“What happened? Did you tell him?”
“Yes, I told him…”
“And?”
“He initially didn’t take the news too well. He went into shock.”
“Well, it was shocking news,” Mila said, “so you can’t really fault him for that. It’s not everyday that a man finds out he’s about to be the father of twins.”
“Yeah, I know. But I’ve been such a mess myself these days. My mood goes up and down. The way he froze and went into shock…I couldn’t handle it. We were out at dinner, and I left him. I just felt like I needed time alone, and that he needed time to collect himself. I had assumed his reaction meant he didn’t want anything to do with me or the babies. That’s why I got mad and snuck out. I left him sitting right there at the dinner table, alone. But it turned out that I had misinterpreted things.”
“Scarlet,” Mila groaned. She sighed. “All right, what happened after that?”
“I came back to my hotel room and went to sleep,” I said. “He surprised me this morning though. I was just about to leave when I found him standing outside my door with two dozen roses.”
“Awww,” Mila squealed. “So everything’s all right now then?”
“I wish it was that simple.” I paused and took a deep breath. “Okay, so he showed up with the roses and apologized. Said all these wonderful things about how he didn’t want his children growing up without him. How he wanted to be a part of their lives, and my life too. And he said that he would always be there for me. That he would take care of anything that the babies and I needed.”
“I’m not understanding the bad part of this,” Mila said.
“The bad part is that I believed him, and I was elated. We made up and…Well, I took a nap. When I woke up, he was gone. He hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye. All he did was leave a note saying, ‘We need to talk, but not now. I need some time.’ I’ve tried calling him three times already, but he won’t answer. My calls keep going straight to voicemail. I don’t know what happened.”
Mila held on to the other line in silence for a while. “I wish I could give you some insight, but I don’t even know what to say.”
“Tell me about i
t. It just doesn’t make sense!”
“Unfortunately, sometimes men don’t make sense.”
“Why do I keep winding up with these kind of flaky guys?” I said, frustrated.
“Well, he did say that you guys needed to talk. So maybe that’s a good sign,” Mila said. Her words were useless in cheering me up though. “I’m so sorry, Scarlet,” she said. “I just wish you would have at least texted me back sooner. I was worried about you, you know.”
“Huh? You texted me?”
“Yes. Repeatedly.”
“I didn’t see any text messages,” I said. “Hold on.” I glanced down at my phone, and sure enough, I had messages from her. The problem, though, was that they had already been opened and read.
Did you tell him?
Did he believe you?
Is it done?
Is he going to give you money?
“Oh no.”
“What?” Mila said.
I swallowed. “I must have been sleeping when you sent those texts. I think Tobias read them.”
“Oh,” Mila said. “Well, why wouldn’t he just wake you up and let you know you had messages?”
I shook my head. “Mila, don’t you get it? Look at what those messages say. Think about how they sound.”