One More Time (5 page)

As I pulled into her driveway, I noticed a black Mercedes parked behind her Toyota. Sally must be home.
Nice car.
Taking a deep breath, I hopped out of my jeep, bolted up her front steps and rang the doorbell.

Brutus barked inside the house and I smiled. This dog was the shit. Someone yelled, but I couldn’t make out the words. The door flew open and a man stood there. He looked to be about mid-thirties with short brown hair and glasses. He had on old man slacks and an argyle sweater vest.

“May I help you?” he asked.

“I’m looking for Isabella. Is she here?”

“I’m sorry, Bella’s not in right now.” Something in his tone sounded off.

“How about Sally?”

“Sally is at work. Look, is there something I can do for you? I’m kind of in the middle of something,” he impatiently clipped.

I was starting to get pissed off. “Yeah, you can tell me where Isabella is so I can talk to her.”

“My fiancée is not here at the moment. I will be happy to tell her you stopped by.” He started to shut the door, but I stuck my foot out and stopped it.

“You
are Isabella’s fiancée? Since when?” I asked.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” he snapped.

“Trust me, it is,” I told him.

His lips pursed. “If you must know, Bella and I have been together for over a year. Now, would you like for me to tell her you stopped by or not?”

What. The. Fuck?

“Where were you last weekend?” I asked.

His eyes popped with surprise and then narrowed in understanding. “Out of town.” Through clenched teeth, he said, “Bella and I were in the middle of a misunderstanding last weekend. It has since then been resolved.”

“When’s the wedding?” I asked.

He smiled and I wanted to knock every pretentious tooth out of his mouth. “Soon,” he replied.

I stared at him for a second and debated whether to say anything or not. Fuck it. He deserved to know. “Quick warning for you, buddy. You’d better put a lock on that cheating snatch of yours and throw away the key. Otherwise it’s going to be a long hard road for you.” I stepped away from the door and started down the stairs. When I reached the bottom, I turned back and said, “Don’t bother telling your woman I stopped by.” My heart was pounding so hard I could hear the whoosh of it in my ears. The entire drive home, I kept thinking,
she played me
. Never again would I let a woman play me the way Isabella did…never.

Isabella

‡

Three months later

“I
t’s time,” Sally
declared from my bedroom doorway.

“No, it’s not.” I had been lying in bed for the past hour listening to Amy Winehouse and trying not to throw up…In and out, in and out, I breathed. Brutus, who was parked on the bed next to me, stared at Sally.

“Yes. It. Is. And you know it. In fact, if you ask me, it is way past time,” she dryly stated.

“Funny, I don’t recall asking you.”

“Has the nausea gone away, yet? No. It has only gotten worse, correct?” I blinked at her. “You are correct, Sally,” she answered for me.
Back to Black
came on and I turned it up, just to tweak her. “It’s so past time, Izzy, that I’m contemplating calling your uncle and having a chat with him!” she shouted over the music.

This got my attention. I turned down the music and glared at her. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Izzy, you have to do this.” Her pleading tone made my eyes well. I knew what I had to do. I just didn’t want to. I could see the cogs in her brain turning as she eyed me from across the room. “You know, you could actually be causing irreparable damage by waiting so long. Is that what you want?”

I had been thinking along those same lines for the past few days.
Damn!
I let out a deep sigh and she knew she had me. “This is the easy part,” she assured, as if she’d done it before. “The hard part comes much later.” Nodding my head in consent, she walked over and held out her hand. I took it and allowed her to slowly pulled me to a sitting position and help me off the bed. As soon as she wrapped her arms around me, I broke into deep wracking sobs. Brutus whined and licked the back of my left knee. He hated when Sally and I were sad. I stroked my fingers through his thick coat to let him know I was okay.

Less than a month after my amazing night with Dillon, I missed my period. At first, I didn’t tell anyone. I had missed my period before when I had been under a lot of stress, and I most definitely
was
stressed. Jimmy had been pestering me to get back together, the bar had been slammed and bills were piling up. You name it, I was stressed about it. When it didn’t appear by month two, I knew… However, I buried my head in the sand and pretended it wasn’t so. When it failed to make its third appearance, I panicked and told Sally. That was four days ago.

“I’m scared, Sal.”

“I know you are honey, but you have to do this.” She led me to the bathroom and held out the stick. “I opened it for you. Now, all you have to do is pee on it.”

The whole process was awful. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to have children. I did. I just didn’t want to do it alone. I wanted a husband. I wanted someone who would love me and our child unconditionally… someone who would give our children all the things I never had, such as stability and structure. After what felt like an hour or three, the timer went off.

“You look,” I whispered. She stared down at the test and paused for a beat before looking back up at me. Her facial expression said it all.
I’m pregnant
. Bowing my head, I sobbed into my hands. She wrapped me in her arms and let me cry. “You don’t understand, Sal. I’m not sure who the father is,” I admitted through my tears.

I felt her body tense. “What do you mean you don’t know who the father is?”

“Do you remember the night I sang with that guy, Dillon, for his aunt’s fundraiser?” She nodded her head, yes. “And I told you he came back for a few drinks before heading back to his aunt’s house for the night?”

She let out a little gasp. “Please tell me you didn’t?”

I slowly nodded my head up and down. “Twice,” I wailed.

“You had sex with him
twice
?” she gasped, “And didn’t tell me? Why the hell not?”

I stared down at the floor.

“Wow,” she said. I glanced up and the hurt in her eyes almost killed me. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

“No. But not for the reasons you think,” I quickly added, and then explained. “It was embarrassing…uh…no, more like, it was humiliating,” I corrected.

She shot me her classic wide eyed what-the-fuck-look before asking, “His dick was
that
small?”

The incredulous tone in her voice made me laugh. “No. It wasn’t small. In fact, it was rather large.” She blinked but didn’t speak, so I kept going. “It was the best sex of my life, Sal. I mean it. It was epic.” I leaned forward and whispered, “I thought something was wrong with me because…uh…I couldn’t get there with Jimmy without… a lot of help, but Dillon….”

Sally held up her hand to stop me. “We cannot have this conversation in front of a toilet. Come on.” Grabbing my hand, she led me back to the bedroom. Brutus followed behind and, as we settled on the bed, he jumped up and placed himself partially in both of our laps. “Continue,” she commanded.

I told her about the whole evening with Dillon. She made me repeat the sexy parts several times, before allowing me to continue. “When I woke up the next morning, he was gone,” I told her.

“What do you mean he was gone?”

“Gone, poof, gone,” I said, snapping my fingers. “He stole away like a thief in the night after the second time and I haven’t seen or heard from him since. It cut me deep, Sal. Here I was thinking I had just had the best night of my life, and there he was formulating an escape plan.”

“That’s surprising. He seemed really into you,” Sally said.

“Oh, he was into me…until he
got
into me. Then he couldn’t get out the door fast enough. I even went as far as to call him.”

“When?”

Resting my head on her shoulder, I sighed. “Two weeks after that night. He was all I could think about. I thought, maybe if he heard my voice, it would remind him of how good it had been. When he didn’t call me back, I realized…maybe it wasn’t good for him. Maybe he’s a serial sex addict who goes around doinking every female he comes across. Maybe I was just one of his many conquests.” I started crying again.

I felt Sally’s head turn and glanced up. She was staring down at me. “You are the smartest, kindest, most beautiful soul I know. What in hell’s name were you thinking when you let him inside you without a condom, Isabella Fisher?”

“I wasn’t thinking,” I admitted. “I mean, One minute I was asleep and the next he was in me. I swear, Sal, it was the most erotically amazing moment of my life. The guy is a sex-god. I didn’t even think about the fact that he didn’t use a condom until well after the fact.”

Sally grabbed my hand and squeezed. “When is the last time you had sex with Jimmy?”

I shuddered and she squeezed tighter. “Two days before I busted him cheating on me, but…after my night with Dillon, I wouldn’t exactly call what I had with Jimmy sex.”
Dillon put Jimmy to shame
.

She let out a snort of humor. “Did you use protection?”

I replied with an unladylike snort of my own. “We’re talking about uptight Jimmy aren’t we? The same Jimmy who knows I can’t take the pill because it gives me horrible headaches? You and I both know how much he secretly hates children. While he claims he wants to get married and have kids, every time he is around one he calls them fucklets, little shits or spunk bubbles.” Sally burst out laughing and, after a minute, I couldn’t help but join in.

“So I take it that’s a yes to him using a condom?” she asked.

“Yes, but you and I both know it could have broken or had a hole in it or….” my voice trailed off as I stared out the window.

“We also know how unlikely that is,” she stated.

“I went and got tested after Jimmy cheated and again after Dillon. I’m clean. However, Pregnancy never even crossed my mind. Or, maybe it did but I pushed it away.” My eyes burned from all the crying. “How likely is it the only time I have unprotected sex, I get pregnant?”

“Uhhhh…you really want me to answer?”

“No.”

“So when are you going to tell Dillon?”

I stared at her for a long second before answering, “I’m not.”

A deep frown appeared on her face. “Wrong answer.”

“Sally, the guy disappeared in the middle of the night… after having sex with me…not one, but two times.” She opened her mouth, but I cut her off. “I wanted him. After what Jimmy had done to me, I needed to feel wanted, desired. Dillon more than delivered. But then he ran away and all I felt was…used. He must think I’m the biggest slut.” Sighing, I placed my hands protectively over my stomach. “I refuse to force any man to do something he doesn’t want to do. I just won’t. This baby will only know love. That’s a promise.”

“Let it be said for the record, I think you are making a big mistake,” Sally stated. I opened my mouth to argue and she held up her hand to stop me. “Let me also say it is your decision to make, not mine. However, there is still the subject of Jimmy. You know he’s going to find out.” She let out a gasp of air. “Does Jimmy know about Dillon?”

“No. Can you imagine?” I cringed at the thought. “Dillon was long gone by the time Jimmy returned from New York.”

“What are you going to do when Jimmy claims the baby is his?”

“First of all, I’m not a hundred percent sure the baby isn’t his. Second, Jimmy hates kids, so I’m pretty sure it won’t be an issue. Third, unless he forces my hand, I am never telling him about Dillon.”

“Good, because if you do, he’s going to shit a very large brick.”

“I know.”

“Well, he certainly won’t be hearing it from me,” Sally said. “Now, first thing tomorrow morning you are calling the doctor. Correct?”

“Yes.”

*     *     *

Two Months Later

“It says here
in the fifth month you may be feeling fetal movement,” Sally reported.