The Ladies Man

It’s been about a month since I moved out of Ashley’s place. I still haven’t talked to him. He’s tried to talk to me; he’s called, he even came over once. Luckily I was out of the apartment at the time. I just can’t deal with him right now. All that’s important to me right now is the baby.
“Belle?” Madison called. She was standing in the kitchen.
“Yeah, Madison?” I asked tiredly.
“You want some tea?”
“Yes please.” I had stopped drinking coffee and alcohol. Trying my best to be as healthy as I could be for the baby.
Madison joined me on the couch and handed me a cup of tea, while taking a sip of her own. I smiled at her; she was such a great friend. She was being so patient with me, and having the same arguments over and over again.
“Any change of heart today, or are we still on the same side we came down on a couple of days ago?” She asked.
“Same side.” I replied. “I just don’t see any other way. These are the two reactions I can expect from Ashley. The first is he dumps me and wants nothing to do with the child and me. The second is he still wants to be with me, but he wants me to have an abortion.”
“You don’t know that.” She was trying to be the voice of reason. She wouldn’t force me into a decision, but she wouldn’t fully support one either. At least, not until I actually told Ashley about the baby.
“I do though, I know Ashley.” I said, laying my hand over my stomach.
“You have to do something eventually though.” She pointed out.
“I know, and I think that might mean breaking up with him before he gets the chance to do it to me.” I said quietly.
“Are you sure?” She asked.
“I’d rather I did it, knowing it was for the baby than have him do it out of anger or fear.”
She nodded. “I can understand that. I still don’t think he would do that Belle. He loves you.”
“That doesn’t mean he would want to love our baby.” I suddenly felt very nauseous.
“Belle, are you okay?”
“No.”
I ran to the bathroom and dropped in front of the toilet. I instantly threw up the contents of my stomach. I leaned back against the wall and took a few deep breaths. Great, morning sickness. I got up and quickly brushed my teeth. I went back out and fell back onto the couch.
“Everything all right?” Madison asked, concerned.
“Morning sickness has begun.” I said dryly.
The phone started to ring.
“Want me to get it?”
“Yes please. If it’s Ashley, I’m not here.”
“Got it.” She went over to the phone and looked at the caller id. “You were right, it’s Ashley.”
“Will he ever give up?” I sighed.
“I highly doubt it.” She replied.

Ashley’s POV:

I hung up the phone. Madison had just told me that Belle wasn’t at the apartment. I had learned in the last month that that meant she was, but she didn’t want to talk to me. I still couldn’t figure out what it was that I had done wrong. It was driving me crazy.
“Still not talking to you?” Andy asked.
“Nope.” I replied.
Andy had come over to talk to me today. I couldn’t figure this out on my own, so I finally decided to talk to him about it. See if he could help me.
“You really have no idea why she left?” He asked, resuming our previous conversation.
“No, she didn’t tell me. All I got was ‘I need space. I need time to think.’ Nothing else.” I ran my fingers through my hair, looking at the floor. “I just don’t get it Andy. We were happy again, everything was fine.”
“Maybe that’s not the way she saw it.” Andy said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Did you guys ever talk about your relationship?”
“Well, not exactly.” I replied. “The last time we really did that was when she moved in with me.”
“Did you guys talk about anything past that point?”
“I just said we didn’t.” I was confused, what was he talking about?
“I mean in terms of the relationship Ashley.” Andy said a little exasperatedly. “Moving in is a serious step. Did it ever occur to you that she might have wanted to know whether or not there might be more down the road?”
“Umm.” I still wasn’t getting it.
He sighed. “Okay, I’ll spell it out. Whether or not that was it; if there was a possibility for something more.”
“What, like marriage?” I asked, a little surprised.
“Maybe not in the immediate future.” He said. “A conversation about the idea though, and other stuff like that. Just to see where you both stood on certain ideas.” He looked tired from explaining this all to me, he rubbed his face with his hands.
“Did you and Juliet have this talk?”
“Yeah, shortly after we moved in together. We wanted to make sure that we were on the same page in the relationship. That we had the same expectations of it.”
“Oh.” That was all I could think of to say.
“You didn’t know what Belle thought about that kind of stuff did you?” He asked.
“No, I didn’t. It just never occurred to me.”
“Then she probably had no idea what your thoughts were on the subject either.” He replied.
“You think that’s why she left?”
He looked uneasy for a minute, thinking something over. “I think that’s definitely a part of it.” He finally said.
“Andy? What else do you know?” I asked.
“I can’t tell you. I’m sworn to secrecy. If I tell you, Juliet will kill me.”
Wow. I wonder what could be that important or that bad. Now I was a little scared. What could be so bad that Belle not only didn’t want to tell me, but didn’t want Andy telling me either?
“I have to talk to her.” I said, heading for the door.
“You can try.” Andy said. “First you’ll have to get past Madison, remember?”
“I’ll do it.” I said, determined. I was going to talk to Belle if it was the last thing I did.

Notes

Hope you liked it. I'll try to post tomorrow, but I may not be able to. Please comment.