Chapter 13
Story continued from our Premiere Issue
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Erik wasn’t sure what he was going to do next but he ended up at his brother’s house. It was early evening so he was pretty sure George would be home. He knocked on the front door, ignoring the bell so he would avoid waking Jessica if she was sleeping.
The door flew open. “Erik!”
“Hey George.”
“What’s going on?” George stepped back to allow his brother to enter.
“I needed to talk to someone.” Erik murmured, following his brother down the center hall of his house toward the kitchen.
“You want something to drink?”
Erik slid onto a chair at the kitchen table. “Some coffee would be great.”
Nodding, George set up a pot of coffee, then leaned against the counter to wait for it to brew. “You don’t look so hot.”
“I’m not feeling so hot.” He looked around. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
“Nah. Bernice is out with some friends and Jessica is sleeping.” George responded. He grabbed two mugs and filled them with the freshly brewed coffee. “You want sugar?”
“Sure.” Erik accepted the hot mug and the sugar dispenser. “Thanks.”
George sat across from him. “What’s happening?”
Gazing over George’s shoulder, Erik gripped the coffee mug in both hands. It was really hot, but he didn’t seem to feel it. “I’m having a problem, man.”
“I figured as much. What is it?”
“It’s a woman.” Erik sighed.
George groaned and leaned back in his chair. “I’m not sure you should be talking to me. Why don’t you call your friend in Maryland? She’d be better at advising you on this, I’m sure.”
“Robyn.”
“Right…Robyn. She’s a woman, she’d give you a woman’s point of view.”
Erik shook his head. “Robyn is the woman.”
“Oh, hell.” George took a sip of his hot, black coffee and frowned at Erik. “This is your best friend, right?”
“Yeah.”
“When did this happen?”
“Back in September.”
“You’ve been seeing her since September and never said anything?” George couldn’t mask the disbelief in his voice.
“Uh, not exactly.”
“What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?”
“We had a very…interesting weekend in September.” Erik began.
“You mean you had sex.”
Cringing at the blunt statement, Erik nodded. “At the time, I thought it was the beginning of a new course for our relationship.”
“Then what happened?”
Erik took a gulp of his coffee. The hot liquid burned all the way down his throat and he coughed once. “We had to separate to go home…and it felt like everything shifted the minute we were out of sight of each other. You know I was just starting that project in California so I was away a lot…”
“And?”
“The more I was away, the more unsure our relationship seemed to be.”
“Was she seeing someone else?”
“No.”
“Were you?”
Erik shook his head. “But when we talked, it was always awkward. And neither of us really brought up what happened that weekend.”
“So why didn’t you just forget it and move on?” George asked curiously.
“I didn’t want to. I wanted to be with Robyn.” was the quiet response.
“Did you tell her that?”
“Not exactly.”
“Which means no.” George sighed heavily. “Okay, then what happened?”
“She started acting funny and avoiding me.”
“Did you think she was seeing someone else at that point?”
“I didn’t think so…but I was so wrapped up in San Diego and how I was feeling. She says there was no one else.” Erik’s voice was somber.
“You’ve talked with her about all this?” George was surprised.
“Yeah, that’s where I was today.”
“In Maryland?”
“Yeah.”
“And what did she say?”
“She was pregnant.” Erik said bluntly, tears pressing at the back of his eyes. |
George whistled sympathetically. “She didn’t tell you.”
“No.”
“Did she have the baby?”
“She miscarried.”
“Do you believe her?”
“Of course I do!”
George held out his hands in apology. “Okay, I was just asking.”
Erik frowned. “She swears she was going to tell me but she miscarried pretty early on.”
“Okay, assuming she was telling the truth about that, too, then why didn’t she tell you after she miscarried?” he asked.
“She says she wasn’t sure I wanted her for a ‘real’ relationship. She says that’s why she didn’t tell me about the baby right away. She said she thought I’d feel trapped like…” he trailed off, not looking at his brother.
“Like me.” George finished for him. “Is that what you thought? That Bernice trapped me into this?”
“I don’t know! You’re a young, happy, single playboy one day and the next you’re married with a baby on the way.” Erik grunted. “What was I supposed to think?”
“Am I unhappy now, Erik?”
He studied George for a moment. “I don’t know.”
“You’ve seen me with Jessica…am I unhappy?”
“I guess not.”
Nodding, George finished his coffee. “Okay, lets get back to you. She miscarried and didn’t tell you…”
“I guess it was right about then that she really started avoiding me. I really wanted to talk about us…to see her in person again and hold her in my arms. She pulled away…hard. Then she said she met someone through her mother.” he admitted. “She was talking to me like we were best friends again…telling me about him and their dates.”
“Ugh. And he was perfect, right?”
“Oh, yeah. And I was mad. I was mad that she had blown me off and gone right into someone else’s arms.”
“You pictured them together? Doing things you wanted to do with her?”
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