"One more question," I texted. "How did her mom find out she was pregnant?"
"She told her," was the quick response.
That was interesting.
Very interesting.
Chapter Fifteen-
Since my boyfriend was being such a dumbass, I decided to once again take matters into my own hands.
Something was up with Kayla. I wasn't sure exactly what, how far her deceit ran, but I knew she was keeping him in the dark, and poor Derek was too busy working to realize the light even went out.
I really, really didn't want to do it, but I decided that in order to fix things I had to start with Derek.
That meant I had to talk to Mike.
On Sunday afternoon I showed up on Derek's doorstep.
Mike came to greet me, faltering when he saw who it was.
"Hi, Nicole. Um, Derek isn't here," he said.
"I know," I said, nodding. "I came to talk to you."
His eyebrows shot up, and he glanced behind me as if expecting to see a group of outraged villagers with pitchforks and lanterns. "Me?"
I nodded. "It's about Derek. May I come in for a minute?"
"Oh, sure," he said, awkwardly backing up and opening the door to let me inside.
I stepped inside, beginning to feel a little awkward myself. Mike motioned to the couch for me to have a seat, which I did, holding my purse in my lap and looking down at my hands to avoid looking at him.
"I'm here because I'm worried about Derek," I started, making myself look him in the eye.
Mike frowned, his blue eyes dimming a little. "Is Derek okay?"
"Sort of," I replied. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but this whole situation with Kayla… well, he's not himself."
Mike nodded in understanding. "I'm sure he isn't. When you first get news like this… At the risk of getting my head taken off, I'm going to refer back to when I was in this predicament. For a good month I was just a blob. I just sat around stupidly, dazed… your mother would try to cheer me up and… well, anyway, it's not unusual to feel thrown when you get news like this, trust me."
"It's not him being thrown that concerns me," I stated, mildly irritated at being brushed off. "I allowed for the fact that this is very bad news, that he
doesn't want to have a kid with Kayla. I'm not talking about that. He's taking way too much of this upon himself. I understand that he's trying to take responsibility, but she is taking advantage of him and he doesn't even seem to notice. I miss my boyfriend. I want him back. His stand-in just isn't doing it for me."
Mike cracked a smile. "You obviously like him a lot if you're willing to put up with this."
"Yeah, I do," I said.
"I really don't know what advice to give you, Nicole," he said apologetically. "As you may have noticed, I'm not very good with this particular topic."
"I'm not asking for advice. That's not why I came here."
"Then why did you come here?" he returned.
"Derek is working too much. I don't frankly give a damn if Kayla has insurance, I don't care if she has to give birth in the back of a minivan. The only thing I care about is Derek, and he is killing himself working this much. There is no reason for him to be working seven days a week and going to school. You are his father, but you're also his boss. What I'm asking is that you please consider cutting some of his days. He does not need to be working like this."
Mike's eyebrows furrowed in concern. "He's working seven days a week?"