Page 4 of Santa Baby
Talia
The man standing in front of me has twin emotions spiking through me. I want to run but I also want to stay and listen to him talk, to watch him, to figure out what he’s thinking and what would make him smile and laugh. His voice is the same as the one on the phone and I was ready to hang up after just a hello.
Naomi apparently doesn’t feel it because she gives him a look up and down before saying anything, “You are Chris Bell?”
“No. I’m Nic Bell.” He answers her but he’s looking at me. His gaze is intense and makes me want to squirm under the icy blue gaze.
“But you’re not Cris, which is who we are here to meet.” Naomi’s words start to sink in and I feel my heart start to sink.
“I’m his brother.”
“That’s all well and good but it’s Chris we want to meet. Do you know where he is?”
“He’s in Europe for the next few weeks…probably hooking up with whatever blonde eighteen-year-old he can find to warm his bed. If I’m guessing.” His words drive the nail in not just my coffin but the last shred of hope I had left.
“Damn!” Naomi’s sweet lilt mimics my thoughts exactly. “That’s too late.”
I drop my head on the table and try not to break out sobbing. Even when I try to cheat the system, I end up getting fucked. I just can’t win and because I’m such a loser the only one getting hurt the most is little Noelle.
“Maybe you should tell me exactly what is going on.” He moves to sit next to me…in the same booth. He looks over to me, but Naomi starts telling him the story. She goes over the crash and the last wishes Lissanne had. About how I’ve been with little Noelle since before she was born really since I helped Lissanne through her pregnancy.
“So, you see, Talia has to find a man willing to marry her before the end of the year so she can keep Noelle.”
“And you think my brother can help you?”
“Well, we were hoping…yeah. But now…we’ll have to start all over again and actually put you on that Sugar Babies dating site, Littles For Us.”
My stomach lurches at the thought as my heart sinks into it.
“How old are you?”
“Nineteen. I’ll be twenty in May but May will be too late. They aren’t going to wait. If twenty is even old enough for me to keep her.”
“That’s kind of young to have the responsibility of a baby when you’re little more than a baby yourself.”
His words might not be meant as a barb but to me, someone who has heard this over and over again from the agency, they might as well be a dagger aimed straight at my heart. Instead of waiting to hear how I should just focus on having my own baby and let this one go, which is how most of the conversations with the child services have gone, I push on him so he stands up giving me plenty of room to leave.
I might have to do something I find distasteful to get it done, but I am determined to keep my baby. I go to walk away when his big hand wraps around my wrist. I hate the little sparks that run up my arm like electricity at his touch. “Wait.”
Instead of letting him finish his thoughts on my ability to be a mother I twist my hand from his grasp and rush for the door. I don’t get very far from the café until those same fingers wrap back around my arm this time causing me to gasp out and shoot a startled look up. And up and up because this man is tall as fuck.
“Wait, don’t leave.”
“Look, I don’t need you to repeat everything everyone else says, okay! I’m perfectly capable of going out and getting knocked up so I can have a baby, and no one would bat an eyelash or say a word to me. I don’t need you to tell me what I’ve already heard. Why can’t I raise her as my own baby? Why can’t I keep Lissanne’s baby, so she doesn’t have to go through the system and be shuffled from house to house until she’s too old to ever be adopted and she gets lost in all that mess? I love that little girl and she loves me! Why can’t that be enough?”
“Let’s discuss this in my car.” He tries to turn me around and starts pulling me back the way we came but we pass the café.
“Absolutely not! Do you think I’m stupid? I don’t know you!”
He stops and turns to me talking quietly so only I can hear him. “The last thing you want is to be caught fighting in the street with someone who turns out to be your husband weeks from now. It doesn’t look good and won’t help us sell the story you need them to believe.”
I let him guide me to his car with no fight. Does this mean…he can help me contact his brother? No! He said I was arguing with…someone who would be my husband in a few weeks.”
He leads me to a pretty, shiny car that looks like it goes way too fast and costs way too much. He helps me into the passenger seat and comes around to the driver’s side not saying a word until his door is shut.
“I’m not trying to stop you. I’m just telling you what we have to be ready for.”
“We?” He nods. “So, we shouldn’t be ready for them to question the fact some new guy shows up out of nowhere in my life and marries me when I’ve never even had a boyfriend? That might be the thing we should be thinking about since no one is going to believe this nonsense.”