Awakening



It was in early June when Nick and Ava crossed paths. Now the month was August. Nick had moved on. In fact, he never even thought twice about Ava after that day, figuring it would be best to just forget it ever happened. Now Heather was the apple in his eyes. It was their seventh date. He had invited her to his house for a dinner he would cook himself. Nick went all out to impress her. He called up Brian and got a few southern recipes to prepare for her. This was certainly going to be a night to remember.

Heather buzzed in at the gate and Nick opened it from his front door. When she came in, he kissed her sweetly on the cheek and directed her to the dining room.

“Well, Nickolas. Your home is quite beautiful, I must say.” Don’t be fooled. She really did talk this way. She came from a very wealthy background. Born in Paris and raised in London. She moved to Florida because she wanted to be in the states and in a place with warm weather. She lived only five houses away from Nick, and her home was slightly larger than his. Nevertheless, she complimented his abode. It was the proper thing to do.

“Thanks. Not hardly as nice as yours though.” She nodded in agreement. Nick was a little offended by her bluntness, but shrugged it off. Her beauty compensated for her rude attitude. Once Heather was seated comfortably, Nick went into the kitchen and brought out dinner.

“Baked chicken? Ah, wonderful. Pardon my asking, but just what is the reddish sauce all over it?” Heather asked with her nose quite high in the air.

“It’s bar-b-que sauce. I made it myself. It was my friend’s recipe though.” Nick was rather proud of his work on the meal. Heather did not share his views.

“Nickolas, I thought you knew that I can’t eat animal flesh. This looks wonderful, but my system wouldn’t tolerate it even if I wanted to eat it.” Nick felt his heart crack right down the center. Heather moved her plate to the side. She took her napkin and blotted the Italian dressing off of the top of her salad and began to eat that alone. Not touching the lemonade he made, but only drinking the water.

“I’m sorry. I had no idea. I guess I never paid any attention to what you ordered when we went out to dinner before.” Nick had lost his appetite.

Ava parked her car near Nick’s gate and slammed the door when she got out. She walked up to the intercom and pressed the bell. The buzz went off and Nick went to the front door to see who it was. When he looked into the little screen to see who was there, he saw Ava standing there looked very angry.

“What are you doing here?” Nick whispered through the intercom.

“I need to talk to you, now!” She screamed back. Heather heard and put her fork down to listen.

“This is not a good time.” He replied. Ava hit the intercom with her fist and it sparked. She took a deep breath and climbed over the gate. Nick opened the door and went out to meet her halfway.

“I told you this is a bad time!” He shouted. She didn’t care. She marched up to him with tears flowing down her cheeks.

“You will listen to me dammit! I will not take no for an answer. Do you understand me?” She pushed by him and went into his house slamming the large brown envelope she had in her hand on the dining room table.

“Excuse us!” Ava screamed at Heather.

“I beg your pardon. Are you speaking to me in that tone of voice? You obviously have no idea who I am.” Heather squealed back.

“I don’t give a flying fuck who you are. You can either leave the room now, or I can help you.” Heather threw her napkin down and yanked her purse up from the table.

“I don’t have to take this! Nickolas, don’t even bother to call!” Heather gave Ava one last look and ran out of the house whimpering.

“Why the hell did you come into my house disrespecting both my company and myself?” Ava looked Nick dead in the eye. Then she opened the envelope and showed him the results of a home pregnancy test and one taken at her OB/GYN. Nick fell back into his chair.

“That’s right! I’m pregnant and it’s your baby, Nick! Once! Just fucking once was all it took. I probably can’t even start at Spellman until next year! This changed everything! But I’m not going through this by myself. You’re going to take----“ Nick smacked the test out of her hand and it flew to the floor. Then he grabbed her by the arms.

“I have no babies! I will not be a father. I’m 21 years old. At the peak of my career! And I damn sure won’t let some whore come into my house telling me that their pregnant with my child! Do you know how quick some shit like that would ruin me?” Nick let her go. Ava slapped him as hard as she possibly could. Then she pushed him down. Nick was definitely surprised by her strength.

“Don’t you ever call me a whore again. Understand? Don’t even cross that line with me! Who the fuck cares if you’re 21? I’m 18! Do you think that I wanted to be a mother? And do you think that I planned this? I could care less about you. And frankly, if I weren’t pregnant with your child, I wouldn’t ever want to see you again. But the painful truth is that I am pregnant, it is yours, and no matter how much you deny it, you will help me care for this child whether you like it or not!” She sat down, feeling a bit drained. She picked up Nick’s glass and drank all of his icy water in a matter of seconds.

“I am not a groupie. And I do not want to ruin your career. All I want is for you to be a father to this baby. I can’t do it alone.” Nick rolled his eyes and pushed his hair back.

“So what do you want, money? You got it.” Ava looked at him as though he had lost his mind.

“I don’t need your money. All I want is for this child to come into this world with a father and a mother who care and love him. But I see that I won’t find that here.” She poured lemonade into the glass she had recently emptied and finished that off as well.

“How are you so sure it’s even mine.” She pointed to the paper the doctor gave her. It had the due date and the approximate date on conception. It was the same day Nick had met and slept with her. He was devastated.

“And you slept with no one else after me?” Nick asked with some hope.

“No one.”

“How about before?” He asked, still with hope.

“About 7 weeks before. And if it were his, I’d have known a lot sooner. Be reasonable!” Nick put his head on the table and sighed.

“I haven’t told my parents yet. I’m afraid of how they would react. My father was going to transfer to Hawaii since I’m supposed to go to college. They’re leaving in two weeks. If they knew now, he wouldn’t go. I don’t want be the reason the couldn’t go to Hawaii. I should be on campus now. I talked to the dean, she said that because of the pregnancy, I can start next September. That way the baby will be born and I can take classes without carrying the load. She said that they have nice day cares and stuff. So now all I have to do is find a place to stay, get a job, and wait for the baby to come.” She started to cry again. She poured herself more lemonade, but didn’t drink it.

“Where are you staying tonight?” Nick asked, calmly.

“Probably with Myah.” Nick stood up.

“No, you can stay here. I insist.” Ava shook her head no.

“I can’t do that. It’s a very generous offer, but it wouldn’t be right.” Ava got up and picked up her keys.

“Please. Stay. If this is my child, you should be here. You’re right, we have to go through this together. The whole nine months, and everything after.” Nick took the keys from her hand.

“I agree. And it is your child. But if it makes you feel better, we’ll get a paternity test done to be sure.” Nick smiled. That was exactly what he wanted. He walked her up to his nicest guest room. She sat down on the bed and thanked him again. Nick offered to go bring her car in the gate from off of the street. When he finished he came back up to check on her, she was sleeping soundly.

Nick called Brian as soon as he reached the phone. He told him about everything that had happened in detail. Brian was extremely shocked.

“So why are you keeping her there?” Brian asked.

“I have to make sure no one finds out about this. And if that means keeping her here and away from the press, I’ll do that. If it means buying her a house on some far away island, I’ll do that too. Brian, I will do anything to keep this out of public’s eye. No one can know about this girl. No one!”




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