"Darren slow down." I hear Charles, but I'm not registering her words right now. I don't want to slow down nor stop. Pushing the stairwell door open it slams against the wall. "Darren!" Charles is still right behind me. All those years of running away have paid off. She is keeping up. "Darren can you stop?! We're in the middle of an important visit and you need not spiral out of control."

She was right. I'm not a pubescent teenager anymore. I'm a grown man with a business to run. I just can't get her words out of my head. This shouldn't have happened. How could I be so careless to let something like this happen?

"How could I be so stupid and get her pregnant?" I turn around looking at Charles. "I don't love or know her."

"Darren please don't beat yourself up over this. Mistakes happen, things happen. Now is the right time to get to know her and who knows you might fall in love with her. But let's just start with getting to know her, I'm sure she wants to know you as well. You two are going to have a child together." she says slowly, watching me cautiously.

She is right.

"How?" I still can't believe that years later, I'm still asking Charles for woman advice. Fucking woman's advice. I wonder if Alsie is one hundred percent sure the child is mine. Would it be wrong for me to ask?

Of course, it would. I remember the last time Everett and Tristan joked with Charles about Brooke. She nearly went into early labor and Chase was out for blood.

"Darren just be yourself. You're an amazing guy. Funny, attractive, caring, outgoing—I'm not saying anymore. I can see you're enjoying this too much."

"It's nice to hear you talk positive, about me for once." I smile at her. "It's become a rare thing."

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny." She crosses her arm at her chest, a serious look now etched on her face. "Look I know this isn't ideal and having a kid might feel like the scariest thing in the world right now, but you must not let how you don't feel about Alsie cloud your judgment about that unborn child."

Once again she is right.

"I won't."

"I know you won't. If so your ass is mine. Now let's get back out there, we have a visit to finish." She pats me on the shoulder, exiting the staircase.

****

The rest of the day goes by in a blur. I looked for Alsie without actually looking for her, and kept coming up short. Did she leave because of my reaction? Does she know that I know? Damn it. I need to check her office one more time before calling it a day.

"Can this day get any worse?" I hear her mumble, as she bangs her keyboard on the desk. I keep quiet, watching her through the crack of her office door. She bites down her lips, squinting at the computer screen. "You have to be fucking kidding me?! Walter is a dick! Why does he even work here is the real question." she huffs.

I get ready to enter her office when Terrica calls out for me. I make my way towards her hoping she wouldn't find it creepy that I was spying on Alsie. Terrica hands me a neon green folder and I automatically know who this is coming from. I never get why Everett lets his wife use all these colorful folders. I have told him on more than one occasion to tell her not to. The last time she sent over a Backstreet Boys folder for a meeting and the guys just stared at me like I lost my marbles.

"I would have changed the folder, but she said all the contents inside were confidential so I left it at that." She looks behind me at the sounds of a keyboard slamming against something. "I'm guessing Alsie is going over another one of Walter's documents." She stifles a laugh. I look down at her waiting for her to elaborate. She starts to walk off shaking her head, saying it's nothing.

"Like hell it is." I follow behind her. I want to know, there seems to be something everyone knows just not me.

"Well, Walt has a thing for Alsie and purposefully sends her over messed up documents so she can come out to talk to him. I think it's cute if you ask me."

"Good thing I didn't." I snap making a detour to the men's room. Knowing that Alsie is carrying my child I don't want any guy talking let alone looking at her, but in the world, we live in I know that's impossible. Maybe she will agree to not seeing anyone until after the child is born. That way she can do as she pleases. The last thing I want is a relationship with anyone.

I will take Charles' advice and show Alsie that I'm a great man and will be a good father for our child. I think it will take a miracle of some sort for me to want to be in a relationship again. I just need to focus on the baby and whatever happens happens.