Page 77 of Mister President

“Look at you sounding all wise.”

I heard the smile in her voice, and it made me smile.

“You helped with that. Even if I had to sift through some stuff to get to what applied to me. I’m forever grateful for you, and I hope I can use some of the things you gave me to help others in a positive way.”

We continued to talk for a while longer before she surprised me by telling me to bring Elias down for spiked hot cocoa. He surprised me even more by agreeing to go. I felt like a kid in a candy store, and I prayed the visit went smoothly.

44

Elias

My smile had beena permanent fixture all day. Amanda asked me to list her home for sale. She was going to keep the penthouse apartment, and that worked in my favor, too, because when our parents had EJ on breaks and weekends, it was convenient for us to be there instead. While she hadn’t straight up said she was moving in with me, that was basically what had happened.

When we got back together, I told her I wanted her to stay, and she hadn’t left since. Her taking the initiative increased my confidence in us, and I’d been thinking of ways I could reward her for the commitment. It was one thing for her to say she wanted to be with me and would be faithful and dedicated to putting forth the effort to make us work, but when she showed it, it made me love and respect her a little more.

I was also in good spirits because our parents had gotten together over the weekend. EJ wanted to go look at Christmas lights and sing carols and shit, and I loved the innocence of his request. Sometimes, it felt like he was growing up so fast, sowhen he wanted to do stuff like that, I valued every moment with my little man.

Our parents got along well, and Tammy had been on her best behavior. Not once did she say anything to make her daughter uncomfortable or me upset. There were a couple of times where I literally felt her struggling to hold her words in, and it was comical, but she gained my respect.

Neko and Mally Mal were coming back for the Christmas auction in two days and would stay until the day after Christmas. Then, they wouldn’t be back until February or March. I was excited to see them both again and to get to hang out one on one with my brother. When he came back for Thanksgiving, his time was limited because they had quick flights back. This time, we’d be able to not only spend time with family and the crew but just each other to do our own thing and catch up.

All in all, life was perfect, and there wasn’t a thing about it I would change. Well, except getting Amanda pregnant again. Now that we were together, though, I could wait a little while longer for my baby.

“I think I’m pregnant,”Fiona said, twiddling with her thumbs. When she asked if she could meet me at the office, I figured she was going to try to apologize for her father’s behavior again. The last thing I expected was for her to say that shit.

My legs opened and closed and head tilted as I stared at her. “You think…or you know?”

“I think. Well, I took some home tests, and they came back positive, but I have an appointment this afternoon to confirm.” She squeezed the back of her neck. “I was wondering if you could come with me.”

It was no secret that I wanted a baby when we started dating. Hell, that was why I was dating to begin with. Even with that being the case, I strapped up every time. I knew there was a chance she could still get pregnant, even with us using a condom, but I was still shocked by hearing her actually say the words.

“Uh…yeah.” Clearing my throat, I sat up in my seat. “I can clear my schedule for the rest of the afternoon and take you. Can you…wait outside for a moment? I need to call Amanda and let her know what’s up.”

Fiona didn’t move right away. She stared at me with her mouth partially opened.

“You’re going to tell her already?”

My fingers ran down the corners of my mouth. “I don’t keep anything from her. She’s going to be my wife. Besides, if I go to this appointment with you, and someone she knows sees me and tells her, she’s going to kill both of us.”

Her head lowered as she laughed. “I guess you’re right about that. I just figured you’d want to get the results first.”

“How many tests did you take?”

“Three.”

“And they all came back positive?” She nodded. “Then it’s probably safe to say you’re pregnant, Fiona.”

She continued to fidget with her fingers as her leg shook. For her to have wanted a baby just as much as I did, she certainly didn’t look excited. I was sure I didn’t either. The timing couldn’t be worse. I wasn’t sure how Mandy was going to respond. We’d really come a long way, and I didn’t want this to pull us apart.

“How do you feel?” I asked, needing to check her temperature.

Fiona shrugged and finally returned her eyes to mine. “Conflicted. I want to be happy, but this is not how I wanted this to happen.”

“Yeah, I feel the exact same way. I know we talked about our desire for children, but I wanted to have my next child either while engaged or married.”

“I know,” she muttered. “I’m sorry. I feel like I’ve been bringing you drama since I told you how I felt about you.”

“Not really. We had some good times. I just wish you would have been honest from the beginning. It would have changed a lot, but at least I would have been aware, and we were on the same page.”

---