Hello hello! This one is a bit of a turn, and introduces an entire new phase in the madness of Mel! Was going to reveal this a bit later in the fic, but then realised that if I kept it from you too long it wouldn’t make sense! I’m actually hoping it makes sense in here … lets give it a go!

Chapter 41

Half an hour later there was a knock on the door, sighing to herself Mel moved over towards the door, as much as she liked Mark, he could get a little tiresome when he flapped so much, she had never thought he would be back this quickly.

“That was quick,” she said as she flung open the door, “did you forget your …” the sentence was finished with a gasp. Christian was stood out on her doorstep. She stood looking at him open mouthed.

He stood there for a while, just staring back at her. He was impossible to read, his face was so emotionless.

He finally spoke, “can I come in?”

Unable to speak Mel just nodded and stepped aside so he could enter the apartment, with all the nerves bubbling inside her she lost her manners, and after an awkward silence he invited himself to sit down on the sofa, motioning for her to sit on the chair opposite.

“You want a drink?” she asked, finally finding her voice, yet shrinking back in her seat when she heard it come out as a faint whisper.

“I’m fine thanks.”

“You OK,” she asked quietly, not being able to bear the silence.

He looked up at her, and she saw that his eyes were ringed red and slightly puffy. He had been crying. Not just that, he actually looked like he’d been sobbing, if she looked closely she could see that he was still shaking a bit.

“I’ve just lost the woman I love,” he finally said, “she said she never wants to see me again.”

“You broke up?”

“Yeah, its over.”

“For good?” Mel asked, not being able to resist asking the questions she so wanted the answers to.

“She seemed to think so.”

“I’m sorry”, Mel said quietly.

She wanted nothing more than to run over to him and wrap her arms around him, hold him tight and tell him that everything was OK. But it was all too soon, she couldn’t rush things when they were going so well, she had to bide her time.

“Why did you come over here?” she asked.

“To see if it’s true.”

“What?”

“Are you carrying my baby?”

Getting up Mel walked over towards the sofa where he was sitting, and knelt down on the floor in front of him. Reaching out for his hand she held tightly onto it, giving it a squeeze.

“You want to know?”

“Yeah,” he said, his eyes fixed intently on hers.

Lifting her top up with her free hand she brought his hand down until it was resting on her stomach, then keeping hers on top of his she moved it gently along her skin, making him rub her tummy gently.

“That’s our baby,” she said to him gently.

He looked down at her stomach in amazement and when she took her hand away he left his there and continued to move it all over in fascination.

“Stand up,” he whispered.

Doing as she was told, she stood up in front of him. He immediately wrapped both his arms round her back and brought her towards him, then leaning forward he gently placed his lips on her stomach in a tiny little kiss.

“Can’t believe I’m going to be a Daddy,” he said in wonderment.

“You’re happy?”

He paused for a moment, “yes.”

Mel broke out into a huge smile, “I was so worried you’d be angry at me.”

“I was shocked,” he admitted, “but I do want this baby.”

“You do.”

“More than anything,” he said, reaching down and giving her stomach another kiss.

“I’m sorry I wrecked things with Ella,” Mel replied, loving the way that Christian’s lips made her stomach tingle.

“She’ll come back”, he said, “don’t worry.”

“She will?” Mel asked in horror.

“Yes, everything will be fine”

“But what about me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve got nowhere to go.”

“What?”

Mel glanced around the room quickly and as her eyes fell on a photo on the sideboard she found her next plan forming quickly in her brain.

“I told my parents I was pregnant and they don’t want me back.”

“What?” Christian asked in horror.

“They said I wasn’t allowed to live there anymore, I have nowhere to go.” Squeezing her eyes tight shut the tears began to well up in Mel’s eyes, opening them she let them drop down her cheeks.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, I need somewhere to stay.”

“Who could you ask though?”

“I need someone who would care for me and the baby,” Mel prompted, looking straight at him.

“May be one of your friends would take you in,” Christian continued to think.

Sighing in exasperation, Mel stood up and pulled Christian closer to her, realising that the only way she was going to get her own way was to put the idea in his head.

“I have an idea,” she whispered in his ear, “we could come and stay with you.”

Christian pulled away quickly, “I’m not sure that would work Mel,” he said quickly, “I’m never going to get Ella back if you are at mine the whole time.”

“It would just be a mates thing,” Mel assured him, “a mate just helping out another mate.”

“I dunno”

“Please Chris, I have nowhere else to go, we both need somewhere to stay.”

She grasped hold of his hand again and held it up to her stomach.

“Please, we need somewhere to go,” she begged him.

As she looked into his eyes she could see him begin to melt, he was rubbing her stomach again and smiling gently at her.

“OK, let’s give it a go.”

After she had shown him out of the door half an hour later her heart was singing, and she couldn’t resist stepping up on the sofa and then leaping off again, giving a loud “wahooooo” as she landed back to the floor.

She was going to be living with Christian. They would be living together.

It was all she ever wanted.

She had him now, sure they would be sleeping in separate rooms and she’d be more a lodger than anything else, but she had time to change his mind, make him realise that he needed her.

Everything was going to be fine. There was only one thing niggling her mind though.

What was he going to do when he realised that everything was a lie.

She lifted up her top again and looked down at her stomach, there was nothing there. It was all just a big lie, another ploy to make him hers.

Had she taken it too far? Everyone now believed she was pregnant, how was she going to keep it up for the next 9 months? Surely people would realise when she didn’t gain any weight – they would realise that she wasn’t pregnant at all and never had been.

“You are a stupid girl,” she told herself out loud as she paced up and down the room.

It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, she had been sick for days before, so she really had taken the test, she had built herself up for the outcome, been convinced that she was pregnant. When it had been negative she had been so upset, she wanted something of his, and at that moment she had realised that it was prefect – the perfect way to trap him and make him hers. And so it had all started, she was pregnant – in a way so convincing, sometimes she had even convinced herself.

Sometimes when she looked back on what she had done she felt awful, especially in the way that she had used Mark, he had been such a good friend to her and all she had done was lie to him to get her own way.

But then, sometimes things just had to be done in the name of love, when it comes to matters of the heart you could be forgiven for anything – they were the rules.

It wasn’t worth worrying about, she just had to concentrate on having Christian for herself, by the time he had fallen in love with her he wouldn’t care about the lack of baby – plus maybe by then she’d be pregnant anyway.

Smiling to herself Mel made her way towards her bedroom.