Page 24 of The Virgin's Baby
“Ransom, I am sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am. If you don’t let me do this for you, then I don’t know what’ll become of me.”
She’s desperate!
“What’s going on, Aspen? What’s happened?” It had to be bad for her to be begging me.
“I can’t pay for next semester’s classes. I haven’t got a job. And I only have enough money for a week’s supply of Chinese noodles.” Aspen began to sob softly into the phone.
She was in too deep. I didn’t have the heart to demand any more begging. “Look, everything will be okay.” At least I hoped it would. “How about I come over, and we can meet in that park that’s just down the street from your apartment? We can talk a little and see what we come up with.”
“We can?” she sounded surprised. “You forgive me?”
Now I had to laugh. “Yes, I forgive you. I probably shouldn’t have even gotten pissed. You were right.”What?I almost couldn’t believe I’d just told her that she’d been right. I supposed her crying got to me. I wanted to do anything I could to make it all better for her.
Why? I didn’t know. It was just instinctive.
“No, I wasn’t.” She sniffled. “I had no right to call you that. I don’t even know you. I was basing my opinion on how you talked to me. I just guessed you were that way, and that was presumptuous of me. I am sorry, Ransom.”
“Apology accepted. Let’s move on. So, will you meet me at the park then?” I asked, but I was certain I knew the answer.
Instead of tearful words, they now had a hint of enthusiasm. “Yes, of course. When should I be there?”
“Is half an hour too soon?” I began walking out to the garage, as I knew she would say it would be fine.
“Oh. That soon?” She sounded a bit hesitant. “Um, okay. I’ll be there.”
She must’ve needed to clean herself up after her little outburst. “Okay then. See you in thirty.”
I decided I’d stop by Grandad’s bedroom first to see how he was faring. I found him propped up high on pillows, lying close to the edge of his large bed. His eyes were closed and his chest rose and fell in slow waves.
Although it was nearly noon, he still hadn’t woken up. Or maybe he had, and I’d just missed it. He took so many naps now. I thought it had to be the medications they gave him. But a part of me thought it might be the cancer sucking away his life.
Shaking the morbid thought off, I turned and headed to the garage once more. The fact was, I felt happy.
Aspen had actually made my day. The thought of seeing her again filled me with something—I wasn’t sure what. Something just felt good inside of me.
Her apology was nice. It did help me to get over my anger of her calling me a playboy. And now that I thought about it, that was a dumb thing to get so mad over anyway.
Women hadn’t even been on my radar since coming back home from Spain. I had far more important things on my mind. When I did think about women, it was only about the kind of woman who would make a good baby with me, how our looks would combine, and then how well we could get along to raise the baby.
The whole ride over to the park took less than twenty minutes. I figured I would have to wait a few minutes for her. Gorgeous women like her always made men wait. It was just one of those games they played. But when I pulled up to the park, I saw her sitting on top of a wooden picnic table, reading a book.
For a moment I just sat there and looked at her. She’d braided her curly, dark hair into a long braid that hung over her left shoulder. The sun glistened off it, making it shine. She had on a pair of blue jean shorts that showed off her long, lean, tanned legs. And that’s when my cock got interested; it strained against the zipper of my jeans, wanting to get out and play.
Looking down at my obstinate appendage, I said, “No. She’s not for you. She’s to be the mother of my kid, not your plaything. I need her to stick around for this baby. You’ll just love her and then I’ll feel like leaving her. It always happens that way. You know that. Plus, she’s just too pretty. If I give her too much of myself, you know what’ll happen. So, just relax. You can get some action another time with another woman. I promise.”
With my dick in control, I got out of the car and went to her. She glanced up from the book when I cleared my throat. “Oh, you’re here already.” Smiling, she put the book down and held her hand out to shake mine.
“What the hell are you doing?” I had to ask as I looked at her hand.
“Well, I was going to shake your hand.” She let hers fall to her side. “But I can see now that you think that’s dumb.”
I took a seat on top of the picnic table, the way she’d been sitting. Patting that place next to me, I said, “Sit.”
She climbed back up and sat a couple of feet away from me. Her eyes were a little puffy. I guessed she’d done quite a bit of crying. She had to be completely desperate to have called me.
“Are there any things you’d like to know about me?” she asked.
“Well, a doctor will collect all your health information and your family history, so we don’t need to get into all that.” I didn’t want her to make this decision only because she was financially desperate. “Aspen, besides the money, why do you want to do this?”
