The baby swap✓

Chapter 33: Gone but not missed

Zoe's POV

I stuffed more pop corn into my mouth as I searched for what I should watch next.

Being back home has really started taking a toll on me, the feeling of having nothing better to do really puts some weight on me.

Eventually I settled on watching the news, as I tried to think of my next step forward. Surely I didn't want to continue going like this.

"Billionaire Alexander Forbes was recently reported to have been in a plain crush. Out of the seven passengers that were on board, there were no survivors. The police are still busy trying to identify the  bodies of the victims. The cause of this accident is not yet known. But the Billion dollar question is, who will inherit his fortune?"

"He can't be dead!" I woke up yelling.

I was breathing heavily, unable to contain myself. "It's only just a nightmare," I whispered to myself.
I placed my hand on my racing heart as I tried to catch my breath.

Why was I dreaming about Alexander? I hope he wasn't dead.

Maybe I was dreaming about him because deep down I missed him. I've been thinking about him a lot more than I would have liked to. I've even recently started trying roasted mushrooms and cookies just to get a taste of it. I must say, it tasted a lot better than I would have expected.
I've been considering my options, maybe this time I should just flood my own apartment.

Something was clearly wrong with my brain today! I needed to put him behind me.

For the first few days after I had left Alexander's apartment I was slowly sinking into a whole of depression. Being alone after being surrounded by so many people felt strange.

Turns out the conversion I had with Alex actually worked. I now know everything about his life right down to the last five generations. When I told him to open up what I had in mind was the important stuff, now he talks about all the party he has to attend right down to what he is even eating. It's as if he is rubbing the fact that he has a life and I don't, right in my face. He calls often, but its never to talk about me or how I'm feeling, it's always about him and I think that I have officially became him therapist, I should be getting paid. He always calls, but never visits.

To keep myself busy, I decided to go back to my original plan. I've recently started working from home and am doing my best to try and make my business more profitable, maybe in a few years my dream of expanding would become a reality.
If Alexander was to become bankrupt, I want to be sure that I can look after my child. The doctor gave me the green light and Alexander has been supportive of it too, or at least pretending to be.

Today I would make it a point to visit the café, I haven't been around to see how things were running in person.

Time to get out of bed.

Apart of being completely alone, one of the downsides of being back at my apartment was that I now had to do everything myself again, no more waking up to the smell of fried bacon.

I looked at my phone for any messages from Alexander, still nothing today.

Reina and Abby were still on their trip and were due to return any day. It must be fun since they still hadn't decided on when they were returning. They were going to come back with lots of memories but also broke.

Just then I decided to give Reina a call. They could be kidnapped by the mafia and I wouldn't even know they were gone.

"Hi," I said enthusiastic.

"Are you back at your house?" Reina asked.

"Not even a hello or how are you doing." I said sarcastically.

"I'm just asking because you suddenly remembered you had friends," She answered.

I felt attacked, I know I haven't been calling them lately but they clearly forgot about me as well.

"I'm just kidding, we just wanted to make sure that you got as much time alone with Mister Hotstuff." She joked.

"I'm going to hang up on you if you say anything else about Alex." I said.

"You sound as if there is trouble in paradise." She said.

I then began telling her the story, about our stay together and how things ended.

"So you are telling me, that you left the door wide open for any gold digging whore to just take him away." Reina said.

I was shocked by her response, what was she going on about anyways? 

"He was never mine to begin with. He is free to be with whomever he wants to be with." I said.

"Do you have any idea of the kind of woman could end up as the step-mother to your baby? That role was clearly yours to fill. You already have the baby, all you needed to do was lock him down." She said.

I couldn't believe my ears, was this the same Reina I was talking to? What had happened to her.

"It was never my plan to keep him, nor did I want him." I said.

"Don't be silly. What else is supposed to happen when a pregnant woman moves in with the father of her child." She said. She took a brief pause as if she had ran out of words to say. "You are my friend but I just have to be real with you. He was being weak and vulnerable with you, do you know how hard it is to get a guy to open up? That was your chance. He is clearly into you if he is willing to open up about that much about him."

Had I made a mistake in telling Reina everything.

"Okay mother, I get it." I said defensive.

"You should call him now, tell him you want to have lunch to 'get to know each other' and then invite him to your house afterwards, wear something nice." She said.

"Fine, I'll do that." I said sarcastically. At this point I just wanted her to keep quiet, there was no way I was doing any of that.

"You shouldn't be so proud. It is okay to be independent and also need help sometimes. It not a weakness admitting your feelings to someone," She sighed. "Someday you will thank me for this, don't let your pride get in your way of love. You need to let him in, open up a little bit." She paused. "And take good care of my godchild, I have to go now." She said.

"Bye," I said. I hang up the phone.

She was just being silly, there was no way that Alexander and I could have anything more let alone that I felt something. Sure, I thought about him sometimes, but maybe it was because deep down I cared about him as the father of my baby.

Within two minutes, I had erased our conversation from my memory.

I continued with my daily activities. I showered, dressed and had some breakfast. And then it was time for me to leave.

I decided on taking a cab instead of driving. Throughout the drive, I kept thinking of different scenarios as to the state that the café could be in, I just hoped that things weren't bad.

To my surprise, the café seemed to be doing a lot better than I could have expected. Usually it was quiet around this time but there were customers walking in and out.
Samuel did a much better job than I could have done.

"I must say, I'm impressed." I said walking over to Samuel who was at the counter.

"We thought you would never come back," he said.

"Don't be silly. You know me. So is everything here fine?" I asked.

"We might need to  get a new waiter, the places gets really busy especially during rush hour these days. Thanks to all the publicity from Mr. Forbes." he said.

"M.r Forbes?" I asked. What had Alexander done this time.

"Nothing, we have just been busy lately." He looked a bit frightened, as if he had revealed some big secret.

He continued updating me on how things had been so far. It looked like this was the best time to expand, but I was just going to have to hold it off for a bit. I was nearly in my eighth month of pregnancy and opening a new store was not going to work. One of the two was going to have to be put on hold, and this baby surely wasn't going to wait for any reason. I don't think I needed the extra pressure. Since I had basically kicked Alex out of my life, I had to do a lot more things on my own.

There was nothing else for me to do here, everything was running perfectly fine.

Before going home, I decided on enjoying some carrot cake.

"Zoe?" I heard someone mention my name.

I turned around to see the source of the voice.

I couldn't believe my eyes. It was the guy I would have asked to father my children had I met him earlier and also the guy I had coffee and lunch with but never heard back from again. I had not been expecting to see him after all this while.

"Rafael," I said recalling his name. I'd never forget it all thanks to the Ninja turtles. I'm so letting my kid watch that show, that way I don't have to feel stupid about watching it too.

He still looked the same way he did months ago, hot. I just wish we could say the same about me.

"It's been a very long time," He said. "You look very… pregnant." He sounded shocked, as if it was something he hadn't been expecting at all.

"Things happen," I answered instead.

"Would you mind if I joined you?" He asked.

"Sure," I said gesturing for him to sit.

"It's been months since I've seen you," I said.

"Yes, I was out of town. I needed to get some answers, turns out the person I was looking for ended up being a lot closer than I could have thought." He said.

"Was it anyone special?" I asked intrigued.

"Just a relative of mine," He answered.

"Care to tell me how that baby bump happened?" He asked.

"You are in for a long story," I said.

He ordered some coffee and some cheesecake that I had recommended.

Maybe I was going to make a new friend after all, and this time I had a strong feeling he was here to stay.