Everyday || Charreigns

( CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - IT'S MY JOB TO PROTECT YOU )

Charlotte walked through the doors to her job (which she hoped she still had) greeting Ruby at the front desk. She couldn't wait to get bashed with questions from all of her coworkers, and especially her boss.

"Charlotte," Ruby exclaims when she sees one of her coworkers. Charlotte let out a fake smile. "Hey. How are you?" "How am I? Where have you been? It's been almost 2 weeks since you showed up." Charlotte wasn't surprised with that reaction. But she couldn't give a reasonable answer to it.

"I just haven't been feeling well, that's it." She shrugs. She takes her ID out of her pocket, swiping through the door so she could open it. Before walking away, she turned around to face Ruby once more. "How's Roman doing?"

Ruby sighs. "You know I'm not up there too often, but when I'm there, he's a completely different person. Yelling at people, not focusing. I mean, people are starting to talk about quitting. It's gotten that bad."

She nods as she pushes the door open wider. "Alright. I'll be back." She closes the door quickly before Ruby could finish her question: "wait, you're not staying?"

She pressed the elevator button, tapping her foot as if it was going to go faster. But for some odd reason, it did because she was walking through the doors. She pressed the top floor, making the door close. As she waited, she took deep breaths, in and out. She was nervous. She basically heard that the father of her child had basically turned into a monster. The person he said that he was never going to turn out like.

She put her hand on her stomach for a brief second before the elevator door opened, making her walk out into the office landscape. As she walked around, she noticed that nobody was at their desks. Nobody was greeting her and asking her the same amount of questions as Ruby, which was a huge relief.

Soon, she walked past her own office room, seeing the door still closed. She reached to put her hand on the handle but stopped herself. She didn't come here to revive memories. She could do that after she had her baby.

She pulled her hand back and continued to walk down the hall, noticing that everyone was in the meeting room. They were all sitting around the round table, with Roman's seat facing everyone. He looked mad. His hair wasn't up in his usual bun, he didn't have a tie on, which was not like him, and he had his pointer and middle fingers together on his left temple. He looked as if he was losing his patience.

Charlotte has never seen him like this, so she didn't know how to react to this. She saw him say open his mouth to say something and notice everyone's reaction lessen and lessen as if he was degrading his workers about something.

She then saw him look up, making the two of them share eye contact. He still had the same facial reaction, but his jaw wasn't as clenched as before. He said something before standing and walking over to the door and opening it.

Charlotte slightly walked away from him so that way people couldn't see the two of them together, but stopped when he grabbed her arm.

"What are you doing here?" Just by his sound, she could already tell that this was the tone he had before she pulled him out. "I missed you," she whispers. He scoffs as he lets go of her arm. "You missed me? You haven't seen me in two weeks! How the hell can you miss me?" He exclaims.

"I've been texting and calling you, worrying my ass about you because I fucking care about you and you don't even think about at least telling Becky what's going on? It doesn't matter if we have sex. I'm still your boss and you can't just not show up to work." Charlotte just let him rant. She knew that this was expected of him. She deserved everything that he was saying.

"Ashley, don't pull this shit on me right now," he says noticing her zone out of what he was saying. She sighed as she took his arm and dragged him to his office. She closed the door and locked it, just to be sure. "I'm not going to have sex with you," she assured him. "There was a reason why I didn't show up to work and why I wasn't contacting you or Becky or anyone."

He scoffs again. "There's no reason for you to not show up to work. I gave you a break almost a month and a half ago. What could you possibly need another break for?"

She looks down at her fingers which are pressed against her belly for a little bit. She didn't know how to get the two words out.

"Ash, just spit it out. If you came here to waste my time, please do it another time. I'm stressed out with everything and you piling on top of it is not helping," he continues as he turns around to the door. "I'm pregnant," she blurts out, making him stop walking. He's still facing the wall for a good 3 seconds before turning around to face her.

"What?" She sighs again as she feels tears welling up in her eyes before reaching in her other pocket for the two pregnancy tests that she took on Saturday. She handed it to him. "That's why I didn't show up."

Roman looks down at the tests as he runs his hand up and down his beard. "OK," he starts off, still looking down. "When did you find out?" "Last Saturday," she says softly. "I just couldn't face you after finding all this out and I knew that you'd feel somewhat bad with me avoiding you and thinking that I don't want to have sex with you anymore," she says as he wipes her eyes.

"Hey," his voice was soft and calm, "you still not showing up had me worried. I would've done something to help you."

"Joe, I'm so scared," she whimpers. "I don't have any money or a place for the baby to stay at," she cried. "OK, OK," he pulls her into his chest. "Stop crying."

Charlotte calmed down as she wrapped her arms around his body. "You're gonna live with me, alright? You've always lived with me and you're going to continue to live with me. Our child is gonna live with us. I don't want you worrying about this alright?"

She sniffs as she pulls away. "No, I can't move in with you," she whispers. "That's just too much right there." Roman brings her back to his chest as he stroked her hair.

"I'm the one that got you pregnant. Not Drew, not anyone else. I did, meaning it's my responsibility to make sure that you are stress-free for the next year so you can deliver our baby safely. This is our baby, and you're the one carrying it. It's my job to protect you. Besides," he says lifting her chin up, "you were practically live with me anyway."

"Are you sure? You're already stressing out overwork. I don't want me making it ten times worse for you," she says holding her hand. He chuckles. "Fingers crossed I get a boy," he smiles making her laugh.

"Thank you," she says giving him a hug. "Your parents think we're married," he laughs, making her laugh back. "You know I love you, and I'll love our kid as well, but you can't run off like that, alright? You should've talked to me."

Charlotte squeezes his tighter as she nods. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Promise."