Page 17 of The Virgin's Baby
Even though I shouldn’t have been, seeing as how she was right, but I was thoroughly incensed.
“You do, do you?” was about all I could say.
Who does she think she is?
Chapter Eight
Aspen
Lubbock, Texas – May 18th
Ransom went chilly on me after I told him he was a playboy and not the kind of man I’d leave a baby with. But his cool demeanor gave me food for thought.
Margo and Cher were busy cleaning up the mess we’d made from breakfast as I did the dishes. I’d filled Cher in on everything, so she was up to speed. “So, it’s been two days now. I’ve kept Ransom on hold, and I think it’s time to make a decision. One way or the other, I need to let him know what I want to do pretty soon.”
Cher offered, “You should make a list of pros and cons. That’s what I do when I’ve got a big decision to make.” She swept the floor, and then picked up the dirt with a dustpan.
I had to hand it to her, Cher was an excellent housekeeper. “Great job on cleaning the house, Cher. You’ve made it sparkle. I didn’t even know it could, but you made it happen.”
“By the way,” Cher said. “I’ve got this friend from my art classes. She’s living at home with her parents too. Her name’s Anne. She works at Long John Silver’s, and she asked about sharing the room I’m in. What do you guys think?”
Margo put the butter and jelly back in the fridge. Along with cleaning, Cher bought a ton of groceries for the household as she had a good amount of money she’d been stockpiling for three years. “If she’s anything like you, tell her to come on over, and we can talk a bit.”
Cher looked happy and excited. “She’s a lot like me. And we’ve been talking about how much we could spruce this place up. We both paint, and we would love to hang some of our art on the walls. Also, Anne loves to sew and makes curtains and shower curtains too. She thought she could add to our little group by making us all matching bedspreads and curtains and things like that.”
“Okay,” Margo interrupted her with a grin. “You better get her over here ASAP. She sounds wonderful.”
Cher was on cloud nine as she left the kitchen to go make the call. It was nice to see someone flourishing on their own. It made me wish that I’d done more of that when I got out on my own.
But being forced out into the world is a little different than going out into it voluntarily. I needed to cut myself some slack for my slow progress into adulthood.
Margo pulled up a chair and sat at the table with a pad of paper and a pencil. “Okay, take a seat, Aspen, and let’s make this list. Pros on one side, cons on the other.”
I sat down and got to thinking. “The first pro would be that I would have enough money to pay for the next semester of classes. And the next pro would be that it would help me finish my degree. That’s a pretty big pro.”
“Agreed.” She wrote those things down then gave me a severe stare. “Now be real here. Giving that baby up won’t be easy. How are you going to do that?”
She was right about that. “I’ve got to talk to Ransom more about that. He’s agreed to let me be in the kid’s life, but I don’t know how much. I don’t know if I’ll get to bring the baby home with me some or what all it entails.”
“So, I’ll put that as a con then,” she said as she wrote it down. “May not get to have as much to do with the child as might want to.”
The thought of having a baby then handing it over to Ransom or worse, some nanny, made me feel sick inside. “Put a star by that one. I really don’t think I can walk away.”
Tapping the eraser end of the pencil to her chin, she asked, “What if he allowed you to live with him? Well, not with him, but in the house. Or mansion or sprawling estate. Whatever he lives in.”
My heart sped up. “Yeah! What if he did do that?” I thought that might just work for me. “Still no strings. He could do what he wanted to. But I would get to be there all the time for our kid. I think that would be great.”
Her optimism took a left turn as she said, “He probably won’t agree to that though.”
My heart fell just as quickly as it had sped up. “You’re probably right.”
Margo looked at the pad of paper with so little written on it. “I suppose you should talk to him more about this. Get the details hammered out.”
I thought about how the rest of the evening went after I’d pissed him off. He’d moved his chair back to the other side of the table and become a bit distant. And he’d made sure to let me know once more that I wasn’t his type, and he didn’t see a problem with me having his baby. He felt sure he could keep the deal of no strings attached where I was concerned.
I couldn’t deny that my ego had been bruised. I also didn’t share his opinion on th14at matter.
He had seemed attracted to me at first, and I bet the coldness was nothing more than a defense mechanism when I’d told him what I thought of him. I was pretty sure no one had ever done that before.
