Page 23 of The Good Girl
“You ever run from me again you’ll regret it.” I believed him; he looked mad enough to chew nails. I nodded my head since it seemed he was waiting for an answer and was extremely relieved when the doors slid open on the fifth floor.
The doctor was a friendly middle aged woman with a very sunny disposition for this early in the morning. Speaking of which, what doctor’s office opened at this time? No doubt Jonas had got the poor woman out of bed for this. She greeted us as if she’d been expecting us and spoke to Jonas like they were old friends.
She took me into the examining room and tried her best to get Jonas to wait outside. I could’ve told her she was wasting her time but figured she’d find out on her own soon enough. He gave the poor woman one of his silent glares and she caved with a shrug. I guess anyone who knew him knew fighting was a waste of time and energy.
He stayed by my side throughout the whole examination. I kept my eyes on him while his stayed glued to the monitor. He’d known about the baby. That’s all I could think about as he seemed mesmerized.
“We’re looking good here, everything seems to be in order. I understand that you haven’t started on prenatal care, so we’ll get that started right away.
So far everything looks fine but we’ll know more once we get the results from the blood work. Your pressure could be better.” She glared at Jonas when she said this and I was glad that at least someone knew that he was the cause of all my troubles.
He didn’t bat a lash at her censure, just kept staring at the little screen while squeezing the life out of my hand. He asked a lot of questions, things I never would’ve thought or even known to, but he’d already been here once before.
We left the office with a prescription for prenatal vitamins and a nutrition list that Jonas had folded and put in his pocket. All the way back I waited for him to say something, anything, but he held his peace.
I saw the cutoff for my place and looked at him when we passed it, but he was busy working on his phone. We drove well out of the city limits and my heart rate went into overdrive once I saw the palatial homes that lined the street we turned onto.
The gates to the most magnificent house I’d ever seen opened and the driver went through them. It was only as we pulled up close that I recognized the grey stone structure. I’d seen it before, in a magazine. A magazine that was even now on the bedside table of the little house I’d left the night before.
How could this be? I’d never shown it to him, never even mentioned it. It was just one of those silly dreams that poor girls like me have about ‘what if’. “Jonas…” There was a realtor’s sign on the lawn with the word SOLD plastered across the front.
This time it was Jonas who opened my door and helped me out. I looked around in amazement. It was even more beautiful than in the magazine. The grounds were immaculate, about an acre and a half of lawn in front with a garden that wrapped around the perimeter.
Roses were in full bloom and the color was a nice backdrop to the magnificent stone building with the wall of glass that seemed to run from one end to the next. The sun added its glow to the scenery and made it all picture perfect.
I was too afraid to hope, too afraid to voice the questions running around in my head. He took my hand and led me up the marble steps to the front door. Inside were all the furnishings I’d earmarked in that same magazine and I thought I would faint dead at his feet. “How did you know?” The words were barely above a whisper. It was all I could manage past the lump in my throat.
“I know everything about you sweet Thalia. Come, I think it’s time we talk, and then I’ll give you a tour of our new home.” It was real then. He’d bought this for me, wait…did he say ‘our’? My knees almost gave out and it was only his hold on my hand that kept me from falling.
He led us to the back of the house and out onto the garden patio. I remembered this from the spread. It was one of my favorite parts of the house. A marble patio surrounded by a jungle of trees and flowers with a waterfall leading into a humongous pool.
He sat me at the outdoor table and took the seat next to mine. “Do you need anything? You haven’t had anything but tea yet today. I know it takes a while for your tummy to settle, so whenever you’re ready, the refrigerator and cupboards are fully stocked.”
“About that.” I cleared my throat and looked at him before going on. “How did you know about the baby?”
“It’s like I said, I know everything about you. I probably knew before you did, or at least I suspected. It was your breasts, they were fuller. Even more so than when you’re ovulating. I didn’t think much of it because you were on the pill, but then I found the test box in the trash.”
Geez, had I really been that careless or was he really that observant?
“I waited for you to tell me, and then when you didn’t I couldn’t figure out what your angle was. I knew you weren’t trying to play me, I knew you well enough by then to know that, but it took me a while to figure it out, and then I was mad as hell at you for not telling me.”
“But you said no children in the contract you had me sign, and I wasn’t... wasn’t sure how you’d take the news.”
“I know, but I’d forgotten all about that blasted contract by then.” Forgotten? What does that mean? Even when he’s talking I still end up with more questions than answers.
“You’d forgotten?”
“Yes, within three weeks of our little arrangement I stopped seeing you as my mistress.” He stopped talking and got up to move around. “Look, I may not have been fair to you. There are things in my past that have made me more cautious when it comes to relationships of any kind.” He’d discarded his suit jacket and now shoved his hands into the front pockets of his pants as he turned to look at me.
“The first time I saw you, it was like a shock to the system. I don’t care how clichéd that sounds, it’s the absolute truth. I took one look at you and everything I’d told myself I’ll never want again, never have, came crashing down on my head. It took me days to get my head together, to figure out how to play it.”
“I didn’t want any part of you, didn’t want to get too close to anyone ever again. But those first few days I couldn’t get you out of my head. I took one look at you sitting there, so unassuming, so disinterested. You were the only one in the room who wasn’t trying to catch the eye of the ‘great Jonas Harp’. I found it intriguing. And once I had you checked out, once I was convinced that it wasn’t an act, my interest only grew.”
“I’m sure you’ve heard the stories.” He smirked before coming back to the table and regaining his seat. “They were mostly true. But I never had anyone sign a contract before you. That was my way of tying you to me without taking the more logical step.”
“I didn’t want to ever fall in love again, didn’t want the responsibility of another human being since I’d fucked up the last time I tried. But then I had you and the more I had the more I wanted. So I fought it and you. That’s why I refused to share your bed for anything more than sex, why I kept a cold distance between us even though it killed me.”
“Then I found the test in the trash and I realized I could be happy again with someone. I was afraid you see, afraid of feeling too much. Afraid of losing…” He broke off then and I felt the pain of his loss. How could I not have seen it? Jonas is so passionate about everything else, but when it came to me, to us, there was this wall, this great divide. And yet when he touched me, I felt it in him; that passion that he tried so hard to keep leashed.