Beg Me to Stay

The days were going by faster than ever. My stomach getting rounder as the weeks progressed. I was steadily coming up on week 16, which is when Doctor Sandier said I could find out the sex of my baby, and I was more than excited to find out. And according to Kat, who was excited herself, so were the guys.

I was currently on my lunch break, seated at a Wendy's around the corner from Hart & Westin Law Firm, which is where I worked as a receptionist. I was stabbing at the remains of my salad as I dialed the familiar seven digits belonging to Michael Fuentes into my keypad. It rang several times to no avail, which I found strange since he almost always answered his phone, but when I was getting ready to just leave him a voicemail, someone finally picked up and it wasn't him. It was a female, someone I wasn't expecting to hear on the other end.

"Um, who is this?" I questioned, not recognizing the voice that picked up.

There was a giggle from the female before she answered. "Oh, this is Frenchi." She murmured. "Is this Mikey's baby mama?"

The way she said 'baby mama' made me cringe. It made me wanna chuck up all the salad I just ate and cry. Or possibly crawl in a hole somewhere and disappear for a while. Either way, it made me sick to my stomach to hear.

Frenchi was Mike's ex girlfriend, and she was everything I wasn't. She was gorgeous, skinny, and she looked amazing next to Mikey. I was nothing like her, and that realization left me feeling numb inside. Despite the fact that Mike and I were having a baby together, we were really nothing more than just friends, just two people who weren't cautious enough to use protection and were dealing with the consequences as they came. I guess somewhere inside, though, I hadn't thought about that and just assumed the role of a girlfriend almost. How pathetic could I be? I wasn't good enough for that role; especially with Frenchi around.

"Are you still there? Hello?" Frenchi repeated, causing me to zone back into the real world.

I shook my head. "Oh, um, yeah. Sorry."

"Did you want me to tell Mike to call you back?"

"No," I murmured with a shake of my head, even though she couldn't see me. "It wasn't anything important. I was just calling to check on him."

I hung up before I could further embarrass myself or say anything else stupid to the seemingly perfect brunette while I was on the phone with her. It was no wonder why Mike wanted to get back with her; she was damn near perfect.

I let a rough sigh escape from my lungs as I threw away the remains of my lunch and left the fast food joint to get back to the office. I had just parked my black Ford Focus in the parking lot of the firm when my phone began to blare from the passenger seat. Mike's name began to flash across the screen, but I just pressed ignore and put it on silent. I didn't want to hear his excuses on why Frenchi was there with him and why he chose her over me, and how he only bothered with me because I was carrying his baby. I didn't need him to bother with me if he didn't want to, if he had someone better. I would be just fine by myself; me and this baby both.

"Good afternoon, Miss Rivera." Mr. Hart greeted as I settled into my place behind the receptionist desk. "How are you and the little one doing today?"

A grin took over my features as the older man greeted me. "We're doing wonderful, Mr. Hart. Thank you for asking."

"Good, good. You know how Mrs. Hart worries about you. She's absolutely ecstatic for you to find out the sex of the baby and wants to know immediately what it is."

"I'll be sure to give her a call on Wednesday after I'm out of the doctors."

"Yes, you do that." With a pat on my shoulder he was off to his office, leaving me to bathe in my thoughts as I typed up all the memos and documents I was required to do for the day.

I couldn't believe I was stupid enough to think Mike would see me as anything other than the mother of his unborn child. I was only a body to help the fetus come together; that's all I was to him. He didn't see me as the pretty girl he wanted to wake up next to, only the girl he was stupid enough to knock up. I barely meant anything to him, and that hurt more than I could ever explain.

If there was one thing in life that I wanted more than anything, it was to be loved and to be happy. I wanted to find my one love and have a family, and live to be happily ever after. It wasn't exactly something I broadcasted to the world, though, as I really wasn't one of those sappy hopeless romantics like most girls were. I believed in love and supported it no matter what, but I didn't go crawling after it. I believed more than anything that each person has a special someone, but I also understood that life had a way of interfering in what was meant to be, too. I guess I was more of a realist than a hopeless romantic, but either way, I wasn't naive enough to think that I deserved a special someone in the way that someone like Frenchi did.

"Anita, are you okay?"

I hadn't realized that I was crying until I looked up to see one of the few female attorneys at the firm, Darcy Mayfield, staring down at me with concerned eyes.

I hurried to wipe the tears from my face before anyone else could see them and nodded my head in an attempt to convince not only her but also myself. "I'm fine,"

She gave me a 'yeah right' sort of look before shaking her head at me. "You're not fine, Anita. I know that look. Did something happen between you and the father of your child?"

Darcy was beautiful with shoulder-length red hair and eyes the color of cinnamon. Her skin was a pale shade that went well with just about anything, allowing her to wear a multitude of yellows and pinks. She was tall, well over the height requirement for an average model, with legs that went on for miles and an ample chest. She was the sweetest and the youngest lawyer at the firm, but if there's one thing I had to compliment her on, it wouldn't be her physical features; it would be her ability to move on.

She was in her early thirties and recently went through a nasty divorce battle that awarded her full custody of her 8 year old daughter and ownership of their residence in San Diego and their beach house in Malibu. It was an excruciating process that left her drained of energy nearly every night, but she pulled through like I knew she would, and I couldn't have been happier for her.

I bit my lip, apprehensively. "I think I may have read too much into Mike's concern for the baby's health and convinced myself of there being something between us when there was really nothing there at all."

She took in my words with a nod of her head, appearing to be deep in thought before she spoke up again a few seconds later. "So, you're upset that you imagined there being feelings between you and . . . Mike, was it?"

"Its not that, persay. More of the fact that his ex girlfriend answered his phone earlier, and it made me realize that there would never be anything between us because she's everything a guy could want in a girl -- beautiful, skinny, and perfect -- whereas I am none of those things."

"Do you not own a mirror?" She guffawed. "You're gorgeous, Anita. And as for the skinny part, you're still pretty skinny despite being pregnant, so she isn't much of a competition in my opinion. Besides, I think being pregnant with his kid gives you an advantage she doesn't have, you know?"

Maybe she was right. Maybe she wasn't. All I know is that while her words made me feel somewhat better about myself, I still couldn't shake the feeling of betrayal from my mind. I was having his baby for God's sake! Could he not show a little bit of respect and at least keep his phone out of the hands of other people? Especially her!