10. Cecelia
Iwas there to make a point, and as long as everyone talked over me and didn’t listen to anything I said, the point was lost. Georgie was upset, and I was the only one who seemed to care about her at all. Maybe this hadn’t been one of my smarter moves.
Sterling’s date was a nasty piece of snobbery. But then again, I was a non-entity to someone like her. I was a member of the working population and below her consideration. Whatever. I did not need her getting in the middle of my attempt at having a conversation with Sterling. And I really didn’t need her upsetting the baby.
I unstrapped Georgie and lifted her out of the car seat. I did my best to soothe her. While I was taking care of the baby, an older lady came over and started talking in hushed tones. My attempt at getting Sterling to understand that he couldn’t dump Georgie on me would never be properly made.
From the initial look of triumph on his date’s face, I figured I would be kicked out of the event in a moment.
The older lady turned a smiling face to me. The date scrunched up her face and pulled her pursed lips back and actually snarled. I wasn’t certain what was going on. Georgie sniffled and settled, but she was wide awake now and looking at all the bright lights and colors that were around us.
“Are you serious?” the date said. “That’s it, I’m calling a car.”
“Katherine, don’t call a car,” Sterling said. He sounded exhausted.
“I don’t think you can say anything to me that will change my mind about leaving.”
Sterling shook his head slowly. “I’m not trying to change your mind. Don’t call for a car. Take the limo.”
“Wha—” Her voice was shrill at first before she lowered it to a whisper. “What do you think is going to happen here, Sterling? This evening has been ruined.”
He nodded. “Yes, I know. Take the limo. I’ll get a car. You shouldn’t be put out anymore.”
“Don’t think this means you can call me after this,” she said before she turned with a dramatic flip of her hair and stormed off.
“What a darling little girl,” the older woman said as if the drama of the moment before hadn’t happened right in front of her. She held her hands out to take the baby. “May I?”
I handed Georgie over.
“I haven’t held a baby since my grandchildren were little. She is so precious,” she cooed over Georgie. “What’s her name?”
“Her name is Georgie,” I answered before Sterling had a chance to.
“I didn’t know you had a baby,” she continued to coo in the same tone of voice. People always talked crazily around babies. I wasn’t any different.
Sterling cleared his throat. “She’s not mine.”
The older woman stopped her bouncing from side to side and leveled a neutral stare at Sterling. I recognized a disapproving glare when I saw one.
“She’s my late sister’s child. I only have temporary custody. Robin, I do apologize for what happened,” Sterling started.
“I think the two of you need to talk without any additional interruptions. I will take Georgie here, and you go dance and talk.”
Robin swirled away with Georgie in her arms.
“Fine,” I said as Sterling grabbed my arm again.
He placed his arm around my back and began a slow, turning dance. It took me a moment to realize he was waltzing with me. Once I realized what we were doing, I stopped fumbling over my feet and began to dance.
“You ruined my date,” he said with a stern tone.
Being this close to him, even with him upset like this and my being angry at him, it still confused my body. I shouldn’t have felt butterflies in my middle, and my pulse shouldn’t have been racing.
“While I had no intentions of ruining your date, I needed to get my point across. It’s not my fault you dropped Georgie off unannounced or that your date wasn’t understanding.”
“What was I supposed to do with her?” Sterling asked.
“I don’t know, she was your date.”
“I mean the baby,” he grumbled.
“Come on, Sterling, you are a smart man. You wouldn’t be where you are today if you weren’t. And I’m sure your butler, assistant, Wayne, is also a smart man. Somehow, I think if the two of you had put any thought into the situation, you could have figured something out.”
“I called the agency,” Sterling said.
He was a good dancer. I kind of hated it. Moving so smoothly across the floor in his arms should not have felt this nice. But it did, and I liked it entirely too much. We were so close together, it was hard to keep eye contact. I kept staring at his mouth.
“I don’t work for some kind of staffing agency.”
“They told me that you would help me out. That I should ask you,” he said.
I sighed. He didn’t want to do the hard work, so he took that to mean that I would babysit. “They didn’t mean I would watch Georgie. They meant, ask me how to find childcare. How did you find out where I live, anyway? Did the office tell you?”
If someone at work told him where I lived, I was going to pitch a fit. That was information that they should not be giving out.
“I was running out of time,” he practically snarled. “Wayne did a reverse look up or something. He got your address off the internet.”
“Look, I get it, taking care of Georgie is more complicated than you expected. But taking shortcuts that interfere with other people, that interfere with my life, isn’t going to help. Maybe I would have been available to help out tonight if you”d asked. But you didn’t. You can’t do that to me. I will not put up with it. Georgie is your responsibility, not mine.”
“I overstepped,” he admitted.
“Thank you for saying that.” We were both quiet for a long time after that. The wind was sucked out of my indignant sails. Saying he”d overstepped was a gross understatement. I would never get an apology out of a man like Sterling Alexander. An admission of action was the best I was going to get.
He tightened his arms around me, and I rested my head on his shoulder. This was far too comfortable, far too exhilarating.
“Having Georgie in my life has been more challenging than I could have anticipated.”
I didn’t say anything, letting him talk.
“I wasn’t prepared. Nothing could have prepared me for learning of Argene’s death. She was so young and vibrant. She was so much younger than me. I had no idea that she had a child. I’m only willing to admit I don’t know what I’m doing because it’s completely obvious.”
His words were low, soft murmurs against my cheek. I wanted to lean into him. Anything to get closer and let those whispers of breath become flutters of his lips against my skin. I couldn’t, shouldn’t be thinking these thoughts I was having about him and his lips and my body. I needed to be professional.
“I know having Georgie is hard. If it’s too much, you need to let me know. Ideally, she should stay with you, but if you cannot, are not capable of caring for her, you need to tell me. Think about it over the weekend. We can find a foster situation for her until her bio-father is located.”
“What happens if he isn’t located?” His voice was rough.
“She’ll be placed with an adoption agency. It’s not what her mother wanted, but if that’s what’s best for the child, that’s what we need to do.”
He stopped dancing and glowered at me. His arms caged me in. “No.”
“Trust me, it’s better that she be raised by people who want her around, and not someone who considers her a chore.” I pushed out of his embrace and looked around to see if I could find the woman with Georgie. They were sitting at a table. Georgie had the woman’s earring half in her mouth, half in her fists. The woman smiled and had all of her attention on the baby. They were fine.
I put my hand on Sterling’s chest. He wrapped his warm hand over my fingers, and I felt that touch in my core somehow. My throat went dry. This whole situation was hard.
“Good night, Sterling. I’ll see you in a few days. We have another appointment, unless you want me to have someone else assigned to your case.”
“No.” His thumb skimmed back and forth over the back of my hand. “I don’t need someone else assigned to my case. I’ll see you.”
I walked away. When I crashed into the party earlier, it was so obvious to me that’s what I had to do. But this felt wrong. Leaving him like that seemed wrong. I stopped at the valet desk on my way out.
“Could you please call a car for Mr. Alexander? He’ll be leaving soon,” I asked as I handed over the ticket for my car.
I took one of the many twenty dollar bills out of my pocket and waited.
“Thanks.” I handed over the tip as the valet held my door open for me. I looked back over my shoulder, seeing if I could get one last glimpse of Sterling in a tux before I left. I didn’t see him. There were too many people between us.