Defensive by J.D. Rivera

Thank you for everything tonight.”
    “Okay,” he said, walking toward the door. He paused, looking at me. “Take care of her.”
    “Oh, I will. Now, get the hell out.” I told him before returning my attention back to Vanessa. As soon as the door was shut, I lost my temper. “What part of me asking you not to see him again did you not get?” I asked.
    Her eyes widened. “Don’t you ever talk to me like that again. I’m not a child. I’ll see and talk to whomever I want.”
    “Why in the hell was he answering your phone tonight? I called wanting to talk to my girlfriend and her fucking ex-husband answers the phone and tells me she’s busy. What the hell? Care to explain?”
    “You want to know? You really want to know?” she asked with an icy tone.
    “Yeah, that’s why I asked,” I yelled, becoming more of a jerk with each passing second.
    “While you were playing your precious game, I was at the hospital losing our baby,” she said as she began crying.
    I took a sharp breath of air. What had she just said? Losing our baby? “Are you pregnant?” I asked.
    “Not anymore. I lost the baby. Tonight.”
    I felt like I had been punched in the gut. “How far along? Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “I was around nine weeks. I didn’t tell you because I found out the same time you found out about your other child. How could I possibly tell you ‘Hey, I’m pregnant’ when you just told me you were having a child with another woman five minutes earlier?” She sat on the couch, wiping away her tears.
    My heart was breaking for her. For us. But I still felt so much anger over Shane being with her and she wasn’t explaining that part to me. “When were you planning on telling me?” I asked. “And you still haven’t told me why Shane was with you. Why I found him on your couch.”
    “I was planning on telling you this week, after I had seen a doctor,” she said as she started crying again. “I was terrified this would happen. I guess I was right.”
    I wanted to comfort her but I was angry. She wasn’t answering my question about Shane. She was leaving me in the dark about too much. “Answer my question about Shane.”
    She looked up at me. “Really? I just told you that I lost our baby and all you care about is why Shane was here? I guess it doesn’t really matter to you. You still get to have a baby.”
    “What the fuck, Vanessa? I’d much rather have a baby with you than anybody else but I can’t change the fact that Cynthia’s pregnant. I’m devastated that we lost a child but I also just found out about the baby two minutes ago. Give me some credit and give me some time to think.”
    “Whatever. Can you please just leave? I need to be by myself right now. I don’t need fighting with you on top of everything else that happened tonight.”
    I stepped over to her, kneeling in front of her. “I’m sorry I’m being an asshole, okay? I’m really sorry that you had to go through this alone. I should have been there. Had I known you were pregnant, I would have taken care of you.”
    She looked into my eyes. “Can you please go? Like I said, I need to be alone. I have a lot to think about.”
    I placed a hand on her cheek. “No. I’m not going anywhere. We’re both mad but you just went through something traumatic and I’m not leaving you alone.”
    “Please leave.”
    “No. I’ll take a shower and I’ll sleep on the couch. I’m not leaving you.”
    She huffed as she stood up. “Whatever, sleep on the couch,” she told me before walking to the bedroom.
    I moved to sit on the couch. I couldn’t believe she had been pregnant and hadn’t told me. I could understand not telling me immediately but she had been given plenty of time. I would’ve been happy. Having a child with her would have been amazing.
    A tear slipped out of my eye as I thought about her losing our child. I wish I could’ve been with her and gone through it together. Instead, she was with Shane. The thought made my