Egotistically Yours by Hayley Faiman

Chapter Eight

BETHANIE

Pizza consumed,Tucker bathed, nursed, and put down in his bassinet, it’s now time for bed. I take a long shower, then take my time putting lotion on and getting ready.

Honestly, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m supposed to sleep in this master bed with Laurent and while I have before, it was a while ago and under much different circumstances.

When I c-an’t delay any longer, I let out a heavy sigh and lick my lips as I reach for the bathroom doorknob. Turning it, I tug the door open and see Laurent sitting with his back against the headboard, his gaze on his phone.

He looks up, smiling as he clears his throat and sets his phone down on the charging station on his nightstand. I check Tucker one last time, smiling down at him as he sleeps peacefully, at least for now.

Soon he’ll be screaming and demanding food and I’ll wake up and feed him, happily. Granted, it’s happily now, because I don’t have to wake up and go to work for the day.

I have a feeling I may grumble when I’ll need to stay awake and work all day long after being up with him throughout the night—but for now, I don’t mind at all.

Sliding into bed beside Laurent, I can’t help but feel awkward about this whole situation. So far, coming here, unpacking and eating dinner was fine, but this feels really weird. I think it’s because we have no set boundaries. I’m not sure what we are.

Laurent leaves his lamp on the lowest setting and settles down in bed next to me. He doesn’t touch me, and neither of us speaks as we lie there, clearly both fully awake.

“This is weird,” I blurt out.

I feel the bed move and I turn around to face him. He’s on his side, his lips curved up in a smile as he watches me. I hold my breath when he lifts his hand and slides my hair behind my ear.

“Laurent, what is supposed to happen here?” I ask.

He doesn’t say anything right away, his eyes search mine and he just smiles as he watches me. “We’re going to let nature take the lead, Bethie. We know that in bed, we work together. We know that personality-wise, we click. We just have to let all the other things find their place.”

“What if we can’t live together? What if you just still can’t commit to me, to us?” I ask.

He presses his lips together, then clears his throat. “Let’s not do the what-if game. Let’s just live our life and see how shit goes, okay?”

“I like to plan,” I whisper.

He chuckles. “I know you do, baby, but you’re going to have to beat that back a little.”

“I don’t know if I can,” I admit.

He lifts his hand, wrapping his fingers around the side of my neck as he watches me for a long, silent moment. His thumb slides along my bottom lip, his eyes trailing the move before they connect to mine again.

“We have all the time in the world to figure things out, Bethie. A whole lifetime, why don’t you get some sleep now?”

“Okay,” I exhale.

“Sleep.”

He releases his hold on the side of my neck, but he doesn’t turn away from me. Instead, he closes his eyes and rests his hand against my waist. I didn’t actually sleep with Laurent too many times during our short-lived relationship. He was more of a fuck and drop me off at home kind of guy. The typical playboy.

“Laurent,” I call out sleepily. He hums. “Have you changed?” I ask.

He doesn’t say anything right away and I think that maybe he’s fallen asleep. I close my eyes and I start to drift off as well, when I hear him start to speak. I try to open my eyelids, but they’re so heavy and I end up drifting off to sleep at the sound of his low timbre.

“I have changed. I’m not the man that I was just months ago. My mom is in prison. I've taken over AIB and my father made sure that it would fail for my mother, which means it’s failing for me. I can barely keep the lights on and I’m trying to make a living, trying to pay what few employees I have …”

I don’t hear him say anything else because I fall asleep. My belly is full, my heart is on its way to full as well, and I’m lying next to the playboy that I’ve loved for far too long to be called healthy.

It feels like I’ve just fallen asleep when I hear Tucker cry out a few feet away. I push myself up to sit, and I start to throw my legs over the edge of the bed when Laurent tells me to stay there.

“What?” I ask sleepily.

He is doing something in the bassinet, then he walks toward me with Tucker in his arms. “I changed him and he’s yours now,” he murmurs. “When you’re finished, I’ll take him back to his bed.”

“Laurent?” I breathe.

“It’s the least I can do.”

“But you have to work tomorrow.”

“You have to watch him all day and keep both of you alive, your job is much more important. Feed him, baby.”

I do just what he says, but I do it completely dazed. Laurent has changed. I don’t want to think that it’s a fluke, but I can’t help but wait for the other shoe to drop, I have a feeling I’ll continue to wait for that, just because this can’t be real—can it?

He couldn’t have changed this much in just a few months …

LAURENT

I’m tired.Fucking exhausted, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Sitting behind my desk, I wait for my next appointment. It’s an old college roommate of mine, Cody. My intercom beeps and I hear Zara’s voice trembling as she announces that Cody is indeed here.

“Let him in,” I say calmly. I don’t know what Zara is so terrified of all of the time, but Christ, I don’t know how to relax her.

I stand as soon as he walks into the room, he looks the exact same way he did ten years ago. Same short cropped blond hair, same blue eyes, except instead of a polo shirt and cargo shorts, he’s wearing a suit much like mine.

“Cody,” I say, extending my arm across my desk.

“Laurent Astor.” He says, shaking my hand. I motion for him to take a seat across from me in the empty chair and he does. “Gotta say, shocked as shit when you emailed me, but glad to hear from you.”

“It’s been too long.” I say.

“You doin’ okay?” he asks.

I nod my head, then ask him the same. He tells me that he’s married now, has two kids, and they live outside of the city. Exactly what is about to become my life as well. I really look at him while he talks, take him in and I’m not sure what I see, but happy isn’t it.

“I just had a baby myself,” I say.

He shakes his head with a smile. “Have fun with that. Your first kid comes and you think after the first few weeks that things will go back to normal. They don’t. Normal doesn’t exist again, you won’t have sex for probably six months and the one time she finally lets you, you knock her up again and say goodbye to all that.”

I don’t go into detail about my relationship with Bethie. I’m not exactly sure what we are yet. Right now, she’s living with me and she’s the mother of my son, whatever comes after that is yet to be seen.

“Sorry to hear that,” I say with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

He shrugs a shoulder. “It’s all good. Got a hot body working for me, and under me.” He chuckles.

Pressing my lips together, I try not to show any kind of reaction to his words. My mother cheated on my father for years, my father cheated on her eventually as well. I know exactly what Cody’s kids are going to feel like when they discover the truth of it all.

It all actually makes me feel kind of sick to think about. This is one reason why I never wanted to settle down. I never wanted to become my parents and the way Cody is talking, I’m wondering if my parents’ situation is what inevitably happens to everyone.

“So, talking and catching up isn’t the reason you set this up with me, tell me, what do you want?” Cody asks.

Clearing my throat, I start my speech. I’ve practiced this in my head a dozen times and I deliver it flawlessly. He listens intently, nodding his head, then he smirks and leans back in his chair. I think for a moment that he’s going to tell me to fuck myself, but then he surprises the shit out of me.

“I like you, Laurent, I always have. I think that this will work out nicely. A partnership of sorts. You’re knowledgeable in the investment industry, plus you know enough about oil to at least get you by until you figure out the rest of it. I think this could work,” he says.

We shake hands with the promise to have the lawyers get together and make the terms beneficial to both of us. “You’re good if I send people your way?” he asks before he leaves my office.

“Without a doubt, thank you.”

He jerks his chin, then says that we should get the families together one upcoming weekend. I agree, even though that’s the last thing that I want to do. Pretend that this guy is a decent family man, seeing him lying to his wife and two kids in person doesn’t appeal to me at all.

Cody leaves and I sink down in my chair, closing my eyes with a sigh. Reaching for my phone, I decide to call Bethie and check on her and Tucker. The phone rings three times before she picks up and I hear Tucker’s little cries in the background.

“Hello,” she says breathlessly.

“Are you okay?” I bark.

She lets out a stressed sounding laugh, then hiccups. “No, yes, I don’t know,” she huffs.

“What’s wrong? Do I need to come home?”

There’s a moment of silence and then some shuffling around, Tucker stops crying and I know that he must be eating.

“No, you don’t,” Bethie sighs. “We were just having a moment, we do that sometimes.”

She sounds calmer and I let out a heavy sigh, my own anxiety shifting back into place as well. “Yeah?”

She hums. “Yeah, he has been fussy. I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe just growing or gas or something. But I think it’s better.”

“Maybe he misses me,” I say, knowing that he doesn’t. He doesn’t know me well enough yet to miss me, but I can go home.

Bethie lets out a sigh. “I think we both are. Plus, this is a new place. We’re getting used to everything.”

“Are you?” I ask.

I need to know that this is working, that she is comfortable in my place, in her new place. I didn’t give her a choice and now I feel a little guilty over that, though I wouldn’t change any of it at all.

“I am,” she mutters. “We are,” she says, clarifying. “The groceries came, I put them away. Thank you for that. Do you want me to make dinner?”

My heart squeezes at the question, mainly because nobody has ever asked me that before. Not even my own mother. I don’t think my mother even used a microwave, let alone cooked anything in my entire life.

“I can bring home takeout,” I offer.

“Laurent,” Bethie says with a warning tone. “We can’t eat takeout every night.”

“We can’t?”

She laughs softly. “Well, I can’t. I’ll make something simple. What time will you be home?”

Lately, I haven’t been coming home until well in the evening, but with Bethie and Tucker there, I wish that I could leave the office right this second. I glance at the time on my computer screen before inwardly cursing. It’s only eleven in the morning.

“I’ll be home right after five.”

“We’ll be here,” she says softly and I can tell that she’s growing tired.

“Take a nap with Tucker,” I mutter right before I end the call.

A woman clears her throat and I lift my head, looking across the room to see Zara standing in the doorway, her lips parted in awe and her eyes round.

“Your next appointment is here,” she says, her voice sounding more awe filled rather than trembling in fear.

“Thanks.” I smile. “Send them in.”

She nods, turning away from me and a few moments later my next potential client walks into my office. I don’t think much about Zara again, my focus being watching the clock and waiting until five so that I can see my family again.

Family.

My family.

I still can’t believe that it’s real.