Take Me Out (16 page)

I walked out into the kitchen and continued searching all over the house, but there was no sign of Bentley anywhere. I should’ve known once he came down to reality, he would run as far as he could and he did.

I picked up my phone and sent him a text:

Had to run while I was asleep? Have a nice life.

I threw the phone on the counter and started making something to eat. If there was one thing this baby was doing, it was starving me to death. I felt like a food garbage disposal. I poured a bowl of cereal and sliced up two strawberries to throw on top and sat down at the breakfast bar to stuff my face. I felt tears in my eyes.

The front door opened and in came Bentley with three huge shopping bags. He strolled past, kissing me on the forehead and continued down the hallway to the bedroom.

“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted, following him down the hallway to my bedroom.

“Putting down these bags before I break my arm, this shit is heavy,” he said with a smile.

“You didn’t get my text message?” I asked him wondering why the hell he was standing in my room with bags of God knew what.

“I heard my phone go off but I didn’t check to see what it was, I had my arms full and just wanted to get back up here.”

He was out shopping. Here I was overreacting and he was out shopping. Yup, I was losing my mind for sure! I immediately felt relieved.

“Check this stuff out!”

He started unloading all the bags and every last thing was either light pink or baby blue. He had gone shopping for the baby. He woke up at the crack of dawn and spent God knows how much money on baby stuff.

“This is an ERGO Carrier, you wear the baby in it. How fucking cool is that?” He said, continuing to add things to the pile. “This blanket was so soft, I had to grab it. Babies love soft stuff, right?”

Next thing I knew my entire bed was covered in infant toys and clothes. Red Sox bibs, blankets, gadgets and then the doorbell rang. “Oh that must be your pillow!” He exclaimed, making a beeline for the front door. “My pillow?”

Bentley signed a small paper and the delivery man went on his way. He headed towards the bedroom with a giant pillow that was almost as tall as me.

“What in the hell is that?”

“It’s one of those fancy pregnancy pillows. It’s supposed to help you sleep better.”

“You’ve lost your mind. Where are we supposed to hide all of this? Everyone is going to see what you’ve bought!”

“We have to tell them sometime right? The sooner the better, because I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep it to myself.”

The man was beyond excited. It was supposed to be the other way around. I was supposed to be over the moon and he was supposed to be scared shitless.

It was hard to admit to myself even. When I saw the ultrasound, it changed my thoughts about everything. Maybe I would start to warm up to the idea once I felt human again.

Chapter 17

The Firestorm

(Bentley)

The email alert went off on my phone. I didn’t recognize the sender’s email address. But it gave me time to catch up on messages I had missed in the past couple days. Charlie apparently had a text meltdown yesterday.
What else is new?

To:
[email protected]

Subject: Catching Up

Date: August 11th 09:45

From:
[email protected]

Bentl
ey,

I hope you don’t mind me contacting you like this, but I found your email address on the internet after searching to find you for some time. I know we didn’t leave off on the best of terms, but I’m in Boston and would like to see you. I really messed up all those years ago and want to try and make things right.

I still love you Bentley and I always will.

-Your Layla.

After five years my high school girlfriend had reappeared out of thin air. Not only was there no fucking way I was going to see her, but my blood boiled thinking about her at all. I felt beyond disgusted.

I had no desire to reply, but I knew if I didn’t she would hound me. She was like that, always annoying and fucking pushy. But little did she know, I wasn’t a pushover anymore.

To:
[email protected]

Subject: Re:Catching Up

Date: August 11
th
09:49

From:
[email protected]

Not interested.

I have nothing to say to you all these years later. I have a good life, an amazing girlfriend and a baby on the way. I closed that chapter of my life a long time ago. I hope you have a good time while in Boston.

-B

I hoped that would be enough for her to get the message.

I shot Charlie a text message to say good morning. She was sleeping when I left. Charlie was perfect, like an angel all bundled up in the pink comforter surrounded by mountains of pillows with a small smile on her face. I could only hope she was thinking about our baby. Alas, that morning I had to make it to a business meeting with Drew and a new web designer we had hired.

Good morning love. Miss you. See you around noon.   xoxo Love you.

Whether she was sleeping still or not, I knew it would make her smile the moment she picked her phone up. We were just cheesy like that. A moment later my phone pinged, alerting me to an incoming message.

Love you too baby. I miss you, don’t forget... big dinner tonight with the family. Don’t be too late.

Our big news would finally be center stage for all to see. We knew there were going to be a lot of negative reactions, but thankfully Charlie was finally starting to come around to it all. Her biggest concern now was weight-gain. She proclaimed she would not turn into a fat-ass because of the pregnancy. Apparently, most of her clothes weren’t baby bump friendly at all.

“Stop drooling over your phone dude, she’ll still be there when you get home. Damn!” Drew was giving me shit once again. “Can you keep a secret bro?” I still hadn’t told him about the baby. We hadn’t told anyone. At all. I knew I could tell Drew though. We’d be telling the entire family in a couple of hours and he could keep his mouth shut that long.

“I’m the king of secrets dude! Just fucking spill it already!”

“You can’t even tell Shay, she doesn’t know yet.”

“Just tell me! I won’t tell her!”

“Charlie’s pregnant. It’s why she fainted that night outside of Beer Works, but we decided to wait a bit before we told anyone. We’re telling the whole family tonight.”

“Dude. What. The. Fuck-- were you thinking?”

Drew was pale with horror. He flailed his arms around and I was getting the impression he wanted to punch something-- or send for a lifeboat. I guess it would have been my typical
response
for this kind of news too. Well, maybe in the past. I couldn’t help but smile though.

“It just kind of happened, we didn’t plan it or anything. And she was totally on birth control so don’t give me any shit.”

I picked up my mug of coffee and sipped like nothing was wrong while I just shrugged at him. What is done is done and even though it was all a little sudden, we are happy.

“Your life is fucking over, dude!” Drew was totally disgusted.

Over? It was just beginning with the woman who made me insanely happy. There was no way I could ever look at this as a bad thing. No way.

“Over? Dude! I’m fucking thrilled!”

“Well if you’re happy, then I’m happy for you dude. Cheers.” Drew held up his half full glass of apple juice and I toasted him with my mug of coffee.

“Cheers!”

I couldn’t let him off the hook though. This whole thing with him and Shay had become a top-secret mystery operation. Covert Ops. He wouldn’t spill on his own so now was the moment to guilt him into the details. I spilled my big news, he could at least throw me a bone.

“So, you and Shay, huh?”

“Yeah, Shay and I... I guess it just kind of happened. We’re taking things slow, neither of us were looking for anything serious and then this intense relationship just dropped into our laps thanks to you and Charlie.”

He softened when he spoke about Shay. There was something here I hadn’t seen before with his previous girlfriends but I wasn’t about to push him. He gave me my room with Charlie and I would do the same.

“So is it serious...” I questioned while sipping my coffee, feigning true interest.

“Let me put it this way, it’s as serious as we can be. She’s busy. Real busy. She
is
a medical student.” He drifted off into his thoughts. “But, I have so much on my plate with work anyway. So, we just work. She’s going to move out of the penthouse and in with me this week. ”

“I’m happy for you bro.” I laughed and gave him a slap on the shoulder, something I always did with my little brothers. Drew may not have been my brother, but he was the closest thing I had here in Boston. If my girl’s sister would make him a happy man, I’d be ecstatic.

Our business meeting was coming to a close when my phone rang and rang and rang some more. I ignored the first call, but when it went off a second time I had to look down at the caller ID to see who was on the other end trying to get a hold of me.

That is when I noticed Charlotte’s number and excused myself to answer the call. She never would bother me during a meeting. I knew this had to be important.

“Babe?”

“Bentley! Someone! The car! My Car! The police! Come now!”

“Slow down Charlie, tell me what’s going on.”

My mind started to race. It’s been far too quiet since someone destroyed my apartment. My stomach churned into knots as I heard her frantic voice on the other end of the line.

“My car, someone set my car on fire. Inside the parking garage downstairs. The fire department just put it out. Bentley, I need you here.”

“I’m on my way.”

I hung up and ran back to the table where Drew was just finishing up without me. “I gotta run. Someone torched Charlie’s car in the parking garage under the building!”

All I could hear was Drew screaming “WHAT?” He also excused himself from the meeting and jogged behind me.
Talk about a meeting ending abruptly!

The five-minute drive back to the penthouse was the longest drive of my life. When I pulled up in front of the building, the parking garage was closed off and there were fire trucks everywhere. I pulled up on the sidewalk in front and ran into the building and towards the elevator. I was desperate to get to Charlie.

“You can’t park there, sir,” the doorman said as I whizzed past him.

“Tow it!” I disappeared into the elevator.

For the first time ever, the elevator car didn’t stop at every damn floor and I found myself on the thirteenth floor running full speed towards the penthouse door.

I burst through to see Charlie sitting on her couch, wrapped in a blanket, visibly shaken while Dr. Borgeo checked her out and a police officer asked her a few questions. With all the excitement Charlie started having cramps and became worried.

His mind flashed to the baby.
Was it ok? Was it hurt? Was Charlie okay?
Would we need to go to the hospital?
There was nothing I wouldn’t do to protect her and our baby.

I searched for the officer in charge, and found a measly patrol officer handling things. I interrupted his conversation.

“No, you have to talk to Detective Blackmore. He’s been handling all the arson cases surrounding my girlfriend and me. If you would just call him you would know this isn’t an isolated incident.” I was seeing red, no one would listen to a word I was saying.

“Don’t worry, I’ll call Blackmore right now, as well as Chief Dixwell. This clown won’t have a job by this afternoon.” I barked as I dialed my cell phone.

I kept my eye on Charlie as the doctor took her blood pressure and waved that little wand over her belly searching for the gummy bear’s heartbeat.

“Blackmore, this is Bentley Young. There’s been another fire and this was no accident.” I paused listening to the typical we’ll get down to it bullshit. “Uh huh, that’s what you said last time. Now look what happened. What if my pregnant girlfriend was fucking actually hurt this time?!”

“PREGNANT?!” Shay bellowed from inside the kitchen. “Who’s pregnant? What’s going on here? Someone better start talking soon!”

I heard Charlie talking to Shay. “Calm down. I was going to tell you tonight with the whole family but apparently
somebody
just spilled the beans. We just found out and it took me a little bit to get comfortable with the idea. Don’t tell Mom and Dad before tonight, please.” Charlie looked like a worried little girl and Shay was beyond excited, scooting giddily over to her best friend and rubbing her belly.

“I won’t tell them, I promise. But I swear to God if you ever keep anything away from me again... It is on.”

The rookie cop made his way out of the apartment and we waited for the detectives.

“Are you okay?” I asked Charlotte while I leaned down to give her a kiss.

“Yes, I’m fine. I just got a little light-headed and crampy with all the excitement so I called Dr. Borgeo and told her what was going on. Better safe than sorry when it comes to our little gummy bear, right?”

She smiled and I could tell from her comment she was finally accepting this pregnancy and actually was happy.

I think my heart grew three sizes bigger just like the Grinch’s.

Blackmore came in for a few minutes quickly leaving to go downstairs and check out the security camera feeds throughout the building. I knew there were a number of them in the parking garage, because I had scanned for them myself the night we pulled back into the parking garage when I wanted to take Charlie in the back seat. Noticing there was a camera about fifteen feet from her parking spot put an end to that idea quick.

The hour he was down there seemed like an eternity. Dr. Borgeo left, giving Charlie a clean bill of health once again and ordering her to stay away from stress. After dinner, I would be taking her on vacation. Between the pregnancy and the added stress of some psycho lighting everything we owned on fire, we both needed to get away.

Detective Blackmore came back to the penthouse with good news. Not only had they caught the entire crime on camera, they’d also recorded a license plate number on the newer-looking white Audi convertible the criminal was driving.

“I don’t know anyone who drives an Audi convertible, I’m not sure I can be of much help,” I said to Blackmore as he jotted some notes down in his little notebook. Charlie rose off the couch and walked around to the kitchen where we both stood.

I could read Charlie’s face like a book and something was wrong. She had a look of horror as the detectives described the criminal’s vehicle.

“I know someone who drives a white Audi convertible. And it’s owned by Landon Williams.”

“The kid from your parents’ party?”

“Yeah. Detective, I had gone on a couple of dates with him and broke it off months ago. He seems to keep popping up all over the place, though. Something is just off about him, I can’t put my finger on exactly what.”

“We’ll look into it and track the plates of that car. We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

“I certainly hope so because I can’t deal with this stress,” Charlie added. I couldn’t agree more. If she was carrying our gummy bear, there was no way I was letting anything happen to either of them. Ever.