Summer in Manhattan

Cici’s apartment was slowly coming together. It was different from the house in Queens and she hoped that it represented her new life with her baby. She put her hand over her stomach, as was becoming a habit, as if by touch she would be able to connect to the child who was still more of a hazy idea than reality to her.

She sat down on the two-seater couch with overstuffed cushions, leaning on the patterned throw pillow. She put her feet up on the glass coffee table and looked around the apartment.

She’d worked hard for this place and felt a real sense of pride that she’d earned this. The sweeping curved staircase led to the upper floor and her bedroom and the room she was going to make into the nursery. It was a pre-war apartment building that had been completely redone. Her living room had a fireplace with built-in bookcases on either side and she’d lined the shelves with her favorite books. Her childhood favorites by authors like E.L. Konigsburg, Madeleine L’Engle and her collection of Trixie Belden books. She’d started a collection of Dr. Seuss books for the baby. The next shelves held her paperback collection of romance novels, thrillers and of course all the Harry Potter books.

She had pictures on the shelf as well. One of her, Hayley and Iona on the day they’d opened the Candied Apple & Cafe. Even seated across the room she could still see those big grins on their faces. The sense of joy and happiness she got from her job and her friendship with those women…well, that was something she hoped she could give her child too.

Her child.

Sometimes it still didn’t seem real.

She had tried to reach out to Rich…the man who’d fathered her child, but he really didn’t want to be part of her life or the baby’s. She got it. She was the one who was carrying the kid and even she was dealing with, well, the unreality of it. And as Rich had pointed out, they barely knew each other. It had been a wedding party hook up. Not forever.

She let her head fall back on the edge of the couch and looked up at the ceiling with its ornate trim and realized that no matter how together this apartment looked, she was still a complete mess on the inside.

The timer on her smart phone went off and she jumped up. She had plans tonight. Shakespeare in the park. One of her favorite things about summer.

She got changed into a flowy summery top and a pair of white jeans that were actually a little loose on her thanks to all the morning sickness, and then she opted to skip putting in her contacts and grabbed her prescription sunglasses instead.

She took a look at herself in the mirror, her curly hair was actually not too frizzy tonight and she turned sideways to check herself out. Then she put her hands under the flowy top and pushed it out a little bit. That’s what she was going to look like soon. When the baby started showing.

She pulled her hands out and smoothed the top back into place.

“I don’t regret you, bean,” she whispered, and then filled her mind with love for the unborn child that resided there. Ten weeks pregnant. And definitely on her own with the baby.

No regrets.

She left her apartment and walked through Central Park to her seat. She was ready to relax, sip her juice smoothie and let Beatrice and Benedict sweep her away. She was going to forget that she was almost three months pregnant and alone.

“Excuse me.”

She glanced up to see a latecomer making his way down the row behind her. She really had no tolerance for people who came to shows late. It wasn’t like they hadn’t printed the time on the ticket. But then she was chronically early for everything. She glanced at the seat next to her that was still empty.

Let it stay empty.

She noticed the man on her left standing and realized that the person holding the ticket for the seat next to hers was finally here.

She stood up to let him go by, glancing up with a smile on her face that froze as she looked into those familiar sky blue eyes.

“Hoop.”

“Cici,” he said. “Funny running into you here.”

Yeah, funny.

She sat down after he went past her, pulling her phone out of her bag. How could Hayley set her up like this?

“Don’t blame Hayley,” Hoop said. “I made her do it.”

“Why?” Cici replied.

“It just felt like we needed to clear the air,” he said. “And I hesitated with you before and screwed up so this time…I’m not going to do that again. I’ll tell you all about it after the play. I made us dinner reservations at a nearby restaurant.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Cici said, her stomach sinking. She couldn’t start a new relationship right now. She wasn’t in the right frame of mind and she wasn’t even sure what her life was going to be in six months’ time when she gave birth to the baby.

“Please, Cici, give me a chance to make up for the way I behaved that night. The truth is we had a real connection and that scared me,” he said.

She didn’t want to hear him saying things she had wished he’d said that first night. She glanced down at the round stage set up at the bottom of the bleachers and then further on to the castle with the flag flying. She wanted to believe that this was a true second chance.

If she hadn’t been so emotional and determined to prove that she was still attractive to other men that night in February this wouldn’t be an issue. But she’d always let her temper get the better of her.

And no matter what Hoop thought at this moment, she knew that no man wanted to raise another man’s child. She knew it first-hand. Her stepfather was nice but he wasn’t a dad to her. Not the way he was to his own kids, her half siblings, and she wanted more for her baby. And for herself.

“I … things have changed Hoop.”

“How?” he asked.

She glanced again at the stage, willing Don Pedro to come out on stage and start the show, but they still had a good five minutes before that would happen.

She took a deep breath and that didn’t help. She took a sip of her smoothie. Hoop reached over and put his hand on hers.

“What is it you are trying to tell me?” he asked.

“I’m pregnant.”

There. She’d said it.

“What?” he asked, sitting back in his seat, trying to process what he’d just heard.

“I’m having a baby,” she said.

“And the dad? Oh, God, is that why you have been avoiding me?” he asked. “I shouldn’t have pushed the way I did. You said friends and I’m here like, ‘let’s start over.’”

She put her hand on his arm.

“The dad is out of the picture. It’s embarrassing, Hoop. And honestly, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Fair enough,” he said.

She stared at him in the deepening twilight. He had a classically beautiful face, strong masculine jaw, high cheekbones and there was some emotion in his eyes that she couldn’t read.

He’d made a decision at the Olympus nightclub when they’d met, one that had set her on this course and she knew there was no way to change it. In fact, she wouldn’t change it. She wouldn’t change it. She and the bean were going to be a team and they’d have each other’s back. Not like her mom when she’d married her stepdad and started a new family with him…

Or at least that was the plan. So far, it was nothing more than a new attitude and some determination, but she’d always been able to make things happen and she knew that this would be no different.

Pregnant.

He didn’t know how to react to that. It was the last thing he’d expected. He understood now why she’d been so hesitant to see him again. And he’d said they’d be friends…he could do that, right?