Page 5 of Her Baby His Gift

Tired, Harlem sighed. “Goodnight, Carter.” She ended the call. The phone slipped from her hands and fell to the floor. Harlem didn’t bother to pick it up. Instead, she dragged her weary body into her bedroom.

Their bedroom.

Fully clothed, Harlem crawled into the bed and rolled over onto his side. She had left his sweatshirt there. She pulled it close and inhaled deeply.

It still smelled of him.

Her heart cried out.We were finally on the verge of having the family you always wanted!Her tears fell like an endless storm of torrential rains. At some point, Harlem started to fall asleep. Every time her eyes closed, he would appear in her dreams.

Harlem wished she could sleep forever. Maybe in her dreams, he would forgive her.

Chapter 4

Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz.The sound of someone at Harlem’s door woke her up. She cracked open one eye and looked at the clock on her nightstand.Does that say 10:23am?Harlem never slept so late.

She moaned. Her body felt as if it had been run over by a truck. The unceasing noise of the doorbell kept Harlem from pulling the covers over her head and ignoring it. She got out of bed, then reached for her robe and put it on.

“I’m coming!” Harlem dragged her feet as she loosely tied the bathrobe closed and walked over to the door. She looked through the peephole and groaned inwardly as she opened the door. “Why are you here?”

Carter ignored her and strode inside carrying two large paper bags, one in each hand. He kept walking clear through to the kitchen.

Harlem’s steps were heavy as she plodded barefoot on the hardwood floors behind him. “I didn’t say you could come in.”

Carter placed the bags on the table and started taking out the contents. He hadn’t spared her even a glance. “I won’t be long. I remember where everything goes.”

Harlem watched as he removed pint after pint of black-walnut ice-cream. “How many of those things did you buy?”

Carter opened the sub-zero freezer. “Enough so that you won’t be traipsing around the city late at night.”

His words stung and pissed her off. “Why do I have to keep repeating myself? You’re not responsible for me.”

“For the same reason I have to keep repeating myself. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it.”

Harlem’s craving hadn’t subsided. She bit her lower lip, hoping to beat it back. Finally, she gave in and like a petulant child, stomped over to the utensil drawer and grabbed a spoon. She spoke softly but mostly to herself. “What’s another broken promise?”

Carter stilled for a moment but didn’t respond.

Defeated, Harlem asked, “Can I have one of those?”

He handed her a container. It was also the first time he took a really good look at her in recent weeks. Even though Harlem was wearing a robe, it had come open, and he noticed that she still had her clothes on from the night before. Bone strait, sandy brown hair that was usually never out of place was all over her head. Her bronze-colored skin that typically had a natural sun-kissed glow, had a jaundiced look to it. Carter couldn’t help but see the dark circles underneath her eyes, and she had lost weight. He thought pregnant women were supposed to gain weight, but Harlem was doing the opposite.

Regardless of her words, she was not okay. As a matter of fact, Harlem was struggling, and he had to do something about it. Carter watched as she sat down at the table with her ice-cream. He ran a tired hand across his face. “You’ve got to start taking better care of yourself. You have a baby to think about.”

Harlem had just stuck a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. Suddenly, it didn’t taste as good as she thought it would. Her head lowered as she stared into the container. Her vision blurred as a teardrop fell into it. She whispered. “I’m doing the best that I can.”

Carter didn’t mean to make her cry. He wasn’t used to seeing this side of her. The woman he knew was fierce and would have had some kind of a stinging comeback. “What can I do to fix this?”

Slowly, Harlem raised her head and looked deeply into his eyes. “You can’t. The moment you made your decision, there was no coming back from that.”

His chest tightened. “I know you blame me. Sometimes, I wonder if there was more I could do. I wish there were. I’ve got to live with that, but it won’t change the fact that Damian is not coming back.”

Harlem blinked a few times. Then, out of nowhere, she lunged at him. “This is all your fault!” Harlem lost it as she pounded her fist against his chest and screamed. “I hate you! God, Ihaaaaaaaateyou! How could you do it?! I wasn’t ready!!”

Neither was he. Carter had second, third, and fourth guessed his part in this madness. It was his own guilt that forced him to stand still as Harlem beat on his chest, releasing her pain and frustrations. He would allow it until she got tired. Fortunately, it didn’t take long.

Breathing hard, Harlem couldn’t believe she had just lost her shit. Harlem had never hit another person in her entire life. She stared at her hands as if she had never seen them before. “Oh, my God. Carter, I—”

He finished her sentence. “Needed to get that out.”

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