Teach Me ✅

35. Sparkling Grape Juice

"Well her and I are quite alike then because I fear the same thing" I admit. "And I fear he'll grow to resent me and eventually he'll leave or he'll stay out of obligation."

"Well-." Alan begins but the phone is suddenly snatched out of my hand.

"Stop" Josh says softly. He hands up the phone without hesitation and kneels in front of me. "Look at me" he begs. I fight tears as I gaze into his shimmering blue eyes. "I'm here because I love you. I lost my job. I'll get another one and if I hate it, I'll get another one. I'm not going anywhere."

"I don't want you to resent me" I admit with tears beginning to fall from my eyes.

"I won't. I don't" he assures me. "I made a choice Maya. I made the choice to pursue you, I made the choice to let you stay with me, to have sex with you, and I'd say I had a choice in falling in love with you but that's not true. That was inevitable from the moment we met."

"Your dad" I say, pointing to the phone.

"Was making you doubt me. Again" he sighs in exasperation. "I agree that he's well-tempered but his goal is the same."

"What are you talking about?"

"My family wants you to walk away from me. Take my choice out of the equation because they know I'm not leaving your side. My family wants what's best for me but what they fail to realize it that what's best for me is you. Our baby. So please. Let them exist and we'll exist and maybe someday they'll realize they were wrong and we can reconsider their presence in our lives."

"Okay" I give in.

"Good" he smiles softly, caressing my cheek. "I was gonna run to the store to get some sparkling grape juice for tonight. Do you wanna come?"

"Sure" I nod. He smiles brighter as he stands up and holds his hand out for me to take.

"Good. Come on baby" he insists, pulling me to my feet and leading me out of the bedroom.

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"I said juice" Josh laughs as I throw bags of Doritos and Ruffles into the cart.

"I'm pregnant' I argue simply making him chuckle as he continues to push the cart behind me. "We need sour cream and onion dip" I add as we walk towards the refrigerated section of the store.

"Why?" he laughs.

"For the Ruffles" I reply as if this should be obvious. "Jeez what kind of snacks did you eat growing up?" I ask as I turn around to face him but one look at his impressive physique and I shake my head. "You know what. Don't answer that. It'll just make me feel bad about myself" I add as I reach the dip section and scour the shelf for the one I want.

"Why?" he questions. "I had junk food" he assures me making me laugh in disbelief.

"Yea right. With abs like that you probably lived off of protein shakes" I reply as we continue our way through the store.

"I just worked out a lot" he shrugs. "My favorite restaurant was a burger place that I ate at almost three times a week" he laughs. "And I enjoyed snacking just as much as the next person but I like sweet snacks, not salty" he explains.

"Hm" I hum. "Learn something new every day" I smile as we reach the aisle with the fruit juice. The sparkling kind is on the top shelf and Josh reaches it with ease. "Why are you so tall? It's kinda annoying" I admit making him chuckle.

"Genetics" he shrugs. "Come on baby" he insists, ushering me towards the check out. We get in line and not seconds later a cart pulls up behind ours and my eyes widen briefly. I recognized this girl. She was in James' class. I turn around, facing forward. Josh slips his hand around my waist but I wiggle out of his grip. He looks down at me worriedly. "Something wrong?"