Chapter Thirteen

Changes

With the latest Girlicious album playing in her stereo, Eve Torres pulled into Mike's driveway on a beautiful Thursday afternoon. They were all set to go back on the road the next morning. Typically, the day before going back on the road was busy, but Eve volunteered to come and keep Mike company while Maryse came over to take her things out of his home and give him back his keys. Killing the ignition, she took a moment to touch up her lip gloss. She knew her presence was going to send Maryse over the edge, but she didn't care; she was here to support a friend.

It had been almost a month since Mike found out about Maryse and her cheating, and she noticed that she wasn't hearing from Cristina much anymore. Eve never heard Mike talk about her. She wondered if the two of them had some kind of falling out. Eve wanted to ask Mike about the situation, but he had his hands full trying to get Maryse out of his life. She didn't want to go anywhere. She had talked Mike into trying to make it work somehow, but after a week, he realized his heart just wasn't in it anymore. Almost a month later, she was still putting up a fight.

Mike hadn't intended to go so long without talking to Cristina, but he didn't know what to say. He felt like he had used her, that she was going to come to her senses and realize that she wanted no part of him. After their night together, Mike tried his best to get Maryse out of the picture, but she wasn't going without a fight. He regretted giving her the idea that they could try and work things out. He called Alex and Eve over to make sure she didn't try anything. It was his hope that if his friends were with him, she wouldn't be able to talk him into things.

He had cheated on Maryse. She did it, too, but it didn't make him right. He had taken advantage of Cristina, and he was embarrassed that he had done that to a friend. Mike had no intention of getting back together with Maryse; he was falling in love with Cristina. Every day that passed made him realize that he didn't want to be without her. Mike stood on the front porch, watching Eve pull into the driveway. He had been waiting for hours for Maryse to show up.

Mike had spent the week packing her things, excited to purge her existence from his home. It was a new chapter in his life. He gave her all of their pictures. Part of him felt vindictive enough to cut her out of them, and to add a bonus of Alex's photos of her with Chris and Dolph, but he refrained. She had been putting off coming to the house to gather her things for so long that Mike threatened to leave it all on the front lawn. She had cried, wailed, begged and sobbed for him to forgive her. Mike didn't care. Her tears didn't mean anything to him anymore.

Maryse arrived at Mike's house at quarter past one, dressed as though she were about to attend a funeral. Enormous black sunglasses covered her face. Her eyes were red and puffy from weeks of crying. She was still holding out hope that Mike would take her back, that they could work everything out. He had become something steady in a crazy life. Pulling into the driveway, her hopes were dashed when she found him sitting on the porch with Eve and Alex. She scowled, her hands gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.

She killed the ignition and waited a few moments for the boiling of her blood to subside. Maryse felt it was essential to keep her composure, to make Mike see that she really was changing, that she loved him too much to lose him. She had been humbled and humiliated, and she was willing to do everything she could to make it up to Mike.

She got out of the car, shutting the door behind her. Mike watched her approach. "Your boxes are in the foyer. You don't need to go in any further than that," Mike told her coldly. She fought the urge to cry again, mustering a nod as she walked past him into the house.

"I'll help you," Eve told her, moving off the balcony. Maryse opened her mouth to object, but Eve had already gone inside and come out with a box. She took it over to the car, placing it down in front of the trunk.

"I'll bet you're real happy about this," Maryse hissed as she passed Eve. She shrugged.

"I just want my friend to be happy. You weren't doing that."

"Mind your own business," Maryse retorted. Eve responded by dropping the box she was holding. Maryse cringed when she heard something break.

"Just think - you could have avoided all of this if you had just kept your legs closed," Eve retorted, turning on her heels and returning to Mike and Alex. She sighed; she was left to load the boxes on her own now.

Cristina paced back and forth in her small bathroom, staring at her watch. There was still a few minutes to go, but time was moving slowly. Every few seconds she would stop, check her watch, and resume pacing.

A month.

It had been a month since she had heard from Mike, since the two of them had spent their night together. She had tried messaging him, tried calling, but he didn't answer. Cristina assumed she had done something wrong and as much as it hurt her, she let Mike go. She didn't want to become needy and desperate. She thought about their night together and tried to remember if she had said anything that could have offended him. She wished he would tell her where she stood – after all, she wasn't a mind reader.

In the past few weeks, Cristina had felt a change come over her. She was suffering from strange dreams. Everyone at the office pointed out that she looked exhausted. After a few weeks of worrying, Cristina went to the drug store.

She quit pacing. Checking her watch again, Cristina picked the stick up off the counter. She picked up the home pregnancy test box, her eyes scanning the directions. It took a few minutes for things to register. When it did, she dropped everything. It landed soundlessly on the rug and she sank down on the edge of the tub.

She was pregnant.

A million thoughts began to race through her head. The first thought was that Mike needed to know. But she had no idea how to approach him with it, since he wasn't returning her messages anymore. It was obvious that she had done something, and now he didn't want anything to do with her. She didn't want to believe that he was the kind to sleep with a woman and leave her hanging; she didn't want to believe her mother had been right about American boys. The fear she felt was bone-chilling; she made enough to survive, but not enough to support a baby. There was no way she could afford the kid. Tears began to well in her eyes.

Her mother would be ashamed of her giving into her carnal desires and getting into trouble. A child out of wedlock was out of the question in a family like hers. Her father would be disappointed in her, but he was nowhere near as judgmental as her mother. She looked down at the test on the floor; she was going to have to book a doctor's appointment. The terror she felt was so very real.