Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EVAN
“Ughhhhh,” I groan, yanking the dress from my body and hurling it across my living room.
It lands with an unsatisfying whisper on top of one of the piles of discarded clothes scattered around the room.
Giving the whole mess the finger, I flop into my favorite chair in my underwear, leaning my head back and blowing out a breath.
This fucking sucks.
Rolling my head to the side, I watch my axolotls line up against the glass, feather fins waving in the water.
“I know I should feel grateful I can get pregnant and have a baby or whatever, but god, you guys, I hate every fucking minute of it. First it was throwing up a million times a day, and now that I’m finally feeling a little better, nothing fucking fits.
Do you think I could just live in leggings and sweatshirts for the next six months? ”
When all they do is stare at me with those smirky faces, I sigh.
“Yeah, I know, that sounded stupid even to me. But am I supposed to get, like, a whole new wardrobe? I like my clothes. What I don’t like is any of this.
” I wave my hand in the general direction of my stomach that was suddenly sporting a bump when I woke up this morning.
A baby bump.
Because I’m having a baby.
Fuck my life, extremely not respectfully.
My phone rings, and when I glance down and see that it’s my mom, I roll my eyes up at the ceiling and figure my day can’t get any worse, so I might as well see what she wants. I stab the button to answer it, bringing the phone to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Evangeline, what’s this I hear about you not going with Chris and Rio to Florida for Christmas?”
It’s possible at this point my eyes are going to just get permanently stuck in the back of my head. “Hi, Mom, nice to hear from you.”
As usual, my mom ignores the niceties. “If you’re not going to Florida, what are you doing?”
I have to bite my cheek to keep from saying Not spending Christmas with you. Because my parents decided Christmas this year was going to be spent on a Mediterranean cruise. Without me. “I’m working. I have a trial coming up, and I need to prep for it.”
“Honestly, Evangeline, is work really that important? I’m sure Chris was counting on you being with him for the holiday. Imagine how lonely he’s going to be without any of his own family on Christmas.”
My stomach twists with the familiar combination of anger and sadness that is the hallmark of any conversation with my mom. “Well, I’m sorry. I can’t go. Chris loves Rio’s family and they love him. He’ll be fine.”
My mom lets out a dissatisfied huff. “You could have told me about this sooner. Christmas is a week away. The least you could have done was call to tell me your plans changed. I haven’t heard from you or seen you in weeks. It’s almost like you’re avoiding us.”
Because I am, I practically yell into the phone. I haven’t told my parents about the baby yet—I’ve been lucky to be able to dodge them for the last two months with vague excuses about work, but I think my luck is about to run out.
“Sorry, Mom,” I say with all the strength I can muster. “Let’s get together after New Year’s.”
“We’ll be back on January third,” she says. “I’ll calendar you for that week.”
Calendar me. Like I’m an employee instead of her own fucking daughter.
“Sounds good,” I say through gritted teeth. “Gotta go, Mom. Talk to you later.”
I hang up before she has a chance to say anything and grip my phone so hard I’m shocked the screen doesn’t shatter.
When it dings in my hand, I just barely suppress a scream.
But when I look at the message preview, it’s not my mom texting me with a calendar invitation for the first week in January. It’s Cooper.
My body immediately relaxes, my shoulders dropping as I suck in a deep breath.
Magic.
It’s been a month since our little elevator interlude.
A month since he cuddled me on the elevator floor and said we would figure everything out together.
A month since the power suddenly went back on and a whole group of first year associates almost caught me with my skirt around my waist and Cooper’s pants unbuttoned.
A month of blood pressure cuffs and candle-lit mornings in my office and breakfasts together and stolen kisses and some scorching hot secret office hookups.
A month of trying to navigate our situation and each other.
A good month. A settling month. A month where we seem to be floundering less and figuring it out more.
I pick up my phone, rolling my eyes again at Cooper’s message, but smiling despite myself.
Cooper
Did you take your blood pressure?
Me
Yes, Daddy.
Cooper
No. Absolutely fucking not.
Me
No daddy kink for you?
Cooper
One hundred percent no.
Me
But it kind of goes along with the whole, don’t swallow, let me see my cum on your tongue thing.
Cooper
It really, really doesn’t. That is straight sexy. The daddy thing is…not.
Me
I’m just fucking with you. I would rather die than call you daddy.
Cooper
But can I call you mommy?
Me
Oh my god, that’s even worse than daddy.
Cooper
It so is.
Me
I think our kid is going to have to call us by our first names.
Cooper
Agreed. We are completely not mommy and daddy.
Me
Ew, no.
Cooper
We call our grandma by her first name. This isn’t that different.
Me
What’s her first name?
Cooper
Cece. She never wanted to be called grandma or anything like that. When Jordan was born, she said she was way too young and cool for it, and the universe demanded all her grandchildren call her by her first name.
Me
Is she the one who thinks she’s a little bit psychic?
Cooper
The one and only. She’s a real mood most of the time.
How are you feeling?
Me
I feel really weird about being home and not in the office.
Cooper
It’s Saturday. You can work from home. Or maybe not even work at all? That’s a concept.
Me
I don’t know what I would do with myself if I didn’t go to the office on Saturday.
Cooper
That’s just sad, Rhodes. We’ll work on it. So why are you at home and not in the office?
Me
I was…unexpectedly detained.
Cooper
By what?
I click over to my camera and aim my phone at the clothing mountains, snapping a picture and sending it to him.
Cooper
What am I looking at?
Me
All the clothes that no longer fit me. I’m sitting in my living room having an existential crisis in my underwear.
The phone rings in my hand, and when I see that it’s a video call from Cooper, I laugh, hitting the button to accept it. “Had to see me in my underwear, huh?” I say by way of greeting.
Cooper grins at me. He looks all weekend cozy, sitting on his couch in a MassTech hoodie and glasses, his hair a mess like he didn’t bother doing anything with it after waking up this morning.
I have the sudden urge to crawl into his lap and bury my face in his neck to see how he smells in the morning. I’m so fucked.
“You know it, Rhodes.”
“Men really are all the same.”
Cooper shrugs. “I’d like to think I’m more evolved than most because my mom would kill me if I wasn’t, but you’re really pretty, and you have really great tits. I like looking at them.”
I smirk at him, angling the phone down so he can see my great tits encased in black lace. Literally the only upside of pregnancy is that they look amazing.
Cooper groans, his eyes flashing. “Hot as fuck, Rhodes. Hot. As. Fuck. So, tell me about your existential crisis.”
I settle back in my chair, holding the phone in front of me.
“I was going to go into the office, but I couldn’t zip the dress I put on.
So, I tried another one and couldn’t zip that one either.
Then I tried on everything in my closet, and nothing fit.
Literally nothing. And instead of putting the clothes away, I piled them all on the floor and glued my ass to this chair.
And then my mom called, and I shouldn’t have answered but I did because I’m a glutton for punishment, and I had to listen to her carry on about the fact that I’m not going with my brother and Rio to Florida for Christmas, which was not the time of my life. ”
Cooper narrows his eyes at me through the screen. “Why were you going to Florida for Christmas when your parents live here?”
“Because my parents won’t be here for Christmas.”
“Where will they be?”
“Somewhere on the Mediterranean. They’re going on a cruise.”
“Who lives in Florida?”
“Rio’s family. Chris and Rio trade off holidays with their families, and this year is Rio’s turn.”
“But you’re not going with them?”
I shake my head. “I was feeling so crappy when Chris asked me to come, and the idea of getting on a plane and being at someone else’s house when I was throwing up all day sounded like hell, so I said no.”
Cooper studies me through the phone. “But you said you’ve been feeling better. You brought actual caffeine to work yesterday morning and drank it without throwing up.”
It does something funny to my chest that he remembers I drank actual coffee yesterday for the first time in weeks.
That he pays such close attention to me.
“I did. I could probably go, but honestly, the idea of being in Florida for Christmas is kind of depressing. It’s all hot and stuff and it doesn’t snow.
I prefer my Christmases to be snowy and cold, if at all possible. ”
“Same.” Cooper grins at me like he’s delighted that we have this in common, but a second later the smile drops off his face. “Wait a second. If your parents are on a cruise and Chris and Rio are in Florida, where are you for Christmas?”
“I’m here.”
“Alone?”
I shrug, pointing the phone at my aquarium. “Just me and my three favorite salamanders.”
When I point the phone back at me, I see Cooper sitting up straight, his face a thundercloud. “Are you telling me that your parents know you’ll be alone for Christmas and they’re leaving anyway?”