Miss-Fortunate Reality (11 page)

I
rested on my couch in my office and fell asleep. I woke up after lunch time
from a page from Jerry. “Yes”
“Mr. Mason is here to see you Mrs. Mason” said Jerry over the intercom “Oh let
him in”
Rob came in my office and he knew there was something wrong with me right away
“Alexandra, are you ok?”
“Yeah I’m fine now, I think that chicken was bad last night, I vomited rather
violently this morning, then I feel asleep” I said yawning.
“Why didn’t you go home?”
“Uh because I’m in the hiring process right now and being sick is not an
option, I need to make a decision this week”
“I came here to take you out for lunch”
“Yeah I could use something to eat, my next meeting is not till 2:30, so where
are you taking me?” I asked “Anywhere you want, what do you feel like?” he
asked “You know what, I feel like some meat, perhaps a burger and fries” I
said. He looked at me puzzled “You don’t eat burgers”
“I know, but I feel like one” I said grabbing my purse.
“Where’s you suit jacket?”
“It’s soiled, Jerry is taking care of it” and we left.

I
ended up working late, with everything going on I was feeling the pressure and
I wished there was a way to cancel the Cairo trip but Rob was having none of
it. As far as he was concerned we needed this time together to work on us and
after we moved to London, who knew when we could take a vacation next.
By the time I got home it was 7:30 and Rob was sitting in the kitchen waiting
for me, dressed and ready to go out to dinner.
“How was the rest of you day?” he asked.
“Long, I’m sorry I forgot about the reservations” I said yawning.
“That’s ok I moved them for later, but you look exhausted”
“Yeah I feel it too” I began “Rob, I’m not really hungry right now, all I wanna
do is sleep, would that be ok?”
He sighed “I had to pull a lot of strings to get these reservations moved
Alexandra” he said crossed.
“Alright, let me go wash up and we’ll go”

A
few minutes later we were out the door in his Maserati. He kept talking to me
about some deal that Bill had made that went sour and he ended up losing some money
but my eyes kept closing on me and I could not stay awake. All of a sudden the
car stopped and it woke me, we were at home again. I looked at him and he was
already out of the car. He opened my door and helped me get out “I’m not taking
you to a 5 star restaurant sleeping” he said pushing me by the small of my back
to the house. I knew he was mad but I had no energy to stand my ground so I
went upstairs to bed again.

The
next morning, I was feeling better and rested. Rob was getting ready to leave.
“I’m sorry about last night baby” I said wrapping my arms around his stomach.
“That’s alright, as long as you’re feeling better”
“What did you have for dinner?” I asked him
“Left over Chinese”
The thought of that made me feel sick again.
“Anyway Alexandra I have to leave right now, I have a meeting at 9am, I will
see you later” he said and kissed my forehead.
“Ok I love you” I managed to say but he was already on his way downstairs and I
was about to vomit again.
I ran to the bathroom when I heard him leave and stood by the toilet as I felt
the regurgitation come on and all of a sudden I vomited again just as violently
as I did yesterday.
When it was all and over and I was feeling better, I jumped in the shower and
started thinking about food poisoning. In the past the vomiting came with
stomach pain and diarrhea but this was just vomiting, so I made a mental not to
call Doctor James when I got to work.
I was in the midst of putting my make up on and smudged one of my eyes while
putting on mascara. I opened the vanity mirror to look for the makeup remover
and saw the unopened package of tampons. It had been weeks since I’d gotten my
period last but I wasn’t sure when I was due next. So I grabbed my cell phone
and looked at my calendar and low and behold I was 5 days late.
No, that’s impossible, I thought. The gynecologist that Rob took me too told me
it was impossible for me to conceive, I had no eggs to fertilize, although I
always thought it was strange because I still got my period on a regular basis.

I
called Jerry to tell him I would be late this morning. So I got dressed and
went to the drug store, bought two types of pregnancy tests, one for early
detection and the other was just the regular kind.

I
opened both packages and tested myself on both units. I left them in the
bathroom sink and went downstairs to get something to eat as I felt extremely
hungry. Grabbed some cereal, that didn’t fill me, so I grabbed an apple and
then I had a bagel with Nutella.

About
half an hour had passed and since I was too busy eating I had forgotten all
about the tests, so I ran upstairs to check on them. The first test had two
solid pink double lines and the other a solid plus sign, I looked at the boxes
for the instructions and I began to hyperventilate. My first instinct was to
call Victor.
My hands were shaking as I dialed his extension number.
“Victor speaking”
“Vic”
“Baby girl, is that you?”
“Yeah” I said
“What’s the matter, you’re breathing funny, are you ok?’
“No” I started crying
“Alex? Talk to me”
“Victor I’m not sure how this is possible, but I’m pregnant”
“How far along?”
“I have no idea, how do you tell?”
“Hold on a sec, let me do a Google search”
“Ok when was the first day of your last period”
“July 8
^th
I think?” I looked at my calendar “Yeah that makes sense”
“Ok if you are, then you’re 3 weeks along, and you would have conceived
sometime between July 18 to the 26
^th
”
My heart sank and I couldn’t speak. Tears rolled down my face uncontrollably.
“Baby girl are you there?”
“What are my going to do Victor? I slept with both of them around that time”
“Where are you right now?”
“I’m at home, I was sick this morning and I was planning to get there at lunch
time”
“Get Phillip to pick me up on your way in and we’ll go have something to eat
and we can talk, ok?”
“Ok, I’ll see you later and thank you”

Lunch
time couldn’t come soon enough. I was on the phone all morning with Jerry and
the sample makers just to keep myself busy and my mind off the fact that I was
pregnant and I had no idea whom the father was. The whole thing felt like a
Jerry Springer episode.

Victor
hugged me tightly when he got in the car. I rested my head on his chest while
he put his arm around me as we drove to our favorite place.
“We’ll figure this out Alex” he whispered.

“So
let me get this straight, you didn’t use protection while you were with Marc?”
he said taking a bite of his veggie burger.
“No, as far as I know it’s impossible for me to have children, and I haven’t
been on the pill since I was 30”
“Your saving grace darling is that you slept with both of them, Rob will assume
it’s his, how would he know?”
“Rob has blue eyes, Marc has brown eyes, Rob has black hair and Marc is blond.
He’s gonna know if the baby is born with brown eyes and blond hair Vic”
“Unless the baby looks like you with black hair and green eyes” he pointed out.
“We’re speculating what the baby will look like Vic, but the real problem is
who’s the actual dad. Do I tell Marc this has happened? Or do I just let it go
and hope to hell it’s Rob’s”
“Baby girl, even if it was Marc’s baby, you cannot contact him, I know in your
mind, this is a way to get him back and I know you didn’t plan it but you’re
still hung up on him. But he’s moved on with his wife and his other three kids
that he can barely afford. If you tell him, two things can happen, he won’t
care or he will and if that’s the case Rob will find out and then what?”
“Rob will leave me”
Victor sighed “Let nature takes its course, don’t tell Rob now, surprise him
next week while you’re away and he’ll be over the moon”
“I love you Victor, I wish you were straight, I would have married you instead”
Victor laughed “You couldn’t handle me baby girl”
“So what’s going on with Carlos?”
“OMG, I’m in love Alex, that’s all I can say, amazing, amazing”
“Wow, do I hear wedding bells?”
“If I play my cards right, perhaps, hopefully, who knows, we are thinking of
moving in together though”
“Shut up!”
“Yeah, when you sprung this little London move on me, I was really bummed and I
still am. But he came over that night and told me he wanted to wake up next to
me in the mornings and go to bed together, grocery shopping and what not, so he
was thinking we could sell our places and just buy a bigger condo, closer
downtown”
“That’s amazing Vic! I’m so happy for you” I said “And congratulations to you
my dear Alex? You’re having a baby and I better be the god father” he said
raising his glass to me.
“I’m so scared Vic, a baby, moving, two offices, it’s so much”
“You’ll make it work darling, I believe in you”

When
I got back to the office, instead of calling my family doctor I called Doctor
Daren, the gynecologist friend of Rob’s. He agreed to see me later in the
afternoon.

I
was his last client of the day. I filled a questionnaire since I hadn’t been
there for over three years and when I was done he called me.
“Good afternoon Mrs. Mason?” he said shaking my hand.
“Hi, thank you for seeing me last minute”
“Anything for Mr. Mason and his wife”
“Ok, I took some pregnancy tests this morning and they are positive, which is
strange to me since you told me I have no eggs, so we had lost all hope by this
point”
“Well Alexandra, hormones can change that, and chances are that what’s
happened, let’s do a blood test to confirm it all before we start jumping to
conclusions” he said getting the syringe ready.
“How soon would I know?”
He sighed “Oh, early next week” he said inserting the needle in my arm.
“Ouch…is there any possible way you can text me or call me on my cell, we’ll be
in Cairo next week on vacation, and I would love to be the one to tell him
we’re having a baby”
“Um sure, I can have my receptionist contact you” he began “Ok you’re good to
go, have a great time next week and I will be in touch”
“Thank you so much” I said and went home.

Rob
wasn’t there yet and it was passed 6pm. I went upstairs got undressed and felt
an overwhelming need to sleep again. I laid down and that’s exactly what I did.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

I was up early Friday morning, and
so far no morning sickness. I got into work before 8:30 and Jerry was already
there sitting by his desk talking to what sounded like the head of production
were some of our clothes were produced. I stopped by his desk and listened.
“The pocket calls for a zipper Frank, it’s not my problem your staff ignored
the instructions, you need to get in there somehow and make sure that pocket
has a #7 zipper” said Jerry
“No we will not grant you extra time, you have this in your instructions and on
the  physical sample. We have a due date and so do you and that’s when we
expect it, is that clear?” he continued.
“Frank, I understand your predicament, but understand you’re not the only
production company around here and this is ongoing, make Alexam Limited happy and
I’ll make sure to keep you happy” said Jerry and hung up grinning wide at me.
I exhaled “Come to my office when you get a chance” I said smiling back at him.

As
I sat in my office going over the June financials I started to think about Marc
and our time together. I wondered how he was able to go form hot
to
cold in a matter of a few hours. But he was right, I
couldn’t understand what he was he was going through and what he was about to
put his kids through. An ugly divorce, visitation rights, Pam constantly at him
and the pressure of paying child support and alimony for someone that barely
cleared forty thousand dollars a year. But what about me and this baby? Had I
chosen to leave Rob two weeks ago, I would have raised it on my own, which was
fine because I needed no financial support from anyone, and like me, the baby
would have grown up without a father figure. I sighed.
I glanced at my phone to check messages, other than some from Victor, the last
message I got from Pam was the Saturday before Victor and I ran into them at
the Eaton Centre. Almost a week with no contact from her, I guess she’d gotten
the message that I was no longer interested in her friendship.

About
thirty minutes later Jerry came in my office with a big smile. “Guess what?” he
said as he closed the door behind him.
I laughed “What?”
“I have a date this weekend with none other than Paul” he said grinning.
“Paul our pattern drafter?”
“Yup!”
Interoffice relationships I frowned upon, but Jerry had earned his keep and
Paul was a sweetheart so I was glad for them.
“Awesome, where are you going?’
“He said something about a play, I
kinda
lost him
when he asked me out. He kept talking but I was mesmerized by his blue eyes”
I laughed again “Alright well let me know how it went when I get back in a
week.”
“What time is your flight?”
“Tomorrow morning, we arrive at Montreal at around 9ish with a ten hour layover
then we’re in the air again for another 8hrs and we arrive in Rome for a 4hr
layover and then we arrive in Cairo 3 hours later. So we’ll get there in
approximately 17 hrs.”
“Ouch! that’s long”
“I know and trust me I’m dreading it but at the same time I better get used to
it if I’m gonna be flying back and forth between London and Toronto, which
brings me to the reason I’ve called you here”
“Oh”
“Relax, it’s not a bad thing.” I began “I’m not good with this so I’m going to
cut right to the chase” “I want you to take over operations while I’m gone” I
said.
Jerry gasped.
“Before you get too excited” “It’s a trial period, I will give you three months
to show me what you’re made off. I will give you a ten thousand dollar raise
now, and in three months if you perform, there will be another twenty thousand
added to your salary plus bonuses, and the end of the year there will be
another increase. If you do take this job, you will need to hire an assistant
and you have a week to do so, and I know it’s short notice but I’m more than
confident you can do this”
“I don’t know what to say other than I love you” he said, he was shocked.
“I love you too that’s why I’m giving you the opportunity, you know how to do
this, you’ve been doing for over two years and I know you are more than
capable. Certain things like financial reports as such will still go through me
first”
“Holy crap, I can’t speak, this is like the best Friday ever” he said sitting
back on the chair.
“Now, you can take over my office, but when I’m here obviously you’ll have to
fight me for it” I joked. He was still looking at me wide eyed.
“So I take that as a yes?”
“Honey, that’s a HELL YES!” he replied.
“Ok, so last thing. Keep it hush until I come back, when I make the public
announcement, then I will talk to the staff and we’ll present you as President
for the Toronto Head Office”
“Thank you so much Alex, I don’t know what to say”
“Say you won’t disappoint me”
“I won’t disappoint you”
“Good, ok, you are dismissed”