant spending all day alone with a fussy baby. Isabelle seemed way crankier than usual, and she was much harder to calm down.
By the time night rolled around, she’d only had one nap for the day, and he’d only had time to thank Sam, take a shower, and grab some snacks outside of trying to pacify her.
He checked his emails and noticed nothing new from Karen. What the hell had Deidre said to her? He had no doubt she’d gotten to Karen somehow.
He started to get worried when the baby insisted on screaming her head off past ten, avoiding all pacifiers and bottle nipples. She was clean, she wasn’t hungry...what was it?
He had an inkling Karen could help, so he gave her a call again, hoping she picked up this time. Then he sent a pleading text to her email, and after waiting a moment, called again.
This time, she picked up, and he had no idea if his message had done the trick or not, but it didn’t matter—she had answered! “Karen, can you please come over? I can’t get Izzy to stop crying. I’ve tried all the usual—from stuffed animals to music—nothing is working!”
“Okay, don’t worry—I’ll be there as soon as I can; I’m about twenty minutes away.”
“Wait, what? Where are you?”
Jealousy flared inside him as his mind cruelly offered up a few unsavory possibilities.
“At my new apartment. I didn’t get to bring you up to speed...”
Brian didn’t hear the rest—he had placed the receiver near the baby’s ear instinctively, theorizing that the sound of Karen’s voice might help calm the screaming baby. It seemed to work—her cries quieted down.
“I think I might be onto something,” he said, bringing the phone back to his own ear, and when Isabelle started fussing and building up another cry, he quickly put the phone back to her tiny ears, but this time, it didn’t work.
Mainly because Karen was no longer talking.
“Hello?” he said, wondering if she was still there.
“I’ll see you soon,” she said, then disconnected the call.