Chapter 6

• Jaccobs Jacob woke up this Tuesday morning on the wrong side of the bed. He had not had a nightmare or anything like that that had caused him to be this moody. He was simply stressed about the sudden responsibility he had to carry. Unfortunately, this wasn't something he could run away from— not simply because he wasn't the type to run away from something but because this was something he had to do. Something he could not avoid.Somethings in life are unavoidable no matter how difficult and surprising they may seem and this was one of them. In fact, this was a very difficult unavoidable addition to his life.
• He got out of bed and shrugged out of his sleeping robe. It was still quite early, the perfect time to work some muscles. He walked into his bathroom, washed his teeth and took a warm shower. It was gratifying but it did little to soothe his troubled nerves.
• It was funny how about twenty-four hours ago, his life was perfectly normal not until his ex girlfriend, Sharon Forest had called him on phone to tell him something that would change his life forever. Irrevocably so.
• Yesterday morning, he had been in his office getting ready to go from one meeting to another, some of them in person while the others required only the use of Zoom and data. He had been worried over the fact that Mrs Laura, his dependable and efficient Personal assistant had just announced to him that she would be leaving him and his company in three months and two weeks time. Her son's wife had given birth to triplets in San Francisco. Since she was a widow due to the fact that her husband had died at work in an industrial accident at a construction company work, her son had pleaded with her to relocated to San Francisco so she could help them with taking care of the kids. She had agreed and that's why even she loved her job as his PA, she would have to leave in about three months plus.
• He had understood even though he didn't want to. Mrs Laura had been working in the company for over twenty five years for a reason— she was dependable, trusted and efficient.
• Where would they find another PA like her?
• So while he had gone over the schedule for the day with her and at the same time joked if it was possible to clone a part of herself into the next Personal assistant they would hire, his phone had rang.
• At first, on seeing the caller ID, he had frowned and ignored it, wondering what the girl wanted from him after almost two years. Did she want to resume her begging him to let her back into his life, he had asked in his head. If that was the case, he would be glad to tell her that he had been with other women since then and so there was no way he could take her back because he had apparently forgotten about her.
• But for now he was busy.
• He was about to let the phone to ring for the second time when Mrs Laura had smacked him lightly on his shoulder, told him how rude it really was to ignore calls, ordered—yeah, she could act as if she was the boss instead of him sometimes —to picked the call and had left his office to grant him privacy.
• "Hello" He had said with irritation dripping from his voice.
• That hello led to what has been shaking him and out since yesterday.
• His ex-girlfriend had called him with the news that she had a baby for him.
• Was that some sort of sick joke or something? What the hell was she playing at now, he thought.
• Why did she have to say something so ominous? He had been certain that it was prank, she was only pulling his legs— even though that was quite uncanny. The baby was one year old, she had said and he had laughed, a mirthless laughter. There was no way he could have a child without any knowledge of such incidence.
• He was certain that she was lying. He was certain that this was a new way to milk money out of him since they were no longer dating even though for a full month after the break up, Sharon had begged him via in person or with calls to take her back, giving promises upon promises that she would no longer lavish his money in ridiculous amounts. Well, he had not paid a single attention to that. After all, she had said so the first one month of dating, then again the next three months of dating before he had had it up to his neck and broke up with her after a very expensive birthday party she had thrown for herself. After, he had not gone this far due to lack of self discipline. And Sharon had not one single drop of discipline in her five foot body. So he was not going to let her fuck up years of hard work and so had not given an ear to all her pleading and all.
• So He was certain, too certain that this was like a joke to pay him back. A sort of since- I-can't -have-you-I-will-make you-sweat kind of joke.
• And that was why he marched into the hospital with unmatched confidence and a smirk on his face. He had been ready to not only prove her wrong, but make her pay for wasting his highly valued time. The doctor had taken samples from the inside of his mouth with an oral swab and it annoyed the hell out of him. He had still been smarting, many hours later, from the pain he felt at having partaken in such an undignified act when the results of the paternity test had come. The smirk was immediately wiped from his face and had gone to Sharon own face.
• He was the father.
• He shut his eyes tightly to eliminate such disturbing thoughts and threw on his workout clothes. Hopefully working up a sweat would be enough to clear his clouded mind of such thoughts as how business and baby did not mix quite well. As to how his history and fatherhood did not mix well.
• He gulped down a glass of chocolate milk, grabbed his car keys and gym membership card and then he was good to go.
• He got into his Lamborghini and zoomed off. Although it was quite early, the roads were busy. Typical New Jersey. It was the only thing he did not like about the state. Otherwise, the beautiful beaches, tasty food, diverse culture and even politics appealed to him. It had always does since Childhood.
• He arrived at the gym in ten minutes and drove into the parking lot. The lot was practically empty, perhaps he was too early? He had not gotten much sleep last night because he was bothered and still, he had risen early. This situation was indeed driving him crazy.
• He got his membership card scanned at the door and walked in. There were a few people there already.
• "Hey Jacob" Someone called out immediately he walked past the door. It was Bill, one of the gym instructors. Bill, a tall thick black skinned man who had lowered his head to teach a young college student on how to use a particular equipment for body conditioning had straightened to greet him with a smile.
• "Hey, Bill" he called back and walked away. On other days, he would have stopped to chat with Bill for a moment, asked about his wife he had newly married, teased him for leaving the Single brotherhood o but he was not in a good mood today. His life was in chaos and he couldn't care less about how anybody felt.
• He set his phone to airplane mode and just when he was about to put it into the pocket of his shorts, he noticed a young woman ogling him. He almost smiled at her but then, this was not the time to flirt. He was used to being stared at, being praised for how good he looked and being lusted after. He was incredibly attractive, after all.
• He was twenty nine, charming, smart, confident, successful, beautiful and also, the CEO of Primer Magazine. Women chased him and how could they not? He was muscular, had deep sea blue eyes that were captivating, had long soft curly hair that was always held in a bun, he was an asshole and women loved assholes. Well, most of the time.
• He had had flings with his fair share of women but none of those had lasted. In fact his longest relationship had been with Sharon and how long had that lasted? Only six months.
• He was exceptionally brilliant but his mind had not yet managed to grasp the complexity of a woman's mind. Over the years, he had dated many different women– short, tall, plumpy, thin and the only conclusion he had come to was that all women were complex. Too complex for him to understand.
• This conclusion of this was only recently validated by his ex girlfriend. She had a child but kept the news from the father.
• For close to two years.
• Who the hell does that?
• And then all of a sudden, she decides to inform the father and saddle him with the responsibility of grooming the child. It still sounded like fallacy to him. That he would be a father, that he was a father. It was so unexpected, so... disconcerting. He was certain, even though he hated this certainty, that he would do an awful job.