“Good Raddiance!”
I stood and went into the house. He looked at me curiously and said, “Why are you sitting in the rain?”
I shrugged. “Just thinking,” I said. “How was the barbeque?”
“It was fun,” he said sitting down on the couch.
“What did you do today?” I sat down in the chair across from him.
“I saw Liz. She fixed my mess of a hair for me.”
He looked at my hair, but he didn’t offer a response, I guess a simple compliment was too much to ask for these days. I didn’t wait for it. I knew it wasn’t coming. I went on and said, “I had lunch with my mother.”
He rolled his eyes and smirked at that. My mother and the fact that I’d continued to have a relationship with her had been the source of more than one of our arguments over the years. He thought I should be ashamed of her and cut her off completely. I thought that she was still my mother despite her character flaws. I would probably never completely cut her off.
I believed that despite it all, she did her best. I went on and said, “Then I went to the beach for a while and took a walk on the pier.”
“Hmm,” he said, completely disinterested.
Sometimes I wasn’t sure why he asked or why I bothered. “Do you see the lawyers tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Are things progressing?”
I shrugged. “I wanted to talk to you about that.
I saw Alexander today.” That got his attention.
He sat up off the couch and with his eyebrows pulled together he said, “Why? Didn’t the attorneys tell you to stay away from him?”
“They did and I have been. I just ran into him and he wanted to talk.”
Jason snorted and said, “I hope you told him where to go.”
“No, I sat and talked to him for a while,” I said.
He looked annoyed, but I went on quickly before he could interrupt me. “He says that he never wanted any of this. He was confused like I was. Before he even had time to think it all through, his lawyers took it out of his hands. His legal counsel is driving this lawsuit…”Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
“Of course, he said that, Vicki. This is exactly why you weren’t supposed to see him. He’s going to try and make you think he’s the good guy here. You’re too naive to deal with this.”
The naive comment bothered me, but I let it go, for now. “He’s not a bad guy, Jason. This is just an odd situation. I don’t think either of us meant to put ourselves here.” I know that I didn’t want to be here and I’m sure from his reaction he didn’t either.
“That’s not the point. He was the smart one here. He should have known better than to dip his wick…”
“Excuse me? He was the smart one?” First I’m naive and now I’m stupid.
“You know what I mean. He’s the owner of a multi-billion dollar corporation. You’re the maid.”
I stood up, getting aggravated and beginning to feel angry. “Jeez Jason, why not just slug me in the face? It would hurt less.” He was being as disparaging as Alex’s lawyers had been.
“I’m not trying to hurt you,” he said, simply. He didn’t apologize for it though or take back what he said. I think he truly believed I was too naive to handle my own life… or stupid.
“I don’t think you’re ever trying to hurt me, Jason. I’m beginning to believe that you’re just really that oblivious to my feelings that you don’t care either way. It’s like this lawsuit. It’s all you ever ask me about. I went to the doctor yesterday; did you even bother to ask me about that? Did you know that I had an ultrasound and found out the sex of my baby?”
He looked at me long and hard and then he asked, “What is it?”
“It is a baby, Jason. It is a child. It is a little boy and I’m his mother and I love him. I’m tired and I don’t want to do this lawsuit any longer. I don’t want to fight anymore for things that I don’t even really want or need.”
He sighed like he was growing weary of indulging me and then he said, “You don’t want or need millions of dollars? Wow, you’re a bigger person than most of us,” he said, sarcastically. I didn’t care for his tone and again, it made me angrier. “Listen to me, Vicki. I am thinking of you and the baby even if you don’t believe me. How are you going to support it?”
“Him Jason! Him! Stop calling my baby it!”
“Okay,” he said with his palms up. “Jeez, calm down. You’re missing the point…”
“No, I get it, I do. You are worried I might ask you to support “it” if I don’t have millions that I won in some stupid lawsuit that I don’t want to be a part of. I get it.”
“I wasn’t worried about you asking me to support… him, Vic. But you and he deserve more than just being ignored by the man who started all of this, don’t you think? Especially when a few hundred thousand a month wouldn’t even faze the man”
“You know what, Jason? I do believe that he and I deserve more. I just don’t believe that a lawsuit is a way to get what we deserve. I also believe that in time, Alex will come around and understand that I was never trying to trap him.”
“You’re going to drop this suit, aren’t you?” He wasn’t annoyed any longer. He was pissed. It suddenly set in that he didn’t care if I got any money or not. It was about what he might get out of all of this. The slime ball.
“Yes, I think I am,” I told him. I wanted to smile. He looked deflated and then the anger kicked back in.
He stood up and put his large frame in front of me. It was an imposing stance and I think it was meant to intimidate. All it did was make me angrier.
Who did he think he was trying to push me into continuing a lawsuit I wanted no part of? A lawsuit that he had pushed me into in the first place for his gain while he tried to act like he was being supportive of me.
“You’re a fool,” he yelled at me. “How many times in your life will you be handed this kind of opportunity?”
I laughed when he said that. He’s right. I have been a fool, but what made me one had been trusting him, not dropping this lawsuit. “You call this an opportunity as if it’s a job or winning the lottery. It’s taking money away from a man who worked for it. I don’t need millions to raise my baby. All I need is a good job, desire and love. I’ve got all of that.”
“I can’t believe what an idiot you are and I can’t believe that I’ve wasted all of this time on you.”
Even though I realized he was the one in the wrong here and what he thought of me didn’t matter, the realization that he was only with me because of what he thought he would gain in the end, hurt. “I agree with you. Again, I’m a fool and maybe an idiot as well for trusting you. I’m finished with that. I’m dropping this lawsuit.”
“Good luck supporting yourself and that brat you’re carrying!”
I smiled at him. “Thanks. I’ll do fine and we’ll be fine. I’ll have my things out of here tomorrow and I’ll leave the key,” I said, taking my purse and heading for the door.
“Good riddance!” he yelled, as I went out and closed the door behind me. Good riddance is right. Good riddance to fake relationships and silly lawsuits. Hello to my new life. I rubbed my swollen belly. Our new life.
I knocked on Liz’s door for the second time that day. When she pulled open the door and saw my face she hugged me and then she invited me in. “Is it okay if I sleep on your couch tonight? I have to figure some things out tomorrow about money but then I’ll rent a hotel room.”
“No, you will not. You’ll stay here as I told you earlier. I’ll clean that room out tomorrow and we’ll set up the day bed. You can sleep on the couch tonight.”
“But what about Gloria?”
“She’s not going to mind,” she said, “And as much as I like her if she did, I’d still pick you. You’re my best friend.”
I had tears in my eyes as I said, “I’m not sure how long it will take me to get back on my feet.”