Petalos Machacados
Chapter 10
Sami had to think, she had to make a new plan for her life. Yes, that is what she needed to do, go somewhere quiet without any of the chaos that usually surrounded her when she was with her friends, her family or at work.
How could this be happening to her? Ever since that disastrous time in her life when she had let her guard down and allowed Lucas Roberts in she had been vigilant in maintaining strict order in her life. Even when she was with Rafe she never let herself be carried away by emotion and he had understood he always reassured her he was fine with her resolve to wait until they were married before she was ever intimate with another person.
She could feel the tears of her despair threatening to flow. She took a deep breath and tried to form a stream of positive consciousness, such as the ones she used when she mediated in the mornings before she began each day. Given her emotional distress she wasn't looking where she was going though, thus the reason she wound up in the elevator with another couple in the first place.
Sami glanced toward the array of buttons that signalled which floor the elevator would travel and saw it was going to the ground floor, so she immediately shifted to the corner of the elevator that was unoccupied. She had her head bowed, just trying to concentrate on positive thoughts when she heard sniffling coming from one of the other occupants in the elevator.
"Nicole, please don't cry," came the voice, that damnable English accent; but surely it couldn't be him.
No, it was just her nerves, her mind playing tricks on her she convinced herself, refusing to look up and see if the voice did belong to the man she had long ago once deemed would be her soulmate.
Alas her fervent wishes for this to be another man, any man but the one she was afraid it could be; wasn't going to be fulfilled when the woman began to speak, "EJ, I can't help it. I'm upset."
"It just wasn't meant to be," he stated softly, hoping he could calm Nicole down before they would exit the building. He hadn't looked up to see who had entered the elevator with him and his wife, but it could be anyone, even a reporter trying to get a new scoop on the latest happenings in his so far very prolific existence.
He didn't like to make any of his private life public given how the press seemed to hound him and his ultra wealthy family at almost every turn. Even though the press now had less to publish about him after he had tried so hard to keep his actions above reproach.
His short, yet definitely unforgettable embarrassing stint in a Moroccan jail made him wake up and realize he had to grow up and stop acting like a spoiled rich playboy. It hadn't mattered he had been partying away trying to forget he had been given a cancer diagnosis by the doctor only a week before. EJ had decided if his life might end up being a short one, it would be one hell of a party before he left this earth.
Then Lexie had bailed him out of jail, told him to stop the nonsense and make a difference with his life. If he only had a matter of time, to make it count instead of acting as if the world owed him something. It had been a wake-up call for him, one he had needed to hear at the time and who knows where he might be now if Lexie hadn't stepped in and gave him some hard truths to face about him and the lifestyle he was leading.
Just thinking about Lexie and what she had just done by accidentally impregnating another unknown woman with his sperm was a huge blow, she was the one person he trusted enough to be his true self around and now as far as he was concerned this tie was completely severed. Now somewhere out there a woman he didn't know was pregnant with his child, his only chance to be a father and once again he felt like the rug had been pulled out from under him when Lexie wouldn't reveal her identity.
He would find this woman though, he was determined. Right now though even if he didn't love Nicole he wouldn't be so cold hearted as to ask for a divorce on the day she had found out that her plan for them to have a family together had failed.
He would wait, give her some time to get over this loss even if she had been wrong to go ahead and do this without talking with him about it first. Plus she was still openly crying even after he had asked her not to cry.
All he wanted was to get out of this elevator and get away from every one; he needed some time to think about how he would find out who the mother of his child was, and how he might be able to convince her to keep the baby, his baby.
Sami thought what was taking this damn elevator so long to reach the ground floor. She felt claustrophobic, and prayed she could get out of here without detection from EJ. Since Sami was so upset about finding out she was pregnant she never even considered the couple in the elevator might be the ones who had received the bad news that they weren't pregnant. There were several businesses housed in this building, and with the rich you never knew, from years of experience of being a waitress and observing their behaviour, this couple could be upset about anything.
To keep herself from thinking about her current situation Sami imagined it might even be about a pet of theirs. Well now at least Sami knew the name of EJ's wife, this Nicole could be crying over one of those tiny dogs some rich people carried around with them constantly. She tried to figure out a name for this dog, she quickly stole a glance at them before casting her eyes downward once more.
Sami's writer's imagination began to flare and she guessed this Nicole woman was crying over a dog named Pookie and how upset she was over him dying. That was a plausible situation and it gave her mind a reprieve from her own troubles and then thank goodness finally the elevator stopped at the ground floor.
Sami decided the best thing to do was rush by the couple so EJ couldn't recognize her as the waitress who had called him a jackass. So with her head held down she quickly exited the elevator before them, but in her hurry to get away the backpack she carried with her snagged EJ's suit jacket and then the contents of her backpack were on the floor of the elevator and once more their paths crossed.