SHEIKH'S SURPRISE BABY: A Sheikh Romance (51 page)

After finishing two more applications, his cell rang. He didn’t recognize the number, but with all of the applications he’d been filling out lately, he was hopeful it was a call about a job.

After a quick introduction, the person on the other end informed him that his ex, Tracy, was claiming him the father of her four year old child and was now seeking back-pay for child support.

“Whoa, whoa, what? This is the first I’m hearing about this.”

“You’ve been virtually untraceable in that time. Our records show you’ve been moving from state to state for some time avoiding your responsibilities. Well I’m here to tell you that’s caught up with you.”

“I haven’t been avoiding anything!” Miles jumped up from the couch, the job applications all but forgotten. “I’ve been trying to survive. I’ve been working and trying to find a place to live. Tracy’s had my number, and she never mentioned anything before. This is crap. I don’t believe it.”

“We have your address, sir. We’ll be sending you all of the necessary paperwork. If you want to refute the claim, be sure to fill out the forms by the deadline and send them back. Until then, save everyone the trouble, and get your financial affairs in order to start supporting the life you helped bring into this world.”

“It’s not my kid,” he said as much to the operator as to himself. When the line clicked, he shouted, “It’s not my kid!” and nearly threw his phone against the wall.

Four years back-pay for child support. The thought nearly brought him to his knees. How much was that? Even if it was just a few hundred, multiplied over twelve months, times four…

His eyes ached with the need to cry in his frustration, but he denied himself the release. Finally the sense that all was lost set in. Nothing he could do would fix anything.

Feeling completely desolate inside, lost, and positive the news would lose him the love of his life, Miles picked up his jacket and went out to have a drink.

Saundra sat on the couch biting her thumbnail while watching the commercials go by on TV. The shows were barely enough to keep her occupied so she didn’t implode out of anxiousness. Miles had been gone all day and wasn’t answering his phone. It was two in the morning, and she knew she was going to be a zombie the next day at school, but she just couldn’t sleep if she didn’t know he was okay. He’d been depressed about the job thing, and money. No matter how much she tried to tell him she had a handle on things until he had a new job, but he didn’t listen.

When she heard his keys at the door, she jumped from the couch and rushed over to unlock it and let him in. The slow way he looked up at her, confused as to why the door was open told her everything she needed to know.

“You were drinking?”

“Good evening to you,” he slurred. When he stepped into the door, she knew he didn’t mean to, but he lost his balanced and shoved her aside.

“Don’t tell me you rode your motorcycle home.”

Miles stumbled into the living room, looking around as though he lost something. “What was I supposed to do? Leave it all alone and scared in the parking lot. Hungry, crying.” He spun around to face her. “I had to.”

“I have been up worried to death about you, and you were out drinking.” She couldn’t believe what she was witnessing.

In all of the scenarios in her head, this had never even occurred to her. He was always so responsible with money, never spending anything he couldn’t replace with his own. After being together for so long, they had a joint account, and in all that time this was the first time he’d ever done anything like this.

“So how was it? Did you find a job in the bottom of a beer bottle?”

Miles snorted, kicked off a shoe and walked into the kitchen. His face was awash in the glow from the refrigerator as he was no doubt looking for something to drink.

“Miles, would you talk to me?”

He slammed the refrigerator door closed. “And when I speak you’re going to ear with your face?”

“What?”

“I’m just saying.” He took a few steps forward and leaned his hip against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re standin’ there, and I’m over here like, pfft, and I know it’s not going to matter.”

“Miles…” She pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to calm herself. Losing her temper now wouldn’t win her anything. He was drunk and not making sense.

“It’s stupid, okay?” he said. “I can be a pilot and sharpen pencils, and it won’t matter, because you’re just here like an island.”

“What does that even mean, Miles?”

He cupped his hands together in urgency. “You’re an island! And you’re not even floating, ya know? You’re there, and it’s like, you’re paradise and I’m just flying over. Well you know what? The plane is going down. Engines three and four blew. So drink all the little liquor bottles in the back, because when we crash, it won’t even matter anyway.”

All Saundra could do was watch with wide eyes as he furiously unbuttoned his shirt and pushed his pants down to his knees as he walked into the bedroom and fell onto the bed. What plane? He was beyond making any sense. The best she could hope for was to just let him sleep it off and hope he made more sense in the morning.

He was out in seconds, and she had to go take off his other shoe and finish undressing him before throwing the blanket over him.

She couldn’t stomach falling asleep in the bed next to him, so she grabbed a spare blanket and pillow and got comfortable on the couch. As she settled down in the dark living room, the words of her friend came back to her.

Was she holding him back because she was being so supportive? This behavior wasn’t like him at all. Was he getting worse? Did he rely on the fact that she’d always be there for him, so it gave him a safety net to go mess around and do whatever he wanted instead of taking care of his responsibilities?

She hated to think that was true, but she was starting to lose sight of what else it could be. She didn’t know how she could help him, and didn’t know if she should stop helping.

Miles sat slouched against the bar, staring into nothing, swallowing the last taste of his beer. He idly tapped the bottom rim against the cheap cardboard coaster as he waited for the bartender to come back around. The place was quiet, and smelled like stale cigarettes and even more stale people. There wasn’t much going on in the bar that night, which was why he preferred it. It wasn’t too far from home, but there wasn’t so much commotion that it made him feel overwhelmed.

He was already on sensory overload. He needed to numb himself. Numb his brain numb his heart, numb everything. Everything was collapsing all around him and the pain was just too much to take. Miles never considered himself a weak man. He’d had to fight and scrape just to survive every chapter in his life. Fighting was what he did. This was just a testament to how utterly devastated he felt. His support, his love, his strength was gone from him. Piecing away one at a time.

He’d have to tell Saundra eventually about this child he supposedly had, and then she’d leave him for good. He just knew it. There was no way she’d stick around, and he wouldn’t ask her to. How could he? After being such a screw up for so long, and then to suddenly dump a child and four years of child support on top of his perpetual unemployment? Who would stay?

The emotions started to rise from the void in his chest up to his face again, and he shoved it down with anger. Slamming his palm against the bar to get the bartender’s attention he called out, “Come on! What are you serving them, the whole bar?”

“I’m only saying this once, buddy,” the bartender called back. “Shut it and wait quietly, or get the hell out.”

Miles opened ups hands, ready for a fight, ready for any excuse to not think about the imminent loss of Saundra. “It’s not my fault you’re taking forever. If this place was a desert I’d be dead already.”

“What jerks,” a man said as he took a seat beside Miles at the bar. “Am I right?”

“Seriously,” Miles said. The anger, while a momentary distraction, was also driving off his buzz. Futilely he tipped back the empty beer bottle, hoping for a last few drops still in there but all he got was a touch of foam against the tip of his tongue.

The stranger set a beer down in front of Miles. “Here you go, have one on me.”

Miles set down the empty bottle and snatched up the fresh one without a word. He took a long pull from the bottle, needing the alcohol in his system, needing that coolness to wash through his stomach.

“Thanks,” he said belatedly after taking a few breaths.

“No problem,” the man said. “I always order two. I tend to go through my first pretty quickly and I don’t like having to wait for the second.”

“I’ll get you back as soon as he finishes up whatever he’s doing,” Miles said, raising his voice as he neared the end of the sentence so that he could be heard on the other side of the bar.

“Don’t worry about it. You seem like you could use it more than me. Troubles with the wife?”

“Sorta,” Miles said, taking another drink. The addition of the new beer reminded his body it was already loaded up with beer and his buzz started to come back. “Money troubles. It’ll lead to woman troubles.”

“Ahh,” the man said knowingly and took a drink from his own beer. “Ain’t that always the way it goes?”

Miles tilted his head, contemplating the bottle he was drinking. As it was he was spending money that wasn’t his just to pay for these drinks. Knowing he was doing that filled him with such horrific guilt, all it did was thrust him deeper into the abyss.

Maybe it was the man’s willingness to listen, or maybe Miles just couldn’t take it anymore, but he started talking. He told the man about his childhood, fighting all through his adulthood, and now trying so hard to be a person and just failing. Utterly. He even told him about finding out about the kid and knowing he was going to lose Saundra when all of that came out.

“What if money wasn’t an issue?” the man asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, let’s say I could help. If you were making money, do you think it’d help smooth things out?”

“I…” The possibility had never occurred to Miles for even a second. Now just to entertain the notion was almost frightening for him. He gave a slight jerk of his head. “Maybe. What are you, like a loan shark or something?”

The man laughed. “I’m not talking about loaning you money. Even if I were a loan shark, you just told me you wouldn’t be able to pay me back. In the end I’d just be losing money and I’d have to break your legs in the process. More work for me. No, I’m talking about you working and earning yourself some money. Good money.”

Could this solve everything? Miles looked at his new friend and sized him up. He was obviously a guy that knew how to handle himself. Whatever this job is, it wasn’t going to be something as simple as computer tech support or customer service.

Still, whatever he offered, if it kept him from losing everything he loved in his life, everything he’d worked so hard to achieve, he owed it to himself, to his future to at least consider it.

Saundra had her forehead propped against her hand, her elbow wedged against the car door as she drove. Miles sat in the passenger seat, watching the scenery go by. It was noon, and she honestly wasn’t sure if he was drunk this early in the day, or if he was simply still drunk from the night before.

They were on their way to her sister’s house. It was her nephew’s sixth birthday. All of her family was going to be there, and the last thing she wanted was for them to see Miles like this. They never approved of him in the first place, but to see him drunk this early in the day, the hell that she was going to get for it…

Saundra wasn’t sure she could take it. She was already filled with anxiety about life as it was. Now she was in a near panic about how the day was going to go.

“I’m not going to lie,” she said, her emotions getting the better of her, “I really wish you’d stayed home.”

“I’m not going to miss Jimmy’s birthday. I’m fine, I promise.”

“You’re not fine! You reek and you’re obviously drunk. How am I going to explain it?”

“Don’t explain anything. I’m not your problem. We’re going for your nephew, so maybe just stay focused on that and not how I’m going to embarrass you. I’m sorry I’m such a disappointment, but this is the best I got, okay?”

“You look like trash. You haven’t shaved in days, and I’m positive I’ve seen you in those pants for the last three days now.”

“Keep talking. I’m going to be thinking real hard about what you’re saying, so when I don’t respond, it’s not because I’m ignoring you, it’s just because I know you’re so right that I’m dumbed to silence.”

Saundra rolled her eyes and snarled. This was going to be a nightmare.

After pulling up to the house, purple, blue and green balloons and streamers lined the front of the house, three balloons tied to the mailbox.

Saundra got out of the car, opening the door to the back seat to pull out Jimmy’s birthday present. When she looked back, Miles was walking up the drive. She paused to watch each step he took. He wasn’t exactly steady, but he wasn’t wobbling like crazy either. They may be able to get through the day.

Miles waited at the door for her, but didn’t look at her as she walked up the drive.

“Ready?” she asked him. He just gave a smirk and opened the door.

When they came in through the door, a group of people chatting by the door greeted them cheerfully. After a few hugs, Saundra went over to the table stacked with all the other gifts. Miles followed along behind her, uncomfortable but determined to put a smile on his face. She appreciated that he was at least making the effort, but all she could think was that it would have been so much easier if he’d just stayed home.

“What’s the theme of this party? Diarrhea?”

“Miles!” Saundra whispered harshly.

“I’m sorry, but look at the colors. The kid’s six. There should be superheroes or dinosaurs or something.”

“Maybe these are his favorite colors,” she tried, but even as she said it she knew that wasn’t true. He loved the color red.

“You made it,” her sister cried out from the kitchen and came over for a hug. Mom and Dad followed over, giving her hugs and stiff handshakes to Miles.