Where the Streets Have No Name
Chapter 18
"Are you sure you are even obligated to inform them about your pregnancy? And if they do hire you, they can't just fire you for being pregnant."
"Yes they can, Edward," Carmen raised her voice in irritation. "They can fire me without citing a cause when I'm on probation. Are you being dense on purpose?"
Edward didn't know how to field this attack. He looked around helplessly and then made a terrible mistake.
"It's just a job, Carmen. You'll find another one. This is a baby we are talking about; our baby. How can you even compare the two?"
He knew he should have chosen his words more wisely the moment they left his mouth. The fury in Carmen's eyes confirmed that.
"'Just a job'? My life, my dreams, is just a side show now? How dare you?" She spat out the words as she stood up to leave, bringing their meeting to an end. Edward was out of line and out of time.
He cursed himself for stupidly sticking his foot in his mouth.
"Carmen, please, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that," he pleaded, looking chastised and ashamed. "Please, sit down, just... just talk to me, okay. I apologize for... sounding like an idiot, I should have worded it better.
"Just, don't leave like this..."
Carmen looked around uncertainly. Their disagreement didn't go unnoticed by the morning crowd. There were a few customers who were giving them curious looks. Carmen weighed out her options. She was fairly certain Edward would pursue her if she tried to leave, causing an even bigger scene. Under the circumstances, she wasn't particularly interested in inviting that kind of attention to herself.
She wished she had picked a more private place for this conversation, but it was too late now. Begrudgingly, she conceded to a truce and sat down, though she stubbornly refused to look at Edward.
"Thank you," Edward said gratefully.
"I'm giving you five minutes, then I am leaving one way or another. So, get on with your spiel," Carmen responded heatedly.
Thank you Lulabelle98, HeidiJoVT, and Dinx.
Important AN *PLEASE READ*: This morning I got a PM from a reviewer, informing me that she will no longer review because she had received a number of scathing private messages from other readers in response to her review of chapter 17 of WtSHNN. This is very disheartening. I know how sensitive the "Life Vs. Choice" issue is. But please, as mature and tolerant adults, be respectful to those whose philosophy in life does't perfectly align with yours. I love hearing from you all. Feel free to direct your emotions, feelings, concerns to me. Don't send hate mail/PMs to other readers. Let's keep in mind that even though I have drawn heavily from real life events, WtSHNN is a work of fiction.
On a secondary note, only a tiny fraction of those who read bothers to review. For WtSHNN, the hit to review ratio is less than 5%. I am not a BNA. I don't routinely get a zillion reviews. My reviewers are not a faceless mass of anonymous statistics to me. Each and every instance I hear from you is precious. So losing even one of you is heartbreaking.
I am humbly asking every single person who is reading this note, regular reviewers and lurkers alike, to kindly click on the review button and let me know that you are on board with my request. Don't worry, I am not asking that you review every chapter from now on. Just this one time. If you dislike me or this story and don't want to contribute in any way to buff up the review count, send me a PM. You don't have to write anything profound or flattering. A simple "Gotcha" will do. But please, I need to know that nobody else will be hurt as a result on this story.
Thank you.