Chapter 16: Forged

After their kiss, Tom took Roxanne home and she hadn’t seen him in a few days, but he’d texted her. He told her he was busy, and would see her soon.
She figured Tom’s connections were working on finding more information about Baxter’s involvement, and she was glad for that, too. She didn’t want to have to think about Baxter any more than she had to.
It had been about two weeks after Tom and Roxanne’s trip to the doctor – just enough time to see if they were successful. Nervous, but also excited, Roxanne wondered if it had worked. Would Tom still keep his end of the deal and help her if she wasn’t pregnant?
She invited Tom over for dinner, telling him she didn’t want to get the pregnancy results alone. When he arrived, he handed her a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling apple cider. Walking in, he could see a small but orderly living room and an even smaller kitchen. He was surprised to see a box of pepperoni pizza and a 2-liter bottle of soda on the kitchen counter.
“When you said dinner, I thought you meant a homemade meal.”
“I don’t cook,” said Roxanne and handed him a slice of pizza on a paper plate. Tom looked a little disdainful at the plate. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot my manners. Would you like to sit down?” She led him to a small kitchen table in the corner with two chairs. “I usually just eat on the couch,” she said.
They sat down, eating their pizza, Tom looking stiff and straight in his chair. They ate in relative silence, only exchanging pleasantries as Roxanne poured them each a soda in a plastic cup.
Roxanne noticed how Tom brought the pizza up to his mouth in a jerky motion each time, opening his mouth mechanically and chewing in a succinct rhythm. At first, it didn’t bother her much. She thought she must be getting used to his stoic ways.
Neither of them mentioned their kiss. In her apartment, she wanted Tom to feel comfortable, but she worried that if the pregnancy test proved negative, Tom would be disappointed and look for someone else to make his dreams of being a dad come true.
After a few minutes, Roxanne stopped eating and watched Tom, his movements heightening her anxiety about the pregnancy. She pushed her chair back from the table, bubbling inside from the pressure she felt.
“Let’s just get this over with,” she said. “I can’t take the waiting.” Tom looked at her, mid-bite, food sitting in his mouth. His stillness bothered her more than his mechanical eating style. She fled to the bathroom, leaving Tom perplexed at the table.
He gulped down his last bite of pizza and followed Roxanne. In the bathroom, she started ripping open the rectangular box and then the package containing the pregnancy predictor she had bought earlier that day. Roxanne held it in her hand and took a deep breath.
“Wait out there,” she told Tom. Like other parts of the apartment, the bathroom was miniscule too.
“Okay –I – I’ll just – wait,” he stammered.
“Just go,” he said, and shut the door. Tom turned toward the living room, feeling useless.
Roxanne peed on the stick then brought it to the sink, placing it on the sink’s edge. She looked in the mirror and bit her lower lip. She couldn’t stand the anticipation alone.
“Tom,” she called. “Come back.” He retreated to the bathroom having just reached the couch and turned the doorknob. When he saw the stick on the side of the sink, he looked at it as if it were a contagious disease he needed to stay away from and pointed. “What did it say?”
“I don’t know yet,” said Roxanne. “We have to wait.” She grabbed Tom’s hand and pulled him out of the bathroom, unable to make up her mind in her nervous state. “Let’s wait in the living room,” she said, clearly not wanting to stare at the pee soaked stick any longer.
Tom sat down with his arm draping the back of the couch. Roxanne slunk down next to him, nestled in his chest. They rested there silently, Roxanne checking the clock. After three minutes, she scampered to the bathroom.
When she came back holding the stick, Tom sat up straighter, pulling his back away from the couch. Roxanne shook her head. Tom stood up and hugged her, wrapping his arms around her back. His embrace comforted her, but she was still worried.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I did everything they said and …” she started to cry.
“Shhh…” Tom said and continued to hold her.
They stood together for another minute or two, then sat back on the couch. He held her for what seemed like hours, Tom’s body like a cozy blanket wrapped around her body.
When she fell asleep in his arms, he laid her on the couch and draped his coat over her, leaving her a note to call him if she needed anything.
***
In the morning, Roxanne felt foolish but also disappointed. The last couple weeks had taken their toll on her emotionally. She worried that Tom would renege on their deal, and then she’d be even worse off with no permit and no way to ensure the loan shark got his money.
At work, she sat behind her desk inspecting the recent blueprints when Danny knocked and entered her trailer.
“Roxanne, I checked with the county office. They don’t have the permit on file for that expansion. I thought you said you got that from Baxter.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Roxanne tried to wave him away. “They probably just misplaced it or something. You know, that office does that from time to time. I’ll follow up on it.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal.
Danny looked a little concerned, but Roxanne had never given him any reason not to trust her.
“Okay, well, just make sure it gets finalized. We need to get the digging done for that so we can continue with the beams.”
“I know, I know,” Roxanne smiled and waved her hand. “Trust me. I know how important it is.”
“It would set us back a ton without it. We’d have to redraft, maybe even dig up some foundation. It’d be a mess, and I don’t know if we’d have the funds to do all that. It’d be costly.”
She stood up from her desk and looked Danny in the eye. “I’ll handle it,” she said.
Danny nodded and left, the door slamming behind him. Roxanne started to pace around the stuffy trailer. She’d put it off for too long.
Her mind raced with possibilities. She couldn’t go back to Baxter. The thought of facing him again made her sick. She thought Tom would have been faster at helping her find out who the permit stealing culprit was.
Because she wasn’t pregnant, she didn’t have any leverage to force him or his connections to work faster. Owen was already helping her hold off the loan shark, and she still couldn’t figure out his clue.
Roxanne thought about going to the county office and trying to get someone else to sign off on the permit, but there was a chance another official would refuse to let her building project expand its property line. Then she’d really be in a predicament, and her father could face the wrath of the loan shark.
The afternoon with Baxter flashed through her mind. Who would steal the permit? She kept asking herself. Then she thought about how Baxter didn’t know it was stolen. For all he knew, she’d filed it weeks ago. She could forge his signature on a new document and file the plans.
She smiled at the idea and began to slow down her pacing. She dug in her file drawer and pulled out an old permit Baxter had signed off on. Then she practiced writing Baxter’s name several times on a blank sheet of paper. Next, she printed out a new copy of the permit that had been stolen. Finally, she took a deep breath and signed Baxter’s name.
When she held up the paper next to one of the old permits with Baxter’s signature, she smiled. It looked pretty good. No one would look at it that closely anyway, she was sure. She grabbed her bag along with the permit and the blueprints and headed to the county offices before they closed.
She thought it was crazy that she hadn’t thought about the idea before. Of course it was illegal, but at that point, she was willing to risk it, especially for her father’s safety. She could tell Owen he didn’t need to stall the loan shark anymore. And if the permit was accepted and the building moved along as slated, she’d have no reason to have Tom’s baby. She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to get pregnant anyway.
She pulled up to the permit office, and hesitated. What if Tom didn’t want to see her anymore if she didn’t need him? Was their deal the only thing keeping them together? Roxanne reflected on how comfortable he was becoming around her. Would submitting the permit ruin it all? She got out of her car and slammed the door, walking inside the building.
First, she had to save her father, then she’d try to save her relationship with Tom.