The rest of the day didn't go so well.
I always think that if you start the day off with a bang (sadly for me, I hadn't been laid since that little rendezvous with Stacey), then you're destined to get through whatever obstacles are thrown at you. I had two clients unhappy with the commercials we'd created for them, so it was back to the drawing board, and then I ran into Treat Murphy. Treat was one of our biggest clients, he owned practically every national publication, magazines, newspapers, gossip websites, you name it, and I guarantee at the end of the month Treat was steadily getting richer. He had the monopoly on all things print, and boy did he like to gloat.
'I like your style!' Treat greeted, slapping my hand with his for a strong, finger crushing handshake. At five foot six, he wasn't the tallest guy but he made up for it with his business balls and his debilitating handshake. Honestly, those things are like having your fingers trapped in a door. I tried to avoid him when I could. My fingers always thanked me.
He gestured around the office, a grin on his almost childlike face. Treat always reminded me of the actor Matthew Broderick. Greying, but the baby face remained. 'I rolled up a half hour ago and nobody knew where you were. That's the best way.' He tapped the side of his nose, as if we shared a secret. 'What was it? Golf?' He winked, and without giving me time to answer, in his usual style, he moved on. 'I won't tell anybody James. Call it a secret between friends.'
I smiled weakly, hoping he'd get to the point soon, with whatever request he was going to make. The guy was okay in small doses. Any more than that and I lost patience with every passing millisecond. Before I could say anything more, he whipped something out of my suit breast pocket. I'd forgotten all about stashing the ultrasound images there. And now Treat knew.
Shit.
'You dark horse!' Treat slapped my arm. Again, he was heavy handed, that little palm of his packing a lot of clout. 'I came to speak to you about a little or perhaps not so little proposition I have, but that can wait till tomorrow night.' He raised his eyebrows and waggled them up and down. The man was becoming more and more irksome. He'd invaded my personal space, and as a result I'd unwittingly divulged something I'd prefer not to common knowledge.
'Tomorrow night?' I had no clue what he was referring to. But then I never did.
'Tomorrow is my annual Fall Ball!' He clapped his hands over his heart. It was a little camp. 'I had no idea you were in a relationship, and expecting a child! We'd love to have you both attend tomorrow!'
'Treat.' I was ready to protest, to find an excuse any excuse, but then I'd never been to his ball before. The attendees were high caliber professionals and politicians, all of them couples. And he assumed that the ultrasound image was a sign that I'd settled down. He and his wife had been married for nearly thirty years and he always maintained that beyond every successful business, was a successful marriage. We'd come to blows before, arguing about whether a man needed a woman at home, or whether he could go it alone. It was all banter, but I knew underneath it all, he really did depend on the stability he had at home, to ground him.
I didn't need all of that. I could ground myself.
I was stronger and more powerful, business wise, for having gone it alone.
But I did want to see what all the fuss was about. I'd read that Treat's parties were one of a kind, ostentatious, ridiculously over the top, and with food more exquisite than anything that could be purchased even in the most well thought of restaurants. There weren't many events in town that I'd not been a part of, and this would be another to add to the list. I might even be able to network and score some of the contacts I'd not been able to work with yet. This could be really good for Radspace. I had to think with my business brain, rid myself of all thoughts of Jen and the baby.
Treat passed me an invitation from his briefcase, and nodded his goodbye as he took a call from his wife. It wouldn't be the first time a meeting was drawn to a close by their overly enthusiastic admissions of love, over the phone. I was relieved, and then something else took over. I'd agreed to attend his party, but I didn't have a girlfriend, Kennedy was the mother of my baby, but I highly doubted that she'd enjoy a whole evening sitting beside me. Being civil. Being less of an ice maiden. The business opportunities for tomorrow were limitless, and I could easily avoid Treat, his parties often catered for hundreds of people. I'd blend in, and avoid any questions.
And maybe I could sweet talk Kennedy. It wouldn't be the first time I'd sweet talked a woman, would it. Granted this time I wasn't trying to get in her panties, but it required the same skill. The right amount of complimentary comments, coupled with generally warm, friendly behavior. I could do that. She'd probably figure out I was up to something, but maybe I'd play up the fact that I was doing her a favor and now it was her turn to reciprocate.
Or something like that.
After Treat left I headed out to look at some new 3D filming equipment for commercials and short films to promote products. It was an enlightening experience and with Janine taking notes, I felt like I had a good chance at utilizing new technology to create more of a buzz around the company. For a while everything seemed okay. Leaving work, however, I suddenly remembered my conversation with Jen and how it had set the tone for the day. I was more than a little perturbed about the way she'd spoken to me. I needed to speak to her, apologise for being a dick at the club but remind her that I'm her brother and even though she's a pain in the ass. I love her.
Yeah, I throw out those words when I think she needs to hear them. They haven't failed me before.
As I pulled up outside my building, I called her. I tried multiple times before giving up and banging my head against the wheel. She was being pig headed. As stubborn as I was. Yet she was a woman, and did the whole silent treatment, and pissed off thing far better than I ever could. Guys are so much more simple to understand than girls, a guy lives off sex, food and sleep. In that order. Women need hugs and comfort and understanding and back massages and for you to stay out of the way when their having a psychotic time of the month. That's just the tip of the iceberg. I know this because even after years of marriage Rusty still does shit wrong and Carmella explodes like all women do.
By storming off and crying.
A woman's ability to turn on the waterworks ends all arguments and causes a man to surrender.
Sly bitches.
I left Jen a voicemail, simply telling her that I needed to see her. Then I headed up to the other woman in my life.
..................
Opening the door, I heard Pat Benatar blaring through pink iPod speakers, and there was Kennedy in an oversized grey sweatshirt and pink sweat pants. The girl wasn't bad looking, she just needed a little help in the style stakes. She danced around the kitchen, mixing something in one bowl and adding it to a pan on the stove. The scent was amazing, an aroma of tomatoes and herbs I didn't know. I couldn't cook to save my freakin life. That scent, it made me salivate and drew me towards the kitchen.
'Hey.' I cleared my throat, trying to get her attention. She didn't notice me, if she had, she was ignoring me. I tried again. 'Kennedy?'
Still nothing.
I headed around to the front of her, and she raised her head, almost jumping in shock as she trailed her eyes over me.
'Shit!' I didn't see that she had been carrying a small dish of sauce across the kitchen, and it wound up all over my suit pants. She clapped her hands over her mouth and instinctively whipped a cloth from the counter and dabbed at the stain that had splashed all over my left knee and up my thigh.
'Its fine.' I backed away from her, and her arms fell to the sides of her, still kneeling on the floor.
'No it's not fine. I'm taking liberties, cooking here, I shouldn't be doing this.'
'You're hungry, you're entitled to use the stove. I don't think it's been used once since I moved in.'
She smirked, holding onto the kitchen counter to pull herself up. 'Yeah I can believe that.'
There was silence, as she went to the pot on the stove, stirring it with a wooden spoon. 'I guess if you're hungry you could join me?'
...................
Now the weirdest thing all day, was sitting on the couch, next to a woman who hated my guts, eating easily the tastiest meal I'd ever had the privilege of tasting. She told me that she only had an appetite in the evenings, and as such she needed to eat when she could. I guessed it was sort of like a hangover. I could never eat to stave it off, the first meal I'd have was always the evening meal. Before then it was crackers and water. My vein attempt at healthy living. I didn't have one common strand to explore. Often when I found myself at parties all over the globe, I found something to talk about. Ironically, we were having a baby together and I knew nothing about her. It was as if my super powers were turned off. Sherlock had a serious lack of spidey senses to figure this situation out.
The chicken was phenomenal but a little nervousness distracted me from savouring the meal. I wanted to discuss tomorrow night, maybe make a pact that we'd try and get along as well as we could, and maybe the time would go faster and she'd be out of here before she knew it. Just looking at her I could tell she felt nothing towards me, there was no flirtatious behavior, no hankering for us to be together and bring up the baby. She was just biding her time before leaving my penthouse paradise to run off into the proverbial sunset with the baby she was definitely growing to love.
I caught her rubbing her belly in the kitchen as I'd walked in. Not because she was hungry or suffering from indigestion, this was a loving caress, and I knew by the way she looked down at her flat stomach that she was bonding with the kid. See I took a psychology class in college. I'm not clueless emotionally, I just choose not to have those complicated strings in my life. So there was my opening line, staring me right in the face. Common ground. We had something huge in common.
The baby.
'That scan earlier, huh....never seen anything so amazing.'
I saw that she was startled, that I'd bring up such a subject. She placed her plate down on my mahogany coffee table and swallowed, not quite meeting eye contact.
'Yeah, I think that was probably the defining moment in my life.'
'Really?'
'Yeah....just realizing that, you know, that its actually happening. I didn't realize just how nervous I've been these past few weeks.'
'Because you weren't sure if you actually were pregnant or.....'
'No, not that, nervous that I'd hurt the baby. With the negative thoughts I'd had when I found out. I didn't feel elation to begin with...' She trailed off, 'I don't feel comfortable talking about this with you.'
'Okay.'
'But thank you, you know, for driving me to the hospital and sticking around. That was kind.'
Like two strangers sitting side by side on a train, here we were, with forced pleasantries in my living room. Nothing had changed. I don't know why that caused my mood to nose dive, it just did. Looking over at her, I watched as she touched her stomach, as if communicating to the person growing inside her.
And I felt like an outsider.
I needed to get laid. Soon.