She's Mine [COMPLETE]

She's Mine: Chapter 4

There was an unmistakable look of satisfaction on Troy's face while he and Eliza descended inside of the Bluestar building. 

"How's the baby?" he snuck in ten floors before they reached bottom. 

Eliza looked up to him with surprise, but forced an answer, "Good."

"Boy or girl?" he cautiously asked. 

"Girl," she sighed from relief at the opening doors. 

Yet her cool stripped away the moment she noticed the distant brown eyes glaring at her with an accompanied smirk on the face. She wasn't sure how her feet carried her toward the three other men, but she trailed after Troy. Andrew was pleased that Troy was able to get her out, but it was the anxiety all over her face that kept the uncontrollable grin on his. Eliza was itching to run back inside of the building, especially since Andrew was conspicuously quiet in the noisy group that traveled by foot to a nearby restaurant. 

"I already made a reservation for five," Troy snickered before looking down to Eliza. 

She showed her teeth, returning an awkward grin. Troy mouthed asking if she was all right, and Eliza lied with a nod before clutched more tightly onto her purse.

Sitting down at the round table in the restaurant proved to be even worse. Andrew made sure to situate himself across from her, while Troy pulled out a chair for Eliza beside him. 

After the men repeated what they wanted to order to the cheerful waitress, Eliza feebly requested for a salad behind her menu to the young woman that had to lean in to hear her. As soon as the girl left, Eliza was disturbed by the men looking after the girl. Their murmuring with smirks had to be over the waitress's good looks. Troy, however, was too busy enjoying the small dessert menu that he pulled from the middle of the table. 

Troy shook his head and leaned in to quietly confess to Eliza, "I have a terrible weakness for fudge." 

She observed the sincere smile on his face as he continued to flip through the miniature menu. He looked back to her and his eyes narrowed from the broad, closed-mouth smile he threw back at her. Troy was always a bit strange compared to their peers. He could always be found pointing out something small or unrelated to the topic at hand, normally bringing out a laugh from those near him. 

"So Eliza... you had the baby," she heard Andrew begin out of the blue. 

With fright, she looked up to him and surveyed the other anticipating eyes– including Troy's joyful stare. She nodded and cleared her throat. 

"Boy or girl?" a colleague beside Andrew asked. 

Andrew's smile faded as he waited to hear the answer, but Eliza was saved as soon as the same man sighed as though suddenly exhausted, "Doesn't matter. Either way, it's hell when they're first born."

"That's right. You have a one year old, John," Troy noted with excitement. 

"And let me tell you. I thought being a father would be easier. You know how many times my wife has threatened my life? One time she admitted that my breathing near her was a problem. You know how they say that babies look just like the dads when they're born? Shit. I needed a bomb shelter from Carol the first few months. She hated me," John laughed. "3AM, feed the baby, 4AM murder my husband in his sleep." 

Andrew's nostrils were flaring while he stared at his clenched fists on top of the table. Eliza drew her eyes away from Andrew's discomfort and boldly asked, "When did things get easier for Carol?"

John scratched his neat beard and chuckled, "Uh, I'm not so sure. She's less exhausted now, so I would say maybe after a year?" 

"You helped though, right?" she inquired, a little nervous about the response.