The Boy Who Knew Me When (From Boys to men Trilogy) (18 page)

I don’t know why asking Brandon for help had never crossed my mind. I guess I had been just as angry at him as I was at Brea and I had temporarily erased all thought of him out of my head.

“Oh, well there is that!” I joked.

We both laughed and decided to head into the kitchen for something to drink. I took a seat at the bar and Brea popped the cap on two bottled cokes setting one in front of me and taking a drink from the one in her hands before she let out a high pitched “OH MY GAWD!” and grabbed my hand.

“I am such a fucking bitch Jemma! I completely forgot Julian was proposing!”

How the hell did she know?

“You knew?”

“Um, I might have noticed the larger than normal bulge in his pants at one point and cornered him. I see you said yes, you cow! You could have called to tell me you know, it would have sure made the last 24 hours go over a little bit better.”

I smiled guiltily.
“Besides the fact that I thought you were pissed at me for....”

“For calling me a whore?”

I cringed and shrugged my shoulders. “For that, but you called me one too so we are even. As I was saying, Julian and I might have been a little too
preoccupied
to call anyone.”

“You didn’t? What happened to waiting Jem?”

“Fuck it, I got tired of waiting, I have never wanted anything so bad in my life. Though, after over two handfuls of orgasms I might be willing to let Julian suffer every once in a while if it awards me a repeat performance.”

“
TWO HANDFULS
? Wow babe, you really are a slut!”

I threw a potholder at Brea then we both curled over with laughter. After calling in Pho delivery, the two of us ended up spending the evening in front of the TV watching
Meet Joe Black
. If anyone could heal a breakup, it was Brad Pitt in a tuxedo.

The next day it was business as usual. Julian and Brea, who was a lot perkier than the day before, went back to class. Julian had called the night before and I filled him in on the reunion between Brea and I. He wasn’t surprised that we made up but he was surprised about the pregnancy. I was a little unsure about whether or not Brea would want me to tell him about it but I figured Jonathan would end up filling him in eventually. Julian had still not heard a word from Jonathan by then, I was sure he would turn up.

I did not have to work until the afternoon which I knew was when Brandon had his first class so I thought it would be a good time to call him about my father. I dialed the number terrified of having to talk to him about Brea, he didn’t know that I knew about any of it so I figured if I kept my mouth shut we should be able to avoid a very uncomfortable subject.

“Jem” he answered sleepily.

“Hey Brandon, can we talk?”

“I...I’m not sure I want to talk about that right now Jem. It’s just too early.”

So he did know? When did Brea even have a chance to tell him?

“Brandon, I am not sure what you are talking about but I am calling to talk to you about my dad. I went to see him Saturday.” I said pretending to be completely clueless to avoid the drama.

“Oh, yeah...Um, how did it go?”

“Did Brea not tell you?”

“Yeah, she did. Sorry Jem, I just thought it would be nice if you told me instead of having to get everything through her.”

He snapped at me, so in defense I too I snapped back.

“Is that all you are going to apologize for?” I regretted the question before the last word left my mouth.

The line got quiet as if Brandon had completely stopped breathing on the other end.

“I won’t say that I am sorry Jem. She is having my baby, I won’t be sorry for my child. It may not be a child that I had planned but it’s mine. Maybe Brea and I should never have let things go as far as we did but damn it Jemma...Damn it!”

I had not intended to talk about any of this. All I had wanted to do was make a quick phone call to see if Brandon knew anyone who could help me. I was starting to think Brea was right about Jerry Springer because my life was turning into soap opera hell.

“I wanted it to be you, that was supposed to be our baby but you fucked everything up,
EVERYTHING
! So don’t you dare give me hell about this. I moved on, live with it!”

I would have given anything to hang up the phone right then and there but I could not put the damn thing down. The phone was glued to my hands and ears by invisible super glue.

“Gawd damn mother fucking shit! I cannot do this right now Jemma Lee. I am saying shit I don’t want to be saying and if I don’t hang up this phone you can bet your ass this will be our last phone call.”

He only called me Jemma Lee when he was angry with me.

“Brandon, please don’t yell at me. I should not have mentioned anything.”

“Look, I fucking loved you, I do love you. But Brea, damn it, she has been there for me when I thought I wanted to die. I have said it before and I will say it again, you fucking ripped my gawd damn heart out and Brea was there helping me pick up the pieces, the whole time telling me how much you fucking loved me. And when she came with me to my truck that day, after I realized I would never get you back, something snapped inside of me. I saw her differently, she wasn’t your friend Brea anymore. She was mine. I fucking saw what had been in front of me the entire time I let you trample all over me and I fucking wanted it, so I took it. I made love to her and I am sorry if this hurts you but I fucking made her mine, I don’t regret one damn second of it. And I sure as hell am not sorry. This might make you hate me for the rest of your life, I will hate that you do because I will always love you, but I want
her
. She is carrying my baby and I fucking
want
her. Not because my child is growing inside of her but because she was the one who was there when you shit on me. That you might be hurting, that is ALL I will apologize for. Call my dad Jemma, you have the number.”

Brandon has never spoken to me like he was speaking to me now. I wanted to yell at him, to tell him that I hated him because a small part of me truly did. But I couldn’t. What could I say? I had driven the two of them together with my selfishness. Not to mention I was happy. Despite the fact that Brandon’s words hurt, I could honestly say that for the first time in my life I was truly happy. I had Julian, he made me whole again, taking with him all of the pain that I had endured for far too long.

More than anything I wanted someone to do that for Brandon, take away all of the pain that I had caused and there was only one way that it could happen.

“Brandon.” I whispered hoping not to be interrupted.

“What!” He barked.

“If you want her, come and get her.”

I hung up the phone finally giving him away, the boy that I had secretly been holding onto, because he was no longer mine to hold.

After I hung up the phone with Brandon I made one of the hardest calls of my life. I called Brandon’s dad, a man who had cursed the ground I walked on since the day he first found me making out with his son on the family room pool table. OK, so maybe we were not
’just’
making out. I might have been half naked with my head bobbing between his legs. It was safe to say I was not the kind of girl he had imagined his Ivy League son carrying on the family name with.

I would love to be a fly on the wall once he found out his precious was going to father a child with the woman he had once declared “The town mess hall, everyone has had her and nobody wanted to go back for seconds”. The one time she had stepped inside his two and a half story Barbie dream house, he told Brandon right in front of me that he never wanted to see Brea back in his house again because “God only knows what rancid decease she brings with her!”. Yeah, he was going to shit a brick!

“Alexander Hicks speaking.”

The receptionist had put me on hold for fifteen minutes before finally transferring me through.

“Yes, Mr. Hicks, this is Jemma Hayes.”

“I know who you are Miss Hayes, what can I do for you?”

I could tell how annoyed he was with me for calling him but I had to suffer through for my father. Alexander Hicks was one of the best criminal prosecutors in the state, if he couldn’t help me nobody could.

“It’s about my father sir.” I paused.

“Go on, I don’t have all day Jemma.”

I let out a breath and filled him in on everything. By the end of the conversation his demeanor had changed and gone from slightly annoyed to
in the zone,
with him agreeing to meet with me during his lunch hour the next day.

By the time my shift ended at The Coffee Bean I was ready call it all in. I didn’t think anything could possibly get worse in the ridiculous soap opera life I was now living but it did. Half way through my shift Heather walked in. I had not seen her since the day she strolled into the Omega party with Julian and I had high hopes never to lay eyes on her again. Unfortunately for me, I seemed to be living in Crazyville with no way in sight for escape. All I could do was pray that she didn’t recognize me so I put on my brightest smile and pretended to be completely clueless.

“Welcome to Coffee Bean, how can I help you?”

Heather thoughtfully considered her choices, glancing back and forth between the menu on the wall behind me, to me directly.

“I will have a non fat decaf Ice blended Mocha, no cream.”

“That will be $4.23 cents please.”

She pulled out a five dollar bill and passed it my way.

“Hey...” She pulled the money away. DAMN IT, couldn’t she just pay and go?

“Aren’t you that girl Julian was all hung up on?”

I sighed. “That would be me. Though there is no
was
about it.”

“Oh, I see, so you two never dated? Isn’t that just like a man, they decide they want a roll in the hay and end up turning it into something that it isn’t. They say girls are bad, but really men are so much worse.”

I honestly wanted to slap her.

“No, I mean he is still hung up on me. We are dating, actually we just got back from a romantic trip to the beach.” You stupid, too hot for your own shit,
bitch
!

“Hm, that’s interesting, I spent the morning with him and he never mentioned you or the beach. He was just his usual sexy hot self.”

I swear on my life this woman is going to lose an entire head of hair if she does not leave and I mean now. I can feel the heat flowing into my cheeks and I am sure that at any moment steam began to steep out of my ears.

“Can you please pay me for your drink so that we can make it and you can gag on it?” I blurt out.

I hear Rebecca stifle a laugh behind me, failing miserably to hold the entire thing in.

“Jemma” she giggles. “Um, we are out of mocha mix; think you can go grab some? I will man the register.”

How the heck did Brea ever hate this girl? Right now I loved her so much I would almost be willing to make out with her right here and now. I did not need this crap, I did not need some spoiled little brat coming along and making everything in my life worse than it already was. If I had to stay in the room with her one more second I was seriously going knock her right on her fat Puerto Rican ass. I took in a deep breath, gave Heather one final glare and stormed off into the store room.

How dare Heather bring her scrawny butt into my place of business and behave like my man gave a flying fuck about her. I knew what Julian and I had, I knew what we always had and it was a thousand times more than anything she would ever dream of having with him. We belonged to each other. I was going to be his wife. I looked down to the ring on my hand. And he was going to be my husband.

Just then I felt my cell phone go off in my pocket indicating I had a new text, it was from Julian.

Julian:
I miss you

Me:
Miss you too. Want to have dinner?

Julian:
Can we have Sushi? You could lay naked on the table and I could eat it off your body.

I seriously loved this man!

Me:
Only if I can eat dessert off of yours.

Julian:
Sounds like a plan. Pick you up at 7?

Me:
Perfect, I will be good and starved by then.

Me:
Actually I am good and starved now, come feed me.

Julian:
Oh, how hungry are you?

Me:
Hungry enough to devour every last inch of you. Come to the bean so I can show you just how hungry I am.

Me:
Mm, I just checked, I am really really wet. My fingers are glistening.

Of course I lied. I am pretty sure most business frown upon their employees f
ingering themselves up in the back room.

Julian:
Fuck me! I think I just got hard. The girl sitting next to me in my Soc. Class is staring at my cock. 

Me:
She’d better not go near your cock. Your cock belongs to me and I don’t share my cock with anyone.