My Best Friend Page 5

  He laughs, “Ok, Ill be sure to tell the cook to stock up here.”

  Oh my God, he has a cook? “You have a cook?”

  “Yes, I don’t like eating out so I have someone here to prepare my meals. Is that a problem?”

  “No, not a problem. Just thinking of what my mom would say if they knew I had a cook.” I smile.

  “Your mom would have flipped, she loved cooking for everyone growing up.”

  “I know, she makes a mean lasagna. Okay Alex, I’ll see you later.”

  “Bye baby.”

  I freeze at the nickname, he used to call me Tori all the time in school. Baby was different, it felt more personal. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not.

  I better head to the grocery store if I wanted to pick up Adam in time. What a crazy twenty-four hours it’s been.

  Nine years earlier…

  Victoria

  “Oh my God, mom! A boy!” I cry. We are at the OB office and I’m laying on the wax paper covered exam table. I have my shirt up with cold jelly on my belly and an ultrasound wand moving slowly around on it.

  The OB had just said that I was having a boy. I have tears in my eyes, I’m so happy and excited. I wish Alex was here, after the past year I stopped trying to contact him. No one knows anything and it’s starting to feel like that I will never get to find him.

  I’m in the middle my first year of college so I could get my business administration degree. It’s a lot of work but I’m determined to get through my four-year program. My due date is in summer break so I will also be back in time for the start of my second year in September.

  My mom is looking at the screen with tears in her eyes too. “I’m going to have a grandson.” She whispers. “Now, you need to think of names for him. We can also start decorating the nursery.” She’s so excited.

  I smile, I was anxious to start the decorating. I’ve passed by the baby sections in the stores and I’ve seen so many things I wanted to buy but I didn’t know the sex of the baby. My parents have been helping me out some, but I have also applied for financial aid. It was the only way that I could go to school and be able to take care of the baby at night without having to work. My parents have been helping a lot, but I don’t want to have to ask them to babysit all day and all night.

  My financial aid allows me to pay for tuition and books. I also bought a second-hand car, it’s not very nice-looking but it runs and gets me where I need to go.

  “Congratulations Ms. Jones. We can schedule an appointment for you for next month. After that I want to see you every two weeks.” The doctor tells me as she removes her gloves and throws them in the trash. She writes down in her chart and leaves the room.

  I get up to get dressed, I’m still wrapping my head around having a boy. Alex would have loved having a boy, he would have been such a caring and devoted father.

  “Are you okay, sweetie?” My mom asks me.

  “Yes, I’m good. Just thinking about everything.” I say as I grab my purse from the couch and head out the door.

  We leave the doctors office and head home. My mom asked if I wanted to go to a department store and look around for baby registry items but I’m not feeling up to it. I’m not sure if it’s stress or just everything in general. It’s not an easy situation to be in, I’m nineteen and about to have a baby. Not only that, but I’m doing it as a single parent. I would have loved to be able to confide in my best friend but in this situation, it wasn’t an option.

  In the car, I start to hyperventilate. My mom is driving, “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

  I don’t respond. My vision is cloudy, I can’t speak, it feels like my throat is blocked and I can’t breathe. “Mom, pull over!” I yell.

  “What? We are in the middle...”

  “Mom, pull over please!” She does as I say and I open the car door and throw up.

  When I feel a little better, I wipe my mouth on my sleeve. “Sorry. I think it still might be morning sickness or something.”

  My mom pats my back in a soothing way as we are on the side of the road. She doesn’t say anything, she just has a look of understanding and concern on her face. She starts the car again and we head home. I’m so lucky that I have an amazing mother, I don’t know what I would do without her.

  When we get home, I run to my room and close the door. I lay on my bed and let the tears fall.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Present Day…

  Victoria

  Last night, Alex came over and while we ate dinner. The boys laughed and joked around like they had known each other for years. As I was washing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen, Adam had asked Alex if he wanted to play Battleship. Watching Alex and Adam together playing on the dining room table, had made me smile to myself. I found myself feeling like we were a real family, it had felt so natural.

  After three or four games of Alex losing. We sat Adam down and explained to him who Alex was. He hadn’t shown any anger or confusion, he told us that he liked Alex and wanted him as a dad if he had to choose someone. He seemed to take it extremely well. I didn’t want to push the subject any further than what he was comfortable with, so Alex kissed him goodnight and left.

  The next afternoon, Adam and I are sitting in the back of a black sedan with a driver named, Lou. Adam seemed to be excited about the move, he kept saying that he wanted to have a blue room. I just smiled and sat back as he was looking out the window and pointed with excitement at everything we passed.

  The trip was an hour long from our old apartment. Lou told us that Alex had a house outside the city that was his main residence. We pull into security gates but didn’t get a view of the house. Lou talks to one of the security guards when the gates open and we drove through. The sight before me was unbelievable. The house wasn’t even a house, it looked like a castle from a fairy tale. It was a grey stone beauty with a water fountain in front.

  “Um, Lou. Are you sure we are in the right place?” I ask the driver.

  He laughs as he looks through his rear-view mirror at me, “Yes, Ma’am. This is Mr. Santos’ primary residence. He does come here often but he prefers to stay close to the office so he bought the penthouse in the city.”

  I don’t say anything, I just nod and stare outside the window. “Mom, are we really going to live here?” Adam asks me.

  I nod, “It seems so, sweetheart.”

  “I’m so excited mom! I hope I get my own room.” He looks out the window in excitement, my sweet boy.

  The car comes to a stop at the front doors. Each door is like 8 feet tall, everything about this house is massive. Alex has done very well for himself, I’m proud of him.

  The driver opens our door and Adam and I slide out. “I will bring your luggage in shortly, ma’am.” Lou states.

  “Okay, thank you Lou.” I smile at him. We make our way to the front door and before I had a chance to knock, the door opens.

  “I’m so glad you made it!” There he was Alex, only this time he was dressed casually in a pair of faded jeans and a tight fitting black tee.

  “Dad!” Adam jumps on Alex and Alex spins him around in an hug. I’m surprised at how Adam quickly adapted to calling Alex dad.

  “C’mon in. The chef is making dinner.” Alex kisses my cheek as he carries Adam inside the house. I follow behind admiring the space. It’s tastefully decorated with a lot of antique furniture. I would describe the house as feeling more of a museum than a home though.

  I walk into a huge white kitchen, Adam is on top of the counter and Alex is talking to a man who’s wearing a tall chef’s hat. “Tori, this is André. He is my fulltime chef. André, this is Victoria and my son Adam.” Alex beams with pride.

  I stick out my hand for André to shake but he lifts it and kisses the knuckles. “Nice to meet you, Victoria Bella. You know, Victoria is the name of a queen and Alexander the Great was a king.”

  I smile at him, I like him already.

  He continues, “So may I say that you both are the perfect match.”
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br />   Alex looks at me and winks. “Thank you, André. I’m just going to show Queen Victoria and our prince the rest of the house.”

  I laugh at his statement then stretch my hand out to André, “It’s nice to meet you too, Mr…”

  “Please, madam. Call me André. I will be serving dinner in about twenty minutes.” He smiles. I like him instantly.

  Alex picks Adam up and places him on the floor, “Let me show you the house.” Alex motions us towards a doorway on the other side of the kitchen. When we walk through, I see an incredible dining room. There is ceiling to floor windows with a dining room table that could easily seat twenty people comfortably.

  I look around the room in astonishment, it’s incredibly beautiful. I would have loved to host dinner parties here. “Do you use this room often?”

  “From time to time, mostly for dinner meetings with clients from out of town. I have it more for show than anything else.”

  I nod as we go through the house. He shows us the different guest rooms on the main floor. Then we get to the second floor and he shows up the bathrooms, gaming room which Adam instantly fell in love with. I may have to keep an eye on him so he doesn’t spend all his time here. Alex shows us to Adam’s room. It’s a navy-blue room with popular cartoon characters wallpaper. There’s a queen size bed against the wall with a dark blue comforter. His bed back at the apartment was a tiny twin size so this will be a big deal for him.

  There are several toy boxes filled with toys and stuffed animals. I think there is at least twenty different stuffed animals scattered and shelves with books lined up. There were at least fifty books lining the shelves. I’m looking around in awe, I have never been able to give Adam a lot of stuff like this. I worked hard to give him everything I could but this seems over the top compared to what I tried to give him.

  “Alex, this is all too much.” I say. I don’t want Adam to get spoiled and used to getting everything he wants.

  “Non-sense, nothing is to much for my son.” He smiles at Adam. Adam isn’t paying attention to our conversation, he’s too busy looking at the new Lego sets and action figures.

  Alex walks over to the two-door closet and opens it. Inside is filled with dozens of clothing. It looks like there is t shirts, button ups, pullovers. There is even a rack on the bottom housing many pairs of jeans and pants. I don’t think Adam has had that many clothes in all his life.

  “I hope you don’t mind Tori. I got a shopper to pick up a few things. I hope he likes them, I think they are the right size but they can always be returned if they aren’t or if he doesn’t like them.”

  “A few things? This looks like a clothing store.” I say.

  Adam jumps up and down as he looks in the closet. “Mom! There’s NASCAR shirts!”

  I plaster a smile on my face, “Wow, that’s awesome. You love NASCAR.”

  This is getting too overwhelming. I needed to get fresh air or lay die or something. Alex senses something is wrong when he looks at me. His smile disappears, “Adam, buddy. Why don’t you go to the game room and look around? I’ll call you when it’s dinner time, ok?”

  Adam jumps up and down right before he races out of the room.

  Alex walks slowly towards me, “What’s wrong. Don’t you like it?”

  “Yeah, Alex. It’s just overwhelming. How did you get all of this ready in less than a day?”

  Alex smiles again, “It was easy, I know people in the right places.” He winks. “Let me show you to your room, Tori.” I nod my head.

  I follow Alex out and we walk down the hall in silence. My room is down the hall from Adam’s which is nice in case he needs me during the night.

  There is a set of double doors right in front of my room. He points to them, “That is my room.” He then points to a door and opens it and motions for me to go inside, “And this, my sweet Tori, is your room.”

  I step inside and am speechless, I can’t believe that this would be my room. The walls were painted in a fern green color. The king size bed was in the center of the room. It had a beautiful fern green and cream color comforter and a few different shades of green throw pillows.

  “Alex, this is too much.”

  Alex looks at me with a concerned look on his face, “Do you not like it? I can have the decorator come in and change everything to whatever you want. I just remembered your favorite color being green so that’s the color I told the decorator.”

  “No, Alex. That’s not what I mean. I still love green, I can’t believe you remembered. It’s gorgeous, I’ve have never lived somewhere this nice before.” I say to him as I stare at the pictures on the walls. He had photos of him and I on a beach trip, playing in the sand. Another one of both of our parents, there was also empty frames hanging probably for future photos.

  I can feel Alex staring at me, I turn to him. “You deserve so much more. You gave me a son, Tori. I owe you everything. I want to make things right with you and with Adam.”

  My smile is sad, I feel terrible that he didn’t know about Adam. I look away from him before I start crying. “Thank you, Alex. I did my best to give Adam everything he needed. If it weren’t for my parents, I don’t think I would have finished school.”

  “How are your parents?” He asks, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

  “They’re good, dad retired and mom is going crazy with him at home.” I smile. “They watch Adam a lot while I went to school but now we see them every Sunday for dinner.”

  Alex looks like he wants to say something but doesn’t.

  “How’s your dad?” I ask him. He never talked about him, I wonder if everything got better when they left.

  “He’s pretty good, him and his girlfriend are travelling the globe. I wanted him to enjoy his life and not have to work so I booked a cruise for them both.”

  “Oh, your dad has a girlfriend? That’s awesome, it’s good to have someone to share your life with. It’s not healthy to always be alone.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. He was in a dark place but eventually with the help of therapy, he started living life again. I kept thinking that he died when my mom did, he was physically here but mentally he wasn’t.”

  “They had an amazing relationship. It’s tragic when you lose a loved one. They had an amazing marriage.”

  He doesn’t say anything, just nods. I look around the room, everything looks so expensive. I could never have imagined that Alex Santos would be living like this. He hated school and working and now he’s a millionaire. I know that we aren’t the same people we were back then, I wonder if this living situation could work?

  “So, Adam starts school tomorrow, the school accepted his late application.”

  “Wait, what school?”

  “The private school, remember? They usually don’t allow students to start this late in the term but with the donation I made on his behalf, they were willing to register him.”

  I shake my head, “If you throw money around like that, you might run out.”

  He smirks, the cocky bastard, “Not in this lifetime, babe.”

  “Adam is shy and he has his friends at his school. We can’t just move him.”

  “He will make new friends at the private school.” His pocket rings once, he takes out his cell phone, looks at it and types out a message. He places it back in his pocket and heads towards the door. “Listen, I have to go to the office for a bit. Will you both be ok?”

  “Yes of course. Don’t worry about us.”

  He comes up to me and kisses my cheek, “I’m glad you both are here.”

  I smile at him as I watch him leave, closing the door behind him.

  I look around my new room, it’s unbelievable. I can’t believe that in a few days, everything has changed. My luggage is in the walk-in closet which also had a few racks of new clothes. I looked at the price tags of a few pieces and almost passed out. Twelve hundred dollars for a dress? Was the dress made from gold or something? That was more than my rent at the apartment. I don’t think I co
uld ever get used to this kind of living. I was raised in a middle-class family and so was Alex, I don’t know how he adapted to this lifestyle.

  I hear André outside the door calling us for dinner so I head out to grab Adam in his room and head downstairs to eat. On the way, Adam is talking a mile a minute, telling me something about zombies and mummies in some video game. I couldn’t understand anything but saw that he was happy explaining it so I just nodded and agreed to everything he was saying. He was also telling me the different toys he has in his room, I’m happy that he is taking this change extremely well.

  We enter the kitchen and I stop short, it’s like I was back in time. In front of me is Libby Mathews sitting on a stool at the kitchen island, nursing a drink. She turns to me and scowls, “Well, well, well. I didn’t believe it when I heard you were here. I thought we had finally gotten rid of you.” The unexpected guest says.

  Five Years Earlier…

  Victoria

  “Mommy, let me go. I’ll be fine, you don’t have to worry” My four-year-old is trying to calm me down. I’m with my arms wrapped around him standing outside his school. The kids are already heading in but I just can’t find it in myself to let him go. I can’t believe that today is his first day of kindergarten. It seems like yesterday that I gave birth to him, now the little man of my life is going to school.

  “I know, baby. Mommy is just sad that you are growing up fast.” I kiss his cheeks then his forehead, then his cheeks again.

  “Mom! Everyone is looking.”

  I smile, “I don’t care. Have a good day, you remember what I told you? If you need anything just call mommy’s phone ok? If you are hungry there is an extra snack in your lunch box. Oh, and your water bottle is in the outside pocket of your bag, drink water through out the day so you stay hydrated ok?”