The Maybe Daddy

2. Sickness....

The bartender looked up, one eye brow raised. ‘We’re closed lady.’

‘I know. I just need help finding someone.’

He was around thirty five, sturdy, with piercings through his eyebrow, and dotted down his ear lobe. A quick check of his hands revealed no tattoo, and she was relieved. He wasn’t her type, drunk or not.

‘You finished staring’ he teased.

She swallowed, her cheeks reddening. ‘I….’

‘You city girls are all the same’ he chuckled, dragging a keg from under the counter. Enjoying the blush flooding across her face, he smiled. ‘Who do you need to see?’

She inhaled sharply, placing her hands in her pockets, nervously. ‘I was wondering if you knew something about a guy who was here a few weeks ago. He had a tattoo on his hand.’

The man started to guffaw with laughter. ‘Doll, people pass in and out all night long. I’ve seen tattooed hands, but I wouldn’t remember a particular guy! What did he do?’

She winced at his words, lowering her head. The words spluttered out ,  ‘I’m pregnant’. The mere mention of those words suddenly hit her hard, like a hard punch in the gut, and she swallowed as a wave of bile threatened.  The bar tender stepped from behind the counter and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

‘Jono, can you help this lady out? She’s looking for a guy that might have been here a few weeks ago, he had a tattoo on his hand?’

Mandy was aware of a presence behind her,  she gave a sideways glance at a tall stringy man. His shaggy dirty blond hair was combed backwards, and like the bar tender he had a variety of piercings adorning his face. 

The stringy man narrowed his steel grey eyes at her. ‘What did the tattoo look like?’

‘It was a sun with some Arabic script…I think?’

‘No’ the younger man said, instantly. ‘But we get so many in here….’

‘Told her that’ the bartender affirmed, shrugging. ‘I’m sorry miss, not the news you wanted huh.’

She thanked the two men and fled from the club, the urge to throw up was overwhelming. She didn’t know whether it was through her morning sickness, or exasperation at the situation she found herself in.

One week later:

Mandy returned to work, reluctantly. Her working hours would not be kind to her condition, morning sickness plagued her from the moment she woke till mid afternoon. The only mercy was that her office had a bathroom attached. She shuddered at the thought of running through the busy office space to the shared ladies room and spewing in front of her colleagues.  Allegra had been moderately pleased with her article and had asked her to be her escort to a fashion show in New Jersey, held by Ez Klinsmann at the end of the week. In addition to her bespoke, highly coveted furniture range, she had branched out into the world of couture fashion. As the magazine had been supporters of her work from day one, they had VIP seats for the front row. The event would be covered on their website, and Mandy was to construct the article and provide photographs.