The One That Got Away by C. Kelly Robinson Page B

Girls who can offer you more than tits, ass, or a deep throat.”
    Tony still recalled leaning over her hospital bed, gripping Stephanie’s hand and smiling through teary eyes. “I’ll try, Steph. I really will.”
    â€œDon’t just try,” she whispered. “Start small. Today. Who’s the girl from Cincinnati, the one you bring by the house every now and again?”
    â€œSerena?”
    â€œMmm,” Stephanie had mumbled, shaking her head in recognition. “A tramp. Already has a child she can’t raise, scandalous history, gets around more than you do? You can’t keep wasting your time with her, baby.”
    Though Stephanie survived her surgery and still walked the earth today, living nicely on Wayne’s alimony checks, it was as close as Tony had ever come to making a deathbed promise. As a result, he stood Serena up on one date after another until Stephanie came through surgery with flying colors and doctors were confident of her recovery. Only then did he allow himself to seek Serena out again, driving to her aunt’s house that fateful afternoon, hoping to apologize for dropping off the face of the earth.
    That visit bought him a hell of an eyeful. Through the curtains of Serena’s first-floor bedroom, Tony watched her and Jamie Kincaid merge into one eight-limbed human being, rattling her poor twin bed with a force Tony had managed on only a handful of nights. Then there was the obvious familiarity between them; this was not their first time.
    She had only made love to Jamie once in her aunt’s house, so despite the fact they hadn’t noticed Tony that day, Serena now knew exactly what he’d seen. The memory sobered her up; it occurred to her anew that she was reliving all this on her work phone.
    â€œTony,” she said, “that was one weak moment, one unfortunate coincidence. I guess because I never saw you with anyone else, that means you were spotless as Jesus, huh?”
    â€œI didn’t say that.” Even if Serena had other lovers in addition to Jamie, Tony knew that during their nonexclusive period he’d had three for every one of hers.
    â€œI needed you,” she said, sucking a rebellious tear back inside her eyelid.
    She had arrived at his apartment a few weeks after that afternoon with Jamie, newly diagnosed with her second pregnancy. Devon and Kym had relayed Tony’s awareness of her dates with Jamie, but she’d already been through too much to live in shame.She’d kept it real the second he opened his apartment door. “You may be a daddy.”
    He let her in, and she broke down the math: she had conceived within two weeks of her last encounter with him and her first time with Jamie. Paternity would be an open question for the next seven months. One thing was certain, though: she was homeless, kicked out by a too-through Aunt Velma. “I’m all for second chances, baby,” Aunt Velma had said, head shaking in frustration, “but I’m no saint. My grace has limits.”
    Serena still didn’t know exactly what she expected from Tony that day, but his response was definitely not it. After she’d poured out everything within, painting the picture without asking for anything in particular, he’d clasped his hands and met her eyes with an icy stare. “Call me when you get the test results.”
    As he shifted anxiously in his office chair, that very sentence rang in Tony’s ears, just as it had the morning he burst through the doors of the church where she tried to marry Jamie. “I know you needed more than I gave you that day,” he said, his voice ringing hollow in his own ears. “I was a young, self-absorbed ass. If I could have that day back—”
    â€œWhat does it matter?” Serena pinched the bridge of her nose, stemming a trickle of tears. “Sidney turned out to be Jamie’s, so it’s really not relevant. Besides, Tony, I know