The Perfect Stranger

Chapter 10: Jackson

I managed to hail a cab once I hit the street. The drive home was the first time I had been alone in a few weeks. It was familiar and welcoming since these past few weeks have been crazier than ever. I honestly can’t wait to get back into my bed and sleep like the dead. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice being there for some- one, especially someone like Lizzie. But, sleeping in an hospital chair for a few weeks gets a little uncomfortable. Before I know it, the cab comes to a stop and I arrive at my apartment building. I can’t believe that only a few weeks ago there was an accident that changed my life for the unforeseeable future.

I enter the lobby and the familiar greetings from the reception welcome me home. I reach the elevators and they open just as I press the call button. Lucky me, I think, that never happens. But, I spoke too soon. As soon as I step inside and press the penthouse button to carry me home, a familiar couple walks into the elevator, Eric and Kassie. I couldn’t forget that asshole’s face if I tried. Who just leaves their un- conscious fiancee in the middle of the road and not ride with them to the hospital? Asshole.

They don’t seem to recognize me and I am thankful for that. Soon other people join the elevator just before the door close. Eric and Kassie are now in the back of the elevator standing next to me. I can smell the alcohol coming off them, its nauseating. She leans over to the poor bastard and whispers something in his ear. I notice his back get stiff and his head turns to look me up and down. Just when I thought I was going to have an easy night. Kassie and Eric ride the elevator until there is only one other person on the elevator with us. When it reaches the stranger’s floor, the stranger proceeds to exit and Kassie to my surprise follows behind leaving Eric and me on the elevator to ride to my penthouse. He’s the first to break the silence.

“You’re that guy from the other night? The one that helped Lizzie?” he says to me, his voice a little broken when he says her name. “Is she okay? Did she make it? I wanted to come see her but they said she had gone home by the time I was able to go to the hospital. They said she had left with some guy that rode with her in. And it was you, wasn’t it?” His voice starts to escalate a little and I just stare at him silently. There are only two more floors before we reach my penthouses.

“Yes I am. I am Jackson. Lizzie is fine and she is safe. That’s all you need to know.” I say to him before turning my attention back to the elevator doors as they open to the small lobby that leads to the door and actual lobby of my penthouse. I step out and he follows.

“Look, I know she’s pregnant. The nurse told me when I told her I was her fiancee. I just, I just want her to know that I have rights too, as a father and she can’t keep this baby from me. I want to be apart of their lives. I’ve always wanted to be

a father. Lizzie knows that.”

His admission shocks me. He knows that she is pregnant and he wants to a part of their lives. But what about his new lady Kassie, Lizzie’s ex best friend? Looking him in the eye, I ask him just that. “What about Kassie? You tell her you want to be apart of Lizzie and the baby’s life?”

“Kassie doesn’t need to know. I can see Lizzie and the baby everyday and I don’t have to let Kassie know that Lizzie is having my baby. That would devastate her. She’s always wanted to be the mother of my children. I couldn’t do that to her, but I don’t want to lose my child.”

His answer shocks me even more than his admission. He wants both women? The look on Lizzie’s face when she ran past me that day on the street before her accident runs through my mind. The hurt on her face was palpable, I won’t let him do this.

“No. That‘s not fair to Kassie and that definitely isn’t fair to Lizzie and the baby. They deserve someone full-time. You’re not full time material. Look at you. No, I won’t allow it.” I can feel myself getting worked up at the thought of him coming in and out of their lives.

“Yeah and you think you are?,” he yells at me! “You do, don’t you. Well look here, you don’t know a damn thing about Lizzie or me. And you damn sure don’t get to tell me if I can see my child or not. I can do whatever I damn well please

you can’t stop me. Nothing you say or do can make me go anywhere.” He slurs the last part and it pisses me off. This jerk doesn’t deserve them and I want him gone. That’s when the thought hits me. Nothing I can say or do huh?

“Well how much would it take for you to leave Lizzie and the baby alone? To be gone out of their lives forever?” That got his attention. His drunken stare lands on me and his eyes go wild. I got him.

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*6 months later*

“Lizzie, are you ready?” I call into the apartment she’s been living in since that day I brought her here from the hospital. It has been six months since Lizzie has lived here. And over the last six months, things have been great between Lizzie and me. We have developed sort of a routine ever since she got the cast off her leg and replaced with the boot. I agreed to taking her to and from doctor’s appointments and I would accompany her to any appointments she wanted me to be apart of. I also agreed that I would take her shopping for groceries and help her get the spare room turned into a nursery, for the time being until she finally found a place. She, on the other hand, agreed to work from home and let another member of her staff take on her classes. This allowed for her to focus on things behind the scenes to keep her school profitable and afloat in the market while still some- how making sure to do some FaceTime calls to her students every now and then.

It blew my mind when she first told me what she did for a living. No way could this woman get any more beautiful but she has to go work with children. Not only work with children, run her own school/educational daycare business. This woman is truly amazing.

“Lizzie, where you at? If you don’t hurry, we’re going to be late getting your boot off.” I call back into apartment. I almost begin to worry that she’s gone into labor when she waddles her way out the room and down the hall.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Lizzie says out of breath as she reaches me in the living room. Pausing to catch her breath before she continues, “I won’t be late to these appointments, not today. This boot is coming off T-O-D-A-Y. This baby is almost out of me and soon I will have my body back to myself. I’ll be able to see my toes!”

Her excitement is infectious and I can’t help but smile back at her. Everyday it gets harder not to confess the feelings I have developed for her over these past few months. I mean, today for instance, her smooth caramel skin is glowing with excitement and that yellow sun dress just makes her look like she’s almost beaming sun- shine right at me. Don’t get me wrong, after our first dinner together, things be- tween us had been pretty awkward. That encounter in the bathroom that day still held a tension between us until one day she made a joke. An easy friendship en- sued almost immediately after. I had started coming over more often to just hang out with her. Even on days that weren’t appointment days and even when she was able to drive herself with the boot. I was there for her when she finally decided to tell her family about everything that had happened, from the affair between Eric and Kassie, to her being pregnant and deciding to keep the baby. We had become so close, that without even noticing, I had eventually stopped dating all together.

So, when she had asked me to go with her to her ultrasound appointment, that her sister couldn’t make it to, it was a no brainer, I went. Lizzie had been feeling particularly sick that week, feeling achey and what I could only describe as just feel- ing very pregnant. We were sitting in the car at the light on the way to the hospital and she turned her head to face me right as the sun shown right behind her. It was then did I realize that I was too invested into her and the first thoughts of love popped into my head. She thanked me for being there with her and smiled at me and I just knew.

“Earth to Jackson, you going to stand in the middle of the living room or are you going to take me to get this boot off ?” Lizzie’s voice breaks my thoughts and I’m thrust back into reality. And in reality, Lizzie is standing by the door with her sweater in hand, along with her purse with a shoe sticking out of it and the keys to my car. Someone is ready to go.

“Okay, lets go.” I say grabbing my jacket and heading out the door behind her.

The car ride over to the hospital was fairly normal with the exception of Liz- zie’s excited chatter over finally being able to have her leg free. I’ve heard all these things I could probably recite them in my sleep. But I don’t mind, her voice is soothing to the ears. When we finally reach the hospital, Lizzie is silent. I’m not sure why until I look up and I see a face I haven’t seen in over six months. Not since the day she was screaming on the front of the luxury apartment building I live at. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen her since that night at that apartment building. So why is Kassie here now? I take a second and look over at Lizzie. She’s rubbing her belly protectively all while staring Kassie down.

“You want to take another entrance in?” I ask her. Not sure how to read her mood at the moment. It doesn’t seem like she hears me until I see her shake her head. She opens the door and starts waddling up to the entrance. Right to where Kassie is standing. I’m slow, but hop out the car once I realize that a pregnant and hormonal woman is probably not the safest thing to unleash onto someone, no matter what they’ve done. I catch up to Lizzie just as soon as she makes contact with Kassie and a real stare down ensues. Kassie looks at Lizzie and down to Liz- zie’s bulging belly before turning to look at me. I know the question she’s asking and I shake my head no. Her eyes go back to Lizzie’s and I notice tears fall from her face before she takes off clutching her stomach heading to the parking lot. Turning back to check on Lizzie, I notice she’s already walking into the hospital, full waddle ahead.

“Come on Jack, I want to get this boot off already,” she calls back to me, her voice having less enthusiasm than before.