Cancelled (15 page)

By Monday, even Johnathan was happy to leave the quiet woods behind for the faster pace of the city. Alex took to hiking a little to keenly, and his feet were aching to operate the clutch, brake, and gas pedals. The weather had turned into a nasty squall of an early summer thunderstorm. Twigs, leaves, and other debris flew through the air as he struggled to keep the car on the road during the gusts of wind.

Alex was still checking messages as they began to see signs for Washington. After stowing her phone back into her purse, she pulled out a notebook Johnathan had never seen before.

“I've always dreamed about having an autumn wedding. What do you think about an October or November date?”

“As in a few months or next year?” He didn't really like either option. Next year was too far away for his tastes, and this fall his daughter would be born. Johnathan was out of real excuses to not tell Alex all about the baby, and the DNA results were due any day now.

“Which do you prefer?” she asked.

Johnathan mulled it over. A confined car wasn't the time or place to tell her about his daughter. If it was his daughter. As he found the exit to enter the Beltway, the sign for Silver Springs brought a compromise to his mind. “I don't really want to wait until next year, but four months might be a little too soon. We're crazy busy at work, and you said yourself that new contracts will come in as the fiscal year starts. What about an engagement dinner this fall, and the wedding in the spring?”

Alex sighed. “Fine. If I can't have an autumn wedding then we can go with my back up, a 1920s theme. Great Gatsby. Big Band music. We can make our engagement dinner like a speak-easy.” Alex furiously wrote down notes in the notebook.

Johnathan checked over his shoulder for oncoming traffic, and flicked off the turn signal. “Why do we have to have a theme? Isn't the theme engagement and wedding? Or love, how about love? That's a good theme.”

“It makes it easier to plan things, Johnathan. If we have a theme, according to my wedding magazines, it will narrow down our choices for attire, decorations, invitations...everything. You can even wear a Fedora during the ceremony.”

“I don't want to wear a Fedora.”

“Why not?”

“Because this isn't a sorority mixer, Alexis. It's our wedding. We don't even have a budget yet.”

“We can't set a budget until we know what we want, like venue, caterer, my dress—”

“We set the budget before we pick those, so we stay within the budget.” The windshield wipers made an awful screeching noise as the car drove through the invisible curtain where the rainstorm stopped. Johnathan quickly turned them off.

“No. We research first and find out the prices of our tastes and then craft the budget around that.”

Johnathan gave up. This was a pointless argument. He was out of his element. How did she already have wedding magazines when they'd only been engaged for three weeks? They must sell them at bookstores, though he couldn't recall ever seeing them.

Finally getting a chance to check his own phone once they made it home, Johnathan hung by his car for an extra few minutes before grabbing the luggage. Alexis was already inside, getting dinner started. He preferred his own cooking to hers, but now knew you don't ever admit that to a woman.

Browsing through his texts, Kellie's number was one of the first ones from Friday afternoon.

RESULTS IN DEF. A GIRL DADDY

Johnathan deleted the message and tossed his phone into his bag. He grabbed both pieces of luggage and made his way to the door. Unable to place his feelings, he felt a mixture of relief and dread. For weeks, he had secretly hoped for both the baby to be his and for the baby to not be his. Now that it was certain he was going to be a father, his plan for telling Alex became even more of a blank.

As he closed the front door behind him, he could smell pasta cooking on the stove. “I'm going to take the bags upstairs, okay?”

“Sounds good,” came Alex's voice from the kitchen.

Johnathan carefully side-stepped the piles of boxes they had yet to unpack from his apartment. Placing the bags on the floor of their shared bedroom, he took his phone back out.

WAS GONE FOR WEEKEND. JUST GOT MESSAGE. HAPPY TO HEAR THE NEWS, WHEN IS NEXT APT?

Closing his eyes, he drifted into a pseudo-sleep state. With less than ten minutes of rest, he heard Alex calling him down to dinner. He grudgingly rose from the bed and resolved to tell her everything. Just not tonight.

The firm was just a few weeks away from overseeing production of ten armatures for Hedis and the Claw still wasn't fully operational. Johnathan still hadn't told Alex about the baby. With the closing of the second quarter at the end of June, time together didn't exist with the extra work loads on both of them. There hadn't been a single good night to break the news and deal with the fallout.

Johnathan held his temper by a thread in their owners quarterly meeting against the immature demands of Eric for more funds for R&D.

“We don't have the money. That's it. There is no capital to outfit a microelectronics test lab.” The two of them had gone around and around for over a month about increasing the company's equipment.

“But if we upgraded, we could bring in more jobs, build the capital, and repay a loan.” Eric said.

“I don't understand. What's wrong with adding another lab to the workshop?” Alex asked, tapping her pencil on her legal pad.

Johnathan tossed his own pen down on the table and leaned back in his chair. He shifted slightly towards his left, more towards Alex. He let out a deep sigh.

“Microelectronics are very expensive. They'd let us design more sophisticated connections between the mechanical movements and the software. Develop better AI." He readdressed Eric. "But plenty of options are already on the market. There's no guarantee a vendor will manufacture a new chip on our design." Johnathan touched his forehead with his hand, before giving his final word. "It's a big gamble."

“Artificial intelligence?” Alex looked at both men's faces to see she had guessed correctly. “And you're against investing in newer technology?” She addressed her question to Johnathan.

“No, I'm not against it, per se.” Johnathan chose his words carefully. Eric's ideas always excited the engineer in him, but it was another task to make them profitable. “In another five years we'll be strong enough to branch out, like specialized microelectronic components. But with only three years of operations, I don't want to dilute the brand we've made for AJE as industrial and rugged robotic designers.”

“Ah.” Alex responded, making a note on her pad.

“Hold on! Microelectronics can add to the projects we're already working on. Come on, Johnathan. We could develop better circuitry for larger machines, reducing the control base to such a small target," he made a model size with his hands, "the uptime of projects like the Bluebird would be infinite.” Eric said.

Johnathan sucked in a deep breath. “Our clients can't afford such innovation. I'm sorry, my vote is no. Not right now.”

“And I agree.” Alexis said, writing down the final decision in her legal pad.

Eric's nostrils flared and he tucked his pencil behind his ear. He stood up and calmly pushed his chair in. “I guess I should get used to being voted against. Two to one.” He opened the conference room door and shocked both of his business partners by slamming it shut.

Alex used her fingers to pull her hair back, and twist it up, like she was going to pull it back with a hair tie. It was a movement that distracted Johnathan every time. She went back to tapping her pencil on the paper.

“We really don't need this equipment?” Alex asked.

“No, we don't—” Buzzing on Johnathan's hip interrupted his thought. He grabbed his vibrating phone to check the incoming message.

THINK I'M IN LABOR. CONTRCTNS EVERY 10 MIN. I CAN'T GET IN TOUCH WITH NE1. HELP. K.

“I need to go.” Johnathan jumped up, sliding his light-weight plastic chair lined with a thin support of metal a good three feet back.

“Is everything okay?”

“I don't know. I'll explain later.” Johnathan gave Alex a kiss and hurried to close down his office. He texted Kellie back.

ON MY WAY. J.

Jonathan fought the speed limit the entire way to the hospital.

“Are they getting closer?” Johnathan asked. Kellie held her growing belly, but even Johnathan knew twenty-nine weeks was too early.

“Not sure. They're kinda random.” Kellie pushed her breath through her mouth with great concentration.

“We're almost there.” Johnathan gritted his teeth. Part of him wasn't sure if he hoped the baby did come too early. It was a terrible thought, but the convenience of such a tragedy flitted through his mind.

Pulling into the parking lot of the Emergency Room, he supported Kellie as she walked to the entrance. He approached the triage nurse.

“My, uh, my—” Johnathan looked at Kellie and couldn't think of a word to describe her. She wasn't his girlfriend, and other words failed him. He settled on friend. “My friend thinks she is in labor.”

“And you are?” The triage nurse looked behind him at a pained Kellie sitting in the chair behind him.

“I'm the baby's father.”

The nurse motioned for an orderly to grab a wheelchair. “You have to go to the other side of the hospital to the women's center. They will help you there.”

Johnathan was aghast. What kind of ER sends a woman in labor to the other side of the hospital? It wasn't until Johnathan and Kellie were settled into a labor room that he understood all of the special equipment needed. His complaint to hospital administration evaporated seeing that Kellie would get better care here.

The scientist in him watched, mesmerized, the line generated by a seismograph sensor recording Kellie's contractions on paper. Her small groans brought his attention back to the people in danger and away from the data.

“Does it hurt?”

“Not too bad. She's just going to town in there,” she explained. Johnathan gazed at her exposed belly and tentatively raised a hand to rest on it. “It's okay, you can feel. She'll probably kick you.”

No more than a few seconds passed before he felt a definitive kick. He jerked his hand immediately away.

“She's so strong!” Johnathan marveled at the growing life before him. His emotions choked up in his throat. How could he have wished the baby wouldn't survive? He felt like a monster.

A knock on the hospital room door brought both of their attentions to the entering Dr. Harper. “Ms. Szachowski and Mr. Michaels. I don't want to see you two here.” Dr. Harper tried to lighten the mood as he donned a new set of gloves. “Kellie, I'm going to check you really fast, alright?”

Kellie nodded. She bit her lower lip and closed her eyes for the quick check. After the exam, Dr. Harper snapped the gloves off and tossed them in the trash can by the sink. Grimacing, he washed his hands. He addressed them both while drying his hands off with a paper towel.

“Good news is you're not dilating.”

“So these are Braxton-Hicks?” Kellie asked.

Johnathan moved out of Dr. Harper's way so he could inspect the graph paper. “Let's not jump to that conclusion just yet. Hmmmm.” He frowned when he studied the last quarter of the record. Dr. Harper gave terse orders to a nurse who had stealthily entered the room.

“Kellie, we're going to start an IV. First, we'll give you some fluids. I also want to draw some blood and do a urine dip to check for any infections. Mm-kay?” Dr. Harper used a much more soothing tone than he just had with the nurse.

“Okay.”

“Do you have any questions?”

“Um, the baby seems to be kicking and moving around a lot. Is that bad?” Kellie asked, timidly. Johnathan was glad she asked the question, because he wondered the same thing.

Dr. Harper warmed his hands and felt Kellie's belly. He was rewarded with a similar performance that Johnathan felt earlier. He smiled.

“That's a fantastic sign. We'd be more concerned if the baby wasn't responding to the contractions. Now, if the baby settles down, don't panic. Remember, she still needs rest, too. And the fluids will help reduce the impact of the contractions on the baby.” Dr. Harper explained.

“Thank you, Dr. Harper,” Johnathan added lamely. He didn't know how else to contribute to the situation, and it bothered him.

The nurse returned with the equipment and supplies to start an IV and perform a urine dip. Johnathan squeezed Kellie's hand.

“I'm going to grab some coffee at the cafeteria. Can she have anything?” He asked the nurse.

“She can drink anything clear. I'll ask the doctor if he wants her eating.”

Kellie looked up at Johnathan with terror in her eyes.

“You're not going to leave are you?” she asked.

“No, no.” He gave her side-shoulder hug. Who was reassured more, he couldn't say. “I just want to give you some privacy and then I'll be right back.”

Kellie nodded and gave a weak smile.

After a few false leads, Johnathan eventually found the cafeteria. Revived by a cup of coffee, he checked his watch. For 3:00 PM, the cafeteria was surprisingly busy. He pulled his laptop out of his bag and was surprised to see a free wi-fi connection. He opted to use his mobile plug-in anyway.

He checked his email and ignored the one from Alex. Logging into his bank's online services, he should have done this back when he found out the baby was his. A few quick clicks and information on Kellie that he had from signing up with the doctor, he created a separate joint account for the two of them. As one final touch, he deposited $2,000.

Before exiting out of the website, he wanted to check on making the baby a trust fund. He was dismayed to learn there needed to be a name associated with the account, and they didn't have one. Not yet. Exiting out of the registration and back to the main list of accounts, Jennifer's account showed a full amount of $25,000. He knew there was no way his mother didn't spend every penny of that money within a few days of stealing it.

Clicking on the link to get more information about the account, he nearly spit out his coffee onto his screen. The account showed $25,000 transferred back on May 7, from an account ending in -8413. He knew exactly who owned that account: Anna.