Amy got a strange look on her face. A horrible scrunched look, one that Teela had never seen before. She couldn’t actually figure out if Amy was going cry or puke or laugh. Maybe all three at once.
“What?” Teela whispered, incapable of any volume. “Why do you look like that?”
Amy hung her head. “You don’t think that I chose just any sample for you, did you? I wasn’t going to just inject you with some hobo serum and hope for the best. You’re my best friend. I was worried about you, raising that baby all alone on your salary. I- I knew who he was. I knew that he’d donated sperm a few times before his app took off and he got rich and then he got really ultra-rich with the stores taking off. I- I figured that if you couldn’t go after him for some kind of child support or guilt him into it, seeing as everyone says he’s a pretty nice guy, that you’d be able to blackmail him for some cash, seeing as no one knows he got money for that app by jacking into a cup.”
“What?” Teela breathed. She wished she could say something, anything, but the words just weren’t there. “How…” she whispered, but it came out strained. She couldn’t force anything more than a few hard breaths out. She shook her head. It was all she could do.
How could Amy, of all people, not even know her? She was supposed to be her best friend.
“I’m- I’m sorry,” Amy whispered, so quiet Teela could barely hear her. “I’ll just go. Okay. Maybe we all just need time. I shouldn’t have told you. I really am sorry. Please don’t fire me as a friend for this. I was only trying to help.”
“Help me? By having me hurt someone else? If you thought I couldn’t afford a baby, why did you even steal the sample?”
“I’m sorry, Tee…”
“Just go.” Teela shook her head. “Please. You’re right. I can’t talk about this right now or I’m just going to say things that are going to make it a hundred times worse. Please. Just… just go.”
Amy shot her one final pathetic look that normally would have tugged on Teela’s heart strings, but she steeled herself against it. She was not giving in. Not on this.
Fortunately, Amy took the hint and left her alone.
Unfortunately, the silence didn’t make her feel any better.
Teela sat in the same spot for what felt like hours, until her back began to ache and her foot fell asleep. Finally, she shifted, ignored the shooting pins and needles, and got out her phone. She texted Ross. She needed to see him. He’d make her feel better. They’d talk and they’d laugh and they’d just be silly and maybe they’d make out and she’d feel normal again. He’d know just what to say. Even if she explained the whole thing, he’d listen patiently and tell her to look on the bright side. At least she hadn’t come up with the scheme herself.
There was no response. Ross didn’t say he was busy, but he did have a life other than her. They’d spent way too much time with each other lately. He was probably just trying to catch his breath.
Teela ignored the creeping sense of doubt about Ross maybe having changed his mind about her or maybe deciding that he needed his own space. She turned her phone off and tucked it back into the pocket of her jeans. It was early yet, but she was exhausted. She just needed to go to bed.
A good sleep would fix everything.
It had to, because she had zero other solutions.
CHAPTER 22
Teela
There was a reason she decided to be single. To go at it alone. To have a baby by herself and never look back.
Relationships.
Men.
All of it.
It was always just one big clusterfuck. Every. Single. Time.
Teela thought Ross was different, because she sure felt different when she was with him. She’d hoped that maybe, just maybe, for once, the universe had smiled on her and everything was going to work out.
And then he stopped texting. And calling. And coming into the store.
After ten days of silence, Teela knew she had to do something. She was starting to worry. She’d asked at work, in as non-suspicious of a manner as she could, if anyone knew where Ross was. She pretended it was an accounting matter that she needed to speak to him about. No one knew when he was coming back. Maybe he was busy opening a new store. Maybe he’d got called off on some business trip. Maybe he was away at a conference. No one knew.
That was the problem. It was like the guy just disappeared off the face of the earth.
Finally, Teela decided to just suck it up and resort to being what some people would no doubt term crazy and drive over to Ross’ house. It wasn’t a short drive. She hated going to Philly, but she made the forty-minute trek anyway.