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My Baby, My Darling.

Made a Fool.

"What about this one?" Annie called out to me from across the store.

I furrowed my eyebrows, making my way across the antique furniture store to where she was now standing. I found her inspecting the price of a wooden lamp with the silhouette of monkeys carved into its side and a purple lamp shade.

I bit my lip, holding back the many snarky remarks running through my mind. I had to remind myself that this was her style, she loved these tacky pieces of furniture. "It's very unusual."

"I'm going to buy it." She nodded officially, pulling the lamp down from the shelf and cradling it in her arms like a baby.

"A great buy." I nodded, trying my best not to sound sarcastic.

She rolled her eyes, sending me a laugh over her shoulder as she handed the lamp to the cashier in the front of the store so that he could scan the price tag. "I'm sorry for bringing you to do all of this with me, I usually bring big brother."

"It's entirely fine." I shook my head, smiling lightly as she paid and we started to make our way out of the store with the monkey lamp cradled in Annie's arms. "You needed a ride and you actually saved me from a day of boredom."

"Don't lie, honeybunches." She scoffed as we piled into my truck. "I know how much you love your leisure time on your day off."

She was partly right. Today was the first day in a long time that I had no classes and no shift at the Cafe. I was free for the entire day and was hoping to spend my free day with Dexter. But, when I arrived at his apartment, I found out he was working at the hospital until 5. That's when Annie called and asked me to drive her downtown to go furniture shopping for her newly purchased apartment, so I willingly obliged. Since she didn't have a car yet, I agreed and cast away my previous plans to lounge around my apartment and watch TV all day. I cast away my day of doing nothing.

"So tell me why I haven't really talked to you in what feels like eternity." She smirked as I was pulling onto the main road.

I shrugged, quickly glancing at her before returning my gaze out onto the road. "I've been pretty busy with classes and my shifts at the Cafe lately."

"Travis told me he ran into you at Rubenfield yesterday." She spoke quickly as she rummaged through my glove compartment curiously. "I heard you all went out to that one coffee shop in New Haven that Greg makes us go to every month."

"Yeah." I cleared my throat, not sure where she was going with this. "There were some pretty good artists there."

"So," she paused, closing the glove compartment and turning in her seat to face me, "what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

She smirked, rolling her eyes. "You know what I mean. You know there's complications concerning Travis, yet you spent time alone with him-"

"We weren't alone." I interrupted, licking over my lips. "And nothing is going on with Travis and I."

"I know that, honeybunches." She muttered, furrowing her eyebrows the same way as her brother. "But big brother might interpret this situation as a whole different story."

"Dexter trusts me." I shook my head, sending her a knowing look.

Annie clucked her tongue as she turned back in her seat so that she was facing forward. "I'm just telling you how it looks, sweetheart."

"It doesn't look anything, Annie." I sighed, "Travis and I are friends, that's it."

She shook her head and turned towards me, opening her mouth and shutting it quickly as if trying not to blurt out something.

"What?" I bit my lip, turning to face her as I came to a stop at a red light.

"It's just," she spoke quickly, averting her gaze and staring out the window before turning back to me, "Alright, I'm going to be straight with you. I can tell that there is quite a bit of history going on between you and Travie-boy since day one. Maybe you two dated a while back or something. But, the thing is, my brother isn't a fool. And neither is anyone else. I mean, if I noticed all of this, bug brother the braniac most certainly has. It might be that at one point in your life, Travis had a thing for you and I'm thinking that he still does. But, you're with big brother and Travis would never have the nerve to jeopardize that from how it looks. I'm not even sure if he's aware of these feelings for you, because he does this thing every month where he-"

"dates a performer from the Coffee shop and never calls her back." I nodded, finishing her sentence.

"So you see it, too?" She let out a puff of air, raising her eyebrows.

I nodded, furrowing my eyebrows as I continued to drive towards Annie's apartment. "Raven told me about that one. But, I really don't think he-"

"He does." She nodded officially, smirking lightly. "Trust me, he has feelings for you. He play it off like he doesn't. But I just want to make sure of something."

"What is that?" I muttered.

"I want to make sure that you won't make a fool out of my brother." She turned to face me, sincerity written all over her face. It was weird to see her in this state, serious. The way her usual light hearted demeanor disappeared entirely caused me to direct all of my mental attentiveness to her. "He's been through hell, which he really didn't deserve in the first place. He's one of the best guys I know, and I don't think that you will, but I just want to tell you that whatever is going on with Travis, fix it before it does become something. I know he cares for you, and I can tell that you care about him. Just, don't hurt him."

I came to a stop in front of her apartment, silence radiating throughout my car. Annie had never been that serious with me before. I could tell she meant every word, that she was being sincere. It was weird seeing that side of her, and I knew that it would be very rare and she only displayed this side of her when it was important. And I absorbed every single word. As Annie was getting out of my car, I called out to her.

"I won't." I spoke clearly, making eye contact.

She held the same solemn expression, her eyebrows raised as she spun to face me.

"I can promise you that I'm not going to make a fool out of him." I assured her, matching her sincerity.

Annie's easy-going demeanor returned as she sent me a familiar smile. "That's all I wanted to hear."

---

A few days later, I found myself sitting in a car with Dexter, silently running my conversation with Annie through my head as we drove to his dad's house. We were meeting with his dad for Dexter's birthday dinner, something I had only learned about the day before. He had surprised me as I was eating lunch with him in the hospital cafeteria during his break. It happened in between a crazy patient story and an intellectual joke. It was well-strategized, how he snuck that in there. It wasn't just going to be a dinner with his dad. It was a dinner with his entire group of family and friends, distant relatives included. Dexter had said it was spur of the moment and that he only learned about it that morning, but something in me told me that he knew about this for weeks and just failed to tell me.

He did that often, messed with my plans because he forgot about prior obligations. I had a whole night planned out for his birthday, reservations at a restaurant he'd raved about for months and tickets to an underground jazz club on the opposite end of town (Dexter loved Jazz, an unexpected characteristic I'd learned over time). You would think that a mind of his intellect would remember these small things, but I wasn't going to throw a fit. It was, after all, his birthday. And the tickets were good until next week.

What really worried me was the fact that his entire family was going to be there. His entire family, which included Ben. I'd been facing an internal conflict concerning recent news about his illegitimate child for weeks now. Sometimes I would conclude that pretending I never found out would be best, saving us both the trouble. But then, guilt overcame me and I came so close to telling Dexter sometimes. The timing was never right. I mean, when is it ever a good time to tell your boyfriend that his ex-fiancé cheated on you with his married brother and had a child out of wedlock. There wasn't, to save you the math of calculating the exact, perfect time frame.

"Don't be nervous." Dexter smirked, gently squeezing my leg as he drove with his other hand. "They've met you before, and they loved you. They'll love you again."

I scoffed, shaking my head and glaring at him. "I am not nervous."

"Baby, I know what you look like when you're nervous." He raised an eyebrow, flashing his arrogant smile.

I laughed sarcastically, shaking my head. He knew exactly what he was doing, purposely pushing my buttons to get me even more agitated. He knew I hated being psychoanalyzed. Normally, I would pick an argument with him about how he had no right to tell me how I felt and what I was thinking despite my oppositions. But, it was his birthday, so I bit back my remarks. "You're lucky you're the birthday boy, darling."

"I did get your mind off the nerves though, didn't I? See, now that you're mad, you're not nervous about being around my family anymore." He laughed as he pulled up into the driveway of his dad's house.

The scene was very familiar, his father's house. This was the exact location where Dexter and I first met, where our relationship began. The wide expanse of property stood just as organized and architecturally modern as when I first laid eyes on it. The only difference was that this time, instead of the house being littered with beer cans and the disorganized parking of rowdy adolescents, it was filled with classy adults and organized parking on the driveway rather than on the lawn.

Rachel, Ben's wife, answered the door. She looked just as feminine as on her wedding day, more elegant if possible. I could tell that she was the popular type in high school, the type that would get a college degree in liberal arts and marry up at 25, have children at 30. She was beautiful, but a predictable type of beautiful, a huge contrast from Monica.

"Hey, birthday boy!" She beamed, pulling Dexter into a hug. "Long time no see! You haven't been hanging around the loft lately, my husband is missing his pal."

"Sorry, Rach. I've been busy. Maybe next week." He smiled as he pulled away from her, "you remember my girlfriend, Chelsea."

Her attention turned towards me now. "Of course, it's nice to see you again!" She pulled me into a hug and I tensed slightly, not used to this affection from near strangers. "The dress you wore to the wedding was beautiful, by the way. Vera Wang?"

I cleared my throat, smiling lightly as I pulled away from her. "No, actually. It was a Nicole Patino. My best friend is studying to be a designer. She's pretty good."

"More than good, from what I see." She beamed, ushering us into the living room where unfamiliar faces were scattered about in formal attire. My family only ever dressed half this nice at Thanksgiving. "If you'll both excuse me, I promised Ben that I'd get him a drink."

Dexter wrapped his arm around my waist as she disappeared into the kitchen. "We'll stay for a few hours, then we can hit up that Jazz Club you got tickets to."

I spun around to face him, "How did you-?"

"Baby, I have an IQ of 140. I pay more attention than you think." He smirked as he turned his attention to the crowd in front of us. "I know about those tickets the same way I know that half the people here don't even know why they are here, or that this is a birthday party."

"This isn't your family?" I laughed, looking around the room and pinpointing a few familiar faces from the wedding.

He pulled two champagne glasses off a nearby table and handed one to me. "Some are, but most of the people here are my father's business associates. This party is purely for his image. He wants everyone to believe that he's some sort of family man."

I bit my lip, nodding as I sipped my champagne. Dexter mentioned before that his father was never really involved in his life after his mother died, always immersing himself in work. Dexter and his siblings always had to fight for his attention, and eventually, his siblings just gave up. It was one of the reasons that Dexter scheduled weekly lunches with his father. He tried constantly to preserve whatever family he had left, including his dysfunctional relationship with his father, letting his borderline alcoholic sister stay with him for a few months, and spending a few saturdays with his brother when he got the chance.

After about an hour of never ending, superficial conversations with the other guests at the party, my feet were hurting and the champagne barely even gave me a light buzz. I politely excused myself from a conversation between Dexter and one of his father's business associates as they spoke about some deal on Wall Street. I didn't desperately need to go to the bathroom, but it was the only excuse I could think of at the time. Plus, Dexter looked just as miserable as I did. Before I left, I squeezed his arm slightly and sent him a small smile that only he knew the meaning of.

It was a code we had developed when we were at parties. If we wanted to get away from everything without being rude or blatant about not wanting to be there, we'd send small signals to each other like a light squeeze or a noticeable nudge. We'd both know to follow the other in an acceptable amount of time. Judging by the conversation he was in, I wouldn't be seeing Dexter for a while.

I finally located the bathroom, after opening about two linen closets and a few bedrooms. I had to admit, the house was huge. The distinguishing factor of occupancy was that this particular door had light beaming from the crack between the door and the tiled floors. Also, the sound of running water was emanating from there.

I waited outside for a few minutes before the door finally opened and its previous occupant stepped outside. I don't know why I was so surprised when I bumped into him, why my eyes went wide. But I struggled to recover, to plaster a normal expression on my face as I stared up at the familiar face I had been dreading.

"Oh, Dexter's girlfriend. Chelsea, right?" He grinned a painfully familiar grin after muttering a quick apology. It was amazing how similar Dexter and Ben looked, sharing many characteristics, including their slightly arrogant grin. "I'm sorry about the last time we encountered each other in front of his apartment, by the way. It was a pretty bad day for me."

"It's fine." I shook my head slowly, forcing a smile. "Did you and Dexter get into an argument?"

"Something like that." He nodded, furrowing his eyebrows. He was silent for a few moments as he examined my face, immersed in his train of thought before he spoke again. "Has he said anything about what happened, or about me? It's just, he hasn't been speaking with me much, lately. We didn't really leave things on good terms."

I shook my head slowly. "No, sorry. I didn't know you two weren't talking. I thought you guys were pretty close."

"No, it's just a little sibling scuffle," Ben said, rubbing the back of his neck, seeming tired all of a sudden. It was the same look I had seen plastered onto his face when I encountered him that day at the apartment. "But anyways, I should probably let you go. You were waiting for the bathroom, right? I know how much you ladies love your powder rooms, so I'll leave you to it."

I bit my lip, nodding lightly. The same McHale charm. If it weren't for the blatant physical similarities, their personality traits were sure giveaways for relation. I watched as he moved past me. How could he act so calm knowing what he did, how could he act so normal. He betrayed his brother, who literally had no idea that his fiancé cheated on him with his own family. I wasn't going to let this go by unnoticed.

"I know about Lydia." I spoke the words before I even knew what I was doing. I froze immediately, not sure if he heard me. There was still a chance I could let it slide, walk away clean.

That is, until he froze in his tracks. I could see him tense slightly, the same way Dexter did when something unexpected happened to derail his course of actions, his train of thought.

After a few moments of silence, I spoke again, quietly this time but slowly building my courage. "I ran into Monica. she told me everything. You need to tell him, Ben. You need to tell him that you're the father."
♠ ♠ ♠
I apologize for my absence. I'm a busy bee lately, but I have not forgotten about this story. I'm just losing a little bit of my mojo.

Feedback is greatly appreciated, guys! You're all amazing.