Later that night, we went to dinner at Ocean Prime. A restaurant I like to go to that's in downtown Tampa. Everything was going well but in the back of my mind I had to tell Gia the news I got earlier from Galina. I didn't want to mess up the evening with it being our anniversary and all but this was too important not to tell her.
She was sitting across the table looking gorgeous in that dress. "FUCK! I don't want to do this." I thought myself.
I reached across the table and took her hand, "There really isn't an easy way to say this so I'm just going to come out and say it."
She looks at me in concern, "What's wrong babe?"
I take a deep breath, "Galina told me earlier today..... that she's pregnant."
Snatching her hand back, "What the hell do you mean she's pregnant? You've got to be kidding me. You guys have had sex?"
"No....we don't.....Well we did.....once." My head started to get scrambled and I tried to shake it off. I was getting confused and I didn't know what to say.
I exhale in disbelief, "I don't feel I was in my right mind but the night you broke up with me, I came back here and that's when it happened. I was so fucked up in the head Gia. She came down stairs in the middle of the night and I was on the couch.... it was just.... I don't know what I was thinking. I barely remember that night. I know I didn't want to do it. I pushed her off of me, I didn't even cum."
She sits back and folds her arms, "So you're trying to tell me, I broke up with you was the reason why you had sex with her?"
"No, I'm not saying that but I don't know what I was thinking, I was so hurt. I don't know. Honestly, there's nothing that can excuse what has happened but she IS pregnant. I made her take a pregnancy test today."
She pushes back from the table, "You know what, just take me back home?"
Confused, "Home?"
"Your place Joe. I want to leave." She says
"You don't want to eat?" I already knew the answer to that question but I asked anyway.
"No, are you going to take me or not cuz I can just call an Uber."
"Yeah, we can do that. Go get the car from valet, I'll get all of this. I'll meet you at the car in a minute." She gets up without a word and leaves.
The car ride home was silent for a few minutes then I spoke to break the silence.
Looking over at her, "You know I'm not going to let this come between us."
Looking out of her window on the passenger side, "How can this not come between us? You got your ex wife pregnant and she WILL have this baby. So that's enough to come between us, that's enough to end this relationship.."
I grab her hand, "I swear to you, I'm not going to let any of this effect you. I feel like I just got you back, I'm not going to lose you again over someone who's trying to break us up because I don't want to be with her. I'm not going to let that happen."
Taking her hand back and still looking out the window, "That all sounds good but this is reality and I don't know if I can deal with all of this. I told you, I don't want all of this drama and yes it was cleared up but now we have this. This is too much for me. I don't want to do this anymore."
"Don't do this Gia."
"Do what? You fucked her and got her pregnant. For someone who's supposed to be in love with someone you sure have a funny way of showing it. This relationship is done Joe, done." She says
"Don't do this to me. I was fucked up over you. I thought I wasn't going to see you again. You told me not to worry about you, meaning leave you alone Gia. I don't even know how it happened." I was trying to control my emotions. I was driving and trying to look at her and focus on the conversation.
She looks out of her window in disappointment never making eye contact with me. She was crying but wouldn't let me see. The rest of the ride home was silent. When we got home she went into my bedroom and I just slept on the couch, in my clothes. I didn't know what to say, I couldn't say anything. I didn't want to try to talk to her because it would just make her madder. I didn't know what to do.
The next morning, I woke up at 7. I didn't sleep good at all on the couch but considering the circumstances I had no choice. I went into my room but she was already up and dressed for the day. She was sitting on the bed with her back to me.
"Good morning." I say while walking into my closet to pick out something for the day.
"Hey." She says without looking my way.
I get my clothes and walk out to her, "How did you sleep?" I ask as I walk over to her.
Standing up, "I slept fine." She walks over to me and I run my hand from the top to the back of her head and she starts crying, "I don't know if I can do this today Joe. I'm not okay."
I grab her and pull her into a tight hug, "Yes you can, just make it through the day."
Still crying and pulling away from the hug, "Why didn't you tell me this even happened? So I could know it was a possibility. You got me looking stupid, while she's over there laughing at me."
"Baby, I didn't even remember. How can I tell you it's a possibility she could be pregnant when I didn't remember myself? I wasn't having sex with her regularly. It was only once." I say trying to make her understand.
She looks me dead in the eyes, "I'm just going to let you know, this is just really hard for me. I am not okay with this. I am really struggling in my head with this situation and I really don't want to be in this. So......" She sighs, "I'm really contemplating breaking up with you right now. I'm really thinking about going to work and then leaving Tampa and leaving you."
"Listen, let's stop this conversation right here. I'm gonna drop you off and pick you up and we'll sort all of this out. I don't want you to leave. Promise me you'll at lease talk to me after work, then make a decision."
"I don't know, I can't promise you anything. You don't understand how I feel right now. I thought if I slept on it I'd feel different but I don't. I feel he same way, Joe.
"Please?" I ask again
She agrees and gets herself together and I get dressed for the day. I dropped her off at the convention center where they were holding the show. I picked up Jojo and took her to school. On the way home, I was trying to think of ways to make this situation better for Gia. I knew there really wasn't much I could do. I needed her to know I wasn't going to put Galina before her or that I wasn't going to leave her because she was pregnant. I definitely didn't want Gia to leave me like this. Once again, I put her in a situation that I couldn't fix. I keep hurting her. Maybe she should leave me. Maybe she'll be better off.
Later on that day, I picked Jojo up from school and dropped her off at her mom's (as I usually do) then I headed to the convention center for Gia. I got there and I found Gia but I also noticed a familiar face. It was my cousin Ana, her and Gia were talking.
"Hey Ana!" We hug.
Pulling back from the hug, "Hey Joe, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here to pick up Gia." I say looking at her.
"Gia?" She points to her, "This Gia?"
I laugh a little, "Yes." I put my arm around her waist.
Having a confused look on her face, "I'm lost."
"Ana, Galina and I got a divorce. I haven't went public with it yet but I will in the next few days."
Gia looks at me, "What?"
"And I haven't told Gia yet but now she knows." I look at Gia, "I'm going public next week."
"Ana, it was very fun working with you. Maybe I'll talk to you soon about more work out here." She grabs her things and leaves.
Watching her leave, "She's been off all day. She said she's going through some things with her boyfriend. Since now I know it's you she's in a relationship with, What's going on? I think she's been crying off and on all day." She says.
"Ana I'll have to talk to you another time." I leave to run after Gia. I find her in front of the building. "Hey, what's wrong?" I pull her into a hug.
Hugging me back, "You're going public with your divorce?"
"Yes, I'm going public. I thought this would be one way to make you feel a little better about this situation and show you I'm for real. I'm for real about us. Gia I'm in love with you." I pull her into a kiss.
"You're doing this for me?" She looks up at me.
"Yes. I dropped you off, took Jojo to school and I've been on the phone with PR all this time trying to figure out what to do about this. They said I shouldn't do it because she is pregnant but I said this isn't up for discussion." I grab her hand and we walk to my car. "Are you hungry? Let's go eat. We can talk more about this later."
We go to a restaurant called, Whiskey Joe's. The waitress seats us on the patio over the water. I sit across from Gia.
To be honest, Gia looked like hell. She clearly had been crying. She was trying to put a smile on her face but I could tell she was miserable. I was determined to lighten the mood and make her feel better.
I take her hand, "Gia, I hate that I did this to you and like I said, I've been trying to think of ways to fix this."
Looking out at the water, "How far along is she?"
I put my head down and take my hand back, "Gia let's just talk about us right now?"
She looks at me, "Look, I'm trying to find a reason to stay with you. I don't have many, so please just answer my questions."
I think about it for a minute and realize I do owe her answers. "She's 14 weeks." I take her hand again. "I'm sorry."
"And when did you say you guys had sex?" She asks.
"Back in December."
The waitress walks up and Gia shakes her head, "Okay."
We order our food and she leaves.
I get up to sit next to her on the other side of the table. I once again grab her hand, "I've been wrecking my brain trying to figure out what I could do for you to understand I'm serious about you and I'm willing to do anything I can for you to stay. So I thought back to that night in Vegas when I asked you if I could get you something."
I go into my pocket and I pull out a small box. I hold it in my hand while I finish talking, "Don't freak out. This is not an engagement ring, It's a promise ring." I open it and sit it on the table in front of her. "I promise to always put you first. I promise nothing will come between us. I promise to always be there for you. I promise to always consider your feelings and I promise nothing will stop me from loving you Gia."
"Joe, I've been thinking about this all day. You need to promise me you won't do anything else to hurt me. I swear, I wouldn't have accepted the drink if I knew you were going to put me through all of this a year later." She takes a sip of her water.
"Do you think you're better off without me?" I ask scared of the answer I might get.
She looks at me then out at the water. You could tell she was thinking hard.
"I think so but I've never wanted to be with someone so bad in my life. Right now, I couldn't leave you. I need to know what our future looks like. Maybe this is a mistake but we'll worry about that later." She smiles.
I smile and put the ring on her finger, "I just need you to promise me one thing."
"What's that?" She asks looking at the ring.
"I need you to promise me you'll move to Tampa within the next year."
She looks at me for a second, "Well with all this going on, I clearly need to keep an eye on you. So maybe I can consider it."
"Oh thank god. I didn't think you would agree to that." I hug her.
She looks at the ring again, "This looks very much like an engagement ring."
"I promise it's not. Your engagement ring would be much bigger and better than that." I put my arm around her neck and kiss her.
The waitress sits our food down on the table and leaves. I start eating mine.
Gia looks over at me, "Joe, I'm still really hurt but if you're trying to do all of this for me it would be very selfish of me to not at least try. I see how hurt you were about this and I also see what you're going through to make me feel better. You don't have to go public with your divorce if it's going to reflect negatively on you."
I stop eating, "No, I'm going through with it. I'll just have to figure something out to explain. Speaking of public, WrestleMania is next month, how do you feel about being my date to some of the events?"
She takes a sip of water, "I feel I need a little time to answer that. This is so much to process all at one time. I just came here for work and I got the baby news. Just give me a week or two, I'll give you a answer then."
"Fair enough." I say and continue eating my food.