A Baby for the Billionaire

51

JULIET

Landing, taxi, home.

That order is exhausting, or perhaps it is that in this time everything has been so difficult that I have been exhausted. Once I arrive, even though I have a copy of my key, I choose to call. The door opens in a flash and my friend appears on the other side.

Rhonda is wearing her reading glasses, her hair tied up with a pen, and wearing pajamas. Seeing me, she jumps up to give me a hug, though she almost stabs me with the pen when it hits me.

"Friend, you're back," she says comfortingly, squeezing me into her.

"I was worried you wouldn't answer."

"It's just that I had a busy morning," she excuses herself.

"I guess so."

I enter my apartment and I see everything almost as it was before I left, although maybe a little tidier. On the dining room table lies a computer, books, photocopies and notes.

Rhonda's been studying and she's tidying up my house, for heaven's sake, what kind of magic happened?

"Tell me who you are and what you did with my friend," I warn her, turning to her who goes ahead and pours me some coffee.

"What's wrong dear? Didn't you trust me?"

"If I go to my room to drop my things, I won't find three guys in bed with whom you could have spent the night, right?" I ask her, already with the cup of hot coffee in my hands.

"You go in!" she tells me. "I am taking out the garbage."

I leave the suitcase in my room, surprised to see it organized like never before, since I don't even do it myself. Tidying my bed and washing dishes is something that happens in my life maximum once a week.

I open the suitcase and see a shirt Neville bought me on my trip after arriving and receiving some fancy clothes.

"Hey, by the way, look how cute this one is."

I suddenly appear in the kitchen, catching my friend fumbling with the door, dragging a huge crate of bottles.

"My goodness, woman," I say, astonished and with my eyes wide open, carefully evaluating what I have in front of me.

"Okay, sooner or later you would have found me out. I swear they are not from today."

"Are they from last night?"

"From a few days in a row..."

"Rhonda, you have like a hundred liters of alcohol."

"We cut it with sodas and energizers, there were about three hundred liters in total, plus some pills..."

"Just kidding?"

"Ahem... Yeah, just kidding! Help me, this is heavy!"

I actually help her, with concern. My apartment is in better condition, in fact, better than I left it myself. I just don't want my friend's habits to spoil her life. She was not like that before, but she did have the habit of drowning her sorrows and frustrations when she needed it, this being a habit that seems to have increased even more.

"Friend, you're not well," I assure.

"I am, but you're not well."

I nod, terrified. We enter the house and we both wash our hands in the kitchen and then dry ourselves with a cloth that I use to dry dishes.

"In that I give you the right. I returned three days earlier than expected, according to my work obligations, but I did comply."

"Did they send you back earlier? It is the idiot that you have for your boss who must be assassinated, surely."

"No, none of that, I resigned."

"Just kidding?"

"No..."

"So you didn't get paid and it was all for nothing?"

"No, they paid me because I fulfilled my obligations."

"There is a "but" if you would not be happy and you are not at all. It seems that instead of having fulfilled your life's work, you were ready to tell me how you ended up messing it up."

"It was because of my boss."

"I knew it!"

"He's as attractive as he is impossible. That man is bad, very bad. For a moment I thought that my stay there could help save him perhaps? But in the attempt I only ended up hurting myself and I feel immense guilt for the baby."

"Oh, friend..."

"That child is a light, but he has a context that instead of making him shine to the fullest, I'm afraid he only tries to surround him with darkness. I... I saw him so happy and I feel so sorry for him."

"Friend, come here."

I think of Ali tending, waving his little arms and hugging me when he sees me. I think of his angelic face sleeping in my arms and his tantrums when I left him to change shifts. I think of his plump cheeks and his huge honey eyes, making my heart break into a thousand pieces.

I wipe away a few tears as my friend wraps her arms around me, squeezing me to her chest.

"Don't worry, nothing that a few drinks can't cure."

"That's not what it's about, my friend..."

"Hush. Tonight you will accompany me to Jordan's party and say no more."

"Jordan? The clothing brand for cool people?"

"No, Jordan is my new friend who lives five kilometers from here."

"And since when do you make friends in my city?"

"They were very sociable days."

"Well, I think it will do me good."

"What do we think for lunch, in the meantime?"

I sigh, taking out my phone, looking at the screen.

Faced with my lack of response, she understands my silence and takes the house keys to warn me, leaving.

"Okay, calm down. I got this. I'll go buy a few things, I'll be back right away, sweetheart " she tells me and leaves.

I just let her do it. I don't have the strength to eat something. I urgently need a situation that lifts my spirits because I can't go on like this.

And less with the message I have in front of me.

"You left without saying goodbye."

It's Kerem.

The only one I didn't say goodbye to when I left.

It would have been all easier if he hadn't been locked up and if he hadn't treated me the horrible way he treated me last night.

I swallow thickly and delete all his messages. Also his contact. I have to start over and I don't want it to be with his ghost haunting me. I will take Massera's proposal, continue with my online classes and I will invest the money in moving to a better place. I have to move on and not let any man get in my way again.

No more.

Goodbye Kerem. Only two weeks were enough for you to change my life and I will not let you continue to have control over me.