Chapter 14.

Anthony dropped the brush on the palette and nodded his head, satisfied with the last piece of painting. Now, it just needed to dry up. He had been worried for the past week that he wouldn’t be able to finish this particular painting on time and so he had dedicated both morning and night to ensure it got ready. Even though he had a headache and stiff bones from the effort, it was well worth it.
He walked out of the studio and locked the door then placed a call to the curator at the gallery he would be using for the exhibition to inform her all the pieces were ready to be moved the next day. His friend, Raj, an Indian American who was born in New York, was sitting in the living room, playing games on his PS4.
How long have you been going at that?” Anthony asked.

“Just two hours. Never gets old.”
Anthony had to agree with that, sometimes he found himself playing War Zone into the night.

“You done?” Raj asked, momentarily taken his eyes off the screen.

“Yeah, right on time.”

Anthony watched the game for a bit and then picked up his phone. Before he knew what he was doing, he found himself looking at the picture of Megan he had secretly taken the day he was helping her move. She looked so beautiful even with her curly chestnut hair in disarray and a cute frown of concentration on her face.
He dialled her number and she picked on the fourth ring.

“Hey, Megan.”

“Hi, Anthony.” She said, a little breathless

“You good?”

“Yeah, just a busy day at work.”

“Oh, maybe I should call you back when you are free.”

“Nah, I am settled in the office now. What's up?”

Anthony suddenly felt a little nervous “You know the exhibition I told you about? Well..it's this Friday and I was wondering if you would come.”
Megan was silent and that made him even more nervous.

“Megan?”

“I am not sure Anthony. There’s just a lot going on.”

“Like what?”

“Well…a lot really...”

Anthony sighed, filled with disappointment. “Well, I will send an invite anyway. Just keep it in mind.”

They talked for a bit more before he hung up. He released a sigh of frustration and Raj paused the game.

“She isn’t coming, is she?”

Anthony had told Raj everything about Megan from the start. Raj was his best friend and so he had spilt to him over drinks about how much he liked her.
Raj clearly took his silence to mean no. “I don’t get it, buddy. Why do you still want her? She doesn't seem to care."

" I don’t see why you can't move past her. From what you told me, you guys had sex just once. It's highly unlikely the baby is yours. Better yet, she isn’t forcing the baby on you or expecting anything. That’s rare and you should take the chance to hightail it out of her life, buddy.”

Anthony sighed and brushed his curls away from his eyes. He understood what his friend was saying and if it was any other woman, he would have counted himself lucky too.

But this was Megan and he knew what the silky feel of her skin was like against his body. He had kissed her sexy lips and seen parts of her that still haunted him in his dreams. He wanted her. Badly.

“Raj, I really like this girl. That one night we spent together just felt so different, you know? I haven’t been able to think about any other woman but her. I want her so bad and I'm willing to do anything to get her.”

He rose and walked to the fridge, opening a can of cold beer.

“But what about the other guy in the picture?”

“Who?”

“The CEO guy.”

Anthony laughed dismissively “Trust me, Roman is out of the picture."

“Are you sure he would be so willing to give up on his child?” Raj asked sceptically.

“He doesn't seem interested, Megan too. Trust me, I just need to figure out how to win her over.”



********
It's been a hell of a morning for Megan. First, she woke up with a tough bout of nausea and nothing she did cured it. Then she arrived at work five minutes late and had barely stepped in before she had to intervene in a fight between two college girls who came to buy coffee and two of the staff, Mike and Michelle.

Apparently, the college girls initially placed an order for black coffee and Madeira cake but one of them switched to an Americano, and the other decided she wanted plant-based milk in her coffee too as she was a freshly converted vegan.

Michelle added almond milk and the vegan girl refused to pay for it, claiming she didn’t like the taste of almond milk. She claimed what she expected to be added in her coffee was coconut milk. Then the girls also cancelled their order on the Madeira cake.

Ordinarily, Michelle should have apologized and told the girls firmly that the almond milk coffee was only ever made on request and there was nothing they could do. Instead, Michelle had muttered an insult under her breath in her usual rude fashion and the girls.heard.

One of the college girls splashed the Americano on Michelle and in response, Michelle grabbed her hair. Mike also left other customers waiting on a queue to defend Michelle.

It didn't help that the third-morning staff, Reuben, was running dramatically late and so Megan walked straight into a mess.

It took more than forty minutes to finally get everyone to calm down and what tested Megan's patience was Michelle's unwillingness to apologize for pulling out one of the college girls' hair. Not only this, Michelle walked out on her. Under ordinary circumstances, Megan would have defended her staff against the college girls, but she was well aware of how rude Michelle could be.

On so many occasions, she had disregarded customers, colleagues and even Megan and her refusal to issue an apology after the college girl apologized for splashing her with coffee irked Megan.

At the end of the day, Megan apologized on the store's behalf and issued the girls complimentary coffee for the "harassment" to avoid bad PR. Then she made up for both Michelle and Ruben to attend to the other delayed customers.


She finally got to relax at two when the afternoon staff came in. Ruben also showed up at two, claiming his alarm didn't go off so he overslept. Of all the excuses. Megan issued both him and Michelle a query and warned them that it should be the last time.
Just as she settled in her office, she had received Anthony's call.

She felt bad about not saying yes to him. After all, Anthony had been so good to her in the past few weeks. She was also aware that he liked her. But there was too much going on. She couldn't decide yet.


********
"I'm sorry, mum."

Roman apologized to his mother again, feeling bad for how late he was.
She had come visiting him and his intention was to treat her to lunch but he had missed an appointment they arranged last week and now, they also missed their lunch reservation at her favourite Italian restaurant.

He hadn't intended for that to happen though, Wednesday was board meeting day and it was physically and mentally draining.

"Don't worry about it darling. I used to be a business woman too, remember? I know how it can get."

Now, they were walking down the street, having decided to just get coffee and share some pastries. He had seen one such shop he wanted to try with her, Lé Coffee Shop. The shop caught his eyes recently while he was driving by.

He finally spotted the shop and was about to open the door when he spotted Megan. Even though her back was to him as she shared a laugh with what appeared to be a customer, he instantly knew it was her.

He would recognize those curls anywhere, besides, there was something utterly unique about the slope of her back that a man just couldn't mistake. As she turned, she confirmed his suspicion and without thinking, he hurried away from the door and walked back in the direction they had come.

It took him a while to hear his mum's call as she hurried to catch up with his big steps.

"Roman! What's wrong with you?"

She asked alarmingly.

Even Roman wasn't sure. All he knew was that he had panicked when he saw Megan and he didn't know why. There were many reasons, maybe he hadn't wanted her to think he was stalking her or maybe he just wasn't willing to deal with her drama. Either way, he ran like a chicken.

Of all the coffee shops in the world, why did it have to be the one that had caught his eyes that she worked in.

"Roman?"

"Let's just go somewhere else mum. We can still catch a meal back at your hotel's restaurant."

"But we were going to get coffee just now! Why did you run out of there like that?"

Even though he had been thinking the same thing, he still denied it "I wasn't running. I just changed my mind, mum."

His mom stopped on the walkway, grabbing his hand so he was forced to stop too. "Don't lie to me, Roman. Who did you see?"
Roman sighed, knowing he had been caught.

"It was Megan...the pregnant lady I told you about "

"The one who might be carrying your baby?"

"Yeah, and before you ask, the reason I turned is that we haven't talked at all in weeks and the last time we did, it ended in a bad fight."
"You can't keep avoiding her though."
"I know. I just wasn't prepared for this. Besides, she doesn't want to see me. "

Before his mom could say anything else, Roman put his phone to his ear and started walking away. His mother had no choice but to follow him.