An Unexpected Love (Complicated Love Series #2) (7 page)

Ugh…my head is banging and the muscles all over my body are aching and so sore. I’m feeling like I’ve been run over by a truck and my mouth is so parched. I’m lying on my stomach and raising my head slowly, I notice a massive drool patch on my pillow. Ugh, must have been a heavy night last night from what little I can remember. When Joshua and I were in college together we always used to say that it was a good night if you couldn’t remember it the next day! I smile and clutch my head when I try sitting up and throwing my legs over the side of the bed so I’m sitting upright. This is one mammoth of a headache. I hear a groan beside me and freeze, not knowing who I’m going to see in my bed.
Did I actually bring someone back?

“Morning, Karl!”

Right, no pet names which means I should be able to get rid of her quickly. I hate it when you have a drink with a woman and take her back to yours for sex, only to then wake up the next day with the woman calling you, babe, baby, or some other stupid pet name that means more to them than you. I’ve had countless women who’ve started calling me baby the next day, and I’m quick to shut them down and get them out. I don’t want or need a relationship, and I will be dammed if these women I hook up with think it’s anything more than sex.

“I have an awful headache, but it was well worth it especially waking up next to you.” She crawls behind me and wraps her arms around my neck. She starts feathering kisses up and down my neck and I’m trying to feel turned on, but I must have been insanely pissed last night because this morning she’s really not doing it for me. I have to get her out of here and fast before she tries it on anymore. I shoot up from the bed and clutch my head, as the quickness of my sudden movements, makes me dizzy. I really need some Tylenol right now.

“Don’t you need to go? I think it’s getting kind of late and I need to be getting myself to work.”

She looks at me and purses her lips. “Is this your way of getting rid of me?” She frowns and looks hurt that I’m trying to get rid of her. “I thought we could go and get some breakfast together or maybe eat breakfast here?”

Oh God, I was wrong about her. She’s obviously a woman that thinks it was more.

“Look…” Oh crap, I’ve forgotten her name. I rack my brain trying to think of it, but I’m not having any luck and the more time I spend standing here, the more her face is getting red and I’m pissing her off.

“My name is Kimmy?” She looks at me as though I should know this, and me not responding again is making her angrier. She flips the cover off of herself and stands up in front of me in all her naked glory.
What’s wrong with me?
Her body isn’t doing anything for me, not even a twitch. She huffs past me and dresses quickly before grabbing her bag and keys.

“Clearly you don’t remember my name, and obviously you don’t want me here, do you?” She places her hands on her hips and looks at me expectantly.

“Look, Kimmy…it is what it is. It was sex at the end of the day.” I grab my watch off the bedside table and glance at the time. “I’m sorry, but I have to get to work. I will call you.” I usher her out of my apartment and slam the door in her face. Leaning against the door, I take a deep breath then I hear a knock and a whining voice.

“Karl, you didn’t ask for my phone number?” I can’t take much more, so I head to the kitchen to take some Tylenol and to make a strong coffee. I’m sipping my coffee in the kitchen when I hear a scream.

“Fuck you, Karl! You weren’t that good anyway.” I shake my head and take another sip of my coffee. What a nightmare! Think I’ve dodged a bullet there. I should really stop all this shit I keep doing every other night. I like to party, so what, but it’s situations like this one that make me think I should be treating women with more respect, but they do know what they’re signing up for. I always make it known that I’m not looking for anything serious and nine times out of ten I don’t see the woman again. It’s the way I’ve done it for years, but there’s always some woman who doesn't listen and then we end up like this. I told her a lie because I don’t need to be at work at all. In fact, I haven’t been in work for a few weeks now and I really can’t be bothered at all. I thought being an architect was what I wanted to do, but I’m so bored with it now and all the work is falling to my PA, Claudia. She’s a fantastic PA, but deep down I take advantage of her especially considering I’m never there. My cell rings and I grab it from my chest of drawers and see that it’s Claudia calling.

“Hi, Claudia.”

“Don’t you, hi Claudia, me! Where the hell are you, and why are you not here? You do realize it’s 1:00 p.m. and you had meetings this morning!” I don’t know what I can say to help alleviate her pissed off mood.

I sigh. “It’s all good, Claudia, I just had a massive night, that’s all. I’ll get ready and head straight in.” I can’t seem to find the motivation to care that I’ve missed meetings or I’m late for work. This isn’t what I want to do, but I’m not sure how to proceed from here.

“Too right you’ll get your butt here, quick and fast, because your financial advisor is due here at 3:00 p.m.”

“What? Why do I have a meeting with Keith?” I’m confused as to what he wants. I haven’t seen Keith for a while, and the only contact I’ve had with him is through e-mail. So why is he suddenly wanting a meeting at the offices?

“He phoned this morning and wanted to speak with you, but since you weren’t in, he scheduled an appointment for this afternoon.”

I sigh, stand up and stagger toward the bathroom. “Okay, let me get sorted and I’ll be in before three.”

“Make sure you do, Karl, because I’m sick of running this office on my own. And don’t come in reeking of booze. At the very least have a shower?” She’s like my mom sometimes, but she keeps me on my toes.

“Thanks, Claudia, see you soon.” I end the call and take the quickest shower before trying to find a suit that has at least been dry-cleaned. I find a black pair of trousers on the floor and a white shirt that’s draped over the chair in the corner of my bedroom. It’s a bit wrinkled, but it will have to do. The only thing that looks dry-cleaned is my black suit jacket which is hanging in the wardrobe. I dress quickly and don’t bother putting on a tie because I hate them being so constrictive around the throat. I rummage around in my wardrobe until I come across a pair of black shoes. They need a bit of a polish, but I don’t have time, so I slip them on and grab my wallet and keys before walking out of my apartment and sliding into my car.

I pull up outside Reach Architect Design in my Ferrari 458 GTB. It was a present to myself when I first took over the company from my father. It’s a brilliant metallic blue and all the ladies love it. I get out of my car and make my way inside not even acknowledging the receptionist as I walk past, I honestly can’t remember her name or if I’ve even met her before. Pressing the lift for the fourth floor, I step in. When the doors open the first person I see is Claudia. She looks pissed standing there in her gray pencil skirt and white blouse. Her silvery hair is up in a bun and there’s not a hint of a smile on her face. She has her arms crossed over her chest and her hips are cocked to the right while she taps her foot. I have to try and calm her down before she keels over.

“I’m here, Claudia. I’m sorry, okay? I’m here and I’m early to see Keith.” I step toward her.

“Well, at least you’re here now, but you need to get your act together, Karl! This is ridiculous the way you are behaving. You need to sort yourself out!” She stomps her foot and marches off to her desk. I’m really going to have to make this up to her somehow. I rush into my office to prepare for Keith’s arrival.

Keith arrives exactly on time at 3:00 p.m. and Claudia escorts him into my office and excuses herself so we have some privacy.

“Hello, Mr. Stanford, it’s good to see you again.” I round the desk and shake Keith’s hand.

“What’s with the Mr. Stanford, Keith? Why do you have to call me that? Stop being an idiot.” He starts laughing and smirks at me.

“Oh, sorry, just trying to act professionally that’s all. I’m here in a professional capacity today, not your friend, Karl.” He takes a seat and I round the desk and take a seat opposite him.

“So Keith what brings you here today?”

“Look, Karl, I’m here because we need to discuss the future of Reach Architect Design.” I sit up straight because I don’t believe this is going to be good news.

“Okay, I’m listening. What’s up?”

“I’ve been checking over the books and I’m sorry mate, but the business is losing money and fast. It’s not making enough money and if it keeps going on like this, then you’re going to end up bankrupt.”

This isn’t the news I was expecting to hear, and I’m finding it hard to care. Maybe this is a good thing? I took over my father’s business, purely because that’s what my father wanted. He always told me that Stanford’s were made to be Architects and that I would end up running the company one day. I was an only child and my father expected me to take over. My mother did have another child with another man before my father came along, so I do have a stepbrother, but we don’t talk much apart from a few sporadic phone calls. When my mother died, my father was even more determined to have me help out at the office, and he encouraged me as often as he could while I was at university. Then when my father died, I felt that I had to carry out his final request. I didn’t want to be an Architect or to take over the family business, but I had no choice and this was what I was apparently born to do. Now maybe I can finally be free of the business I never wanted and find something I really want to do.

“Okay…uh…wow! I didn’t see that coming. What are my options?”

“The only thing you can do is spend time trying to change it around, and hopefully get this company making some money or the other option is to sell it.”

I fist pump the air in my mind.

Could I do it?

Sell the company and find something else to do. I can’t carry on like this anymore, and it’s not very fair to the staff, especially Claudia who’s been trying to run this business for me, obviously without much success. I have no drive to continue and I don’t think I want to. My father isn’t here to make me feel bad, so now is the time to do what I want to do.

“Okay, Keith, I want to sell the company.”

This past week has been going great and I’ve kept out of trouble by rocking up to work earlier than the time I’m supposed to be there. It’s been keeping me out of Mrs. Davies office, and I guess that’s a good thing. My date night out with Brandon was superb. He took me to Palm Springs. Since moving here to Los Angeles, I’ve always loved going there and it’s so sweet that he remembered. I had my favorite New York strip with hand cut French fries tossed with parmesan, garlic, and peppers served with spinach and green beans. I’m trying to be sophisticated and try red wine which was Brandon’s choice, but I ended up with my favorite Vodka and lemonade. The atmosphere was awesome, and I really enjoyed myself, but the thing lacking was a conversation. Making small talk is hard when the other person doesn’t provide any information or the other half of the conversation. He’s always so quiet when we go out, and I’m not quite sure why.

He was the perfect gentleman as always and drove me home. I live in an apartment off Main Street, it’s not very extravagant and probably more like a bedsit. It is paid for by QD Fashions, so all I have to worry about is utility bills and that suits me just fine. Brandon walked me to the door and gave me a peck on the cheek before saying he’d call me. He walked away before I could even ask him in for a drink. When we first got together, we had sex, a lot. Hot, sweaty, orgasm explosive sex. It was the best I’d ever had apart from the one time I don’t want to think about, but for ages now we haven’t gone there and I’m getting physically frustrated. I even had to go out and buy a vibrator, and I’ve never purchased or needed one before! Believe me it gets a lot of action and it’s stupid, but I don’t want to have that conversation with him.

I like the way we are, well I tell myself that. I just don’t want to start having conversations about relationships. This isn’t a relationship. I did tell Annabelle that I had found the one. Otherwise, she would have worried about me. I’m not telling her that there are no feelings there on my part because I hate to think of the lecture she would give me. I’m trying my hardest not to think about a particular hot, blue-eyed Oxford guy that invades my thoughts even after all these years. I start thinking about him, and then I remember the hurt I felt and the anger surfaces.
This is why I can’t think about him!
I’m glad that he lives so far away. I always speak to Annabelle, but we never talk about him and there’s no need to. Sometimes I feel like I’m using Brandon, but he seems content to continue as we are. He treats me great and never expects anything from me. I feel so comfortable around him, it can get awkward when we don’t know what to say to each other half the time, but it’s also weird that I feel safe and comfortable around him. He hasn’t met my parents yet, and I haven’t met his father. Meeting the parents hasn’t been talked about. My parents know about him, but I like to keep them out of my life at all costs. They never approved of me moving to Los Angeles, and to top it off they always seem to have an opinion about everything. I feel like I’m not good enough, but they would approve of Brandon and the fact he manages a magazine company called L.A Gossips. It’s a magazine about celebrities and what they get up to. When I first learned about what he did, it was a shock because I never pictured him running a magazine. Maybe a financial advisor or accountant or something, but a gossip magazine was not what I imagined him doing. He seems to love his job though and he’s kind of a workaholic.

It’s Saturday and I have the weekend off, so I’m going for a relaxing day. I don’t have any plans to see Brandon, and Lily is busy nursing a hangover from a party she went to last night. I’ve spent the morning watching junk television and browsing through magazines. I don’t spend a lot of time relaxing in my pajamas so when a day comes around that I can, I take it. I’m just tucking into my chicken sandwich when my cell starts ringing. I glance at the screen and notice it’s Lily.

“Hey Lily, what’s up?” I hope the reason she’s calling has nothing to do with getting up from this couch because I’m too comfortable right now.

“Hey girl, fancy a girls’ night out, tonight? Let’s check out some clubs…dancing, drinking, that type of thing?” It had to be something like this. When I first moved here permanently we used to go out loads, but that all stopped when I found out I was pregnant. I instantly wanted to change the way I was when I moved here, but what Karl did hurt me, and finding out I was pregnant was even worse…

I looked at the two pink lines on the test and it was like the walls were closing in on me. Why did this have to happen, and with Karl’s baby? My heart was breaking so much since I returned from London. I couldn’t help how he made me feel, and his rejection stung so much.

Still I’m going to have a baby.

It took me a while to get my head around being pregnant…three weeks to be exact. I’d decided to keep the baby a secret up till this stage, but I’m definitely having it. I’d made an appointment to see the doctor. Now that I knew in my mind what I was going to do, I needed to get checked out. The appointment was booked for that afternoon and I was going on my own. The only person I knew over here was Lily and she was still a stranger to me, so I had to go alone. It was horrible being over here when my parents and Annabelle were back in London, but I had to keep this a secret for now. I couldn’t have Karl knowing about it. We used a condom for god’s sake and I still get pregnant! He made it quite clear that he didn’t want me, and he soon moved on, so this needed to be kept quiet.

Arriving at the doctor’s office I felt all kinds of scared and my hands were shaking really badly. I walked through the double glass doors and made my way to the reception desk. I gave my name and she directed me to a waiting room. Looking around at all the old pictures of Los Angeles, which were plastered around the waiting room. There were magazines in a pile on the table in front of me, so I picked one up randomly and started skimming the pages. I didn't really see the words, so I just glanced at the pictures. My heart was beating frantically and my palms were all sweaty. I couldn’t stop thinking of Annabelle and our conversation yesterday. She phoned me to see if I’m alright so I faked a cheery voice and made out everything was okay. She was telling me about her pregnancy, and she was telling me how excited she was. She’d finally got the approval she wanted from Joshua’s mom, Sienna. When they first met, she was greeted with quite the frosty reception even though she was still in the hospital after having a miscarriage. It took ages for Sienna to welcome Annabelle into the family, but I guess having her grandchild growing inside her would help things along. I had so many opportunities to tell Annabelle, but I just couldn’t do it, and she would want to know who the father was, which would put her in an awkward position. It was best this way.

“Miss Campbell?” I got up and followed the doctor into his office. He was a middle-aged man with a caring face that put me at ease straight away. “What can I do for you?” I took a deep breath and prepared to verbalize my pregnancy, which in turn, would make it much more real.

“I’m pregnant!”

The doctor’s appointment went smoothly and I felt more comfortable and relaxed now. The doctor explained everything to me, and I had to wait until I was at twelve weeks for my first scan. Some days I thought about telling Karl and I let myself get swept up in the idea of us excited for our baby. I kept dreaming about him, and in this dream we were a couple. He treated me well and our relationship was everything I knew it could be if he weren't such a jerk in reality. I picked up my cell so many times to tell Annabelle too. I was drowning with trying to cope with this alone. Lily was constantly on my case about going out and enjoying myself, but I couldn’t do it and I knew she would know that something was up if I didn’t want to drink. I’d been feeling more tired, and the morning sickness was a nightmare, but I was getting through it and I kind of felt excited knowing that I had a baby growing inside me.

I was four months pregnant and I was utterly shocked that I wasn’t showing as much as I thought I’d be. I bought some stretchy trousers, and when I wore them with a blouse, it looked like I’d just put on a bit of weight. Lily had mentioned my podgy belly as she called it, and I always laughed it off. I needed to tell my boss and Lily eventually, but I wanted to keep it a secret as long as I could.

I was beginning to enjoy my time on my own and I spent most nights in front of the television stroking my tummy and imagining what my baby was going to be like. I had my ultrasound and it was unbelievable to see this gray and black blurry picture on the screen. I paid for an image to keep and I kept it on my bedside table.

I woke up and looked around my bedroom in the morning checking the time, it was only 6:00 a.m. I felt sort of woozy and had a bad headache. I felt like I’d peed the bed, so I turned on the light and threw back my covers. I didn’t expect what I saw next…a pool of blood. I started to panic and I grabbed my cell and dialed 911 for an ambulance. It took me two tries because for a second I forgot where I was and dialed 999 which is the number used in the UK. The ambulance arrived and I was taken to the hospital.

Unfortunately, I lost my baby. How could this happen to me? I did everything I was supposed to, but it just wasn’t meant to be. They checked me over and after the doctor had made sure I was fine and physically fit to go home, I was discharged. I now understood completely how Annabelle felt, and it hurt so much. I took time off work to wallow on my own in my apartment. Whenever Annabelle, my parents or Lily phoned, I always acted my cheery self. It was harder keeping it from Lily, though, but I told her I had the flu and would be back to work soon. Nothing needed to be said now. The baby was gone, and nothing was going to bring it back. I had the time on my own to grieve and I shed a load of tears. I went back to work two weeks later and tried to move on.

“Tracy you there? You haven’t spoken in like five minutes, and you haven’t answered my question.” I jerk awake at the sound of Lily’s voice and try to recover from my trip through the past.

“Sorry…I was just thinking.” I need to stop reminiscing and fast before I get dragged down with the pain and hurt. “You bet, Lily, count me in.”