Jordan stared at Jessica before she nodded slowly and started to walk to a quiet corner.

-“So, what do you wanne talk about?” she asked, but not smiling anymore, mirroring Jess’s behaviour.

-“You know damn well! Stop this act!”

-“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Is this about Justin?” There was nothing else they had in common than him, so she was pretty sure she hit the nail on the head.

-“Yes, it’s about Justin! What do you think you’re doing?” She seemed so upset and Jordan felt awkward for having to justify her pregnancy and relationship to her baby’s father.

-“I think I’m pregnant with his child!” she shrugged, hitting her where she knew it must hurt.

-“Going shopping with him, making up excuses to get him to come over all the time, faking sickness to get him to stay, making sure the paparazzi gets their pictures of him leaving your place in the middle of the night…”

Jordan laughed condescendingly.

-“Controlling the paparazzi is your talent, not mine” she snorted, but Jess didn’t notice the tension in her voice.

-“He’s not you boyfriend, Jordan, stop pretending he is. The only reason he’s talking to you at all is because you accidentally got knocked up from a disastrous one night stand! He can’t even stand you! He thinks you’re a conceited bitch, but he’s being nice to you because that’s the kind of person he is. Don’t imagine it’s anything else than the fact that he knows you have the power to take this child away from him.”

Jordan just stood there listening. Normally she would have bitched back if someone this beneath her talked to her like that, but now she was just lost for words. She felt her heart beat fast and her face getting flushed.

-“I don’t know what you want from me, Jess, I’m not making Justin do anything…”

-“He’s with me, okay! He loves me! He’ll never be yours no matter how much you try! So you can just stop playing house! There’s no need for him to hang around you until the baby is born. Don’t take advantage of the fact that the boy has a conscience, he’s never gonna feel anything but repulsion towards you.”

She was gob smacked and tried everything she could to find something hurtful to say back, but her mind was blank.

Justin hated her. He hated her and the fact that they were having a baby together.

 She felt dizzy and nauseous, and she hated the fact that this stupid, rude bitch had the upper hand. She was probably right, too, Justin loved her while he repulsed Jordan. He played a game with her to make sure she let him into the baby’s life, but he didn’t care about her.

She felt it hard to breathe and found herself regretting going to a stupid party like this. She should have known better, she should have stayed at home.

-“I’m not gonna discuss this with you” she said quietly and turned to walk away.

-“Just stay away from him!” she heard behind her back as she made her way towards Monica. 

Justin turned around and jumped when he saw Jess in the corner talking to Jordan. He didn’t even know Jordan was coming here tonight, he knew she didn’t really go to these parties anymore. He had no idea what they talked about, but it couldn’t be anything good. 

He quickly tried to make his way over when he saw the conversation taking a turn. Jess looked mad and Jordan had on her mask again, trying to remain calm. Suddenly he saw Jordan turn and walk away, and for a minute he was not sure which woman he was gonna go after. He decided to start with the closest one and grabbed Jess’ arm.

-“What the fuck was that about? What the hell did you talk to her about?”

Jess shrugged and gave him her biggest smile, letting her hand run up his chest.

-“Nothing, just a conversation between two women who’s soon to share a baby”

What the fuck was that? She actually thought… He stared at her while taking a deep breath.

-“You have no right going behind my back talking to her! You know damn well I’m trying to gain her trust! What the hell did you say?”

-“I just told her to stop taking advantage of you, to leave you alone…”

-“What the… Why the fuck did you do that? This is not any of your business!” He was getting worked up, but tried what he could to keep calm and not make a scene at an A-list event that would definitely put him back on the front pages tomorrow morning.

-“Justin, baby…” she cooed, letting her hand slide down to his belt. “She needs to know her place. You promised me you were going to put me first, remember? She’s just using you, because she knows how honourable you are.” She pulled his head down and kissed him deeply. He couldn’t help but moan when she slid her tongue over his bottom lip, but soon got back to his senses pushing her away.

-“Jess, I’m not joking here!  This is not about you, this is about my baby! I am grateful you’ve handled this situation as well as you have, but you need to know your place too! Taking your frustration out on her does not do anybody any good, she’s a part of my life now, whether you like it or not.” He sighed in frustration, running his hand through his hair. “I need to go talk to her…” he said turning around, but Jess held him back.

-“Let her go, Justin. Let’s get home and I’ll make you forget everything that has to do with her and the baby you don’t even want!”

He stopped dead and stared at her, shaking his head and taking another deep breath to prevent him from completely loosing it in front of her. His voice was low and almost whispering, but there was no hiding the anger he felt.

-“Don’t you ever say anything like that about my baby again, Jess! It’s my fucking daughter you’re talking about! And even though it wasn’t planned I’m gonna make sure this little girl knows she’s wanted and loved, I’m gonna be the greatest fucking father anybody has ever seen! You have no idea what you’re on about! I love her, okay? I love that little baby, and if you can’t accept that…” he shook his head again. “If you can’t accept that you have no place in my life.”

Jess looked at him with hurtful eyes., biting her lip to keep from crying.

-“I’m sorry, Justin. I love you so much and it’s hurting me to see this other woman having such a big place in your life.”

He shrugged her off again.

-“I need to go talk to her”

He left Jess there and made his way around the room to look for Jordan. He walked around for about half an hour before he understood that she had left. He tried to call her several times, but she didn’t answer. If Jess had ruined everything he had worked for… He couldn’t believe she’d do that, she never even confronted him about this, but now she went straight to intimidating Jordan?

He wanted to know exactly what she had said to her, but knew Jess would never tell him the entire truth. Jordan was opening up to him, she had even said she liked having him around, what would happen now?

Jess caught up with him, but he wasn’t ready to deal with her. She knew this was hard for her, but he found himself caring more about Jordan’s feelings than Jess’s.

-“Baby, let’s go. She’s gone. You can talk to her later. Let’s go home” she was hanging onto his arm, and he just nodded.

-“Yeah, I’ll take you home”

-“I meant back to yours…Unless you wanne stay at mine…”

-“I’m really not in the mood, Jess” he sighed.

-“But it’s been almost a week! Baby, don’t push me away! If you don’t want to make love, we can just cuddle, we can…”

-“Jess!” he pushed her away. “In case you didn’t notice I’m fucking furious with you at the moment! I’ll take you home, but I’m not spending the night with you.”

She knew she was defeated.

-“Fine, let’s go” she sighed. 

He couldn’t think of anything but Jordan on his way home, he wondered where she was, if she was alone, if she was hurt at all by whatever Jess had said… He wanted to drive over to her place to talk to her, but if she didn’t answer the phone she probably wouldn’t answer the door either.

When Jess kissed him goodnight he didn’t even feel her lips, he just wanted her out of the car.

When he got home he went straight to his bed staring up at the ceiling. He didn’t know how much longer he could do this; he couldn’t juggle these two women in his life. He had stayed with Jess all this time because she was easy, but now she started to test him on his loyalty. She shouldn’t do that, he thought, because she was bound to loose.  

Justin despised her. Justin was there because he had to. He hated every minute he had to spend with her. He found her repulsive. This was the biggest mistake of his life…The thoughts were spinning around in her head non-stop.

She wanted to cry, but she didn’t know how to anymore. She rubbed her tummy and immediately felt better. ‘You’re gonna be loved, little girl, you’re gonna be loved by both me and your daddy. Even if he doesn’t like me, he’s gonna care for you, I promise you.” She felt stupid for talking to her unborn child, but she didn’t care. Suddenly she felt some movements and she jumped up. Did she just kick her? She kept rubbing and she felt it again. She was kicking! It was way too early, but she felt it none the less. Her baby was kicking inside her! She laughed out loud in happiness. ‘You heard what I told you, didn’t you? And now you’re eager to come out and meet your daddy and I’

She couldn’t help but wish Justin was there to feel it with her.  

He finally got hold of her the next morning. She answered the phone cheerily, and he was caught a bit off guard.

-“Hey, it’s Justin… I just wanted to…Did you…I heard you were at the party last night…?” he didn’t really know how to start this conversation.

-“Yeah, I was…” Did he hear a bit of tension in her voice? “It was nice to get out of the house”

-“So, yeah…You talked to Jess…”

-“She talked to me, I didn’t really talk much back.”

-“I’m so sorry, she had no business doing that. I hope she didn’t say anything bad…?”

No, just how much you hate me, she thought.

-“She loves you very much, Justin… And I’m obviously in the way of your relationship. She just didn’t want to share you, I can understand that. And she was right; there is really no need for you until the baby is born. You don’t have to come around here all the time.”

Please say you do it because you want to, please say you want to…

-“But I want to, Jordan, I’m not coming because I have to”Thank God, she sighed relieved.

-“You need to talk to her, Justin. I’m really not in the mood to get her insecurities and anger pointed at me. I’ve told you it’s your own choice how much you want to be involved, I’m not gonna take the blame for you neglecting her.”

-“I know. You’re right. I just can’t get her to understand… I really don’t know what to do!”

-“Well, if she’s ‘the one’, then things will work out eventually” She held her breath for his reaction. He coughed quickly.

-“I’m…She’s…It’s not like that… It’s not like I’m gonna marry the woman…”

-“So, why are you wasting time with her, if you’re sure it’s not gonna last?”

-“It’s hard to explain…I’m just a guy, you know, and she’s…”

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she didn’t want to hear that.

-“She’s a beautiful girl, Justin, but if it’s only sex you’re after, I’m sure there’s enough willing ladies out there.” Ladies who don’t have a huge tummy and sore breasts, ladies who don’t have to wear flat shoes and big clothes.

-“It’s not only that. It’s nice to have someone, you know. Someone who cares about you, someone to wake up with, someone who’s there, you know?”

She nodded silently.

-“I know, Justin, I know.” She barely whispered.

He felt a bit weird talking to her like that; he had never done that before. None of them said a word for a while, and he felt the silence a bit awkward.

-“So, my mom and Paul are coming to town tonight for this show I’m doing…” He managed to change the subject. “…and I wanted to know if we could all meet up for lunch tomorrow?”

-“Yeah, sure. You wanne come here?” Her heart started beating faster by the thought of meeting his parents.

-“If it’s not too much trouble? It’s probably not a good idea to go out, with the paparazzi and stuff…”

-“No, I agree. I’ll get some catering. Say 2 o’clock?”

-“You don’t have to go to any trouble, they’re very low-key.”

She laughed lightly.

-“It’s not like I have anything else to do with my days, I’m sure I can handle a few phone calls.”

-“I know. I’m just a little bit nervous, I guess”

-“You’re nervous? I’m the slut their son knocked up after a one-night stand, you’d think I feel a bit self conscious about that.”

-“They’re not like that, they’re lovely people, they just want to get to know you.”

-“Well, I’ll do my best to be charming. I don’t want to embarrass you.”

He laughed a bit.

-“I’m not afraid of that, Jordan, they’re gonna love you.”

She smiled on the other end, blushing slightly.

-“You wanne know something, Justin?”

-“What?”

-“She kicked last night…” she giggled.

-“No! Really?” She could hear the excitement in his voice. “Why didn’t you call me?”

-“I…You were out…with Jess, I didn’t want to disturb you”

-“No no no, don’t ever think like that! I want you to disturb me! That is a big thing! I would have come over within seconds! Don’t ever think you disturb me, anything with the baby or anything you’d need… I told you I’m here, Jordan, please start to believe in it.”

-“I’m sorry, Justin, I should have called you” It wasn't like she hadn't wanted to.

-“So… She’s started to kick! What did it feel like? Did she do it more than once? Did she kick hard?”

Jordan laughed, he sounded like an eight year old.

-“It felt amazing. I mean, I’ve seen her in the ultra sound, I’ve listened to her heart, but to actually feel her move… It was fantastic! She was so alive, so real!”

She couldn’t hear his tears falling; she just felt the silence and the breathing on the line as the realness of his daughter washed over him.