The Baby He Wants: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance (2 page)

Tristan
leaned forward, “Actually no. That would be too obvious. It’s
the mime whose stationed
near
the gate.”

The
actual fact was that there was a mime who’d taken up a position
near the gate and now Ava didn’t know if Tristan was joking or
not.

“
I
tire of this game. Can we drink our exotic drinks and not talk?”

“
If
you like,” Tristan said with a shrug. They sat in surprisingly
companionable silence, drinking their drinks and watching patrons
talking and flirting and losing their inhibitions to alcohol. Ava
decided she didn’t much care for White Russians and switched
back to rum and coke; her standard drink. Tristan stuck to his scotch
on the rocks. After a few drinks, Tristan asked if she wanted to go
and watch Cassie and the Flash perform. Ava had seen rehearsals from
back stage but had not gotten around to seeing them from the audience
point of view.

“
Sure.
Let’s go,” she said.

So we
found this hotel;
it was a place I knew well.
We made magic
that night.
Oh, he did everything right!
He brought the woman
out of me,
so many times, easily.
And in the morning when he
woke
all I left him was a note:
I told him, "I am the
flower;
you are the seed.
We walked in the garden;
we
planted a tree.
Don’t try to find me,
please don’t
you dare.
Just live in my memory,
you’ll always be
there."

Cassie
was crooning away on stage and Ava had a bird’s eye view since
she was in a VIP booth, she hadn’t even known existed even
though she’d been around when they were setting up. She turned
suddenly to face Tristan.

“
So
what is it that you
do
?”
she asked.

Tristan
laughed. “Took you long enough to ask,” he chided.

“
Yeah,
you’d be surprised how many people don’t care about that.
But if you’re going to be carting me around on these VIP trips,
I need to know that I won’t be arrested at the end of the night
for using someone’s ticket and credit card when you turn out to
be their driver.”

Tristan
laughed long and hard. “Oh God,” he said. “I needed
that. Don’t worry, I can afford to cart you around. Ever heard
of the Reinchenbach Group?”

Ava
shook her head, “Nope. Should I have?”

“
Probably
not; we don’t exactly advertise.”

“
So
let me guess, you’re like some super secret rich people group
trying to take over the world?”

Tristan
laughed again, “Oh we’re fine with just owning America.
No biggie.”

“
How
nice. So really, what does this Reinchenbach group do?”

“
We
own stuff,” he said.

“
Like…?”

“
Railways,
mining corporations, shares in movies, fashion, internet companies;
name it, we have our thumb in it.”

“
Wow.
American royalty basically?”

“
I
thought that was Bey and Jay.”

It was
Ava’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, them too. So how come you’re
such a reg’lar lookin dude? Also you don’t talk like
hoity toity and shit. What’s wrong with you?”

Tristan’s
grin lit up the room. “Well, I’m sorry I’ve fallen
short of your expectations but I’m just a regular guy. I go to
work Monday to Friday same as you plebeians and when Saturday comes
around, I party, get drunk and try to forget that life sucks.”

“
Aww,
you're just like us huh? I call bullshit.”

“
Yeah
okay, you think we live on some sort of cloud nine but we don’t.
We just like you girl,” he said grinning at her.

“
Uh
huh. Drink your drink and stop lyin,” she said picking up her
rum and coke. Cassie and the Flash were winding up. Next they were
expecting Russell Marshall. Ava couldn’t wait. She’d
missed his rehearsal and she was a legit fan. She never expected to
have such a great view, but since she did; she had every intention of
utilizing it.

*****

“
Thanks
for such a fun night,” she said to Tristan as they walked out
of the site. She was taking Tristan to his car; she and the rest of
the crew were living in trailers behind the festival site so she had
nowhere to go. Tristan walked past the parking lot and Ava hesitated
wondering where he thought he was going. He looked back at her as she
stopped and raised his brow.

“
Er,
where are you parked?” she asked.

“
Across
the road, by the river,” he replied.

“
Oh
well, I’ll leave you here then shall I? I gotta go take a
shower.”

“
Oh.
Okay, if you’d like. I do have showers in my trailer though.
And the water pressure has to be seen to be believed.”

“
I
beg pardon. You’re in a trailer?”

“
Yeah.
I mean it was that or a tent and I don’t do tents.”

“
I
kinda figured you were in a hotel in town.”

“
Hey.
I’m here for the festival same as you. Ready to enjoy the
whole
experience.”

Ava put
up her hand, “Okay dude.”

“
So
you coming to take advantage of my shower or what?”

“
Is
that your way of trying to get me in your bed?”

“
I
won’t lie; I looked at you and was like…I have to have
that. But I’ve gotten to know you in the last three hours and
I’m having the time of my life. I don’t want that to end.
So if you wanna end up in my bed, well and good. If you don’t;
also well and good.”

Ava
stared at him in stupefaction. “Fine,” she said as if she
was doing him a favor. “I’ll come use your shower.”

“
Thank
you,” Tristan replied amused sarcasm thick in his voice. He led
her to a long black trailer whose windows were blacked out as well.
Ava hesitated as they came to the door remembering every movie she’d
seen where some idiot girl went off with some strange guy and ended
up either dead or a vampire.

“
You’re
not gonna like…kill me or try to bite my neck are you?”
she asked as Tristan fiddled with the lock. Tristan guffawed even as
he got the door open.

“
Well,
vat do you
theenk
?”
he asked biting his bottom lip with his teeth so he could display
their…unsharpness.

“
I
think…I should probably let someone know where I am,”
she said still hesitating at the doorway.

“
Be
my guest,” Tristan replied with a sweep of his hand. “We’re
on mile marker ten.”

Ava
nodded and texted the location and a picture of Tristan to her
room-mate, Bob. Not that he would care but at least if the police
asked, there’d be a clue. Then she climbed into Tristan’s
trailer, stopping short just inside the doorway in surprise. The
trailer was like a mini luxury apartment.

There
was an ergonomic, low-profile dash, expansive windshield and 6-way
power in both cab seats. One-piece fibre glass roof, from which Ava
could glimpse the stars. A sliding countertop extension stood in the
living room area and opposite it was a motorized 40" TV lift.
LED lighting and frameless windows dotted the trailer. A spacious
kitchen with a sliding countertop extension adjoined the living room
while a Queen-sized bed with comfortable Denver Mattress was just
visible in the other corner. Ava could glimpse bunk beds tucked into
the wall and a 84" interior ceiling height with padded vinyl
ceiling. There was a prep for satellite dish.

Ava
walked down the length of the trailer whistling softly at the
softness of the leather seats and the luxury marble tops and the size
of the television. She came to a stop in front of the bathroom. A
one-piece shower with glass door, skylight and light marine toilet
with foot flush stood in front of her. There was a bathroom powered
roof vent with wall switch. It all looked very outside her
experience. Tristan came up to her carrying a towel, bathrobe and
shower cap.

“
If
you give me your clothes I can pop them in the machine so you can
have clean clothes to wear when you get out.”

Ava
stared at him. “You know how to do laundry?” she asked
unable to leave the disbelief out of her voice. Tristan grinned.

“
For
someone who just met me today, you’re pretty rigid in your
ideas of who I am,” he said hand held out for her clothes. Ava
had to concede that this was so, and instead of replying, she closed
the door between them and took her clothes off. She shrugged on the
comfortable robe and opened the door, handing her clothes over.

“
Thank
you,” she said.

“
You’re
welcome.”

Ava
closed the door again and stepped in the state of the art shower,
luxuriating in the abundance of hot water. She was tempted to stay in
there all night but she didn’t want to completely deplete
Tristan’s supply. She sang a bit as she showered, marvelling at
how at home she felt in this stranger’s digs. It was crazy. She
wished she had someone to call and tell all about it but her one
confidante, her mother, had passed away just six months before of
cancer. It was a very quick death; she’d gone to the hospital
feeling weak and dizzy, by morning she’d been in a coma and by
noon, she was dead. Cause of death turned out to be a tumour in her
brain. The only thing Ava had been grateful for was the speed with
which she died. Her mother was a worrier, she would have hated to be
sick. She’d left Ava a fully paid for house in the Bronx and
five hundred dollars in her bank account.

Ava had
sold the house and put the money into mutual funds. Luckily, she had
a full ride to Berklee University and had just one more year to go to
complete her degree in music production and sound engineering. She
picked up gigs like this to make money to live on. The summer was
full of music festivals, pop star tours and shows. There was no
shortage of work if one knew the right people. And Ava made sure she
knew all the right people.

She
hadn’t been home in weeks, jumping from gig to gig without a
break. She made sure to send her roomie rent on the regular though;
she didn’t want him to throw her things out of her room. They’d
met the first day of college when she moved to Boston; both feeling
out of place and out of step with everyone else. Bob was a
transgender from a small town in New Mexico; this was his first time
out of the confines of his parents’ expectations and he hadn’t
quite known how to handle it. Ava took pity on him and took him under
her wing and he followed her around for months before he felt brave
enough to venture out on his own and find himself. These days though,
he was deeply enmeshed in the transgender scene in Boston and his and
Ava’s friendship was based more on nostalgia than any present
day ties.

Ava
emerged steaming from the shower, feeling the day slip off her
shoulders. She opened the door to the bathroom to the aroma of coffee
permeating everything.

“
Ahhhh!
What is that ambrosia?” she sighed.

“
Coffee?”
Tristan replied.

“
Hmm,
usually this is the part where you try to ply with me alcohol,”
she informed him.

“
Do
I really look like I need to get you drunk to get you into bed?”
he asked.

Ava
shrugged, “Two words for you; Bill Cosby.”

“
Touché,”
he replied. “I swear there are no roofies in your coffee.”

Ava
smiled reaching a hand out for the cup. “I believe you,”
she said. And she did; she just didn’t know why.

He led
her to his plush leather seats and they sat opposite each other
sitting companionably and drinking coffee.

“
So…you
said you’d got some bad news. What was it.”

Tristan
rolled his eyes, “Way to kill my vibe chick.”

Ava
laughed, “Sorry. Forget I said anything.”

Tristan
shrugged, “Tell me about you. How does a nice girl like you end
up as a roadie?”

“
The
money’s good. And the experience is invaluable,” she said
with a shrug.

“
Let
me guess, you want to be a singer,” he said cynically.

“
Actually,
I want to be a producer,” she replied.

Tristan
nodded, “How’s that going?”

“
Great.
My GPA is at a steady 3.9 and I have a lot of practical experience.
I’ve also made pretty solid contacts over the last two
summers.”

“
Your
GPA? You’re in school?”

“
Don’t
sound so surprised.”

“
Hey,
I can pre-judge you too. By the way your clothes are dry.”

“
Great.
This robe is really comfortable though. I think I’ll hang in it
a bit longer.”

“
So
you were saying about your GPA.”

“
Oh
yeah; Berklee university, third year.”

Tristan
gave her a slow clap. Ava flipped him the finger. Tristan stood up
from his perch and came to sit right next to Ava, putting up his
hands.

“
I’m
not trying anything. I just want to sit next to you.”

“
I
didn’t say nothin,” Ava replied clutching her coffee cup
with both hands.

“
Talk
to me Ava. Tell me something great about your life.”

“
I’m
sitting here in this big ass trailer, after having had an epic
shower. Life is good.”

“
Yeah.
For me too,” Tristan agreed. They looked at each other and
smiled.