Infinite Love (27 page)

‘Bitch,’ she hissed.

‘Chelsea, shut it,’ Gabe growled over his shoulder at her. ‘Mia, did you start this?’

‘Yes,’ I whispered as I hung my head. ‘But she made nasty comments about me not being able to get pregnant.’

‘Chelsea, tell me that you didn’t?’ Gabe snapped as he spun around to face her. I looked up and felt myself go scarlet to see a crowd had formed. That was all I needed. A bloody cat fight, being restrained by a security guard and probably arrested on my birthday and wedding anniversary all because of that … nasty piece of work.

‘She’s lying. She’s a liar Gabe, come on, you’ve known me for years. You’re going to believe
her
over me?’

‘Let. Me. Go.’ I snapped as I struggled to get out of the guys grasp. She was really asking for it now.

‘Of course I believe her Chelsea, she’s my
wife
and I can’t believe you’d stoop that low. Not with all the pressure Mia and I are already under, that’s inexcusable.’

‘Sorry to interrupt, but I was standing not too far away and the woman with red hair did say some very nasty things to the other lady. I’d have done more than push her if that had been me.’ I flashed a smile of gratitude at the blonde and she nodded back with a smile.

‘What will happen to them both?’ Gabe sighed as he looked at the security guard.

‘It depends if either wants to press charges and what damage has been caused, we haven’t rung the Police yet.’

‘If I agree to pay for any damage, plus compensation, will you consider letting them go if they both agree to not take this further?’

 ‘Do you want to press charges, Miss?’ I was asked. I looked up at Gabe and he gave a shake of his head.

‘Not if she won’t,’ I sighed.

‘Fine, whatever,’ Chelsea sighed and looked off in the other direction. I tensed up as Gabe stepped closer to her.

‘If I
ever
hear that you’ve been anywhere near Mia again, or upset her in any way, it will be me that you’re dealing with. Understood, Chelsea?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered and hung her head. I shrugged off the security guard and winced again, before bending to pick up my handbag and tampons, clutching my stomach as I went down.

‘I think both of you need medical attention, preferably not at the same time,’ advised the guard still holding Chelsea.

‘I’m fine,’ I muttered.

‘Me too,’ came Chelsea’s voice. ‘Please will you let me go, I’d like to leave.’

I left the A&E room three hours later with a sling, a bandaged hand from the gash on my knuckles from Chelsea’s teeth, an ice pack for my face and painkillers for my headache and bruised body.

‘Jesus Christ,’ Gabe sighed as he took my good hand. ‘Some bloody wedding anniversary this is.’

‘At least you won’t forget it in a hurry.’

‘Definitely not. Is everything ok?’ he asked as he ran his eyes over my injuries.

‘Badly bruised shoulder, mild concussion, a bruised cheek, which will probably turn into a black eye, butterfly stitches on my hand and a serious headache. I promise it was her Gabe, I didn’t start it.’

‘I believe you,’ he sighed and gently kissed my forehead. ‘But this is unacceptable. She’s lost a tooth, fractured another, has bruised ribs and bottom and a mild concussion as well. Do you know how serious this could have been?’

‘You’ve spoken to her?’ I gasped.

‘She rang to apologise.’

‘Please tell me you didn’t accept it?’

‘She sounded genuinely sorry, Mia.’

‘I can’t believe you’ve fallen for it.’ I yanked my hand out of his. ‘She was
vile,
Gabe. She said she hoped I got pregnant and had a miscarriage as it would be in everyone’s favour as it would make you realise that I wasn’t right for you and she was. I can’t believe she’s won you around.’

‘Mia, not in here.’

‘O I’m sorry, are you embarrassed? Is this embarrassing for you? Well, you should have thought of that before taking your ex-girlfriends side.’ I stormed out of the hospital back toward the car park, as fast as I could storm when I felt sick and dizzy and my shoulder and stomach hurt. He caught me up too quickly and blocked my path. ‘Don’t,’ I moaned.

‘I’m on
your
side Mia, my wife’s side. I just think that there are two sides to the story, you both wind each other up and I get caught in the middle.’

‘Right, because this is so hard for
you
. You weren’t there, you didn’t hear what she said.’

‘Of course this is bloody hard for me,’ he snapped. ‘We’ve failed three times Mia, that happened to me too and you refuse to even consider trying again.’

‘It’s too soon.’

‘It will always be too soon. No one expects us to ever find this easy Mia, but it happened and if we want a child we need to keep trying.’

‘I
am
trying, Gabe. You don’t know how hard it is for me with this pain I’m in every month while we wait to try IVF again. I’m tired
all the time
, I’m emotional and irritable, because they’re so damn painful. I don’t want to live like this constantly. I’m sick of crap happening to us all the damn time. I just want things to be easy.’ I felt my bottom lip wobbling and saw him wipe his eyes. ‘Right now I just want you to hold me and tell me everything will be alright, that if we try again it will happen, but you can’t even do that because
she’s
gone and fucked me up even more and I hurt. I hurt on the outside and I hurt on the inside and I’m
sick of it
.’

‘Mia,’ he sighed and wiped my face for me. ‘You’re tired and in pain. Come on, let’s get you home to bed for a rest.’

‘So how was the wedding anniversary?’ Lexi asked as Gabe opened the door a few days later.

‘You’d better ask Mia,’ he sighed. ‘I’ll see you later, I’m going to Greyson’s.’

‘Fine, whatever.’ I called from the sofa without looking around. We’d had a horrible few days. We’d had a massive argument about the IVF again Christmas afternoon. He wanted to try again in January, I didn’t want too, so we’d ignored each other all Christmas night. Then he’d disappeared on Boxing Day and had come home drunk and we’d argued again. I’d got up this morning, crept out and locked myself in at Lexi’s to have time alone, only returning an hour ago when he’d left me a text message saying he was ringing the Police if I didn’t respond to let him know where I was.

‘Mia?

‘Hey Lex, good time?’

‘Great. Holy shit, what the hell happened to you?’ she asked as she plonked herself down next to me and took in my sling, black eye, bruised cheek and temple.

‘Chelsea,’ I hissed.

‘That bitch did this to you?’

‘Yes, and that was the catalyst for a massive argument with Gabe and we’ve ignored each other or argued since Christmas afternoon.’

‘Jesus Christ, I go away for three bloody days,’ she sighed and took my hand. ‘Come on, dish.’ I filled her in and she went to get a box of tissues for me as I started crying again. ‘I can’t believe her, and I can’t believe that Gabe even took her call. What was he thinking?’

‘I don’t know. She seems to sit in his blind spot and me bad mouthing her just gets him all defensive. As for the rest, well we both said we were fine, that we were dealing with these failed attempts, but we’ve been lying to ourselves and each other.’

‘You really don’t want to try again?’ she whispered.

‘I’m so scared, Lexi. I can’t keep having my periods anymore, I want to go back on the pill and maybe wait a year or two until I feel ready to try again. Gabe insists if I do that I’ll never want to try again, that we need to do it now. But what if it doesn’t happen again? I don’t think my heart can take any more pain and I can’t see him suffering like this anymore. He’s so desperate for it to happen. It’s so stressful, for both of us.’

‘Hey, I can’t even begin to imagine how hard this is, on both of you, but lots of women who have numerous failed attempts go on to get pregnant. Maybe try one more round and if it doesn’t work have some time out. Yes you’re a couple, and Gabe’s just as much a part of the IVF process decision making as you are, but it’s your body that’s suffering not his. He can’t possibly know what pain you’re in while he’s insisting you carry on trying. You have to think about you as a couple, but you also need to think about you as an individual and whether all this pain and stress is good for you. Life’s too short. Can’t you try the gestational surrogate route?’

‘I tried suggesting that, Gabe says it won’t be the same as me carrying it.’

‘It’s still your eggs and his sperm.’

‘Try telling him that,’ I sighed as I looked up at her. She brushed my overlong fringe away from my eyes and kissed my forehead.

‘Do you think it will help if I talk to him?’

‘It’s a really sweet thought Lexi, and thanks so much for offering, but I think Gabe needs to work though this on his own.’ I reached up and undid the Velcro straps on my sling as I cracked my neck.

‘Hey, what are you doing?’

‘I have a bruised shoulder, not a fracture. They put it on just to ease the pain while the painkillers kicked in, but you know Gabe.’

‘Mr. Over Protective? Yeah, we’ve been introduced on a couple of occasions,’ she laughed.

‘So, enough about me, how was your first family Christmas?’

‘I missed you.’

‘Damn right you should have, but seriously?’

‘It was great,’ she beamed. ‘Being a big sister to a couple of youngsters is sic, they can’t call me out on my stupid sayings.’

‘O and a grown woman saying “sic” isn’t stupid? Just don’t throw in “Amazeballs” or I may just throw up,’ I laughed. ‘Coffee?’

‘Got any beer?’

‘That sounds like a plan,’ I giggled. I wasn’t supposed to have alcohol on these painkillers, but what the hell. I was at home and Lexi was with me. I needed some fun. I hadn’t been truly hammered in months what with all these damn fertility treatments. Fun was definitely missing from my life. ‘I didn’t have a 21
^st
what say we have a party now, you and me, a bit of karaoke, booze and Christmas leftovers.’

‘I’m in,’ she nodded.

I was bouncing up and down screaming “YMCA” as Lexi did the moves, when I caught something out of the corner of my eye and looked around to see Gabe in the doorway with an open mouth, holding a bouquet of red roses. The sudden action of spinning my head to look at him had me wobble and go straight down on my arse in a fit of the giggles.

‘Watch out, watch out, Mr. Grumpy’s about,’ I sang with a chuckle and Lexi doubled over laughing.

‘Are you
drunk?
’ he uttered.

‘Just a little bit,’ I whispered as I tried to pinch my finger and thumb together to show him how little. ‘We did Tequila shots,’ I nodded.

‘Where’s your sling?’

‘Slung,’ I replied with a straight face.

‘Where is it, Mia?’

‘Slung,’ I repeated. ‘Literalerly … litererly … sod it, I threw it out of the window,’ I pointed in the direction of the sash overlooking the car park.

‘Out. Of. The. Window,’ Lexi nodded. ‘S.L.UNG,’ she chuckled and I started giggling again. Gabe stepped over to the iPad dock and turned the music down.

‘You shouldn’t be drinking on your painkillers,’ he sighed.

‘O watch out, Mr. Sementics has arrived.’

‘Sementics? I think you mean semantics,’ giggled Lexi. ‘Unless he has semen with Tourette’s?’

‘Semen with Tourette’s? That’s hilarious,’ I screeched, as I fell back on the floor and kicked my legs. ‘Maybe he does. I have an in … hospitab bable uterus and if his sperm manage to make it there, instead of them
wooing
my eggs, they tell them to fuck off, repeatedly.’

‘Right, I’m cutting you two off. Lexi, I think it’s time you went home and Mia, you’re having a cold shower, some Weetabix and then a load of water before bed.’

‘But I’m having fun,’ I moaned as I struggled to sit up, kicking like a floundering turtle on its back, which started Lexi and I laughing again.

‘You can have fun again another night, tonight I’m cutting you off. Lexi, can you get home on your own or do you need help.’

‘I live across the hall, dumbass,’ she chuckled and I bit down on both of my lips to stifle another giggle as Gabe glared at her.

‘I meant I’m concerned about you going over the bannister or falling down the stairs.’

‘O. Sorry.’

‘I’ll take you across now,’ he sighed as he grabbed her forearm. ‘You’re going nowhere,’ he pointed at me as I tried to sneak past on my hands and knees toward the bottle of Tequila lying on the floor to the side of him.

‘
Oooo
, I think I’m in for a spanking, Lex.’

‘Rather you than me … O shit.’

‘What?’

‘I’m going to blow.’

‘Noooo,’ I giggled.

‘Blow what?’ asked Gabe and recoiled in horror as she spewed all down the front of his shirt and I collapsed in hysterics. ‘Fucking
great
,’ he groaned. ‘Right, that’s it. You’re staying here tonight where I can keep an eye on both of you.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ I muttered as I did up the last buckle on the tightly fitting black pvc corset and tried to breathe normally. Gabe and I had sat down yesterday, or in my case laid down due to my hangover, and had a serious chat after my night of Tequila with Lexi. We agreed to start going on dates again, trying to inject more fun into our lives and I’d reluctantly agreed to try the IVF one final time after my next period in January. We’d therefore come down to London, to his dad’s apartment for New Year and had agreed to go back to the 710 club and meet there as if we were strangers. I’d been given permission to flirt while he watched, as long as no one touched me and I didn’t let myself get talked into partaking in any threesomes, or numbersomes of any other kind. He’d step in if he felt anyone was getting out of hand, or when he’d reached his capacity for sexual torture and wanted to drag me home, or to one of the private rooms.

Gabe had already left and I’d unpacked the surprise outfit that I’d purchased. Lexi had helped me source it, insisting he’d go crazy for it. To go with the tight strapless corset, in black, I was wearing a small pair of red micro knickers and some killer heeled, pvc black thigh-high boots, that had red laces all up the front. I carefully unwrapped the piece of silver jewellery that I’d had made as a Christmas present for him, but we’d never got around to exchanging gifts for Christmas. He’d loved it that night we’d fucked over my desk in the office, when I called him “Sir” and we had very mild BDSM tendencies, so I’d had a very thin silver neck collar made with a heart link and a trailing chain that hung down below my breasts with a small padlock at the end. I figured that would put off anyone in the know trying to get too frisky with me, because in that sort of establishment, wedding rings seemed to mean nothing. I quickly wrapped a black knee length trench coat around me as the intercom went, shoved some cash and my iPhone in my wristlet and hurried down to the waiting taxi.