Cancelled (8 page)

Settled on his overstuffed black leather couch, the end of a romantic comedy played out on Johnathan's 48-inch flat screen. Dirty dessert plates and nearly empty coffee cups littered the living room table in front of them. Instead of watching the happy resolution between the characters, Johnathan and Alexis were two teenagers making out while their parents were out for the evening. Leather creaked as Alexis pulled back to catch her breath. She tucked her thick tresses behind her ears and smiled at Johnathan.

With a slight growl, Johnathan took the smile to be an invitation. He effortlessly snatched his date from the couch cushion next to him and settled her on his lap, straddling him. Sinking his head back into the top of the couch, he began to slide his hands up Alexis' thighs under her dress. Her hands flew to the interlopers and stopped them. She leaned in to kiss him and remained close.

“I don't think we should have sex tonight,” she said.

He groaned slightly and exhaled.

“Is there an explanation?” he asked.

Alexis kissed Johnathan's forehead and lifted herself up to stand just out of his reach. Johnathan felt the soft fabric of her dress slip over his hands as she moved away. Pushing his hands into the depths of the couch, Johnathan adjusted his body to balance on the edge of the sofa.

“Don't you want to make sure that isn't all this is? The titillation of sexual tension between two long-time friends?” She grabbed her hair and twisted it up, using a black pony-tail holder he didn't notice around her wrist. Alexis picked up the dishes and carried them into the kitchen, placing then gently in the sink to make only a slight noise.

Johnathan stood up and followed her with the coffee cups. “Hey.” Johnathan snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her towards him. “I'm not going to hurt you.”

“I know.”

“Mmmmm?” Johnathan snuggled his face close to hers, grabbing another kiss.

Alex looped her arms around his neck and leaned back, seizing his blue spheres with her own chestnut brown orbs. “I don't want us to sizzle and fizzle out.”

Johnathan burst out laughing. He twirled her around and pulled her into his lap as they sat at his kitchen table. “Sizzle and fizzle? Where do you get this stuff? First we can't tell anyone, now we can't have sex? I'm beginning to think you're ashamed of me.”

Alexis lifted herself off his rather bony knee and turned to face him, hand on her hip. “When you put it like that, yeah, it sounds bad. But I can't...I can't screw this up.” She grabbed her purse from the counter and slipped on her shoes by the door.

“You really have to go?”

Alex kissed him and gave him her best smile. “I didn't bring a change of clothes and we have to work in the morning.”

This sparked Johnathan's imagination: the two of them getting ready for work in the morning. Together. Fighting over the last bagel. Pouring each other a cup of coffee. His heart stirred and patience for her zany rules came much easier.

“Let me grab my jacket. I'll walk you to the Metro station.”

He held her hand the entire way and worried if she thought his escort was odd. Just before she walked through the point of no return and scanned her Metro card, she erased his worries. “Good night, Sir Johnathan. See you in the morning.”

On his walk home, Johnathan made a call to a local florist he used to send Anna flowers and ordered a dozen orange roses to be delivered to Alex's office. If she wanted to be won over, then he was going to play along.

Johnathan spent most of the work week in the lab with Eric working on the Hedis prototype. The circuitry was the most intricate projects contracted to date, and every design change took both of them putting their heads together. More than once Johnathan appreciated Eric's brilliance and regretted his MBA. It wasn't until Thursday that Johnathan received a missive from Kellie via email. Her first appointment was next week, on St. Patrick's Day. He checked his calendar and frowned. He had promised Alex a true Irish dinner at his apartment. How was he going to make dinner for her at 6 and still make Kellie's appointment at 3:30?

He ducked out of his office and made a beeline for Alex's. She was on the phone but waved him in. Johnathan waited patiently for her to end her call.

“Hey, I'm glad you stopped in. That was Simms. We need to refile the incorporation papers. Can dinner next week move to 8?”

Johnathan couldn't believe his luck. Things between him and Alex were still PG-13 rated. Telling her about Kellie would scare her off, he was sure.

“I don't know...8 o'clock on a school night?” He pretended the time didn't fit perfectly into his plans.

Alex smiled and put him in his place. “I'll bring an overnight bag.”

Johnathan jumped behind her desk, leaning down to give her a very long and passionate kiss. “Saints alive! I love the luck of the Irish.”

Alex pushed him away and glared at the open door. “You're only Irish by marriage, on your stepmother's side.” She giggled at the little jig he performed to dispute her fact.

A knock on the door by Eric interrupted their joy, and the change in atmosphere felt palpable. “Um...guys?” Eric handed a drawing to Johnathan.

Johnathan studied the paper and rubbed his neck at the nape. Alexis stared at him before realizing herself and finding paperwork of her own to inspect.

“This test out?”

Eric flashed a boyish grin. “Yep. Wanna see?” He was already out of Alex's door and Johnathan followed swiftly. Before leaving, he grabbed the door jamb and blew a silent kiss to Alex.

Alex opened her email to respond back to Simms and murmured “Boys.” under her breath. It wasn't the first time gadgets trumped her.

6

H
aggard breath exhaled from a very rotund woman next to him convinced Johnathan she would give birth at any moment. The HD flat screen gave regular advertisements on birth control, the hospital's birth center, and tips on nutrition and parenting.

“True or false? Only occasional smoking doesn't cause any lasting damage on the body?”

Johnathan scowled at the holier-than-thou television voice.
Depends on what the occasional smoking would be replaced with, wouldn't it?
He felt partially validated when the voice-over slide show gave the answer that while better than smoking a pack a day, even occasional smoking could cause lasting harm to the lungs and throat. The next question about sexually transmitted diseases lost his interest.

“Do you need any of my information?” he asked Kellie sitting next to him on the other side.

“Nope.”

“Not even for insurance purposes?”

“Oh. I put down none, but my mom mentioned I could apply for Medicaid.”

“You can if you want, but I'm happy to pay for the bills until...”

Kellie flipped a sheet over and scratched out her previous writing. She handed the clipboard to Johnathan to fill out his information.

“Are you rich or something?”

Johnathan stopped writing. She was being crass about a very personal subject. “No.”

“Really? You drive a Porsche. You dress really well, even I can recognize designer brands. And you're offering to pay for everything when this is going to cost, like, thousands of dollars.”

“My father is dead.”

Kellie's face twisted into a look of mortification. “I'm-I'm sorry. I didn't know.” She ran her thumb under her left bra strap to adjust it and looked at the infomercial spouting TV. Suddenly, she turned back to him. “I don't get it.”

Johnathan cleared his throat. “My dad left me a small inheritance, which I used to start my company. Things are going well and we have no debt. I am just living up to my responsibilities. How he raised me.”

“Oh.” Kellie's cheeks turned red. Wistfully, Johnathan shook his head at her lack of tact. He finished the last of the paperwork with his information and put his name down for HIPPA rights. He doubted she even knew what they were. The pen attached to the clipboard by a chain of rubber bands made a final tapping noise as he finished his signature on the promise-to-pay form and handed the entire packet to her. She walked the newly available clipboard/pen combo and packet of papers back to the front desk.

“Kellie Szachowski?” A nurse propped the door between the waiting and exam areas, holding a neon yellow, see-through clipboard. Kellie's flip-flops flapped as she made her short journey to the door. Johnathan watch her momentarily as she responded to the nurse's summons. Her tight jeans accentuated her increasing curves. He briefly wondered how long she would be able to fit into them before he jumped to grab the oak door and hold it open for her. Kellie turned back and gave him a raised eyebrow before continuing her path after the nurse.

Johnathan paced the hallways as Kellie was weighed and asked to give a urine sample. Both were shown to an exam room full of posters of female reproductive anatomy and ironically, advertisements for birth control. A knock on the door startled Johnathan away from his inspection of a counter across the room. An older gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair introduced himself as Dr. Harper. He explained that while he would be Kellie's main doctor, if he ever wasn't available, another doctor in the practice could deliver the baby or respond to emergencies.

Kellie nodded to Dr. Harper's explanations. Johnathan wasn't so sure he liked this practice, the women in the waiting room were shuffled around like cattle. But it wasn't his choice to make.

“Johnathan?” Kellie's voice caught Johnathan's ear. He realized he wasn't paying attention and everyone in the room, Kellie, Dr. Harper, and the nurse with entirely too much make up, were staring at him.

“I'm sorry, what did I miss?”

“Dr. Harper needs to examine me. Can you wait in the hall?”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Johnathan looked at the ground as he took the two half-steps to the oak door, but didn't miss the nurse's confused look.

“I'll let you know when the doctor is through,” the nurse said, as she closed the door behind him.

“Thanks,” he said, but he wasn't heard. He pulled out his cell phone and texted Alex. The weirdness of the situation wasn't lost on him and he mulled over telling her all about the baby tonight. But what if he came clean, ruined everything with her, and it turned out the baby wasn't his?

HOW'S MTG GOING WITH SIMMS? GOING TO STILL MAKE DINNER?

Johnathan stumbled backwards when the nurse reopened the exam door. He felt stupid for standing and leaning against the door.

“You can come in now, Mr. Michaels. Dr. Harper has a few questions for you.”

“For me?”

The nurse smiled at him. He knew that particular smile. Kellie must have told them they weren't together, together. “Yes, your family history. For the baby.”

“Right.” Johnathan stepped in and shook the doctor's hand once again. “What can I tell you?”

Before the man could talk, Kellie interrupted. “Dr. Harper doesn't recommend an amniocentesis for paternity. He says we could lose the baby.”

Johnathan squared himself to the doctor. “It's not just for paternity. My youngest sister has Down's.”

Dr. Harper started scribbling in Kellie's chart.

“I see. Were there other risk factors? Advanced maternal age?”

“My mother was over 40 when Ava was born. But I also had a cousin with cystic fibrosis.”

“How old did your cousin live to?”

Johnathan shrugged his shoulder. “I don't speak to my mother's side of the family.”

Dr. Harper continued to write. Johnathan interrupted his note taking to ask questions of his own. “How can drug use in early pregnancy affect the baby?”

“By the mother or the father?” Dr. Harper didn't look up from the chart and asked without judgment to his voice, just clinical observation.

“Both.”

Dr. Harper frowned.

“It was the night we met. I hope that was the only time,” Johnathan said, looking to Kellie. She gave him the evil eye.

“Technically speaking, as long as neither one of you are regular users, the chances your reproductive cells were affected are slim. For the first few weeks, the baby doesn't live off the mother for sustenance, but we're at—” Dr. Harper flipped Kellie's chart to read the LMP date “fourteen weeks of gestation? At this point, the baby is getting just about anything Kellie puts in her body, so drug use now could affect organ development, brain development, and cause a whole list of other issues.”

“Does your office drug test?” Johnathan asked.

Dr. Harper looked from his patient to her companion, then back to his patient. Kellie's face was turning red and tears brimmed in her eyes.

“By law, we test for drugs at various stages in the pregnancy. Is there a problem I'm not aware of?”

Johnathan relaxed his shoulders from a rigid position. Kellie snapped her head towards him and glared as she spoke. “No, there isn't a problem. I'm clean.”

Johnathan pulled out his cell phone when it buzzed in his pocket. He had a response from Alex.

LEAVING IN HOUR STOPPING BY HOME.

It was almost 4 PM and he needed to get home to start the corned beef. Quickly calculating in his head, with a stop at home, Alex would be there at seven, not eight. Johnathan put his phone back into his pocket and flushed at both the doctor's and Kellie's looks of annoyance.

“As a general rule, we don't allow cell phone use during exams.” Dr. Harper didn't wait for a lame apology from Johnathan. “Kellie, so far your numbers look great. The front desk will schedule your ultrasound and we can go ahead and do the amnio. With any luck, I will be able to tell you the baby's gender, but the amnio will be definitive.”

Dr. Harper closed the chart and before opening the exam room door, he gave Johnathan a cold expression. “Mr. Michaels, the front desk will also give you instructions on how to give a sample for the lab to check against.” He didn't respond to Johnathan's quiet thanks before leaving the exam room.

“I can wait outside for you to get dressed.”

“I've got a ride. You can go.”

“Are you sure?” Johnathan was relieved she didn't need him to drive her home, as he needed to get back into the city as soon as possible.