Missing You Again

Eat It

If I could have hidden out in my bed for days interacting with nothing but my favourite food delivery app and avoided the world I'd have gone with that option. Unfortunately it was not to be and I had to go into the office and tend to the company that allowed me to afford ridiculously overpriced strollers.

"Carley, can you please make sure that we always have some pomegranate juice in the fridge please," I requested of my assistant. When I'd informed her of my pregnancy she'd been pleasantly congratulatory. Let's face it I saw the woman most days, she'd probably already guessed. She'd been down right ecstatic when I'd advised her that my pregnancy would involve increased responsibilities and a promotion for her.

It had been almost a week since the blow up at my sister's house and in that time I'd had precisely one conversation with Zacky. He had appeared at my front door two days after that fateful afternoon but had declined to come any further into the house than the entrance hall.

"The fucking secrecy is over Kelly. I want to be kept informed of every development with the baby. You are not going to keep this child from me," he'd said glancing down at the baby bump that was becoming increasingly difficult to hide. Not that I needed to anymore.

"I won't Zacky I promise. Won't you please come in and let me try to explain?" I'd pleaded reaching out a hand to him. To my great distress he'd taken a step backwards avoiding my touch.

His brow creased as he shook his head. "I can't talk to you right now. Just have your assistant let me know when and where you have your next doctor's appointment. I'll be there." With that he'd backed out the front door and fled down the path into Sean's house.

I'd kept me word. Carley had messaged him with the details of my appointment for the following week but the only response from him had been a thank-you to her and no message to me.

I'd have worried that he'd washed his hands of me completely but every night when I'd come home from the office some form of healthy meal sat waiting for me in the fridge ready to be reheated. Unfortunately I didn't know what that meant. I knew he'd never wash his hands of The Spawn but maybe he was done with me and the meals were only for the benefit of The Spawn's health. It felt strange to know that he'd been letting himself into my house like a ghost to take care of me but was totally avoiding my multiple messages.

It didn't help that I hadn't heard anything from Steph other than a brief message stating – I'm sure I'll forgive you but right now I can't be around you or talk to you.

That sucked pretty hard. The only time previously that we'd had a comparable falling out was when I'd tried to tell her that I didn't think she should marry Eli. That hadn't gone over well. Typical. The only times we ever fought was over men.

Caitie and Matt had been fantastic and I was closer than ever to my sister. Matt had decided he was some kind of Don Corleone to the Avenged Sevenfold family because he'd realised that, by marriage, he was going to be the uncle to two of his four fellow bandmates offspring. I meanwhile felt that when The Spawn was old enough I was going to have to draw him a diagram to exclaim all of the complicated familial interconnections. Luckily my sister was an art teacher and she could help me make it a really pretty one. Or I could just get one of the RedMan artists to do some kind of ridiculously metal looking family tree.

The sound of the phone on my desk ringing startled me. When I picked it up Carley announced that it was a call from Sean.

"Darling, how are you and our precious cargo?" he teased lightly.

"Shut up Sean." I knew he was only joking but his teasing rubbed up against my already raw wounds and I couldn't bear the sting. "Zacky knows. Steph knows. Caitie knows. Everyone fucking knows." Defeated I dropped my face into the palm of my hand.