Our Lovely Baby Bump by Dahlia Rose Page A

life. Barbara was right, she wasn’t given a death sentence, but she did have an accelerated timeline. She thought of John, the man she was referring to, and smiled. The big teddy bear was both her and Angel’s longtime friend and business partner in the club they owned. She could call up his face in her mind just by closing her eyes. John was around six feet three inches in height and had broad shoulders.  He had a quick, boyish grin, and the deepest blue eyes she’d ever seen, and sandy blond hair that he kept in a neat, low cut.
    But no one should ever let that fool them, because John could become one scary guy if anyone acted up in the club. More often than not she’d heard people say he was not one they’d want to see in a dark alley. Those blue eyes could go cold as ice, and he’d fight a lion to protect the ones he loved. That included her. Maybe he loved her as a friend or maybe it was more. The butterflies she felt every time he looked at her couldn’t be a fluke, could it? Each time they were in the same vicinity the air got thicker, and she thought about kissing him. The only way to find out for certain was to take the bull by the horns and ask him.  How did one approach asking a man to be the father of a child?
    “Hey John, wanna be my baby daddy?” she said in the car as she drove toward The Pyramid club. “John, I’ve got eggs and you’ve got swimmers, let’s see what we can make?”
    She grimaced at her words and kept talking to herself all the way until she parked in the parking lot outside the club. Charlie grabbed her things and made sure her car was locked before she walked inside. It was only four in the afternoon and it would be at least eight before the opened for the night.  Tuesday was low, with only people coming in for a quick drink after work or maybe a first date in one of the booths. From Thursday to Saturday the club was jumping, featuring one of the hottest DJs and the best drinks Atlanta had to offer. She worked in the offices, preferring to be a wallflower, as opposed to Angel who could stop traffic wherever she went.
    Angel blamed it on her life growing up in Georgia. She was essentially a mutt, different ethnicities, and a girl who was considered “high yellow” in reference to her complexion. Her mother was African American, but they weren’t considered black enough growing up in the south. Her father was from the Dominican Republic and while he didn’t stay around, she got the hair from him and the coloring of both her parents. So she never fit in with the black girls, and to the white girls she was too exotic looking. To men she was something to covet, even as a teenager.
    Good enough to fuck but not to have as a girlfriend. Being a wallflower saved her from her, and after a while she found the social aspects of life uncomfortable. She liked her very close-knit group—just her, John, Angel and Caleb, Angel’s husband. All this and more was coming to her thoughts so when she walked into the club she walked right into John’s broad chest as he was balancing a keg of beer on his shoulder like it weighed nothing. He held her close to his chest and still managed to keep a hold on the keg with his other hand. Being that close to him, Charlie could smell the spice of his aftershave and feel the warmth of his body seeping through her.
    “Shit, sorry John,” Charlie said.
    “Why? I’m not.” He grinned and winked. “You seemed to be doing some wheel turning in that head of yours.”
    “Yeah, I was,” she admitted with a smile.
    “Want to talk about it?” John asked.
    “Actually I do. Can you come up to the office when you’re done down here? I’d like to ask you something important.”
    “Yes to whatever it is,” he said simply.
    “You don’t even know what it is yet,” she pointed out.
    He moved away and walked to the bar. “Whatever it is, for you it’s a yes.”
    “Uh-huh. Wait until I ask you first, okay?” Charlie asked. “Come on up when you’re