Her Bosses Baby
By: Kimmy Love“This way, Macey,” he says. “I-I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“Whatever this is.” He holds out his hands and signals at the way I look. “Whatever happened to you tonight.”
At his door, he holds it open for me. I can feel his eyes analyzing me, looking me up and down. His room is warm and welcoming. It’s large with deep windows that look onto a busy Manhattan evening. The drapes are still open. The sidelight is on next to the bed and it looks like he was lying on it, watching television and having a drink.
“Sit. Can I get you anything? You need a drink?” He fusses over me and sits me down on the couch next to one of the windows. It is slightly open and causes me to shiver. “You’re cold. Let me get you one of what I’m having. A whiskey.”
He hands me the glass and I take it with shaking hands. I’ve managed to contain my crying to just a few light sniffs and trickle of tears. I sip the whiskey. It burns my throat, but it’s needed. I sip some more before turning to Adam beside me.
“Adam I’m so sorry to show up like this. I really had nowhere else to go and I remembered you were here, and I know this doesn’t look good, but I was desperate and I...”
“It’s okay,” he says. “I’m glad that in a city full of people I’m the one you chose.” He puts his hand on my lap.
I close my eyes, sigh deeply and say, “It’s funny how you never know how alone you are until something like this happens.”
“Something like this? I take it you and your husband had some kind of disagreement.”
“You could say that.”
“Macey, did he hit you?”
I whip around, maybe too quickly to plead Drew’s cause. “No. No, Drew would never do that.”
“You sure?” Adam is looking at me so closely, taking in every inch of me, scrutinizing me, and I feel self-conscious. I get up and start pacing. I sip the last of the whiskey and it burns.
“It’s not even like that, Adam. Drew has a bad temper is all. We fell out and I didn’t want to be around him. I needed to get out.”
“So when you going back?”
I turn around.
“You’re not going back tonight?” he asks.
“I... I can’t.”
“Can’t?” Adam walks to where I stand, inches from the bed and takes the empty glass from my hand before placing it onto the side table. “He won’t let you back?”
“Something like that. Look Adam I’ll sleep on the sofa or book a room. I didn’t want to burden you. I just needed a friendly face.”
Adam cups my face in his hands and kisses me. I don’t stop him. I want the comfort. I want Adam—but I shouldn’t.
“Wait, Adam. That’s not why I’m here.”
“I know. Look Macey I’d love for you to stay. I’ll take the sofa. You take a bath, shower, anything. Have you eaten? I haven’t. Join me for dinner.”
“Only if it’s room service. I can’t face going down to the restaurant.”
I hear a message come through on my cell as Adam calls down for room service. I look at the message, expecting to see some kind of apology from Drew. Maybe he wants me to come back now, now that he’s cooled off. I look down at his message. Just one word appears: Bitch.
Chapter Three
Before the meal arrives, I plunge into the deep bath and try to forget the last few hours. Impossible. I sense Adam on the other side of the door and think about his offer of being with him as soon as he leaves his wife. It seems so easy for him to talk of divorce. For me, even if I asked Drew for a divorce now, he’d never agree. Even if I told him that our marriage was farcical. He’d cling onto me to the bitter end and then he’d blame me for dragging him out of Borderton when we both knew full well that leaving there and getting married was all his idea.
I wanted that back then. I was so in love with Drew, he was all I knew and all I had.
On the other side of that door was an alternative life. Was I brave enough to take it?
I dry myself off and wrap a deep robe around me before re-entering the bedroom. Adam is on the sofa.
“The food will be here soon. You hungry?”
