Chapter 38

I woke up from a loud noise, like something falling to the floor. I blinked quickly and saw that Pete wasn't next to me so I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Sorry, dropped my cologne!" I heard from the bathroom and Pete stuck his head into the bedroom. "Did I wake you?" I yawned. "Yeah but it's fine" I replied, stretching. "Did you break it?" He grinned. "Luckily not." I let myself fall back down and cuddled into the blanket, closing my eyes again. I was glad that my parents had only had a day in Los Angeles and that they would fly on holiday now so we wouldn't have to spend any more time with them. I missed them a lot but I didn't want them thinking badly about Pete. He had really gotten himself into deep shit with them though.

Suddenly, I felt something beside me and opened my eyes again. Pete was sitting on the edge of the bed, fully dressed and smelling wonderful. "Hey" I smiled and he leaned down to kiss me. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him back down into bed. He laughed and his lips travelled down to the side of my neck. "Do you know what?" he asked and looked down at me. "What?" "Brace yourself, this is gonna be corny." I laughed. "Oh, dear." He pecked my lips before speaking. "Last night before I fell asleep, I was thinking ... I don't think we were ever meant to be apart." I raised my eyebrows in curiosity. "Even when we didn't know what we were, friends or whatever because of the baby, when we got to talking, we still had more to talk about when one of us had to leave but I mean, it would've been weird to arrange meeting without knowing what we were so we had really no excuse to hang out. But we always got along. When you came to my place, we clicked again instantly, did you notice that too?"

It took me a few seconds to follow, then I nodded. "Yeah, I guess" I said and ran my fingers through his hair even though they were already styled. "I love you" he said and kissed me again. When he pulled back and got up, he looked into the mirror and fixed his hair. "I have to go and meet the guys but do you wanna do something later?" he asked. I shook my head. "I can't, I have to write a few articles and then I'm meeting Erik because he wanted to show me his writing, we might include him." Pete raised his eyebrows. "Aren't you meeting that guy a bit often?" "Once" I said slowly, slightly confused. "Yeah over dinner which I found a bit weird too, to be honest." "He's really nice, he writes too and I want to know who I'm working with" I said, starting to feel like I had to defend myself. Pete nodded slowly, then disappeared into the bathroom again.

I stayed in bed until he left, then I got up and into the shower. I did my make-up and got dressed, once again realising that my clothes were getting tighter. I had to go shopping but I didn't want to ask Pete for money so I just put on a lose dress and some comfortable shoes, heels were going to be the death of me, especially the more pregnant I got. I had a quick breakfast, then grabbed my bag with my laptop and left. I walked down to the busy street and stopped a cab. From my phone, I read out Erik's address to the driver and then leaned back, staring out the window as we rushed through the city.

We stopped in front of a big apartment building, looking a lot like mine but much fancier, I paid and got out of the cab, then rang the door bell with Erik's name on it. It took a few seconds, then the door buzzed and I pushed it open. Luckily, there was an elevator. I went a few floors up, then when the doors opened and I stepped out, I saw Erik around the corner, waving from one of the apartment doors. "Hey!" he said and greeted me with a quick hug. I smiled. "Hi."

I entered the apartment and looked around. "Nice place" I said and sat down on the couch because my feet already hurt, I put down my bag and looked up at him. "I think my boyfriend got a bit jealous this morning that we're meeting again" I said, just to say something and not make it awkward. I felt like when you didn't know somebody very well yet, awkward silences were bound to happen and I wanted to avoid it. "Well, he can pick you up later and observe that I'm no threat." I laughed. "Yeah, you're right." I didn't have enough money for the cab back anyway. "Plus, if he's jealous, it shows you that maybe you're wrong about not being good enough for him" he said, referring to what I had said at the restaurant. I shrugged. "Yeah, you might be right." I didn't want to discuss it any further though so I just opened my bag and took out my laptop. "I'll show you some of my drafts and you can show me a few of your articles" I said and he disappeared into the hallway, returning with a laptop. He sat down next to me and I leaned back, closing my eyes for a few seconds while my laptop started. I was exhausted for some reason.

We exchanged laptops and I read a few of Erik's articles which I absolutely loved. His view on things and the way he portrayed everything, simple but with a touch of expertise and a hint of sarcasm that he hid his opinion in, I was absolutely in love with it. I put the laptop down on the table and looked at him from the side. "These are amazing" I said, still quite amazed. He smiled, looking up at me. "Really?" I nodded eagerly. "Definitely, some of these are a lot better than ours, I gotta admit. I'll show these to the others but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that we think it'd be our gain to have you on board, Erik." His face lit up. "Really? Wow, that's amazing." I smiled. "Can I log into my e-mail account and send these to the others?" He nodded. "Yeah, go ahead. Do you want something to drink?" I nodded. "Yeah, water would be great." He put my laptop down too and got off the sofa, disappearing into the kitchen. He returned with a glass of coke and a glass of water, handing it to me. "Thanks" I said. "Your drafts are great too. Can I suggest something or is it not my place?" he asked, sipping on his coke. I laughed. "Please, we're critisizing all kinds of things in these pieces, I think I can take a little constructive critisism from a fellow writer." He smiled. "Well, I know you don't want your magazine to be too mainstream and all, you know what I mean but I still think you should do the entertaining parts your way. Maybe write book reviews or film reviews, it can still be in a critical perception but it has something of mainstream so maybe people who aren't in the scene are drawn to your magazine as well, educate themselves, grow as people, you know?"

I thought about it for a few seconds and Erik waited. I chewed on my bottom lip as he watched me. "You might be right. That's actually a good idea. I should tell the others" I said. So I sent Erik's pieces along with his suggestion. Maybe having a guy on board wasn't so bad after all. "I love that we can compare all of this and that you're gonna be working with us, thank you" I said after a while. His eyes widened. "Oh, no, Charlie, thank you, you're the one who's probably making it possible that I can make money with what I really like to do." "Don't you like repairing cars?" I grinned. "It's good fun but you know what I mean." I chuckled. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Can I come down to the garage some time?" He nodded. "Yeah, absolutely, let's hang out there." I nodded too. "Cool. I should probably go soon, I still need to write some stuff and I need to be alone for that, I think." "Message me about what the others say to your proposal though." I nodded. "Yeah, I will. Let me just call Pete and ask him if he can pick me up. You do live quite outside of town" I grinned. He shrugged. "Sorry, did you find it alright?" I nodded. "Yeah, I took a cab."

I took my phone out of my pocket and leaned back on the couch. Pete picked up straight away. "Yes?" "Hi, I was wondering if you could pick me up at Erik's?" "I'm having dinner with Gabe, can you wait half an hour?" "Yeah, of course, I'll wait. Should I text you the address?" "Sure." We hung up and I had Erik type in his address, sending it to Pete. "Do you wanna watch some TV?" he asked. I nodded, getting comfortable on the couch. "Why not?"

He zapped through the channels until he ended up on Tom and Jerry which we both thought was the least stupid. After a few minutes, I got more and more tired from staring at the screen and my head dropped down against Erik's shoulder. He didn't seem to mind so I just stayed there with my eyes closed, listening to the fast cartoon music until I dozed off into a half-sleep. A high noise woke me up again and I realised it was a phone but before I could sit up straight and adjust to my surroundings again, I felt something fall against my chest and with my aprupt movement, my eyes snapped open. "Fuck" I cursed as the coke from the glass soaked the top of my dress. "I'm so sorry!" Erik exclaimed and jumped off the couch, hurrying into what seemed to be the bathroom and returning with a towel, throwing it into my direction. I tried to dry some of it but it was already absorbed by the fabric of my dress. "I'm really sorry." I laughed it off. "No, it was my fault, I sat up so quickly and was confused, knocked your glass over. Think you missed your call" I added. "I'll call back. Let me see if I can find clothes for you." I sighed, leaning back and waiting for him to come back. "I have a shirt that's kind of too small for me but nothing to wear underneath but this skirt my ex left." "I can just let it dry" I said, not wanting to be any trouble. "Oh, come on, it's not that warm anymore, you'll catch a cold." I didn't want to risk that because of the baby so I took the clothes. "Thanks." "Bathroom's right there" he said, pointing right into the hallway.

The door bell rang when I locked myself in the bathroom. I quickly changed, the skirt was a bit tight with my belly but it worked. I looked at myself in the mirror for a second, I really hadn't made any effort today. I heard voices and realised that that was probably Pete so I unlocked the door quickly and hurried outside, packing my stuff together. "Hey, Pete!" I called and made my way to the door with my bag over my shoulder. I eyed me up and down. "I reckon that's not what you came in" he said, raising one eyebrow. "Yeah, I poured coke over myself" I said. He didn't seem convinced, staring at me sceptically. I looked at him in disbelief. "What?" He snapped out of his daze. "Nothing." I rolled my eyes. "I'll give the clothes back to you next time I see you" I said and patted Erik on the shoulder as a goodbye instead of hugging him because I didn't want Pete to think anything wrong. This had never really happened, Pete being jealous or possessive and I didn't know if I liked it very much. Of course, he had defended me at the bar against that huge guy once but really, this was different and we hadn't been together either back then.

He said nothing until we sat in the car and were already downtown again. "Pete, are you serious?" I asked. "Actually, I'm doubting you're serious" he replied, staring straight forward. I looked at him. "How stupid do you think I am?" "How stupid do you think I am?" he repeated. "You're not a parrot, talk to me properly!" He shook his head in disbelief. "Charlie, seriously, you wear this guy's clothes and you think I don't see what's happening? I already suspected this which is what I meant this morning." "Yeah, the skirt is totally his, Pete, you're right, you got me." He rolled his eyes. "The shirt." "I swear I spilt coke on myself. What do you think happened? I have my dress right here to prove it" I said, getting it out of my bag. He shook his head. "Are you serious? Come on, tell me what you think happened." He kept shaking his head. "Charlie, it doesn't matter what I think but this kind of thing makes me feel really bad, it drags me down and it makes me paranoid about you not taking our relationship seriously." I stared at him. "Excuse me? I knocked the glass over and it went all over my dress. Even if anything else would've happened, even if I would've had sex with him or whatever you're thinking happened, why would I be wearing different clothes? Are you purposely starting drama? Are you trying to find something to start a fight?" "What? Charlie, it's not just that. It's the way he looked at you just now and the way you talk about him, as if you're so fascinated and as if you've found like your soul mate or whatever!" I rolled my eyes. "I don't believe it." "Does he know we're together? Does he know you're pregnant?!" "Of course he knows we're together! Do you think I don't tell him who's picking me up?" Pete stared at me, then looked back at the street quickly. "He doesn't know you're pregnant?!" "It just hasn't come up yet!" "I don't believe it" he said, getting calmer now but he was just giving in because he was desperate.

He drove through the gate and parked the car. I got out and stared at him, he drove right off the driveway again. "Where the fuck are you going?" I asked. "Back to Gabe's." I shook my head in disbelief and walked up the stairs, unlocking the door. He was doing this on purpose, he was trying to find a reason to get rid of me again, he deserved something better than me and he knew it.