Meant to Be

“You’re mad at me aren’t you?”

Brendon threw his head back in frustration and let out a tremendous sigh. He and Kayla were back in their apartment in Santa Monica after being in Vegas for the past three days. He knew he was showing a little anger, but that was only because he was pissed off at himself. He had Olivia in the grip of his arms and then she slowly slid away from under them.

“Why would I be mad at you?” he asked turning his head towards her.

Kayla looked down at her hands shrugging her shoulders then looked back at him biting the bottom of her lip. “I don’t know…you just seem mad for some reason. I just thought it was something I might’ve done.”

Brendon saw the sadness in her eyes and felt horrible for his attitude towards her. She was trying so hard to make their relationship work, to keep them together for the baby, that all she wanted was for him to forgive her and love her like he had two months ago. He gently stroked her cheek, lingering his fingers on her soft skin and leaned in, pressing his lips on hers.

He looked into her blue eyes and smiled at her. “I’m sorry. I swear I’m not mad at you. You’ve been nothing but wonderful these past two months and I haven’t been. You don’t deserve the way I’ve been treating you.” She curved one side of her lip into a smile. “So…I forgive you.”

She looked completely shocked by what she heard. “You what?” she asked, hoping he’d repeat what she thought she heard.

“I forgive you. I know you’ve been wanting me to and I haven’t, but if we ever wanna move forward with this relationship, I-I have to forgive you. So, I do.”

“Really?” she asked still unsure of his forgiveness.

He nodded his head. “Yeah. I wanna put the past behind us…all of it,” he said, the latter regarding more to himself than to Kayla. “I wanna try to make this work between us too.”

Kayla smiled brightly at him and jumped towards him into a hug. Brendon was a little surprised by the gesture, but soon wrapped his arms around her and finally felt at ease about everything. He knew he wasn’t going to get Olivia back now and to keep pursuing her could end badly. It was time to move on and grow up, because like Olivia said, he was going to be a dad and she a wife; and as much as he wanted her to be in his life, he had to let her go. Brendon finally realized that he and Olivia weren’t meant to be.

“I’m so glad to hear you say that,” she said hugging him tighter. “I know we can make it through this and be a happy family.”

Her words had struck him hard – he was starting a family with Kayla. The tiny human in between them would tie him and her together forever and for some reason the thought made Brendon smile; a genuine smile that caught him by surprise.

“I think we’re gonna make a great family,” he whispered to her.

If he and Olivia weren’t meant to be, maybe he and Kayla were.



“Dinner’s here!” Jason yelled coming through the front door, holding up two take-out bags.

Olivia put down the food she had started eating and looked at Jason. “Sorry. I got hungry.”

Jason walked over to her and smiled at her, placing the bags on the table. He eyed her food choice curiously. “What are you eating? That looks disgusting.”

“It’s toasted bread with butter, jelly, and peanut butter. And it’s not disgusting, it’s actually really good,” she said taking a bite of it.

Jason gave her an ‘ew’ look and took a seat at the table, taking out his food from the bag. “So can you believe about Brendon and Kayla?” he asked out of nowhere.

Olivia almost choked on her food, coughing a couple of times before speaking. “What?”

Jason chewed and swallowed his food. “You know, that they’re expecting. What surprises me even more is that my aunt and uncle were so cool about it. I was waiting for them to yell or say something not so pleasant, but they looked sorta delighted.” He shrugged. “I suppose they were pretty excited to have another grandchild.”

Olivia nodded her head. “Yeah, probably.”

“You know, we should start thinking about when we should start out own little family,” he said smirking at her.

She smiled at him uncomfortably. “I’m sure we can discuss that when the time comes, like closer to our wedding day.”

“Oh come on Liv, it’s not too soon to talk about it. I mean sometimes these things can be unexpected and I at least want us to have some kind of plan or idea for the future in reference to kids.”

“I have an idea. Let’s just use protection so we won’t have to worry about it until after we’re married or until we’re ready to start having children,” she said taking another bit of her toast.

Jason rolled his eyes at her. “Can we at least agree that we want to have kids?” Olivia nodded. “Okay that’s a step forward. Now how many? Two?” he suggested.

Olivia shook her head. “I’ve always wanted three or four,” she said smiling with a daydream look on her face.

“That many?” Jason asked surprised.

She nodded. “Yeah, I never liked just having one sibling, so I thought if I ever had kids I’d have at least three.”

“You see that’s good to know. I never knew that,” Jason said.

“Really? You didn’t?” she asked disappointed that after four years of being together he never knew that.

“Well like I said, we’ve never talked about this, but now I do and I like the idea of three kids,” he said wiping his hands with a napkin. “What are you gonna do after we have our first child?”

She raised an eyebrow at him, not knowing what he meant. “What are you talking about?”

“Like with your job? Have you thought about what I said…about quitting?”

She really hadn’t thought about it much, because she didn’t like the idea of quitting her job. She hated that Jason was making it seem like she wouldn’t be a good mom if she continued to work after having kids.

“Jason…I really don’t wanna quit and I can still be a great mom and work. My mom did and my brother and I turned out just fine. It’s not like I’m going to go back to work right after giving birth,” she argued.

“Maybe you were right. We should discuss this when the time comes,” he said wanting to end the discussion.

Feeling irritated, Olivia got up from the table and walked to their bedroom, and curled up in bed. As much as she wanted to be happy with Jason, she wasn’t; and as much as she wanted to believe her and Jason were meant to be, she knew in her heart they weren’t.