Pierre is in the kitchen, cleaning up from dinner while you sit on the couch in the living room with your feet up and a bowl of sorbet balanced on your stomach. You had spent the day relaxing by the pool, catching up on laundry and enjoying some alone time with Pierre before Pascale arrives. Pierre comes to sit down with you on the sofa, laughing at the bowl balanced on your belly.
Now is as good of a time as any.
You move the bowl from your belly and set it down on the coffee table in front of you.
"My dad called while you were away," you say looking at Pierre.
"Oh nice, how is he doing? Still planning on coming to visit after the baby is born?" Pierre asks.
"Yes. He's good, everyone's good. It was about work actually." You say looking down at your baby bump.
"Okay..." Pierre says warily.
"I've been talking to him about my maternity leave, and life after the baby comes, trying to figure out how to manage it all. We agreed that after my maternity leave, I'll be taking a step back from the company to take on a more casual role. This way I get to spend more time with the baby." You say sighing hoping he wouldn't be mad you made this big decision without him.
"Okay, well that's a lot to take in." Pierre says sitting back.
"I know," you say not wanting to push it more.
"Maddie, that company has been your whole life. I can't ask you to walk away from that." Pierre says looking into your eyes.
"Yes, but now this is my life. You and our son, and that's what I want to focus on now. I don't want to raise our child with nannies and be absent like my parents were." You say rubbing your belly and you can see Pierre's eyes darken.
"You mean how I will be?" Pierre asks.
"Pierre, that's not what I meant."
"No, but that's what you said though. Absent parents." Pierre says standing up. You try to stand up, but the center of your balance is off, so you struggle.
"Pierre, you know that's not what I meant. We'll come to some of the races, and I know you'll be here as much as you can. You want to be around and that's the difference." You say finally standing up.
"Some of the races? Great. So, we'll still be apart for what 20 weeks of the year instead of 26 weeks?" Pierre says angrily.
"It's a baby Pierre, I'm not flying with a newborn baby across the country to sit in a small room all weekend." You say raising your voice. "There's germs, and he'll cry, and it's not going to be enjoyable for anyone."
"But at least I'd get to see him!" Pierre says raising his voice. "At least I'd be able to watch my son grow up."
You take a deep breath, sitting back down on the couch as your legs feel uneasy, trying to hold back tears. "I never said you don't get to watch him grow up. I'm trying my best here, but I can't just drop everything and follow you around the globe while trying to raise a child. Children need stability."
"They also need their parents." Pierre angrily spits out walking away.
"Pierre, where are you going we need to talk about this!" You yell, all of this standing up and sitting down making you annoyed.
"What's there to talk about Maddie? You've made it very clear that you think I'm going to be a terrible dad." Pierre yells from the other room.
You force yourself to stand up from the couch again and walk into the other room as you hear the front door slam shut. You waddle over as quickly as you can, throwing the door open just in time to see Pierre's car speeding down the driveway.
"Pierre!" You yell after him, but you know it's no use, he's too far gone. You feel the tears start flowing down your face as you stand in the doorway helpless. He just needs some time to cool off, he'll be back. You head back inside, locking the front door behind you and going back to sit on the couch. You put on Netflix, and time passes slowly, 1 hour turns into 2, turns into 3 and you start getting worried. You've tried texting him and calling him, but he doesn't respond. You take your phone out and call Anna, a few rings pass before she answers.
"Maddie, hey, can I call you back in like 15 minutes? Carlos and I just got the girls off to bed and..." She starts.
"Pierre left." You say tears rolling down your face again as you start to sob.
"What? What do you mean he left?" Anna almost screams.
"We were fighting, and he just got up and left, and now he's not answering my calls or texts. It's been 3 hours and I don't know where he is." You say sobbing.
"I'll be right over." Anna says before hanging up.
You're still crying 5 minutes later as Anna unlocks the front door. She runs over to you sitting on the couch pulling you into a hug as you cry onto her shoulder.
"Shhhhhh... it's okay. I'm here now." Anna says rubbing your back. You stay like that for several minutes until you feel like you have no more tears left. You pull back from the hug wiping your eyes on your sleeve.
"What happened?" Anna asks softly, and you tell her everything that happened.
"I never once said he is going to be a bad dad, he's going to be an amazing dad." You say sighing.
"I know. Maybe he just needs some time to cool off. If no one has heard from him by tomorrow morning, then you get to worry okay?" Anna says and you nod. She stays with you for another hour until you feel the drain of the argument settle in. You head off to bed promising to call Anna if you hear anything or if anything happens.
You leave the bedroom door unlocked for Pierre if he comes back as you try to settle the baby doing somersaults in your belly. You sigh and grab one of Pierre's shirts to sleep in, his scent seems to calm the baby down enough for you to drift off to sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Racing Home
Fanfiction"Hey everyone, this is my best friend Maddie. Maddie this is everyone." You wave and smile looking at the group of people gathered around talking. "Maddie is going to be moving to Monaco, so please be nice to her, no one scare her off. Gasly I'm loo...
