He should have listened harder. He should have asked her what was really going on. He should have stayed to listen to her side of the story.
She’d proved him wrong once before.
She’d come to his house and fought to defend herself.
When she’d flipped him off, it was perfectly clear that she didn’t need him in her life. She’d tolerate him for their child’s sake, but she didn’t need his money. She didn’t need the things he could provide for her. She didn’t need him period.
No one had ever peeled out and flipped him the bird before. No one. That finger flying high in the night air got through to him in a way that words couldn’t. That and the fact that Teela quit her job. Again. She’d also disconnected her number. Or changed it.
Yeah. She really didn’t need his ass.
She was proving it to him, one step at a time.
Ross scrambled to come up with a plan, a way to apologize, a way to fix things and move on, and not just because they were having a baby.
Because it had been two weeks since and they’d been the worst two weeks of his life. It shouldn’t hurt so much to lose someone that he’d known for such a short period of time, but it did. It felt like he was bleeding out.
He’d never met someone where it was just so right. He never thought that being without them could be so wrong. Time didn’t change the truth, and the truth was that he and Teela just fit. They just did.
The only thing that he could do was take a chance that Teela was still at her condo. He didn’t think she could have moved in four days, but hell, he wasn’t underestimating her either.
Ross pulled up outside the complex and his chest nearly caved in with relief when he spotted Teela’s car parked out front. She was still there. Which meant maybe, just maybe, he had one more chance.
He realized, as he rang her bell, how much courage it had taken for her to come to his house and confront him. And how cowardly he’d been to avoid her. Of course, he was going to tell her all those things…
“Go away!” Teela’s voice floated out right above his head. Ross stumbled back and glanced up. He couldn’t see her, since the windows didn’t jut out, but he knew she was there. She’d cranked her bedroom window open and she could no doubt see him.
“We have to talk.” Ross spoke to the air, aware that he must look like a perfect moron at the moment. “Please. Can you open the door?”
“I don’t have anything to say to you and you don’t have anything to say to me. You’re so caught up in your stupid past and your schemes about the whole world being out to get you and use you for your money that you won’t even listen to reason or be rational. You’re always going to be like that, so I don’t know what you have to say. I’m not going to waste my life on someone who doesn’t know that I’m a good person.”
“Wait!” Ross called, afraid that she was going to slam the window and that would be that. “I do know. I’m sorry! I- I came here to tell you that I am an idiot. I do have issues. I know that. I didn’t listen to everything. I didn’t ask your side. I made stupid conclusions and I acted like a bratty kid and pouted about it and then blew up on you when you showed up. I’m the one acting like the pregnant woman with all the crazy hormones. My parents would kick my ass and disown me if they found out I messed this up, especially because I can’t get over my own insecurities. They’d be willing to adopt you instead, though. Just so you know.”
Silence. Not one word. Had she already closed the window? Ross stepped back, trying to angle his face up so that he could see if Teela was still there, but the blinds were drawn on the window and if she was, he couldn’t see past the white slats.
“Dude. That’s pretty fucking rank,” a voice drifted down from the other side of the building.
Ross whirled to see a burly middle-aged man with a full-on beard and a shaved bald head, squirting at him through the neighboring window. A cloud of blue smoke drifted out.
Apparently, there were more embarrassing things in the world than one’s mother walking in during sex. Whatever. He’d humiliate himself a thousand times over if that’s what it took.
“Teela,” Ross called, ignoring the peeping Tom next door. “I have an SUV full of flowers. I really am sorry. I’ll never forgive myself because… you’re the best person I’ve ever had in my life. I want you to be there. I want another chance. I’ll work hard to prove to you that I can man up and go and get some help or whatever it takes to stop thinking like this. I want a chance to prove to you that I’m in it for the long haul and not just because you’re having our baby.”