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CHAPTER NINE

ARI

I woke up from a terrible
nightmare.
Fuck a duck!
If I had one more dream about Jeff and Rebecca, I
swore that I would never go to sleep again. I looked over at the
clock. It was 6:30. Jeff must already be up and out for a
run.

I picked up my cell phone and called
Amanda.

“Hey sweets. What’s up?” Amanda said. She
sounded like she couldn’t breathe.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Oh god! Are
you having sex?”

Amanda laughed. “No! I’m at the gym, running
on the treadmill. It’s something you should be doing, Ari.”

“Yeah, whatever, bitch. I need you today. Are
you free?”

“Yep, Brad is helping his dad out, so I’m
free the whole day. Why? What’s up?”

I took a deep breath and then started to tell
Amanda about my plan.

“Holy hell, Ari! Are you fucking nuts?”

“No, I’m not nuts. I really don’t think this
baby is Jeff’s. I have to see her, Amanda. I have to find out why
she picked now to tell him that she’s pregnant. I need to see her
with my own eyes. Manda…please do this for me,” I begged.

“Gesh, Ari. Damn it. Okay. What do I need to
do?”

“Meet me at Haylcyon in thirty minutes. I
found out yesterday that Crysti is working this morning. Then, you
and I are having lunch at Hula Hut today.”

“Oh shit. I have a bad feeling, Ari, a very
bad feeling about this.”

“Just shut up, and get your ass over to the
coffee shop. Parking is a bitch, so just pay to park.”

I hung up with Amanda and started to get
dressed. I didn’t have time for a shower, so I just threw my hair
up in a ponytail and tried to make myself look somewhat
presentable. Thank God I kept clothes over at Jeff’s. I picked out
a pair of black capri pants, a light blue tank top, and flip flops.
Now, I was ready to get to the bottom of this Rebecca mess.

Just as I was walking into the kitchen to
grab a bottle of water, Jeff came through the front door.

“Hey, baby! What are you doing up this early?
I thought that maybe we could continue with what we started last
night,” Jeff said as he walked up and wrapped his arms around
me.

Even sweaty and stinky, he smelled like
heaven. The warmth from his arms relaxed me immediately. He would
freak out if he knew what I was going to do today.

I let out a small laugh. I
had to catch my breath.
Damn, he’s so
handsome
. I reached up on my toes and gave
him a kiss, filling it with as much passion as I could. I wished we
could just go back in time and admit how we really felt about one
another instead of acting so stupid. Rebecca wouldn’t even be a
second thought right now.

“Wow. What did I do to deserve that?” Jeff
asked kissing the tip of my nose.

My heart was
breaking.
Please, God. Please don’t let
this baby be his.

“Nothing.I just wanted to kiss you. Do I need
a reason to kiss you now?”

Jeff threw his head back and laughed. “Nope!
Feel free to kiss me anytime or anywhere you’d like baby.”

I giggled and reached for my purse. “I have
to go. I’m meeting Amanda for breakfast, and then I think we’re
going shopping.”

Jeff’s smile disappeared as he ran his hands
through his hair. I knew he was so torn about meeting Rebecca on
his own, and I couldn’t be mad at him. He needed to meet with the
bitch to get this over with. My hands started to shake.

“Ari, I really don’t want to meet with her
today. You believe that, don’t you?”

Holy hell.
I wanted to throw up just thinking about him
seeing her again.

“Of course, I know you don’t want to meet
with her, but….but you have to. You have to do this and just get it
over with. I’m sure that it’s gonna be okay. Just meet with her,
hear her out, and then we’ll take it from there. If she’s seven
months now, then she’s due around the middle of August. We just
have to wait until the baby is born, and then we can find out for
sure.”

Jeff looked like he wanted
to say something, but he stopped himself. I was sure that he was
about to ask what would happen if the baby was his.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, please don’t even say
it, Jeff, or I’ll puke
. I tried to smile,
but I was sure that it was a bad attempt at looking
happy.

“I love you, Ari. I love you
and only you. I always have, and no matter what happens, I always
will. We’re moving out to the property in a few weeks, so it’ll
just be you and me, baby.
You and
me
.”

He pulled me into him, and I did everything I
could not to cry. I pulled away, smiling, I reached up to kiss him
again.

“It’s going to be alright, Jeff. Don’t worry.
I really have to run. I love you. Try to have a good day and…well,
good luck with your lunch.”

Jeff kissed me with such sweetness that it
was all I could do to get out the front door. I jumped into my Jeep
and backed out of the driveway as fast as I could.

After I got a block away, I pulled over and
cried my eyes out. I had a very bad feeling that things were not
going to turn out how I so desperately wanted them to.

After I dried my tears, I head over
Halcyon.

***

As I was walking up to the coffee shop, I saw
Amanda was waiting outside for me.

We hugged, and Amanda held me tightly for
just a few more seconds than usual.

Then, she whispered in my ear,

“Don’t worry. We’ll kick her fucking ass the
moment the baby is out.”

I had to laugh. I missed Ellie. My heart
started to ache from thinking about it all. All this shit was going
on, and my best friend was thousands of miles away. She called last
night, but I acted like everything was perfect. Perfect engagement,
perfect life, perfect everything. Pesh.

The moment we walked through the door, my
eyes caught Crysti’s. Her smile faded instantly, and I felt a bit
of excitement, knowing that I was the last person she expected to
see this morning. My morning was working for me, she was working
the counter. Amanda and I walked up to her, and I acted surprised
to see her. She seemed much more shocked to see me, and I noticed
when she looked down at my engagement ring.

“Crysti right? You’re Rebecca’s friend,
aren’t you?” Amanda asked.

Crysti pulled her eyes away from me. She
smiled at Amanda nodding her head.

“Ah, yeah. You’re, um, Jeff and Gunner’s
friends right?”

Oh Jesus.
I wanted to laugh at that one.

“Well, I’m a friend of both yes, Ari’s
engaged to Jeff,” Amanda said smiling as big as she could.

“Engaged? Didn’t you get married this
weekend?” Crysti asked, clearly confused.

This just got very interesting.

“What made you think that I was getting
married this weekend?” I asked.

“Oh, well… I mean one of the guys from the
football team was here last week, and he mentioned a wedding. I
heard your name and Jeff’s, so I guess I just assumed y’all were
getting married.”

I was so going to have fun
with this. “Nope, that was Gunner and Ellie who got married. Jeff
asked me to marry him Saturday night after the wedding.”
Ah! Chew on that, you little stupid blonde
bitch.

“Wait.
What
? Gunner got married? Oh, wow… I
mean, I guess I just never thought he was the kind to settle
down.”

“Yep, well, when you meet the love of your
life, you tend to change your ways,” Amanda said. “By the way, can
I get a salted caramel mocha frapp?”

Yeah… well, I guess so. Wait a minute. Did
you say that Jeff asked you to marry him on Saturday night? Even
after he knew about the baby, he still…” Crysti trailed off, no
finishing her though.

Oh. My. God.
That lying bitch. Rebecca thought Jeff was getting
married, so she decided to pull out the last-ditch
attempt.

I always thought that Crysti wasn’t the
brightest one of the group, and she certainly didn’t let me down.
Unfortunately, she realized her mistake before she finished telling
us about Rebecca and the baby.

Amanda looked back over to Crysti while I
held my breath.

“So, was that why she called Jeff last week?
She was making some last-ditch effort to get him back? I would
think that she would’ve told him about the baby as soon as she
found out,” Amanda said.

Crysti looked around and then back at me.
“Listen, I don’t know why Rebecca waited so long to tell Jeff. The
baby is his though. She knows that for a fact. She was, um…she was
just scared. She was really scared when she found out, and she was
waiting for the right way to tell him. She thought that he should
know before he got married, but, looks like he isn’t married yet.
Now, is he?”

Amanda stepped between Crysti and me. It was
a damn good thing she did because I was ready to leap across that
counter to knock the shit out of this girl.

“Listen here, Crysti. You
tell your friend, Rebecca, that there is no way in
hell
she is ever going to
keep Jeff and Ari apart. If you were smart, you would probably
refrain from saying shit like that around Ari. There’s a reason
your crazy-ass friend put a restraining order out against her,”
Amanda said.

Moving around Amanda, I
glared at Crysti with a smile. “I don’t think we’ll be staying for
coffee. Thanks Sweets. You’ve been
very
helpful this
morning.”

I turned and started to head
out the door.
Why do I feel like I’m about
to cry?
This was a whole new game
now.
So, that bitch wants Jeff? Well,
she’s going to have a goddamn fight on her hands.

Amanda was pissed. “Jesus H. Christ Ari I
wanted to knock the shit out of her. Are you thinking what I’m
thinking?”

“That crazy-ass Rebecca panicked when she
heard Jeff was getting married? Yep, I’m thinking the same thing,
Manda. Come on, let’s go shopping for a few hours. I have a lunch
date that I can’t be late for.”

***

Amanda and I spent the next few hours
shopping at Barton Creek Square, and then we headed over to Hula
Hut. I bought a hat to hide my hair, in hoping that neither Jeff
nor Rebecca would see me.

Jeff and the bitch should be there by
now.

Amanda walked in first and
asked the hostess about a pregnant girl who was suppose to meet
someone here. The hostess knew who Amanda was talking about and
remembered that she and her boyfriend were sitting outside. I so
wanted to scream that he was not her boyfriend. Knowing me so well,
Amanda gave me
the look,
and
I just smiled instead.
We asked to sit close to them but not where they could see us
because we wanted to surprise them. We explained he just came into
town, so we didn’t want to interrupt their reunion until after they
were done eating. After that long bullshit story- it was true…kind
of. The hostess finally sat us near them. We were still inside the
restaurant, but we had a clear view of where they sat
outside.

“Okay, so what’s your plan now?” Amanda asked
before she took a sip of her tea.

I looked over and saw
Rebecca smiling. After she said something, I watched Jeff put his
hand on her stomach. The smile that spread across his face gutted
me. I was going to throw up.
Motherfucker.

“Oh, that bitch is good, isn’t she? Ari…look
at me.”

I pulled my eyes away from Jeff and turned to
look at Amanda. “Oh my god, what if it really is his baby Amanda?
Oh. My. God. I can’t do this. I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Ari, look at me. You and I both know that’s
not his baby. Reach down in yourself and pull out that bullshit
your mother’s always feeding you. You’re going to beat this bitch
at her own game.”

“How, Amanda? Should I get
pregnant?” Actually, the idea was not far from my mind. With
everything that has happened in the last few days, I had forgotten
to take my birth control pills again. The last time I took them was
on Thursday. I started adding up the days in my head.
Four days with no pill? Shit!

“No, I’m not telling you to do that.” Amanda
tilted her head and looked at me.

“Holy hell, Ari! Please tell me you
didn’t.”

“I didn’t what?”

“Did you do something to get yourself
pregnant?”

Some friend she is.
“Bitch you know me better than that! Gesh, Amanda.
I do have a small problem.”

“And what is it?”

“I haven’t taken my birth control pills since
Thursday. I just remembered this morning.”

Amanda’s mouth dropped open. “What the hell,
Ari!”

“I know, Amanda, I know. I’m
making an appointment with my doctor for…” I paused as an idea hit
me. I looked back over to where Rebecca and Jeff were sitting, and
I saw Rececca’s iPhone sitting on the table.
Perfect!

“Amanda! I need you to go over and say hi to
them.”

Amanda looked at me like I just asked her to
take a piss in front of everyone at the restaurant.

“Excuse me? What did you just say?” she
asked, clearly confused.

“Okay, listen. I need you to go over say hi,
place your napkin on the table over her phone. Then, pick up the
napkin with her phone when you leave.”

“Oh. My. God. Are you fucking crazy, Ari?
Ellie is getting back soon ‘cause I can’t handle you alone.”

I glanced over to their
table again and saw Jeff laughing.
Yeah,
he really hated this lunch. Bastard
! I
looked back at Amanda and sat up straighter.