Proposition (20 page)

“Yes, I am,” he brought her even closer, his head resting on her shoulder, “And I owe you an apology.”

Amy stroked gently his still damp hair. “You do?”

“Sure. My wife welcomes me home all dressed up especially for me and sexy as hell... And I am too tired to shag her senseless,” he whispered against her neck on a yawn.

Amy laughed, and reached to her left to turn off the bedside lamp, whispering into the darkness. “Go to sleep you pathetic creature.” She kissed his forehead. “We have the entire weekend for you to shag me senseless.”

But he probably didn’t hear her, as he was already snoring softly into her ear.

Chapter Eighteen

Amy maneuvered her small car into the parking lot under her building. She was happy to see that her usual parking place was unoccupied. That was, perhaps, the last time she would do that, she realized. All the furniture from her condo that she’d decided to take with her had been already moved into the new house, as well as, her books and most of the clothes. There were a couple of boxes left, but they would take them with them tomorrow morning, because it happened to be the actual last night that they would spend in her old apartment.

She climbed out of the car and moved to open the trunk. It was stocked with various groceries. She’d figured out it would be for the best to buy all of the food today, so they wouldn’t be bothered with it later during the weekend. Tomorrow she would simply fill the fridge in the new house with what she’d bought today. She decided to take upstairs only the products which would serve to prepare today’s dinner, plus the ones which needed to be stored in the fridge through the night. The rest could wait till tomorrow.

The bags she took weren’t very heavy. Now that the doctor had confirmed her pregnancy, she started to really look after herself. She took precautions, trying not to tire herself too much. Not that Jake would ever allow her to exert herself anyway.

Jake was over the moon with the news about the baby, to say the least. They knew for nearly two weeks now. When she’d opened her eyes the morning after she’d talked with Michael in the park, the pregnancy test had been already waiting on the bedside. Jake sat beside her, completely dressed, which suggested that he’d gone to buy it first thing after getting up himself.

She’d taken it and gone straight to the bathroom to follow the directions to perform the test. While she’d waited for the blue line to show, she yelled at Jake to stop pacing on the other side of the door. He was making her nervous.

At last, the blue line had appeared on the dipstick. She’d opened the door and put it just under Jake’s nose. To say that he had been ecstatic was a gross underestimation. She believed that he would have carried her around in his arms all day long if he could have and if she had allowed him this.

On Tuesday, he’d insisted on accompanying her to the doctor’s office. He’d cleared all his meetings for the day, to be with her when the obstetrician had confirmed her to be six weeks pregnant. He’d actually started thanking the doctor, who only smiled politely and pointed out that his wife’s condition hadn’t been to his credit. Amy grabbed the overly enthusiastic father-to-be from the doctor’s office, before he made a complete fool out of himself.

It was strange but since the pregnancy had been confirmed officially, the symptoms, which she had lacked previously, appeared all at once. She was tired, sleepy and almost every day suffered from morning sickness. The tenderness in her breasts had increased so much that she couldn’t even stand when Jake touched her. She was reduced to sleeping on her back, though it wasn’t her usual position.

One morning she’d felt so sick that she actually had been forced to phone the library to say she’d be in to work late. She’d sat on the tiled bathroom floor, conveniently close enough to the toilet bowl. She’d waited for the next wave of nausea to come and make her empty the contents of her stomach. She’d felt too weary and inhuman to even protest Jake’s ranting at that moment. He’d sat beside her on the floor, and kept repeating over and over, again, that she should quit her job immediately, and stay home until the baby started kindergarten.

The doctor ensured her that she should start feeling better on entering the second trimester, and that the nausea should stop by then. She tried to eat a lot of healthy food, to give baby the right amount of vitamins and microelements, but it seemed pointless because she vomited up almost everything. She could see from her clothes that she’d actually lost some weight over the last weeks.

The move to the new house could not come at a worse possible time. The whole packing was entirely on her head and it was killing her. She was hardly in a state to carry anything heavy. She was afraid to fall so she didn’t dare remove the graphics and pictures off the walls. Jake himself was very busy because he’d started some new promising business with one of his old school friends who had moved to California years ago. It was out of the question to burden him with the things connected with the new home and the move itself.

She didn’t like that he worked so hard. She planned to influence him somehow to take things easier once she felt more like herself, perhaps during Christmas. Yes, that would be a good time for such a conversation, though she knew it would be hard to convince him. She was pretty sure he’d already developed the idea that he must work even harder not only for her, but now for the baby, too.

Thankfully, her father helped her a lot. He dealt with all the things connected with the move, like contacting the moving company, and monitoring all their work when she was at the library. She hadn’t told him yet that he would soon be a grandfather as she thought it would be a perfect Christmas present. But she was pretty sure that Jake had already suggested something to him, at the same time making sure that Thomas kept an eye on her while he was at work.

Engrossed in her thoughts she didn’t notice the man who’d observed her since she’d driven in, and started following her to the entrance.

Only when she stopped in front of the elevator door did she feel a light tap on her shoulder. For a moment she panicked, but then she relaxed when she heard the familiar voice say her name.

“Michael?” She stared in surprise at the man standing in front of her. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said in a low voice as he took a small step toward her.

“But why?” she asked, confused. “And how did you know my address?” she asked, and eyed him apprehensively.

Michael stared into her eyes, his tone almost caressing. “I needed to talk to you so I observed you during the last few days.”

Amy’s eyes widened in shock. “You mean you’ve been following me?”

He grasped her wrist and stepped even closer. “Amy, I just wanted to talk in private with you, without the company of your husband. Does he always follow you everywhere like some love-struck pup? Is he afraid you will escape him?” He laughed shortly.

Amy had a strong feeling that something here was very wrong. She tried to free her hand, but his grip on her only tightened.

“What do you want?” She hoped her voice sounded calm, because she was far from actually being calm.

His hand lifted to her face, touching gently. “After our meeting I returned to Boston, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I understood that walking away from you was the biggest mistake of my life. All would have been different, had I stayed with you all those years ago.”

He stroked her face, and looked intently into her eyes. She wrapped her free hand around his wrist pulling his hand from her face. “What are you talking about?”

“Come with me,” he whispered thickly, his hand encircled her waist. “You loved me once, I know that. Be with me, and it’ll be as if all those years had never happened.”

Amy felt the wave of nausea coming up to her throat. At this moment she was sure it had nothing to do with her pregnancy. She was sick because of him. His scent and breath irritated her, and she wanted him to stop touching her.

“I’m married.” She pushed strongly at his chest, freeing herself from him. “Go away.”

“You don’t love him.” He tried to pull her back to him, but she slapped his hands away.

“How can you know that?” she demanded, getting angrier with every second. “How dare you?” she spat out, surprising herself with the coldness of her voice. “You know nothing about me. Besides it’s none of your business.”

He was clearly not listening to her as he reached for her again, grabbing her shoulders.

“Amy, baby, he’s not for you,” he whispered, trying to meet her eyes, but she kept turning her face away. “He’s some common guy and you cannot be happy with him. He can’t understand you as I do. Don’t you remember our walks and how we read poetry together?”

“No, I don’t remember,” she said defiantly.

He shook her gently. “Don’t be stubborn.”

“I must go,” she insisted, her voice rising in panic as she once again tried to push him away. If she could only manage to get into the elevator...

“You can’t go.” His arms kept her close not allowing her to move.

“No, let me free!” She started to struggle in earnest now, pushing him away with both hands. “Go to your hotel or wherever you’re staying and leave me alone.”

“Amy, don’t say this.” He brought her even tighter against him, seeking her mouth. “Baby, say you’ll go with me.”

“I’m not your baby,” she cried, wriggling helplessly in his embrace, “Leave me alone or I’ll tell my husband.”

He laughed unpleasantly. “I’m not afraid of him.” He nuzzled her cheek. “Come, you liked it once,” he murmured, one of his hands sneaking under her coat and jacket to grasp at her breast.

Without thinking, Amy raised her knee high and balled him as hard as she was able to. He cursed and bent in half. Quickly she collected her grocery bags, which she’d dropped a long time ago and her purse. She was about to push the elevator button when out of the corner of her eye she saw Jake’s car driving into the parking area.

The relief of seeing him was so great that she lifted her hand and waved, moving past the still half-bent Michael, hoping Jake would notice her. But she didn’t go far because she felt a painful grasp on her wrist again.

“Where do you think you’re going, you bitch?” he muttered furiously through clenched teeth.

Amy stilled. She gaped at him in shock. His face was still contorted in pain, but he was straightening himself slowly. Amy turned her head to see that Jake’s car came to an abrupt halt. She tried to free her hand to run to Jake, but Michael didn’t allow it. His face was red and furious. Obviously, he hadn’t noticed Jake’s arrival. Roughly, he grabbed her by the belt in her coat, pulling her sharply back to him. She began twisting away from him, her eyes searching for Jake, who’d just climbed out of his car.

“Take your hands off her!” he cried, running to her.

Instantly Michael’s hands dropped off her, which made her lose her balance and she fell to the ground. At the last moment, she pulled her hands forward to prevent falling flat on her belly.

“Amy, are you all right?” It was Jake by her side, his arms coming around her.

“I’m fine. Just my knee,” she winced, looking at the tattered pantyhose and drop of blood on the skin of her knee.

“Don’t move. And don’t try to get up,” he whispered, before moving past her to Michael.

Without a word of warning, he lifted Michael by the lapels of his coat and with an exact precision, hit him square in the face.

“Jake, no!” Amy cried, before the next blow came to Michael’s stomach, and her assailant fell to the ground where he curled into a ball, blood flowing from his mouth and nose from the blow.

Jake turned to her, and seeing that she was trying to get up on her own cursed under his breath. In the next moment he was by her side, and lifting her into his arms. He carried her to his still open car door, parked in the middle of the driveway, settling her on the driver’s seat.

His hands ran over her form. “You’re all right?”

“I’m fine.” He didn’t look convinced so she attempted a smile. “It’s just a scrape on the knee.”

He gave her a tight smile of his own and reached past her inside the car for his phone. To her astonishment, he dialed the police, informing them about the assault on his wife in the parking lot and giving the address.

“That’s not necessary,” she said, looking at Michael who was still lying on the concrete by the elevator, barely moving. “ I know him.” She hesitated a moment but she knew that in this situation Jake deserved to be told the whole truth. “He’s the guy I told you about. The one I sort of dated when in law school. I think that he’s lost his job and his wife left him. He came to the library a few weeks ago to talk with me, but I haven’t seen him or talked with him again till today.”

“I know, who he is,” Jake said.

Amy gaped at him. “How can you know that? I didn’t tell you.”

“You did tell me,” he disagreed gently, “You remember that day when you prepared me dinner and dressed up for me? You said you had met a ghost, someone who helped you to realize how good we were together. ”

“Yes, but...” She paused and frowned. “I didn’t tell you exactly who it was...”

Jake shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard to guess. It’s a longer story how but I knew from the very beginning that it was him...” Jake glanced at the other man who began slowly lifting himself from the concrete floor. “The bastard’s moving,” he snapped and walked back to Michael.

Guessing his intention, Amy climbed out of the car, crying. “Jake, don’t!” But it was too late. Jake kicked Michael in the stomach, flattening him into a curled, fetal position on the ground.

“Don’t get out!” Jake ordered Amy as he pressed her down into the front seat.

“I’m fine,” she tried to protest. “You shouldn’t have hit him, again.”

“And what?” he demanded. “Allow him to get away before the police arrive?”

“Why are you calling the police?” she questioned. “He’s not himself. He’s depressed and had some ridiculous idea that I’d go back to him. That’s all.”