The sun was high overhead and burning hot as usual when Kiersey arrived at the airport. Exhausted, she paid her silent taxi driver and immediately started searching for the nearest refreshment. She was lucky to find get a chilled bottle of fruit milk drink at the nearest duty free.
Recently, her proclivities went towards chilled, brain freezing drinks. Kiersey wasn't sure if that was good for the baby, but she just couldn't help the craving. Sometimes she craved for chilled stuff so bad it felt like she'd break down if one didn't gush down her throat soon enough.
Her flight was in thirty five minutes, and aware of that, she had come early anyways. After all she had had the day off from work and had spent the time doing laundries and other little stuff, sufficiently boring herself out.
Then she wandered more departments of the duty free before finally claiming a seat in the departure lounge.
Watching
"Yeah," Kizza agreed. "I'm not going with her though.""She's traveling alone?""Yes," Kizza answered, her lips tightening slightly. "I couldn't take a break off of work, and neither could my husband." She blew out a somewhat annoyed sigh. "If she hadn't been so obstinate and insisted on going during school session."The statement wasn't really finished, but Kiersey figured she got the gist. She glanced at the girl and quirked a corner of her lips. "And she's okay with . . . flying alone?"Kizza shrugged. "She's old enough to be fine. And she sure didn't sound like she minded when I kept hammering that fact into her ears."Kiersey chuckled."I don't suppose you could help me keep an eye on her?" Kizza asked with skepticism."Oh," Kiersey said. "Why not. Sure thing. I'll be happy to."Kizza beamed widely and reached to
He raised a thick, curved eyebrow, his eyes twinkling in amusement. If he dropped the magazine lower, Kiersey was sure she would spot the twitch of those dusky rose lips in the hint of a smile.She tightened her grip on Zanéh and contained the puerile urge to step back like one scolded. His gaze, admittedly, did make her feel reproved."Yes," he said simply and put down the magazine on the glass extension tray spanning the side of his seat.His rosy lips, which looked pinker than the last time she had seen them, were slightly pinched, contrary to the amusement she had glimpsed in his eyes.Slowly, he rose to his feet, swinging his earnest gaze from her to the hostess. In the little time it had taken him to switch gazes, his stare turned from warm and amused to cold and daring.The hostess moved back a step, clearly intimidated. Kiersey could understand how she felt. She herself had felt a transient surge of alarm run through her at the weigh
"Hmmm," she hummed, casually closing her eyes to let the burst of flavours sluice over her being. Her taste buds were alive and spry with the flavours and ecstasy exploding on her tongue.The drink washed down her throat in a minty, spumescent trail and infused a chilly warmth in her chest that spread to her stomach.She opened her eyes when the drink stopped pouring and discovered she had drank it dry. What remained was the blue bubbles clinging to the inner walls of the glass and the attractive sweat that coated the outer.Then she almost dropped the flute in surprise when she saw Aithan standing very close to her, his body bent and his face studying hers intently.Kiersey swallowed as a tinge of blood suffused her face. Her pulse spiked, going into a mad orbit. She struggled to keep his stifling gaze, wondering what she had done to warranty the scrutiny. His intent stare was doing stra
"Uh," she started. "Um, I'm good."The artificial smile that followed the statement made her almost cringe. The guy wasn't blind."I'm doing just fine. I guess, " she added, when the skepticism still wouldn't leave his face.He put up his hands in surrender. "I get it, I get it. You don't wanna talk about it. "She started to correct his impression but then stopped. Fuck it, maybe she didn't want to discuss her private life with a stranger, no matter how sincere he looked.But she really was doing fine on her own. Despite all she had been through, she was still standing tall and strong and, so God help her, she was going to be better.Feeling satisfied, she dropped her fork after the next bite and reclined back in her chair."Do you have family? " she asked. The question had been lurking somewhere in her mind
Minutes later, she and Zanéh lifted their bags off the carousel and proceeded out of the luggage clearance area into the broiling sun outside the airport.It was now well past one and the Californian sun had ascended high to the heart of the sky, suffussing and soaking everything visible in plain sight with it's rays. It seemed more fierce than any sun she had ever witnessed.Kiersey winced and raised a hand to shield her face from the wicked glare that radiated to her irises. This sun so wasn't her friend, it seemed to be striving hard to be a mortal enemy of hers these days.She was, however, relieved when they left the sun for the arrival lounge, even though she knew it was only temporary."So, what now?" She turned towards Zanéh.Zanéh had unwrapped a new stick of pink gum and she stuffed it in her mouth. Then she stuck her hands in her jacket
Kiersey silently berated herself for the nth time and she rushed down her room hall to the elevator. She gave a small smile in greeting to a guy also waiting for the elevator.Her mind went back to the matter at hand, her heart still beating ever so fast. Impatient, she tapped her fingers against her side - although the action was probably mainly to hide her fidgeting.Finally, the elevator arrived and she and the guy stepped in with a small girl of about four who waved at them. The guy she had entered with waved back then brought out his phone.As for Kiersey, she was too preoccupied to remember not to be rude. Her mind kept going back and forth and she had her mind's fingers crossed in hope that her dumb mistake wouldn't jeopardise her whole purpose here.What would be the point of all these if she didn't even get to see the guy she had travelled across the states for?Her flight back was due tomorrow afternoon. Her plan had been to lod
If there was a word for that strong feeling that sluices over you and strikes your heart heavier, sinking it down to your boot like a dropped anchor, well, Kiersey was it.She had gone up to the house and rung the lip-shaped (and surprisingly loud) doorbell five times, and it was obvious no one was coming to the door.The next thought in her now scrambled mind was to sink to the bubinga-wood porch floors like a dead weight. Then maybe she could do some bawling like a four year old wanting her mommy.But what she did was lean against a porch railing and press her face into her trembling palms. Maybe she was trying to stabilize herself - give herself a few head moments, or she was trying to tamp down the swell of tears she felt in her throat.Anyway, it was no use. Two streams of tears leaked out of the corner of her eyes, smearing her palm. Wasn't she just done for? Ryan Vice was nowhere to be found and there only was a day more before she had to
A few minutes later, Kiersey was settled on a cocoa brown sofa nearest to the front door of Ryan Vice's house. She cradled a warm cup of tea in her palms, more for its warmth than its content.Ryan came into view again. He had taken off his heavy overcoat and shed his outerwear, Kiersey could now see he was younger than her and the eyes she had thought to be yellow were actually grey, with light yellow flecks. And he could easily be Latino."Are you okay now?" he asked, coming to stand before her.She nodded and raised the mug for a drink. As the tea warmed up her insides, she ruminated on how to open the conversation with him. About finding the sperm donor. He was her last chance and she might break if she discovered he knew nothing at all.She had been so excited about finding out he was the guy she had come all the way here for that she threw herself at him as he opened the car door for her. Kiersey didn't know why she had done that, since she normally wasn't like that. Thankfully,
"You nosy buttinsky!"Kiersey looked up from where she was flipping pancakes to see that Autumn had Peyton in a loose headlock and both girls were giggling nonstop."Shut up, you shrew. I knew you liked him!" Peyton exclaimed, still stuffed with giggles. "Let go of me, lover girl," she croaked further."Gimme my phone first," Autumn insisted. "And shut up, I don't even like him like that." The girl tried to frown and look serious, but the giggles still burst through.Kiersey smiled as she dropped the done pancakes into the dish bowl and poured more batter into the pan. "Okay, who likes who?" she asked.Peyton broke free of her friend's grasp with one strong thrust, almost getting a head rush. "Autumn likes Quentin!"Kiersey frowned as she mixed more batter. "Do I know who that is?""No," said Autumn, at the same time snatching the phone from her friend's hand and catching her completely off guard."Hey!" Peyton made no move to reclaim it. "I already saw it anyways. You soo like him."
Thursday afternoon found Kiersey in the teacher's cafeteria sipping on a freezing milkshake when the message came in.She had sent that message two days ago and had pretty much forgotten about it, so seeing a follow-up message pop up on her notification bar out of nowhere had surprised her.A message from the_marigna_fry_official: Kiersey? My Kiersey??? OMG, HI!!!!!Almost choking on her milkshake, she excused herself from the table of five and the current discussion to find an empty seat. Her pulse had gone into a mad orbit in the time it took her to relocate. Her nerves were alive with bubbles of apprehension and part-excitement.kiey_west: Yeah, it's me! I so didn't expect to get a reply. How have you been??Her thumb hovered above the send button. She stared at what she had typed and quirked her lips. It sounded a bit cheesy. What else could she say that didn't? Wouldn't it be tacky too if she went and sounded too formal? They hadn't been in contact for years, after all, so a lot
Mrs Hard was a gaunt, bespectacled woman in her late thirties, blue-streaked brown hair twisted in a tight ballet knot in the middle of her head.The sonogramist cum doctor showed her to one of those lie-back exam tables that always felt like a cushion of heaven. Then she set up the array of computers ahead of them and plugged something into the wall."You said in the form you didn't want to know your baby's gender yet," the woman stated after a long scrutiny of the thin brown file in her hands."Yeah," Kiersey confirmed with a smile and a nervous chuckle. "That's kinda old-fashioned, right?"The woman chuckled back but didn't say anything, instead, she stood up from the stool beside the comfortable chair and went to slip on gloves."I understand this is your first time," Doctor Hard said. "Why did you opt for a clinic though, and not the hospital you initially registered with?"Kiersey's brows furrowed. The question took her mind back to the damned mix-up the government hospital had
It was a week later and Kiersey was in the waiting room of the sonographer, waiting to be called up for her first..She was supposed to have done this for the first time last week but it had been postponed due to one medical situatuon at the clinic or the other. She wasn't too sure. The merry-as-a-cricket secretary that had spoken to her over the phone had said it was something to do with the clinic or was it the sonographer? And could they schedule her for next week Tuesday?She tried to feel comfortable in the plush tangerine leather three-seaters in the reception. There were three short rows of the seats to the right of the reception room, an elevated receptionist's desk occupied the left side of the room opposite them and the professional's door stood at the end of the room on that side.The young couple in front of her tittered again and she looked up from her phone. The twosome spotted bottle-red hair and looked to be about twenty one. Twenty three tops. There bright heads were
Kiersey muttered a groan as the car merged into the light road traffic and clicked the button to do up her window. She had forgotten about the rain for a moment there. Although it was significantly light, but being exposed to it for long would soak you up all the same.She decided to put away any thoughts for Rocco at the moment. Whatever his problem was, she was sure he could take care of it.She thought about picking up her phone to call Kizza and letting her know how the divorce mediation had gone but decided to put it off for later. Once she was done for the day at work, she would go soak in a much-needed bath and call. And maybe she'd call Kevyn too. He didn't know when her divorce was being finalized but he'd be worried sick anyway. And maybe Ryan too.She smiled absently as a thought sunk in. Before, Kevyn might have been the only person she'd have had to phone. In the quest for her baby's daddy, she had made a couple of friends that she never would have met otherwise.Before a
The meeting didn't take as long as Kiersey had been expecting it to and within an hour, the attorney was on her closing speech.It wasn't as if she and Rocco had had much to discuss or settle anyway, she thought, shifting in her seat and glancing at the said guy opposite her on the other side desk. Rocco happened to look up at the same time but was quick to look away when their gazes caught.She scoffed and looked elsewhere. This mediation couldn't be over soon enough.From what she had found out from people before arriving, she had been made to believe they'll still be here when school closing hours were over, but, thankfully, she and her ex-husband had no ongoing feud to settle or no shared responsibility to come to an agreement with, like kids.It had been a bit awkward, though, when the counsellor had started to talk about alimony and other arrangements for her unborn child. Explaining to the lethargic woman how the baby wasn't his and how, yes, it had been conceived during their
The first rain of the year started that day. Kiersey had known it was going to rain when she had woken up to a chilly wind, and when the sky had remained moody and dark at way past seven on her way to work, she had been instantly glad she had given in to that urge to take an overcoat with her.By the time it was the second period the rain was beating down hard on the earth and sobbing heavily against the glass windows of the private school.She had only five students in her Economics class for class 12 B, so the mood in the class was light, contrary to the rain.She rounded up on her topic on International Economic Organisation twenty minutes before the end of the double period and she permitted the students to be free till the end of the class.In the free time, she messaged the housing agent whose contact had been given to her by Kizza. She had told the woman about having to start looking for a house yesterday night and she had produced the number of a housing agent instantly.Kizz
After the encounter with Aithan Reeves, the rest of her evening was uneventful till her flight. She ordered a light room service then showered and packed her stuff to leave for the airport.Her trip hadn't turned out like she had been hoping, but it hadn't been a total waste either. She had met a friend and discovered new places.Still, it all paled in comparison to finding out what she really came here for. A vague tattoo and a rampant affinity for booze, and wasn't Stevenson a common surname?Things definitely weren't looking up from her own point of view. To say she had a glimmer of hope of finding the sperm donor would be lying to herself.But life moved on and she also had to. Intra-uterine testing was definitely out of the question as she wouldn't dare jeopardise her baby's safety just for the sake of it. The only option left now, whether she liked it or not, was to wait till she gave had the baby. A large percentage of the population were carriers of some defects or disease, u
The trip around took place for the whole of four hours plus. Ryan took her to The Getty Centre, where they had a lot of fun and bonding time exploring the museum to their hearts' contents. They talked about a lot of things; how he got his nickname Stacks from work, her line of work and other things.While they explored the natural park, he filled her in on some aspects of his life. About his time as an orderly at Springfield Memorial Hospital, about his neighbours at the trailer park, laughing very hard when Kiersey updated him about the newest addition to the park.Then they took an hour-long drive to Disneyland. Kiersey couldn't take most of the rides because of her pregnancy, but they had a lot of fun walking around and sightseeing. They also took lots of pictures and bought souvenirs. At one point, they even got mistaken for a couple and congratulated on their first child. The two spent the rest of the time laughing it off.Their last stop was an open terrace restaurant back in