Millie
Millie
S he couldn’t believe that Ruby would do that to her. She had put her call on speaker with both Luke and Ranger in the room and gotten her to admit that she was pregnant with Ranger’s baby. She was a fool for trusting her former friend. That’s what Ruby was to her now—an ex-friend for what she had done to her.
Millie tried to think about her next move. She should run. That way, if Ranger came looking for her, she’d be long gone. But running while six months pregnant wouldn’t work. She was already tired and having to pack up her stuff and leave now would be too much. Plus, she had already paid in advance for six months and didn’t have any way to come up with another down payment since she had just started her new job a few weeks ago. She was stuck—pregnant and stuck.
“He probably won’t even show up here anyway,” Millie said to her bump. She found herself talking to the baby most of the day. Working from home was lonely, especially with no friends or significant other to share her day with. She was completely alone, and that had to be the way things were now.
Her cell phone rang again, and she picked it up from the couch where she had tossed it after getting off of her call with Ruby. Her ex-friend had tried calling her four times now and there was no way that she was answering the call. She texted back to Ruby to leave her alone and shut off her phone. That should send her a clear message—hopefully.
As for Ranger, Millie was sure that finding out that she was pregnant wouldn’t change things between them. He had sent her a message and she received it loud and clear. After she foolishly asked him out, and he basically laughed in her face and told her no, he stopped talking to her all together. It was embarrassing enough to be turned down but to have him ignore her hurt.
The morning after they slept together, he pushed her to let him move into her apartment. He said it was for her own good—to keep her safe. That made her feel cheap like he had sex with her just so she’d agree to let him move in. He had used sex to get what he wanted from her—her compliance, and that was something she would not give him.
Millie refused to let him stay at her place, she told him that if he wanted to protect her, then he could continue to do so from Ruby’s apartment. She also let him know that if they wanted to stay with her because he wanted to be with her, then she’d allow him to move in. Millie had never seen a man backtrack so fast in her life. It was as if Ranger’s ass was on fire with the way that he beat it out of her place and went back to Ruby’s. He didn’t want her. He wanted to keep a promise to his friends that he’d keep her safe, and that wasn’t something that Millie was willing to help him do.
She wanted to kick herself for agreeing to take his job offer. Well, it wasn’t exactly a job offer. He said that McTavish could use someone with her skill set. She didn’t give him the chance to tell her that there wasn’t really a job offer. She foolishly believed that working with Ranger would bring them closer, and after they had sex, she wasn’t thinking clearly. Millie said that she’d take the job and asked Ranger when he wanted her to start and that was it. He told her to come in on Monday and he’d walk her through everything and get her set up with HR.
She wasn’t sure what she was expecting to happen after that. Maybe she had bought into the romantic notion of them spending time together at work and falling madly in love with each other, but that never happened. Ranger seemed to find ways to avoid her. He barely spoke to her unless it was absolutely necessary for work, and usually, he’d have Luke do it. He completely ghosted her.
When she figured out that she was pregnant, she knew that she had to make some hard and fast decisions. Millie thought about telling Ranger about the baby, but then, every time she tried to corner him to have that conversation, he dodged her. She tried to tell him five times—five, and when she got the brush off the fifth time, she decided that enough was enough. Millie knew that she couldn’t raise a child with a man who wouldn’t even speak to her, so she decided to leave town. What was the point of sticking around?
Ruby had stopped coming around as much since she and Luke had gotten a place out in the country. She saw her friend once or twice a month and that was usually around McTavish. Ruby was busy with Luke—building her new life and getting ready for the baby. Watching how happy her friend was should have made her happy too, but it didn’t. Instead, Millie only saw what she wanted and didn’t have. She was going to be a single mom and have no support from a loving partner. Sticking around and watching Ruby have everything that Millie wanted wasn’t her idea of a good time. So, she gave her notice at McTavish, making sure that Ranger would be the one to receive it since he was technically her boss, and then, she packed up her meager belongings and left town. She had found a job that she could work from home, and she really didn’t have to move—that part was a total lie. Millie could work from anywhere, but she knew that she couldn’t stay in town. Her friends would start noticing her baby bump sooner or later, and then, Ranger would find out about the little secret that she was keeping. Millie knew that she’d have to tell him about the baby eventually, but she wanted time to think before that happened. Plus, there was nothing he could do for her until after the baby got there. That’s when she planned on telling him and leaving town was her only option, and it worked out for her too—at first.
She liked her new little apartment. It had just enough room for her and the baby. Later, when the baby grew and would need a room of his or her own, she’d find a bigger place, but for now, she’d save some money for everything that the baby would need. Baby items weren’t cheap, and the crib alone was going to set her back almost a week’s salary. Still, she had a little bit of time and was a master at budgeting. Plus, she learned to scout out yard sales and secondhand shops for almost everything that she was going to need. If she played her cards right, she could be ready before the baby got there, and that was the plan. Millie would have to take a couple of weeks off, but for the most part, she’d be able to get back to work quickly, working from home. Being able to work around her baby’s schedule was one of the main reasons she took the job. Millie also liked the fact that she wouldn’t have to put the baby in daycare to return to work. She was really beginning to feel as though she had gotten her life together—until that call with Ruby.
Millie would have never thought that Ruby would betray her the way that she had, putting the call on speaker for Ranger to listen to and getting her to say things that she normally wouldn’t. Ruby wasn’t playing fair, and now, Millie had to figure out what to do next.
She sat back on the sofa, her hand on her belly, and smiled. “I think that we’ll stay right here,” she said. “I’m sure that your father won’t bother to come looking for us, and if he does, I’ll just tell him to leave us alone.” She half expected a response but got none. She knew that her plan to stick around could backfire on her. Ranger could show up and prove her wrong. The only question that remained was why was she actually hoping for that to happen. Millie didn’t usually like to be proven wrong, but in this case, she’d make an exception.