Rooster: A Secret Baby Sports Romance Read Online Free Page B

later…
     
    Izzy
    “I can’t believe you are doing this”, I say.
    I get a sympathetic look from Alicia, a sigh from Francisco and a grimace from Benjamin as Oscar begins to cry again.
    “Look, Izzy, it was a one year contract-”, Benjamin begins.
    “Which you’re not going to renew because of him”, I say.
    Alicia jumps in. “We’re not renewing the contract because the job doesn’t exist anymore.”
    It’s a lie, I know it’s a lie. The job exists, it’s just been renamed.
    “I’ve worked hard here. I’m good at my job-”, I protest.
    “And now you have other responsibilities”, Benjamin says, eyeballs all over my three-month-old baby. “You wouldn’t be able to bring him into work after all.”
    “I’ll get childcare”, I insist.
    “I’m sorry Izzy, you know there is nothing we can do”, Alicia adds.
    “That’s it?”
    I look at all three of them in turn and no-one seems to want to take the responsibility to answer that question. Oscar’s cries echo out into the unwelcoming room.
    “Your season ticket will still be valid for a year”, Francisco finally says, as though that makes all the fucking difference.
    I gather my things, wrestle Oscar into the buggy, and without another word, struggle out into the corridor. No-one comes to help me, even when the pushchair gets stuck temporarily in the double swing doors.
    One whole year I’ve given this team and as soon as they could they’ve gotten rid of me.
    Halfway to the exit, the long corridor that sits empty like those that run underneath hospitals I pause, cover Oscar, turn my back to him and scream at the top of my lungs.
    “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.”
     
    ***
     
    “You could always waitress”, April says.
    “And who would look after Oscar?”
    “Cory and I could do it.”
    Not the original Cory from a year ago, a different Cory. April’s been busy since the night I fell pregnant, and while I’ve been concentrating on Oscar, she’s been concentrating on working her way through men from every street in the lower east side. Cory mark 2 is the latest in a long line.
    “No we fucking couldn’t”, he says.
    “What am I going to do?” I say.
    I was worried they wouldn’t renew the contract, but I never thought they’d actually have the balls to do it. I know, technically, I’ve only worked there for seven out of the contracted twelve months, and it wasn’t the best start to a job to tell them three months after I began that I was pregnant, but it was just as much a shock to me. I’ve been on maternity leave for the last four months, hoping to begin again before the end of the year and that’s what I thought the meeting was about today. To discuss the terms of the contract, not tear them up entirely.
    “What about Brad?” April says.
    “What about Brad?”
    “Well aren’t you fucking him?” she says.
    “Fucking is a loose term, April.”
    “Well, can’t he do something.”
    “Something like how?” I say.
    I’m pacing up and down the room to try and get Oscar to stop crying and April has her I’m getting dizzy and if you don’t stop that I’ll slap you eyes on.
    “I don’t know. He’s rich enough to support you”, she says.
    “We’re fucking”, I say, “from time to time. We’re definitely not married. And, besides which, I want my job back. How the fuck am I going to pay for this apartment?”
    “I don’t know, child support?”
    “That’s not helping, April.”
    “The Rangers are shit anyway”, Cory chips in. “You’re better off at a different team.”
    “That’s exactly why I want to be on this one”, I say.
    Finally, Oscar seems like he’s calming down so I lay him out onto his rug. Looking after a baby is hard work, but I wouldn’t change him for the world. That’s why I didn’t even think twice about it when I found out. Mom and Dad were shocked, especially because of the circumstances, but as soon as they saw how happy being pregnant made me, they soon came