He looked at me like I was insane. I nodded and he opened his month, but I cut in one more. “I fought for April.”
Oh, how I fought and oh how I was thoroughly put in my place.
PREGNANCY: MONTH 8
THEA
“You are acting crazy!”
Grabbing the pillow beside me, I threw it at him. “Don’t call me crazy!”
He glared at me, breathing out his nose. “I said acting crazy. Acting, because you are not crazy. However, you aren’t being logical, Thea.”
“Logical?!” I yelled, placing my hand on my watermelon-sized stomach. “Let me remind
you of page three, section four, of the Black-Knox and Associates policy and terms—”
“Thea—”
“Employees, upon birth or adoption of an infant, toddler, or young child not yet of grade school age, are entitled to twelve weeks leave, designated by the Employer as FMLA, and shall have full pay during the duration of the twelve weeks which has been given!”
“Section five!” he hollered back. “If the employee wishes to extend FMLA for another four to eight weeks, they may do so, only having given notice to the employer three weeks prior to the completion of their twelve-week leave; however, the employee will do so with partial or no pay at the discretion of the employer!”
“I don’t want to extend leave!”
“I do!”
“Then stay home!”
“Thea! Ugh!” He stretched his hands as if he wanted to strangle me, but I simply crossed my arms over my stomach, glaring. “Thea, love,” he said softly, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“I’m coming back after twelve weeks; my due date is on the 23rd. That means I start on March 20th, as per your policy.”
“Exactly, baby, my policy! It’s my firm. You are my fiancée, soon to be my wife, and the mother of my child; you do not need to rush back to work. What about Ulric? I don’t want him to have a nanny, neither do you, and it isn’t fair to drop him off at my parents’ everyday while we go work! So what? We bring him to work, too?”
I put my hands on my face, trying stay calm, but I felt like crying. And not understanding he put his hand on my leg.
“I work so hard, baby; what is the point of having money if you can’t relax and—”
“You’re such a chauvinistic ass sometimes.” I tried to ignore the tears as they fell.
He pulled his arm back from its place on my leg. “Excuse me?”
I nodded, repeating, “You’re chauvinistic. You aren’t saying we should take off longer. You’re saying I should take off longer. Do you really thinking having you as the boss is something I’m happy about? I was your student, but not just any student. I was the daughter of Margaret ‘The Shark’ Cunning. I had to prove myself to every preppy white kid at Harvard, why? Because half of them, the ones who knew of my mother, thought I got in because of her. The other half, who didn’t know of her, thought I’d gotten in because Affirmative Action. And just when I was proving myself as Thea Cunning, not The Shark’s daughter, everyone finds out I’m sleeping with you, and almost overnight I become the Whore of Babylon, sleeping her way to graduation. Every time I came in first, got the highest grade, ‘she probably blew him too,’ was said. I ignored it. I never talked about it. Because we were happy and in a good place. I graduated at the top of the class, and I ended up working for you. Great, right? I’m no longer the whore. I’ve proven we aren’t just a fling. But now I’m Levi Black’s girlfriend, then Levi Black’s fiancée, then Levi Black’s baby mama.”
“Who’s talking to you like that at the firm?! Why didn’t you say anything?” he snapped, leaning forward.
“I told you, I don’t need you to play white knight—”
“Goddamn it, Thea!” he snapped, rising up from the bed. “I’m not playing the white knight; I am being your partner! Every time someone insults you or treats you any less than … than anyone else, you don’t tell me until weeks … apparently, years later!”
“What am I supposed to do!” I screamed back. “I can’t call you to come protect me, I’m a big girl who can—”
“You can, what? Huh? Ignore it? Lift your head up, dig your heels in, and prove them wrong? Meanwhile, you just take the abuse until they come to their senses? You can lie to them. You can pretend as if nothing they say hurts. But I know you, Thea, and I know you’re not as tough as you pretend to be! You are not made of stone and neither am I. You can’t keep telling me to just stand on the sidelines. You can’t keep telling me not to protect you when that is what I am supposed to do! It is what I want to do! Black, white, green, purple, I don’t bloody care! If they insult you, they are insulting us. And while I cannot control every racist, bigoted, ignorant asshole in the world, I can and I will control my own goddamn firm!”
I rubbed the side of my head; it felt like my brain was splitting. How could he be both right and wrong at the same time. “Please, sit.”
“I’d rather stand,” he snapped, still frowning.