Synergy (37 page)

She knew
for certain she wasn’t living off Jason’s money forever, and she
was anxious about the prospect of finding another job, what would
she do? She wondered if her new found ‘fame by association’ could
help her get some more acting or modelling jobs. She’d modelled in
the past, but found it hard to get the money to travel to casting
calls, and acting jobs were hard to come by, though she had starred
in that one music video. Music videos, movies, modelling; she
wanted to do it all, but she was worried that for one, she might
not get any offers, or two, she might get offered things purely
because she was with Jason, and she wasn’t sure she wanted that
either. She didn’t want to become a Kardashian type, famous only
for who they’re related to or who they’re fucking, it wasn’t in
Dee’s nature. She knew there was a lot of things she needed to
figure out in her head, and she didn’t have a lot of time to do it,
since the baby was due in only six weeks time.

Now that
Dee had a new place to live, and was settled in, Jason phoned up
the baby shop they’d ordered everything from months ago and asked
for everything to be delivered. They’d already set about making one
of the spare rooms into a nursery. The colour was already neutral,
so they’d placed wall stickers of animals around it, making it a
little brighter and more baby friendly. Now, they just needed the
furniture to make it complete. Of course the baby would be sleeping
in Dee’s room until it was a little older, but she didn’t see
anything wrong with getting everything organised beforehand. Though
Dee still called it her room, it may as well have been Jason’s too
since he’d been staying every night since she’d moved in. Though
they’d both agreed it was too early for them to be moving in
together, it seemed stupid for Jason to be staying at a hotel when
there was a perfectly good house now, plus he was her boyfriend, it
wasn’t exactly unusual to want to be in the same bed.

Dee had
made sure she’d had the chat with Tushaun about what Jason was to
her. Though she’d initially introduced him as her friend the first
time they met, it was too complicated to explain why he was
practically living there with them, and she needed to make him
understand that he was the new baby’s daddy, though he wasn’t his.
As usual, her little boy took it all in his stride.

As a
result of practically living at the house, Jason was spending a lot
of time with Tushaun, whether that was picking him up from school
with Dee, or sitting down and having dinner together, and he had to
admit he loved that kid. He was a real little character and
everything he said had Jason laughing. He felt like they were
starting to become a family already, and he knew the new baby would
just be icing on the cake for them. He’d never expected a pre-made
family like this, but he couldn’t imagine it any other way
now.

It had
been a long day for Dee, who had been busy doing housework, cooking
dinner, visiting her family, and adding some finishing touches to
the house, so she hadn’t noticed so much that the niggling pain
she’d woken up with had been getting progressively worse as the day
went on.  It had started almost as a flutter, which she
thought had maybe been the baby kicking and she’d gone about her
business as usual, but now that she was sedentary, settling on the
sofa for the night, she noticed it was more than a niggle, more
than a flutter. She tried to ignore it the best she could, but as
she sat chatting idly with Jason by the television, he noticed the
look on her face.

“
Are you
okay
?” he asked her, watching her wince as
she touched her stomach.

“
I don’t
know
”

“
Is it the
baby
?”

“
Yeah. I think
so
” she said, before a stabbing pain hit
her so hard it took her breath away.

“
Fuck
” she exhaled, as her body
tensed up in response.

“
Dee, what’s
happening
?” Jason asked, growing more
concerned by his girlfriend’s facial expressions. He stood up to
get next to her and that’s when he saw her face change. It was no
longer a look of pain, but one of utter terror.

“
My water
broke
” she said through
tears.

Author Note

Thank you to anybody who has taken the time to read this
book. It genuinely means a lot to me. I hope you’ve fallen in love
with Dee and Jason in the same way that I have, and that you
continue to support their difficult relationship. This isn’t the
end of their story, merely the beginning, and a second book is
currently in the works. I hope you’ll continue with their journey
in the next instalment.

• Georgia