MISMATCH

Chapter 21 - Matteo: Broken Promises

I messed up big time.

And I don't know how to fix it.

I might never see my baby again.

And it's all my fault.

***

Because I had been too busy attending to Nicole, I realized that I had often neglected to be with Frances. I guess with the baby due in two months, Nicole and I got pretty excited about it and spent almost each day together. At that time, we still didn't know whether or not the baby would be a boy or a girl so we scheduled an ultrasound to finally find out.

The night before the scheduled ultrasound, Frances called me and told me that she was excited about our upcoming anniversary. I felt like such an asshole because that completely slipped my mind.

"Aren't you excited, Matteo? We're already on our third!"

I couldn't really admit Frances that the date slipped my mind so I pretended to be tired hence the reason I wasn't that enthusiastic.

"I was hoping we'd do the Tagaytay trip again...the one where we had to leave the same day. You did tell me about the hotel your client offered, right? The one with the view overlooking Taal Lake..."

I knew I had to make it up to Frances for not being able to spend time with her much. Our anniversary was a week later, so I figured I still had time to make amends. Wacks was right, it was hard to juggle time between two women - not that I was cheating - but rather it was difficult to actually prioritize time over the other.

"You're beginning to turn into Frances' BFF." Wacks teased me. "Same women, same scenario about who to choose."

"Gago." [Asshole]

"It's true. But it's the other way around this time."

"It's entirely different, Wacks."

"If I were you I would have chosen one. And it's not entirely different. The set-up maybe, but the situation, open your eyes, man."

In a way what Wacks said was true, but I refused to be compared to Tony who didn't treat Nicole the way she deserved. Unfortunately, Wacks was also right that I had to decide who to prioritize. And I guess fate decided for me.

When Nicole told me about the ultrasound schedule, I felt the energy drain from my body. It was scheduled next week, the same week when Frances and I were supposed to go on our anniversary trip. Since it was an ultrasound, I figured we could probably reschedule. I didn't really want to break my promise to Nicole about not being able to attend. I saw the disappointed look in her face and I hoped she would understand. Technically it wasn't breaking my promise anyway.

***

The day of the trip, it was difficult to focus on Frances without thinking of Nicole. I knew it was unfair to Frances, but I couldn't erase the disappointment I saw in Nicole when I told her that I chose to go on the trip. I knew Nic would understand, but it also felt like I was abandoning my baby-to-be. Frances however, was ecstatic. The entire trip, even though I was supposed to make it up to her, she actually took charge and took care of me. She said it was about time she did and she was sorry for ever treating me the way she did the past years we had been together. In a way, that helped ease the anxiety I was feeling. The last surprise, the most important of all happened that night. She told me to go out and buy a bottle of wine and then she'd just dress up so that we could have dinner. What I didn't expect when I came back to the room was a table set up by the balcony. While I was out, she had already ordered room service but asked assistance so that it would look like we were dining out. On the table lay the food she ordered lit by candlelight. She looked beautiful just standing there all dressed up as if we were going to a fancy restaurant.